BPL: Downing shines; Barry rescues City

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Satuday's Premier League Results

Wigan 0-1 Arsenal
Man City 1-0 Reading
Liverpool 4-0 Fulham
Newcastle 1-0 QPR
Southampton 0-1 Sunderland
Tottenham 0-0 Stoke
West Brom 2-1 Norwich
West Ham 1-2 Everton

Stewart Downing was surprisingly the star for Liverpool as they ran out 4-0 winners against Fulham while a last-gasp strike from Gareth Barry spared Manchester City the blushes as they edged out bottom side Reading 1-0 at a relieved Etihad Stadium.

Roberto Mancini's side trailed local rivals and current league leaders Manchester United by six points in the title race heading into this weekend, and they appeared to be at risk of losing more ground thanks to a dogged defensive effort from the Royals.

But Barry rose to head home in stoppage time from David Silva's cross to trim United's lead to three points before their clash with Swansea on Sunday.

In the early game, Mikel Arteta's penalty proved enough for Arsenal to defeat Wigan 1-0 and make it three Premier League victories in a row for the first time since March.

There was very little between the sides and it was the hosts who had the best chance of the first half but it was wasted by Arouna Kone.

The goal came on the hour mark after Jean Beausejour was deemed to have fouled Theo Walcott, much to the anger of the Wigan fans, and Arteta made no mistake.

The three points lifted Arsenal up to third ahead of Chelsea, who play on Sunday, while Wigan remain in the bottom three and have now taken only one point from their last five games.

Everton moved back into the top four as they came from behind to beat West Ham 2-1 at Upton Park.

Carlton Cole fired the Hammers into the lead, just moments after the Toffees had seen a Leon Osman effort ruled out after Victor Anichebe was adjudged to have fouled Jussi Jaaskelainen.

Anichebe levelled after the break before Cole was sent off for a high challenge on Leighton Baines.

Everton capitalised as Steven Pienaar grabbed the winner and the visitors held out after Darron Gibson was dismissed late on.

As a result, Tottenham dropped to fifth as they failed to beat Stoke in a 0-0 draw at White Hart Lane.

Liverpool winger Stewart Downing had a rare day to remember at Anfield as his first Premier League goal for the club helped them ease to a 4-0 victory over Fulham.

The England international also registered his first league assist in setting up Steven Gerrard - after Martin Skrtel's opener - and capped his performance with a goal of his own before Luis Suarez added an injury-time fourth.

Back to the afternoon action and Norwich saw their 10-game unbeaten run come to an end as they were beaten 2-1 by West Brom.

Robert Snodgrass' free-kick gave the Canaries the lead, but goals from Zoltan Gera and Romelu Lukaku ensured it was the Baggies who took the three points at The Hawthorns.

Substitute Shola Ameobi gave Newcastle a valuable 1-0 win over QPR.

The striker got the only goal of the game after being teed up by Sylvain Marveaux to leave their opponents five points adrift of safety.

Sunderland also claimed an important 1-0 win as they came out on top at Southampton.

Steven Fletcher grabbed the winner from Stephane Sessegnon's mishit shot just before half-time to lift the Black Cats up to 15th and leave the Saints above the drop zone on goal difference.

Barclays Premier League

Rnk		Team	MP	W	D	L	GF	GA	+/-	Pts
1		Manchester United	17	14	0	3	43	24	19	42
2		Manchester City	18	11	6	1	34	15	19	39
3		Arsenal	18	8	6	4	32	18	14	30
4		Everton	18	7	9	2	30	22	8	30
5		Tottenham Hotspur	18	9	3	6	30	25	5	30
6		West Bromwich Albion	18	9	3	6	26	22	4	30
7		Chelsea	16	8	5	3	28	17	11	29
8		Liverpool	18	6	7	5	27	23	4	25
9		Stoke City	18	5	10	3	15	13	2	25
10		Norwich City	18	6	7	5	20	27	-7	25
11		Swansea City	17	6	5	6	26	22	4	23
12		West Ham United	18	6	5	7	22	22	0	23
13		Fulham	18	5	5	8	28	33	-5	20
14		Newcastle United	18	5	5	8	20	26	-6	20
15		Sunderland	18	4	7	7	19	24	-5	19
16		Aston Villa	17	4	6	7	15	24	-9	18
17		Southampton	17	4	3	10	22	33	-11	15
18		Wigan Athletic	18	4	3	11	18	33	-15	15
19		Queens Park Rangers	18	1	7	10	15	31	-16	10
20		Reading	18	1	6	11	21	37	-16	9