Man City hit four to shoot to top of table

Unbeaten City move ahead of Man United after impressive 4-1 victory as Chelsea, Stoke, Norwich and Bolton record wins.

Mario Balotelli
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 James Milner (L) celebrates with teammate Nigel de Jong (C) after scoring City’s fourth [GALLO/GETTY] 

Manchester City stayed unbeaten and moved top of the Premier League with a 4-1 victory over Aston Villa on Saturday.

Roberto Mancini’s men were as clinical as ever in front of goal and the Italian will be delighted with four players getting on the scoresheet despite the absence of Carlos Tevez, David Silva, Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero. 

Earlier, Manchester United were unable to hold on to their Premier League lead after a 1-1 draw with big rivals Liverpool at Anfield. 

Mario Balotelli opened in the 28th minute and Adam Johnson, Vincent Kompany and James Milner added second-half goals at Eastlands, where the hosts conceded for the first time this season through Stephen Warnock’s 65th-minute goal.

Results and fixtures

Saturday October 15

undefined Liverpool 1-1 Man Unitedundefined Man City 4-1 Aston Villa
undefined Wigan 1-3 Bolton
undefined Norwch 3-1 Swansea 
undefined QPR 1-1 Blackburn
undefined Stoke 2-0 Fulham
undefined Chelsea 3-1 Everton

Sunday October 16

undefined Newcastle v Tottenham
undefined Arsenal v Sunderland
undefined West Brom v Wolves

City again shrugged off the drama surrounding Tevez’s future with the Mancini confining striker Dzeko to the bench for the second straight match.

Man City moved two points clear of city rival and defending champions Manchester United with 22 points after the victory.

Chelsea kept the presure on the Manchester sides beating Everton 3-1 for their first win over David Moyes’ team since the 2009 FA Cup final.

In a mostly dour game, Daniel Sturridge set the hosts on their way when he
tapped in Ashley Cole’s first-time cross from the left in the 31st minute.

Captain John Terry took advantage of a mistake by American goalkeeper Tim
Howard to make it 2-0 on the stroke of halftime before Ramires all but sealed
the win by converting Juan Mata’s cross in the 61st.

Apostolos Vellios grabbed a consolation goal for Everton in the 81st only seconds after coming as a substitute. The win leaves Chelsea three points behind leaders City and one behind United.

Bolton ended a run of five straight losses in the Premier League and moved off the bottom of the standings with a 3-1 win at Wigan.

Mohamed Diame gave the home side hope in the 40th minute when he cancelled out Nigel Reo-Coker’s fourth-minute opener at the DW Stadium. But David Ngog scored Bolton in the injury time at the end of the first half before Chris Eagles secured the points for the visitors in the second minute of second-half added time.

Norwich also claimed a 3-1 victory on Saturday with two goals from Anthony Pilkington helping the Canaries to their third win of the season.

Pilkington scored the fastest goal of the Premier League season when he volleyed in after 50 seconds and Norwich were quickly 2-0 up through Russell Martin’s header in the 9th minute.

Danny Graham scored his second goal in two games in the 12th to give Swansea hope but Pilkington struck again in the 63rd to give Norwich a third win in four matches and keep the newly promoted side ninth in the standings.

Swansea, who came up with Norwich last season, drop a place to 11th after a fourth away loss in four games.

Jonathan Walters and Rory Delap scored in the last 10 minutes to give Stoke a hard-earned 2-0 win over Fulham.

The Cottagers appeared to be on their way to a second away point of the season before Walters broke the deadlock in the 80th minute by diverting in a Matthew Etherington shot.

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      Martin doubles Norwich’s lead after 10 minutes to help team take flight against Swansea [GALLO/GETTY] 

After John Arne Riise hit the bar for Fulham, Delap wrapped up the win with a header from an Etherington cross.

Stoke moved up to seventh with the win while Fulham stayed 12th.

Defender Chris Samba secured a 1-1 draw for struggling Blackburn against Queens Park Rangers with a first-half headed goal.

Heidar Helguson gave QPR the lead in the 16th minute – the first home goal scored by a QPR player this season.

But the home side conceded the equaliser just eight minutes later.

Rangers had a claim for a penalty turned down when defender Michel Salgado tackled Morocco winger Adel Taarabt in the Blackburn area late in the game.

Blackburn had lost two straight and won just one in seven league games before their visit to Loftus Road and are now bottom of the standings.

Source: News Agencies