ROBIN van Persie put Arsenal back into the Barclays Premier League title race with a superb second-half double to beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Van Persie struck twice in three minutes after the Blues had taken a first-half lead through a fortuitous Johan Djourou own goal. But while the Dutch striker's second goal was sheer class, his equaliser was clearly scored from an offside position.
Chelsea remain top on goal difference from Liverpool but the Merseysiders will replace them if they get at least a point from their home clash with West Ham tonight. The win helped Arsenal to move back into the top four and cut the gap between them and Chelsea to seven points.
Chelsea went ahead in the 29th minute thanks to some comedy football from Arsenal. Goalkeeper Manuel Almunia threw the ball straight to Jose Bosingwa and when the Portugal right-back had exchanged passes with Nicolas Anelka, he sent over a dangerous low cross that Djourou could only turn into his own net from six yards.
But in the second half Arsenal, against all the odds, turned the game on its head with two goals in three minutes.
The first was a controversial one as Van Persie was clearly yards offside when Denilson found him on the edge of the penalty area. But with no whistle from referee Mike Dean, the Arsenal midfielder smashed the ball into the net for a 59th-minute equaliser.
Three minutes later the Dutchman put Arsenal in front. There seemed little danger as Van Persie shielded the ball on the edge of the penalty area with his back to Petr Cech's goal. But a superb shot on the turn sent the ball through the legs of Frank Lampard and beyond the surprised Cech and into the bottom corner to the delight of the Arsenal supporters.
David Moyes marked his 300th game as Everton manager with a single-goal victory over Tottenham courtesy of Steven Pienaar's 51st-minute deflected winner at White Hart Lane. The South African midfielder was fouled by Aaron Lennon, and Mikel Arteta took the free-kick quickly for Pienaar to latch on to. His shot took a wicked deflection off Vedran Corluka, and the midfielder wheeled away to celebrate. But Everton's day was overshadowed by an Achilles injury ruling Ayegbeni Yakubu out for the rest of the season. Yakubu fell awkwardly following a challenge with Ledley King and his replacement, Louis Saha, aggravated his hamstring injury to deepen Moyes' problems in attack.
Sean Davis was the unlikely hero of Portsmouth's first home win under manager Tony Adams after another two-goal give-away against Blackburn gave Fratton Park a fright.
On Thursday, Portsmouth blew a 2-0 lead against Italian giants AC Milan and
it looked like more of the same when strikes by Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe had Pompey skating ahead only for Matt Derbyshire to drag one back with a simple header after replacing Benni McCarthy 30 seconds earlier in the 62nd minute.
Tugay, the former Rangers midfielder, rifled Rovers level again four minutes later. This time, though, Portsmouth were still up for finishing the job. It took a cool finish by substitute Davis – on two minutes earlier for Armand Traore – after Paul Robinson beat out Papa Bouba Diop's shot for his first goal since March 2006.
After a goalless first half, Glen Johnson supplied a cross for Crouch to head past Paul Robinson with Rovers' defenders asking who was supposed to be marking him. And it looked all over when four minutes later Defoe shrugged off two challenges on the edge of the area and ran past former Tottenham team-mate Robinson to make it 2-0.
But then it all started to unravel again for Portsmouth. Out of nowhere Derbyshire headed Morten Gamst Pedersen's cross from the left over David James in the 62nd minute. And as Portsmouth panicked and their defenders backed off, Tugay struck a 25-yarder into the England goalkeeper's bottom right-hand corner.
But when Davis came up with the winner it was a major surprise on several counts – and, for Adams, a major relief.
