Imperious Arsenal go second; Spurs into top four

London, Nov 8 : Arsenal moved up to second in the English Premier League after a thumping 4-1 win at lowly Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Two own goals and good finishes from Cesc Fabregas and Andrey Arshavin gave Arsenal a convincing win Saturday and lifted them above champions Manchester United.

Joy Craddock got a late consolation for Wolves, but they remain just two places off the bottom of the table.

Earlier, Tottenham Hotspur climbed to fourth after a hard-fought and controversial 2-0 win over Sunderland at White Hart Lane. Robbie Keane and Tom Huddlestone scored the goals for Spurs as they moved onto 22 points, five behind Chelsea.

Aston Villa and Blackburn Rovers also claimed wins, while Manchester City and Burnley shared six goals in an entertaining 3-3 draw that left City sixth.

At White Hart Lane, Keane put Spurs ahead from close range early on, but Sunderland had plenty of possession and Andy Reid's brilliant volley almost brought them level only to rebound off the post.

Darren Bent missed a penalty for Sunderland early in the second half and Spurs made them pay when Huddlestone smashed in a brilliant strike from 25 yards.

"We were very fortunate," Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp said. "The keeper's had a fantastic day, but that's how it goes. We got three points, you can play well and get nothing.

Sunderland manager Steve Bruce felt the match turned when Huerelho Gomes was given only a yellow card for bringing down Bent.

"For me the goalkeepers denied him a goalscoring opportunity so I can't go along with the referee's explanation to me which was he was going away from goal," Bruce said. "That's a load of nonsense. I think he's taken the ball around him. If you look at where the ball goes, it doesn't even go out of play. So Benty for me gets on the end of it and, yes, there might be somebody on the line, but I would fancy him to score when he goes round the keeper in that situation."

"Now it might have been a different result, the reserve goalkeeper might have come on and saved it but we would have been playing against ten men with half an hour to go so that would have given us a huge advantage."

Aston Villa are sandwiched between Tottenham and City after they thrashed Bolton Wanderers 5-1, where Ashley Young, Gabriel Agbonlahor and James Milner all scored in front of watching England manager Fabio Capello.

"We've started to win here which is very important," Villa manager Martin O'Neill said. "We've had a tough run on the road since we last won here against Chelsea and the defeat against West Ham was very difficult to take.

"The players were ready, we got out of the blocks quickly and I'm really pleased with the performance."

At Eastlands, Graham Alexander and Steven Fletcher sent Burnley fans wild when they put their side 2-0 up within 32 minutes.

But a deflected Shaun Wright-Phillips shot pulled one back for City just before half-time and goals from Kolo Toure and Craig Bellamy looked to have won it for City.

With just three minutes remaining, though, substitute Kevin McDonald popped up to snatch the equaliser for Burnley, much to the disgust of City manager Mark Hughes.

"It is frustrating and disappointing because we got ourselves into a winning position," Hughes said. "We have to learn to see games out because we have drawn two games at home from winning positions.

"Maybe it was a consequence of the effort we put in before that, because we worked exceptionally hard to get ourselves in front. But we did not do the right things at the right times."

Portsmouth took the lead at Blackburn but eventually went down 3-1 to remain bottom of the table, thanks to two goals from Jason Roberts.

--IANS