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City shock Chelsea as Arsenal and Pompey both win

Carlos Tevez was inspirational in Manchester City's victory © Getty Images

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Saturday football gallery

Arsenal moved to within three points of the Premier League summit with a 3-1 win over Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium. The victory was marred by an injury to Aaron Ramsey, who left the field in the second half with a suspected broken leg.

The hosts took the lead in the first half when Danny Pugh tucked in from six yards following a Rory Delap long-throw. The Gunners looked set for their third successive defeat at Stoke before Nicklas Bendtner's bullet header from a Cesc Fabregas cross levelled the scores late in the first half.

Ryan Shawcross was shown a red card just after the hour mark for the challenge that injured Ramsey. Arsenal found the ten men hard to break down, with the game seemingly heading towards a draw until Peter Walton gave a penalty following a Pugh handball.

Fabregas made no mistake from the spot, before Thomas Vermaelen sealed the win in injury-time.

Chelsea suffered a disastrous day in their pursuit of the Premier League title after Juliano Belletti and Michael Ballack were sent off in a 4-2 defeat to Manchester City at Stamford Bridge.

On a day that began with Wayne Bridge ignoring the hand of former team-mate John Terry, the headlines at full-time were all about footballing matters as City gave their own hopes of Champions League qualification a huge boost.

Carlos Tevez and Craig Bellamy both scored braces after Frank Lampard had given Chelsea a first half lead, and by the time the England midfielder added his second from the spot the game was already well and truly over.

Tevez's second goal, City's third, came after Belletti had seen red for hauling down Gareth Barry in the penalty area, and Ballack compounded a bad day for Chelsea when he too received his marching orders for a second bookable offence.

At the bottom of the table, troubled Portsmouth showed terrific fighting spirit as they responded to falling into administration by beating Burnley 2-1. Ricardo Rocha was sent off at the death for the visitors, but it made little difference to the scoreline.

In front of their terrifically loyal supporters, Pompey took the lead at Turf Moor through Frederic Piquionne's eighth goal of the season, but a marvellous opportunist strike from Martin Paterson restored parity at half time. Jamie O'Hara then wasted a glorious chance to nudge Avram Grant's men ahead for a second time as Brian Jensen saved his spot-kick after Clarke Carlisle had committed the foul, but Carlisle offered Pompey a second bite at the cherry with 14 minutes remaining and this time Hassan Yebda made no mistake.

Bolton secured a hugely important three points to leapfrog Wolves in the day's other basement battle, bringing Owen Coyle his first victory in six matches. Lee Chung-Yong deserves all the credit after he turned his marker inside-out before crossing for Zat Knight to stroke home from close range. The Trotters rode their luck as Wolves struck the woodwork, in addition to missing a host of glorious second-half chances.

Wigan manager Roberto Martinez will have further cause for complaint towards officials on Saturday evening after Birmingham won 1-0 at St Andrew's. Martinez's Wigan have suffered a rough ride with contentious decisions in recent matches, prompting the Spaniard to speak out after Jermain Defoe's controversial opener for Tottenham last week. This time it was Keith Fahey who duped the referee into awarding a first-half penalty to the home side, converted from the spot by James McFadden, and it proved to be the match-winner.

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