LONDON, Jan 13: Premier League leaders Manchester United and second-placed champions Manchester City put former English heavyweights Liverpool and Arsenal firmly in their place on Sunday with United’s Robin van Persie again on song.

United sealed a needlessly nervy 2-1 home win over eighth-placed Liverpool to maintain their seven-point lead after Van Persie with a goal and Patrice Evra with two assists put rival Luis Suarez in the shade.

In contrast, the game in London was never in doubt with City winning 2-0 for their first league win at Arsenal in 38 years.

City were given a helping hand by the 10th-minute dismissal of Arsenal’s Laurent Koscielny for wrestling Edin Dzeko to the ground.

Although Dzeko’s penalty following Koscielny’s red card was turned onto the post by Wojciech Szczesny, with the Arsenal goalkeeper gathering the rebound, it was not long before Milner and Dzeko himself made the man advantage count.

“I don’t know about the sending off, but it was a penalty 100%. I told myself after missing the penalty I had to score,” said Dzeko.

The visitors too were a man down at the Emirates Stadium when, 15 minutes from time, City captain Vincent Kompany was dismissed by referee Mike Dean for a challenge on Jack Wilshere despite appearing to win the ball first.

Arsenal remained sixth in the table as City enjoyed their first league win away to the Gunners since 1975.

Van Persie set United on their way to victory at Old Trafford with his league-high 17th goal as he grabbed a 19th minute opener when he swept in Evra’s cross in inimitable style before Evra’s header from the Dutchman’s free-kick deflected in off centre-half Nemanja Vidic nine minutes after half-time.

But three minutes later, Daniel Sturridge, on at the start of the second half for Lucas Leiva, marked his Premier League debut for Liverpool with a goal when he followed up the rebound after David de Gea saved skipper Steven Gerrard’s shot from outside the box before United relied on some desperate defending to preserve their lead.

“Robin van Persie is different class. He produces moments in the game others can’t do and we are glad he is on our side,” man of the match Danny Welbeck told Sky.

On Saturday, Chelsea leapfrogged Tottenham Hotspur into third place, profiting from Jon Walters’ unfortunate brace of headed own goals on their way to a 4-0 victory at Stoke City.

Walters had a nightmare afternoon at the Britannia Stadium, putting through his own net with a diving header on the stroke of halftime and beating Stoke keeper Asmir Begovic again with a header from a corner just past the hour. He also missed a late penalty.

Frank Lampard also got on the score-sheet, scoring from the penalty spot in the 65th minute, to become Chelsea’s second-highest all-time goal-scorer and a thumping 30-yard strike from Eden Hazard in the 73rd put the Londoners on 41 points, one point ahead of Spurs.

“We are working very hard, the players are happy — you can see they are enjoying playing football,” Chelsea interim coach Rafael Benitez told Sky Sports.

Fifth-placed Everton squandered an opportunity to close to within a point of Spurs by drawing 0-0 at home to Swansea, whose prolific forward Michu was watched by Spain coach Vicente del Bosque after his impressive start to his first season in English football.

West Bromwich Albion stayed seventh on 33 points after conceding three goals in the final eight minutes to lose 3-2 at Reading, who gave their fight to avoid relegation a shot in the arm as they moved two points clear of Queens Park Rangers, who occupy the last spot on 14 points.

“I’m a little bit shell-shocked,” West Brom manager Steve Clarke said.

After trailing to Romelu Lukaku’s double, Jimmy Kebe started a remarkable late rally at the Madejski Stadium before Adam Le Fondre equalised from the penalty spot with two minutes to go before Pavel Pogrebnyak pounced in the last minute.

“You have to believe in the players that we’ve got,” said Reading manager Brian McDermott. “I think the crowd here, they don’t know how important to us they really are. They got us over the line here today.”

Aston Villa dropped into the bottom three following Southampton striker Rickie Lambert’s contentious first-half penalty that secured their fellow strugglers a 1-0 victory at Villa Park.

Wigan Athletic climbed out of the relegation places at Villa’s expense after Franco Di Santo cancelled out Georgios Karagounis’ long-range opener to give the Latics a 1-1 draw at Fulham.

Newcastle highlighted their need to replace departed striker Demba Ba by drawing 0-0 at Norwich while Sunderland thumped West Ham United 3-0 at the Stadium of Light.

Results: Played on Sunday: Manchester United 2    Liverpool 1 Arsenal 0    Manchester City 2 Played on Saturday: Aston Villa 0    Southampton 1 Everton 0    Swansea City 0 Fulham 1    Wigan Athletic 1 Norwich City 0    Newcastle United 0 Queens Park Rangers 0    Tottenham Hotspur 0 Reading 3    West Bromwich Albion 2 Stoke City 0    Chelsea 4 Sunderland 3    West Ham United 0 —Agencies