Arsenal were denied top spot in the English Premier League in the most dramatic fashion on Saturday as they were held 1-1 at Sunderland, who snatched a point with the last kick of the game.
A freak goal by Cesc Fabregas on 13 minutes looked to have won it for Arsenal, who survived 40 minutes with 10 men after the sending off of Alex Song, but Darren Bent lashed in the equalizer in the fifth minute of time added on.
Tottenham Hotspur produced a superb second-half comeback to move up to fourth, while West Ham claimed their first point of the season with a 1-1 draw at Stoke City.
Arsenal will be gutted after they were denied top spot by Bent’s last-gasp equalizer, and they remain second, one point behind Chelsea, who play at Blackpool on Sunday.
The Gunners took the lead on 13 minutes at the Stadium of Light in the most bizarre fashion as Anton Ferdinand’s attempted clearance rebounded off Fabregas’s right foot and looped over Simon Mignolet’s head in the Sunderland goal.
Sunderland threatened to equalize but their hopes were given a boost when Fabregas was forced to leave the field on the half-hour mark, perhaps feeling the effects of the ball that hit his foot for the goal.
And the home side then received an even bigger boost when Song was sent off nine minutes into the second half for a second booking.
Arsenal continued to dominate but Bent lashed a shot wide at the other end before Samir Nasri was brought down in the area only for Tomas Rosicky to smash the ball over the bar.
Arsenal looked to have weathered a late storm from Sunderland but a corner was not cleared by the visitors and when it fell to Bent two yards out, he made no mistake.
At Molineux, Steven Fletcher put Wolves ahead on the stroke of half-time but a Rafael van der Vaart penalty and goals from Roman Pavlyuchenko and Alan Hutton completed a fine turnaround.
Tottenham now sit fourth in the table on eight points, four behind leaders Chelsea.
“I thought we did as well as we could and made opportunities. We just needed to stick one away,” Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp said.
“And when the chances came, it was important we tried to finish them. We stuck at it and that was good. The subs all came on and played their part. It was a great result for us.” Newcastle United moved up to fifth after a hard-fought 1-0 win at Everton, while West Bromwich Albion were also victors and West Ham earned their first point of the season thanks to a 1-1 draw at Stoke City.
Chris Hughton’s Newcastle side pinched all three points thanks to a superb goal by Hatem Ben Arfa on the stroke of half—time.
Newcastle goalkeeper Steve Harper was stretchered off with a suspected broken collarbone after a collision with Jermaine Beckford but the day ended happily for them thanks to Ben Arfa’s goal.
The French forward, on loan from Marseille, cut inside and unleashed an unstoppable shot to score what turned out to the only goal of the game.
West Ham were good value for their point at Stoke and they took the lead through Scott Parker from close range midway through the first half before Kenwyne Jones headed Stoke’s equalizer just after the break.
Ricardo Fuller almost pinched the winner for Stoke when his header bounced down and onto the crossbar, while Matthew Etherington forced Robert Green into a good late save.
The result lifted Stoke out of the bottom three, for a few hours at least, but West Ham remain bottom of the table with one point from five games.
West Brom moved into mid-table after they came from behind to beat Birmingham 3-1. Cameron Jerome put the visitors ahead but a Scot Dann own goal was followed by goals from Peter Odemwingie and Jonas Olsson bravely for West Brom.
Aston Villa’s last game before Gerard Houllier officially takes charge for the first time ended in a 1-1 draw at home to Bolton, while Blackburn were held 1-1 at home by Fulham.
Manchester United and Liverpool clash at Old Trafford on Sunday.
