Fulham in sticky situation after Toffeemen defeatEverton 4 (Jelavic 7(pen), 40, Fellaini 16, Cahill 60) Fulham 0

Nikica Jelavic scored twice as Everton moved a step closer to their goal of finishing above Liverpool with an emphatic victory at Goodison Park.
The Croatian struck twice before half-time, with Marouane Fellaini adding another to make it 3-0 at the interval.
Substitute Tim Cahill added a fourth on the hour mark, as Fulham fell apart.
The victory moves Everton into seventh place in the Premier League table, two points clear of their great Merseyside rivals with three games remaining.
The Toffees are finishing the season as strongly as anyone, with manager David Moyes determined to secure the eighth top-eight finish of his 11-year tenure.
Everton have not finished above Liverpool in the Premier League table since 2005 but they have now scored four goals in three consecutive league games.
Much of that has been down to the form of Jelavic, who signed from Rangers in January. And he stole the show again, this time at the expense of Fulham's defenders.
Cottagers manager Martin Jol missed the trip to Merseyside with a chest infection, leaving first-team coach Billy McKinlay in charge for the day.
If that illness had not been enough to rule Jol out, a quick glance at the record books might have left the Dutchman feeling sick.
Fulham had lost their previous 18 matches at Goodison Park, their last victory coming in February 1948, their last point in 1959.
Recent history also provided Everton supporters with confidence. The same side that held Manchester United to a 4-4 draw at Old Trafford took the field and began where they left off last Sunday.
Sharper to the ball, swifter to use it, Everton snatched the initiative from the off.
Steven Pienaar's quick feet won an early free-kick as Moussa Dembele lunged in. Jelavic's curling effort only got as far as Pavel Pogrebnyak, who raised his hand in front of his face to block the ball while standing in the penalty area.
Referee Phil Dowd had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Jelavic made no mistake, taking his tally to nine goals since his move to Merseyside.
The Croatian striker almost scored a second minutes later, latching onto Phil Jagielka's long ball, outmuscling Brede Hangeland only to fire his shot against the right-hand upright. A minute later Fellaini did double the lead, heading in unmarked from a right-wing corner.
Fulham had chances and might have pulled a goal back but for a fantastic save by Tim Howard.
Clint Dempsey's deflected shot appeared to have wrong-footed the American goalkeeper, but he quickly changed direction, thrusting his right hand up to deflect the shot up and over the bar.
Everton were in command, though. A delightfully weighted pass by Pienaar sent Jelavic clear, he beat a charging Mark Schwarzer to the ball, turned and shot beyond the lone Fulham defender on the line.
The second half offered little respite for the visitors. Cahill, who replaced the injured Darron Gibson at half-time, added a fourth on the hour mark, latching onto Pienaar's chipped through-ball to beat Schwarzer.
Jelavic came within a whisker of his hat-trick with a curling free-kick, but Schwarzer came to Fulham's rescue on a day they will want to forget.

Last minute winner sees Fulham take titleFulham 2 (Pogrebnyak 58, Senderos 89) Wigan Athletic 1 (Boyce 57)

Philippe Senderos's 89th-minute winner gave Fulham a dramatic victory which ended Wigan's recent revival.
The Latics, who have climbed out of the bottom three in recent weeks, led through Emmerson Boyce's fierce drive.
But Fulham levelled moments later when Pavel Pogrebnyak fired into the bottom corner and the Russian hit the bar from John Arne Riise's cross soon after.
Pogrebnyak hit the post again before Senderos won it with his header from Riise's whipped free-kick.
It was the Swiss defender's first goal since joining Fulham in June 2010 and, until he struck, it appeared Wigan would leave Craven Cottage with a hard-earned point to go with their unlikely wins in the last month.
After four victories in their last five games, including famous triumphs over Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal, the Latics already had daylight between themselves and the relegation zone but they were to fall agonisingly short of what would have been another step towards beating the drop.
Wigan had started like a train against the Gunners on Monday, with two goals in the first 10 minutes, but they were far more patient and pragmatic on their return to the capital.
With the visitors content to sit back, it was left to Fulham to try to find an attacking spark but they only sporadically managed to find a way through to Ali Al Habsi's goal.
The Cottagers' best early chance was a clever Danny Murphy free-kick that caught the Wigan defence napping, but Damien Duff blasted wastefully over at the near post.
Duff also curled wide after exchanging passes with Mahamadou Diarra and bursting into the area, while Clint Dempsey fired a couple of dangerous balls across the face of goal.
Wigan created little before the break but that changed in an eventful second half which produced plenty of goalmouth action and no little controversy.
The game exploded into life with Boyce's firecracker finish after 57 minutes, with the Wigan defender surging on to a loose ball after trying to find Connor Sammon on the edge of the box, and slamming a fierce low shot into the bottom corner.
But Fulham were behind for just 71 seconds, with Pogrebnyak providing an instant response from 20 yards out after good work from Moussa Dembele.
Pogrebnyak came within an inch of adding a second five minutes later when he met Riise's low cross, and it was unclear whether the ball had crossed the line or not after it came down off the bar.
The Russian striker turned to celebrate after connecting with the ball before seeing it bounce down and away. Linesman Mike Mullarkey did not flag for a goal and Pogrebnyak's reaction suggested he thought that was the right decision, and that he could not believe he had missed.
Fulham continued to press and Pogrebnyak went close again minutes later, when he could only steer his follow-up on to the post after Al Habsi had pushed away Dempsey's angled drive.
With the home side completely dominant, Senderos almost found the net inadvertently when Duff's cross hit Gary Caldwell and hit him before flying into the side netting.
The Cottagers were not to be denied, however, and they snatched the points when Senderos stooped to meet Riise's delivery from the left, and direct his header past the Wigan keeper.
Martin Jol's side were already mathematically safe from the drop and, after taking 10 points from their last four games, they are now looking up rather than down the table, with this win taking them up to ninth.

Two goals in a minute see Wigan keep titleArsenal 1 (Vermaelen 21) Wigan Athletic 2 (Di Santo 7, Gomez 8)

Wigan pulled off a shock 2-1 win at Arsenal to boost their Premier League survival hopes.

Franco Di Santo fired the Latics - who last week beat Premier League leaders Manchester United - ahead on the break after seven minutes, before Jordi Gomez doubled their lead inside 90 seconds. Thomas Vermaelen reduced the deficit with a bullet header on 21 minutes, but the second-half onslaught from the shell-shocked Gunners never came as the Latics moved five points clear of the relegation zone.

It had been a bright start by Arsenal, who were looking to tighten their grip on third place, as Yossi Benayoun forced Ali Al Habsi into a fingertip save from his close-range header.

The Latics had brought a small following of only some 200, who had perhaps travelled more in hope than genuine expectation.  However, it was the visitors who took a shock lead on seven minutes.

Wigan broke quickly from an Arsenal corner through Gomez down the left, who clipped the ball through to the on-rushing Di Santo. Goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny raced to the edge of his area, but was beaten to the ball and the Wigan striker went on to knock into an empty net.

Before the away support had time to calm down, they were in dreamland again less than 90 seconds later. This time Victor Moses did the damage down the left, turning Bacary Sagna inside out, with his cross not gathered by Szczesny - and Gomez was on hand to scramble the loose ball over the line.

Emirates Stadium was left in stunned silence, with midfielder Mikel Arteta then limping off injured and replaced by Ramsey in the ninth minute. Arsenal - who had won nine of their last ten Premier League games - needed a response.

Benayoun was again denied by a fine one-handed save from Al Habsi as he looped Rosicky's cross towards the top corner. The Gunners halved the deficit on 21 minutes when Vermaelen crashed in a bullet header from 12 yards after Rosicky's right-wing cross.

Al Habsi was alert again to beat away Robin van Persie's fierce drive as Arsenal pressed forward, centre-half Johan Djourou then dragging his shot just wide from the edge of the Wigan penalty area.

Arsenal maintained their momentum, and Rosicky should have done better than sky the ball high over the crossbar after being played in by Van Persie. Wigan, who were unfortunate to lose at Chelsea amid some controversial decisions, continued to defend deep with two banks of four and made the most of any stoppages - much to the frustration of Gunners boss Arsene Wenger.

Arsenal came out on the offensive at the start of the second half, with Andre Santos' shot deflecting just away from Van Persie and then Theo Walcott. Wigan, though, stuck to their game plan of organised defending, while also looking to break quickly down the flanks.

Moses was a real handful for Sagna, and got away again into the Arsenal box on 52 minutes before forcing Szczesny into a reaction save. Vermaelen headed over from Van Persie's corner, before Santos stabbed a cutback by his captain wide from six yards when he really should have hit the target.

Moses could have extended Wigan's advantage when put through on 59 minutes, but shot tamely at Szczesny. Wenger had seen enough, replacing Benayoun with Gervinho to inject some fresh life into the attack.

Arsenal stepped up the pressure again, but once more the Wigan rearguard stood firm. With 16 minutes left, Wenger sent on teenager Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, sacrificing Djourou as Alex Song dropped into the back four. Wigan responded by replacing Di Santo with Conor Sammon.

Gervinho was switching flanks intermittently, and his ball from the left floated across the face of goal. Maynor Figueroa appeared to barge Walcott over as the Arsenal forward scampered away down the right, but referee Andre Marriner waved play on.

There was five minutes of stoppage time, but despite plenty of Arsenal pressure, Wigan held out for a deserved win, their first at Emirates Stadium, which could just keep them in the Premier League.

Latics tactics pay off as United lose unofficial titleWigan Athletic 1 (Maloney 50) Manchester United 0

At this time of the season, the Manchester United instinct is to crush the hope of their nearest rivals. Show no weakness. Drive on relentlessly until the job is done. Lose at Wigan Athletic? Sir Alex Ferguson’s teams are simply not programmed to throw away games like this one.

Call off the trophy engravers. The Premier League title race just became interesting again last night, even if took a dire United performance to spark it into life. Ferguson was at a loss to explain why they had failed to perform in a first half in which he admitted his team had been "totally dominated" by Wigan. United are still in the box seat but suddenly, from nowhere, Manchester City have hope.

There are five games left in the season and, with a five-point lead, United will still be hard to catch. This could be their last bad result, one last aberration on the road to the club's 20th title. It is, after all, only their fourth league defeat of the season. But the pressure is back on and the game against Aston Villa on Sunday has huge significance.

Momentum. When United arrived at the DW Stadium last night they had it and they left having been knocked out of their stride by a spirited Wigan team who moved out of the relegation zone for the first time since mid-December. Roberto Martinez called it a "historic night" for his club and he was right. In 14 attempts in the Premier League this was the first time they have taken so much as a point from United.

Wigan's victory was all the more impressive for the fact that they had a Victor Moses goal very harshly disallowed in the first half and it might just have broken their confidence but, as Martinez said, they came out for the second half even more determined. "I loved my players' arrogance," Martinez said. "We were patient on the ball and we played Manchester United eye-to-eye."

There were some fine performances in the Wigan side, not least the goal-scorer Shaun Maloney who struck a wonderful shot from outside the area to beat David De Gea. He was not the only one, though. Gary Caldwell, Moses, Jean Beausejour and Maynor Figueroa were all excellent. Martinez said that this was a team still nursing the injustice of those two offside goals scored against them by Chelsea on Saturday.

United's first-half efforts were best encapsulated in the moment, around midway, that Ferguson stepped up to the touchline and flapped his arms around in the manner that has, for most of his managerial career, denoted fury. It was directed at Wayne Rooney.

On that occasion Rooney responded in a fashion that suggested he was aggrieved. When he was substituted with 25 minutes left he jogged off meekly. The most polite thing you could say about his performance was that he looked exhausted. Neither was this Ryan Giggs's best evening, but you could also say the same of Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia.

United were unrecognisable from the team that has taken grip of the title race in spring and torn it from City's grasp. Now that game between the two Manchester clubs at the Etihad Stadium on 30 April once again looms large, providing, of course, that City can stay in touch with their rivals. Ferguson's team have demoralised their rivals with the sheer relentlessness of their performances in the past but that spell has been broken.

It was not until the 19th minute that United had an attempt on goal, a ball through by Michael Carrick to Giggs whose shot was saved by Ali Al-Habsi. It was in this buoyant period for Wigan that you felt they needed to score and so they did. In controversial circumstances it was disallowed by Dowd.

Moses won the corner that led to the goal that never was, dribbling brilliantly around Jonny Evans and hitting a shot that was blocked by Rio Ferdinand. From the corner the Wigan striker stole in towards the near post and headed the ball firmly past De Gea. He was still celebrating when he realised the goal had been chalked off and the game had restarted.

It was not immediately clear what Dowd had seen in the moments that led up to the goal but it emerged that David Richardson, the linesman on the tunnel side at the DW Stadium, had raised his flag for what he regarded as a foul by Gary Caldwell in the goalmouth. Replays showed the Wigan captain backing into De Gea who stumbled backwards over his line.

At best it was a let-off for United, at worst it was another dubious decision in a week when officials have been under heavy scrutiny. The United players were out early after half-time and it felt as if they may well have weathered the best of what Wigan had to throw at them. But Martinez's players came back stronger.

Dowd made a mistake in the build-up to the goal, wrongly giving Wigan a corner when Phil Jones tried to corral Beausejour away from the ball as it ran out of play down the left channel. It should have been a goal kick.

Jones was still protesting the decision when Maloney played the ball short to Beausejour and got it back before embarking on a run from the left that took him across the face of the United box parallel with the goal. He was waiting for the brief window of space to shoot. When he did so, the ball curled around De Gea's reach and inside the left post.

It was a joyous moment for Wigan. Ferguson had already replaced Young with Tom Cleverley and over the next 15 minutes he brought off first Javier Hernandez for Danny Welbeck and then substituted Nani for Rooney. Finally, with 20 minutes of the game left, United got going.

They had a penalty turned down when Figueroa handled Jones's cross from the right. On 76 minutes, Welbeck appeared to react in the area to having his shirt pulled. By the end of the game, Jones was injured and little more than a passenger. Ferguson had already used his three substitutes. It was Wigan who had the best chance in the final 10 minutes when Figueroa and Moses both had shots blocked. United had run out of steam.

Referee costs QPR titleManchester United 2 (Rooney 15pen, Scholes 68) Queens Park Rangers 0

Manchester United's march towards a 20th Premier League title continued with a 2-0 victory over Queens Park Rangers at Old Trafford.


QPR's hopes of capitalising on Wigan Athletic's defeat yesterday were virtually ended after 13 minutes when captain Shaun Derry was sent off for fouling Ashley Young inside the box.


Wayne Rooney converted the penalty kick and United should have run up a huge score, such was their overwhelming dominance thereafter. Instead, they were forced to rely on a second-half piledriver from Paul Scholes to wrap up a win that keeps them on course to clinch yet another championship.


Behind, down in numbers and without Joey Barton, who is one booking away from a two-match ban, and Bobby Zamora, left on the bench after a recent head cold, QPR found themselves in an impossible situation.


United effectively set up camp around the visitors' penalty area and the only wonder was they had not increased their advantage by half-time. Rooney brought a couple of decent saves out of Paddy Kenny, first with a curling free-kick, then a chip that was bound for the top corner.


Patrice Evra lashed a shot wide and Danny Welbeck had an effort charged down by Anton Ferdinand as QPR mounted a brave rearguard action. Selected ahead of Javier Hernandez, Welbeck was eager to do well but was denied a goal at the start of the second half by an offside call.


Welbeck then fired well over from an acute angle, much to the frustration of Sir Alex Ferguson. As with their previous home game against Fulham, United were failing to make their pressure tell. Rooney was the next to waste an opportunity, although it was a half-chance, and Kenny needed to make a save.


Rafael should have scored after being brilliantly picked out by Scholes but the young Brazilian panicked, driving his shot straight at Kenny, who had gone down early, the ball then rising up onto the crossbar and bouncing to safety.


Welbeck was set up by Rooney but, despite having two efforts, failed to beat Kenny, who repelled the initial shot, then gathered the follow-up as it was stabbed goalwards.


It needed an old head to take control and Scholes duly obliged, drilling home from 25 yards after Abel Taarabt had gifted possession to Rafael. Michael Carrick's ferocious 35-yard shot came crashing back off a post as United tried to improve their goal difference, which Ferguson continues to insist might be significant