Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo scores from the penalty spot against Everton during their English Premier League match at Old Trafford Stadium yesterday. Manchester United won 1-0. - AP
LONDON (AP):Cristiano Ronaldo's penalty gave Manchester United a 1-0 victory over Everton and a five-point lead at the top of the Premier League yesterday while Man City tumbled 1-0 at Stoke.
Ronaldo stroked his spot kick past Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard - his former Old Trafford teammate - in the 44th minute as the Red Devils won for the seventh league game in a row without conceding. Goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar has now gone an English record 1,120 minutes without letting in a goal.
The victory means that United are now on 53 points and have a five-point advantage over Chelsea and Liverpool, who meet at Anfield today and have played the same number of matches as United.
Fourth-place Aston Villa and fifth-place Arsenal lost ground on the leaders when they were each held 0-0 at home. Villa were held by Wigan while the Gunners, held by West Ham, are now 10 points behind and United have a game in hand on Arsene Wenger's team.
James Beattie headed home a left-wing cross by Matthew Etherington in first-half injury time after Stoke left back Rory Delap was sent off in the 37th minute.
Stoke, who started the day next-to-last in the standings, now have 24 points from 24 games and climbed to 16th. Man City's 11th defeat of the season means that Mark Hughes' erratic, mid-standings team has 28 points from 23.
Tottenham tumbled 3-2 at Bolton where the hosts' Kevin Davies scored one goal and set up two. Spurs hit back from two goals down to level after two goals by substitute Darren Bent, but Davies netted an 87th-minute winner for his eighth goal of the season.
The struggle to avoid relegation remained tight with the last four clubs all picking up points.
Last-place West Bromwich Albion twice came from behind to draw 2-2 at Hull. Although Bernard Mendy and Craig Fagan scored for the home side, Joy Simpson hit back for the visitors and Chris Brunt's penalty captured a rare away point for the Baggies.
Middlesbrough and Blackburn drew 0-0 to drop to 19th and 18th, and Portsmouth slipped closer to relegation trouble in 15th - only two points away from last place - after losing 3-1 at Fulham, where Erik Nevlund scored twice for the home side.