Teenager Federico Macheda kept Manchester United's title defence on track for the second straight Premier League match yesterday, clinching a 2-1 victory at Sunderland with his first touch after coming off the bench.
Macheda's goal in the 76th minute kept United top of the standings and a point ahead of Liverpool, who eased to a 4-0 victory over Blackburn. Last weekend, the 17-year-old Italian scored a late winner on his debut to give United a 3-2 victory over Aston Villa.
Paul Scholes had put United ahead after 19 minutes, but the 34-year-old midfielder's header was cancelled out by Kenwyne Jones in the 55th.
Fernando Torres scored twice to help Liverpool to its fifth straight league win. Emotions were running high at Anfield before kick-off when a minute's silence was held to mark the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough stadium disaster, which claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool fans.
United, who still have a game in hand, top the league with 71 points. Liverpool are second with 70 and Chelsea, who edged Bolton 4-3 after leading 4-0, are third on 67.
Buoyed by Liverpool's lunchtime win, manager Rafa Benitez claimed the Red Devils were "under pressure" and their manager Alex Ferguson "nervous."
Had it not been for Macheda's winner at the Stadium of Light, Benitez's side would be top.
Seconds after replacing striker Dimitar Berbatov, United's most expensive player, Macheda, steered home a low shot by Michael Carrick that was heading wide past keeper Craig Gordon.
For the first 20 minutes United were cruising with Scholes and Carrick in complete control of midfield and Wayne Rooney causing Sunderland problems.
The dominance was capped when Rooney cut inside and crossed for the unmarked Scholes to glance a deft header past the stranded Gordon and into the top corner.
Squandered chances
After that Sunderland squandered a string of chances to equalise before Jones found the net after the break.
United goalkeeper Ben Foster failed to claim Teemu Tainio's cross under pressure from Jones, and the striker fired the ball into the empty net.
"We rode our luck at bit and we got a bit sloppy at times," Ferguson said.
At Anfield, Torres took just five minutes to breach Blackburn's five-man defence. Jamie Carragher sent a lofted pass from the halfway line and the ball was chested down by Torres, who turned and hooked a superb volley into the far corner.
In the 33rd, Torres ran unchecked from the far corner of the penalty area and beat Blackburn's Chris Samba in the air to head home Xabi Alonso's cross.
Daniel Agger ensured a comfortable finish by running from 40 metres out and blasting a swerving shot past Paul Robinson in the 83rd and David Ngog nodded in Lucas Leiva's header across the face of goal in the 90th.
The emphatic victory meant that midfielder Steven Gerrard, who is struggling with a groin problem, could remain on the bench. Benitez hopes his captain will be fit to play at Chelsea in the second leg of their Champions League matchup as Liverpool looks to recover a 3-1 deficit.
Chelsea was 4-0 up after 63 minutes, thanks to two goals from Didier Drogba, a penalty converted by Frank Lampard and Michael Ballack's first league goal of the season.
But after coach Guus Hiddink replaced Drogba with Nicolas Anelka and Lampard with Deco in the 65th minute, Bolton fought back.
Bolton scored three times in 11 minutes through Andy O'Brien, Chris Basham and Matt Taylor. Gary Cahill was only denied a stoppage-time winner when Deco cleared off the line.