Fernando Torres and Federico Macheda enjoyed fine afternoons as Liverpool and Man United both won.
It's nip-and-tuck at the Premier League summit as top two both win
An Easter weekend of football saw Federico Macheda continue to live out every schoolboy's fantasy, while over on Merseyside Fernando Torres scored a goal of the season contender at Anfield.
Liverpool's demolition job on Blackburn in Saturday's early kick-off briefly put Rafa Benitez's side top, but by 4.45pm normal service had resumed as Manchester United's less than convincing win at Sunderland put the smile back on Sir Alex Ferguson's somewhat pensive face of late.
It was party time at Stamford Bridge in the opening hour of Chelsea's game with Bolton, as the home side sauntered to a four-goal lead, before the inevitable hangover kicked in as Gary Megson's side had Guus Hiddink reaching for the Alka Seltzer with three late goals of their own.
Wigan boss Steve Bruce was left to rue referee Alan Wiley's leniency in awarding Arsenal defender Kieran Gibbs only a yellow card, when he dragged down Antonio Valencia with the Ecuadorian bearing down on goal. Wigan were leading 1-0 at the time, which poured a vat of salt into a gaping wound when Arsenal staged a stirring second half fight-back to win 4-1.
No manager has looked more miserable of late than Gareth Southgate but the Middlesbrough boss was all smiles at The Riverside, as a 3-1 win over Hull City moved his side to within two points of safety and in the process pulled the whimpering Tigers closer to the drop zone.
If the overall sensation on Teesside was elation for North East neighbours Newcastle it was one of relief, as Alan Shearer had Andy Carroll's late header at Stoke to thank for his first point as a manager.
Middlesbrough and Newcastle's Premier League status may be relying on the life support machine at present, but it appears West Brom are flat-liners following a 2-2 draw at Portsmouth that leaves them seven points from safety.
Roman Pavlyuchenko stepped from the substitutes' bench to move Tottenham up to ninth with a 1-0 win over West Ham at White Hart Lane.
On Sunday, Aston Villa played out a six-goal thriller with Everton that perhaps suits only Arsenal, while the weekend's action was concluded with a miserable Manchester City performance that saw them slump to a 3-1 defeat at home to Fulham.
Desperate times call for desperate measures and so it proved for
Blackburn as Sam Allardyce elected to use central defender Christopher Samba as a makeshift centre forward at
Liverpool. The giant stopper impressed when pushed forward against Tottenham a week earlier but was starved of service at Anfield as
Rovers were battered 4-0.
Torres underlined his credentials as Europe's most complete striker at present as he opened the scoring with an audacious hooked effort over his shoulder, which he described as 'maybe one of his best'. His second, a bullet header, demonstrated why he has been a success in England such is his appetite for the physical, as well as the sublime.
Daniel Agger reminded Rafa Benitez of his quality with a trademark thumper from range, before David Ngog added a fourth in the last minute.
Manchester United were less emphatic at
Sunderland but Ferguson will remind his players that extra points are not rewarded for artistic impression. Paul Scholes rolled back the years to arrive late in the box to head United in front, before Kenwyne Jones raised hopes of an unlikely point for Sunderland with a header of his own.
A United crisis? No problem these days,
just call for Federico Macheda. The Italian stepped from the bench and just as he did a week earlier against Aston Villa, the 17-year-old showed impeccable timing in diverting Michael Carrick's shot past Craig Gordon.
Over in West London, Guus Hiddink's mood changed from delight to exasperation over a 90 minutes that showed
Chelsea at their best and worst against
Bolton.
Michael Ballack's goal just before half-time put Chelsea in control before a Frank Lampard penalty came in between a Didier Drogba double.
What happened thereafter had the normally placid
Hiddink threatening to throw teacups as Bolton went close to completing a remarkable turnaround. Efforts from Andy O'Brien, Chris Basham and Matty Taylor all penetrated a back four that can ill-afford to be as porous when Liverpool are in town on Tuesday night.
Middlesbrough stole the points in their relegation dogfight with
Hull City but a more intriguing subplot was Marlon King serving his revenge to Phil Brown cold - or more pertinently on ice - as he sent his bottle of bubbly for a MOTM performance to his former boss.
The pair fell out spectacularly earlier in the season when King was on loan at the KC Stadium, so his late goal in Boro's 3-1 win - which cued a
Hulk Hogan inspired cupped ear celebration - was made all the sweeter.
Manucho's header had briefly levelled Tuncay Sanli's opener in what was a frenetic first ten minutes but it was to be Boro's day as Matthew Bates and then King, to Brown's chagrin, secured a massive three points.
An uninspiring game in North London was decided by
Spurs substitute
Pavlyuchenko's smart finish as the Russian's second half effort proved enough to see off a lethargic
West Ham.
Portsmouth were booed off at Fratton Park following their 2-2 draw with
West Brom despite Younes Kaboul and Niko Kranjcar both scoring spectacular goals.
Kaboul opened the scoring before the Baggies hit back through Jonathan Greening and Chris Brunt. It was, though, to be a short-lived advantage as on 65 minutes, just three minutes after Brunt's strike, Kranjcar won Pompey a share of the spoils with a fine free-kick.
Wigan were the better side at the JJB for two-thirds of their clash with
Arsenal but ended up on the receiving end of a 4-1 drubbing that proved true the old adage about form and class. Mido, impressive before being forced off with a head injury, opened the scoring in the first half while Gibbs was handed a reprieve by Wiley on the stroke of half-time.
Ben Watson hit the post before Theo Walcott's sumptuous finish with the outside of his right foot was followed by Mikael Silvestre's close-range effort that put Arsenal in control.
With Wigan chasing the game, Arsenal demonstrated the art of the counter-attack to perfection, as Andriy Arshavin and Alexandre Song both profited to give the
scoreline a somewhat flattering look.
Abdoulaye Faye must have thought he had done enough to put further distance between Tony Pulis'
Stoke side and the drop when he had the Britannia Stadium rocking with a bullet header against his former club
Newcastle.
It was a lead that stood until nine minutes from time when
Carroll's header rescued a point for Newcastle that keeps them in touching distance of survival.
Villa Park was treated to
one of the games of the season but ultimately a 3-3 draw between
Villa and
Everton benefitted only the neutrals and Arsene Wenger.
Everton were by far the brighter of the two sides in the opening sparring as Marouane Fellaini and Tim Cahill both beat Brad Friedel within 23 minutes.
John Carew profited from some uncertain goalkeeping from Tim Howard to reduce the deficit going into the break, but the points looked to be heading back to Goodison when Steven Pienaar cut inside to curl home a sumptuous third.
Credit then to Villa's resolve as James Milner reduced the deficit almost immediately with a fine free-kick, before Gareth Barry smashed home a penalty after Joleon Lescott's high boot connected with Stiliyan Petrov in the box.
At Eastlands,
Mark Hughes will have enjoyed better afternoons. All looked to be going to plan when
City - minus the benched Robinho - took a first half lead through Stephen Ireland's deflected drive from range.
Fulham are a different proposition these days than the side that would have folded prior to Roy Hodgson's appointment last season. A second half comeback saw Clint Dempsey's double sandwich the sweetest of strikes from former City starlet Dickson Etuhu, whose brother Kelvin made Mark Hughes' starting XI.
As 'you don't know what you're doing' reverberated around the City of Manchester Stadium a beleaguered Hughes summoned Robinho, but Fulham were more than comfortable in recording a second successive win away from Craven Cottage.
