Premier League: Toon crash, Gunners top

Arsenal are now top of the table after their 3-1 win at Bolton after a pulsating encounter at the Reebok Stadium. An early goal from Kevin Cyril Davies had Gunners fans worrying about their Trotters hoodoo but a period of total dominance resulted in two quickfire strikes from Emmauel Eboue and Nicklas Bendtner.

Denilson, who had an excellent match, killed off any Bolton hopes with an 87th minute strike after some great work from Theo Walcott and Emmanuel Adebayor. After Liverpool's slip against Stoke, Arsenal claimed the top spot as their own.

Crisis club Newcastle United's chaotic seaon continued on its farcical downturn as the Magpies became Gianfranco Zola's first victim as West Ham boss as the Hammers won 3-1 at Upton Park.

Still managerless, Newcastle were again poor as David Di Michele, a deadline day signing for the Hammers, grabbed two goals for his new club and Matthew Etherington, in the news for the wrong reasons of late because of a heavy gambling debt, put the Hammers three up before Michael Owen grabbed his habitual goal against the Hammers, a team he has a superb scoring record.

Newcastle are now second-bottom of the Premier League with only Tottenham below them.

Liverpool's dreams of that first title in nineteen years took a jolt as they could only draw 0-0 at home with Stoke City. Though they laid siege in the second half, Liverpool could not score past Tony Pulis' rugged outfit and the joy of last week's win over Manchester United may well have already faded as Rafa Benitez's side failed to get the three points they expected. They went top - but only temporarily as both Arsenal and Chelsea hadf still to play.

Sunderland beat North-East rivals Middlesbrough 2-0 at the Stadium of Light. It was obviously a good day to be a problem gambler because Michael Chopra, himself returned to the first-team after being treated for gambling addiction and associated personal problems, was a double goalscorer in notching Roy Keane's side's first home strikes of the season.

After a decent start to the season, inconsistency is rearing its ugly head again at Middlesbrough, for whom Stewart Downing missed a penalty in the 75th minute.

Six minutes later Chopra grabbed his first and then was played in by Steed Malbranque to score a tap-in in the last minute. Sunderland move up to sixth.

Blackburn Rovers left it late to break the deadlock and win 1-0 against in-form Fulham. Substitute Matt Derbyshire scored the only goal in the 84th minute, with an assist provided by Roque Santa Cruz as Paul Ince's team got a win after two heavy defeats.