Premier League: Bent sinks Gunners, Blues cruise, Red Devils sweep Everton..

Darren Bent did not need a beach-ball this time but Sunderland claimed another big scalp with a 1-0 defeated Arsenal at the Stadium of Light. That said, Bent's goal again owed something to good fortune.

When a missed header rebounded off a Sunderland team-mate Fraizer Campbell's shins, Bent poked home from six yards. Arsene Wenger, with one fit striker in Eduardo, must be rueing his long list of injuries, especially the ankle injury sustained by Robin van Persie during international week.

Bent has now scored against all of the "big four" clubs this season and continues to push for an England place.

Manchester United moved up to second as they beat Everton 3-0 at Old Trafford. Darren Fletcher opened the scoring with a stunning strike from just outside the box and United never looked like losing once the Scot had fired home.

Michael Carrick crashed in a second after Michael Owen had spurned a good chance and Antonio Valencia kept up his recent good form with a deflected shot that sealed all three points for United. The Red Devils now move into second, but Everton remain in the bottom half after yet another dismal performance.

Liverpool and Manchester City shared a 2-2 draw that was little use to either of their managers. Mark Hughes' City have now drawn six games in a row while Rafael Benitez's Liverpool have now won one game in ten outings. After a drab first half in which the talking points were Daniel Agger (suspected concussion) and Ryan Babel (ankle) adding to Liverpool's lengthy injury list, the second 45 minutes served up goals, if not quality defending.

Emmanuel Adebayor seemed to be the last player the ball came off for Liverpool's opener though Martin Skrtel claimed it but then the Slovak defender left the Togolese striker to nod in City's equaliser on 69 minutes. Stephen Ireland put City ahead (76) before Yossi Benayoun, on as a sub for Babel by virtue of recovering from injury via that infamous horse placenta treatment, equalised just sixty seconds later. Liverpool held the momentum but could not get the goal they needed to end their sorry run of results.

Few expected Wolves to get a result at Chelsea with bookmakers offering odds of 23/1 that they beat the Blues, despite a lengthy injury list for Carlo Ancelotti's men. Perhaps Mick McCarthy expected more resistance from his team but after Florent Malouda's fifth-minute opener, the die was cast and the league leaders strolled to an easy 4-0. A Michael Essien double and a Joe Cole strike compounded the McCarthy misery but this game may be best remembered as the first appearance of Gael Kakuta, the young Frenchman at the heart of Chelsea's currently suspended transfer ban.

The battle of the Clarets at Turf Moor saw Burnley denied another big win over a Premier League establishment club when Emile Heskey grabbed a late equaliser for Aston Villa to cancel out a goal from Steven Caldwell. Heskey's goal came as a result of a Brian Jensen mistake which James Milner had pounced upon to set up his England colleague.

Birmingham City do not score many goals so the single strike that did for Fulham is one to be celebrated at St Andrews'. Lee Bowyer was the scorer, lobbing Mark Schwarzer in the Cottagers' goal and Blues are now able to enjoy some breathing space from the drop zone.

The same cannot be said for either Hull City or West Ham United who fought out a 3-3 draw at the KC Stadium. A single point is barely enough for either of them. Hull recovered from a 2-0 deficit opened by goals from Guillermo Franco and Jack Collison. A Carlton Cole own-goal and a Kamil Zayatte strike took the Tigers to parity before a Jimmy Bullard penalty took them ahead.

The dismissal of Bernard Mendy in the 54th minute handed West Ham the whip hand but a Manuel Da Costa equaliser was the best that Gianfranco Zola's men could produce. They remain in the bottom three with Hull perched a point and a place ahead.

Red Devils sweep past Everton

3 GOALS CELEBRATION!!

It's Darren Fletcher!!

'' Go away, Moron!! '' Ryan Giggs

'' You all can't stop me. I'm unleashed!! '' Rooney

'' Take this, asshole!! '' Michael Owen

'' Thank you for your support, buddy. '' Valencia

'' Geeeee...I get it I get it~' Wanna steal it? Wait for next time'' Valencia

'' Smack that, you can't block my shot!! ''

Darren Fletcher scored a memorable goal as he launched Manchester United on their way to a comfortable 3-0 victory over Everton.

Although they were already well on top against the Merseysiders who, apart from a brief five-minute second-half flurry were completely outclassed, United were struggling to make the breakthrough until Fletcher fired home a magnificent volley.

Michael Carrick and Antonio Valencia were also on target to complete the Red Devils' biggest win since August and ensure they heeded Sir Alex Ferguson's pre-match call for a more clinical attitude.

Over the past 12 months, Fletcher has emerged as one of the most influential players in the Premier League.

The Scot's style might not be to everyone's taste - Arsene Wenger labelled him "anti-football'' earlier this season.

But his value to the Red Devils is immeasurable, to the point he was shifted to right-back when Paul Scholes was introduced after an hour.

Indeed, May's sobering Champions League final defeat to Barcelona in May was part of a sequence that has seen Fletcher miss seven of United's last nine defeats.

His effectiveness, it has to be admitted, is mostly destructive.

However, he scored twice in the thrilling derby win over Manchester City in September and Fletcher is making a point of getting himself into goalscoring positions more often.

He did not exactly have the Everton goal at his mercy though as Antonio Valencia stretched to nod a deep Patrice Evra cross into his path 10 minutes before the break.

On the edge of the area, surrounded by visiting defenders, David Moyes might even have been relatively relaxed.

How wrong he would have been. With one swinging boot of the right foot, Fletcher sent the ball curling into the top corner, giving former team-mate Tim Howard no chance.

The goal at least provided United with some tangible reward for their overwhelming domination of possession.

Chances were at a premium, with Wayne Rooney going close and Ryan Giggs testing Howard, both efforts from the edge of the area.

Ferguson could not have had that in mind when he penned programme notes that called for a more clinical edge and a return to the form that saw United score five at Wigan, three at Tottenham and four to beat City.

Indeed, Everton, for all their failure to keep hold of the ball, also had a couple of decent long-range efforts, through Jack Rodwell and Louis Saha - returning to Old Trafford for the first time since calling time on his four-and-a-half injury-plagued years at the start of last season.

Moyes was more vexed about an aerial collision between Nemanja Vidic and Johnny Heitinga that left the Dutchman with a nasty cut to his head, the inference from the Everton camp was clearly that an elbow had been used.

It was a point Moyes made to the fourth official at half-time, although by that stage he had decided direct intervention was needed.

The introduction of Ayegbeni Yakubu for Dan Gosling took a while to have an impact but for a five-minute spell just after the hour mark, it had the hosts in trouble.

Everton's best chance fell to the Nigerian himself after he had muscled his way round Wes Brown.

Yakubu has scored for three previous clubs - Maccabi Haifa, Portsmouth and Middlesbrough - against United and must have thought he had completed a remarkable four-timer when he sent his shot fizzing towards the bottom corner.

Edwin Van der Sar was struggling but, unfortunately for the visitors, it went just wide.

It was just the invitation United needed to seal the contest.

By his own high standards, Giggs had endured a quiet evening.

But, in exactly the right position to retrieve a Rooney shot that would have gone for a throw, the veteran Welshman quickly spotted Carrick on the edge of the area.

It is just the situation Carrick thrives on and he placed a low, precise shot into the corner, again leaving Howard helpless.

Valencia bagged a third when he strode on to Scholes' lay-off to ensure United remained five points adrift of Chelsea and, with injuries beginning to bite at Arsenal, the title race already looks to be narrowing to two.

Midfield marksmen guide United to victory

Some games appear scripted for the strikers. This was one such, providing a trio of protagonists with interweaving tales. There was Wayne Rooney, Everton's teenage prodigy turned Manchester United's talisman; Michael Owen, the boyhood Evertonian alongside a Scouser in the champions' forward line; and Louis Saha, a byword for unfortunate injuries at Old Trafford, but a man who has outscored both Owen and the missing Dimitar Berbatov after being rehabilitated on Merseyside.

Yet, in a welcome development for Manchester United, all three were overshadowed by more irregular scorers. "Everyone was talking about the lack of goals from midfield," said Sir Alex Ferguson after the game. The conversations can continue, but the subject can change to the calibre of the finishes after Darren Fletcher, Michael Carrick and Antonio Valencia scored. The men in the middle determined the game with Ryan Giggs and the substitute Paul Scholes each creating a goal. As a result, the reliance on Rooney, even if only temporarily, was eased and the memories of Cristiano Ronaldo, perhaps, were tinged with rather less nostalgia.

He averaged 30 goals a season in his last three years in Manchester, even if some were spot kicks and quite a few came when he operated in attack rather than on the flank. Yet, as this season is proving, goalscoring has to be a team effort. There were times when Ronaldo's magnificent megalomania obscured that, when everything was about him and when he struck so frequently it scarcely mattered that others barely contributed.

Now it is an issue. Unflattering comparisons could have been drawn with both Chelsea, where Frank Lampard invariably musters 20 goals a season from the centre of the pitch, and Arsenal, where Cesc Fabregas threatens to do likewise. Even, perhaps, with Liverpool, where Dirk Kuyt and Yossi Benayoun offer the potential to reach double figures from the flanks.

If none of United's myriad of midfielders are as prolific, there are indications that a settled unit are beginning to produce a return in front of goal. Earlier in the campaign, Ferguson's policy of permanent rotation produced an entirely different midfield for the matches against Burnley and then Wigan. Each of his preferred quartet today started at Chelsea, and three of them found a finish against Everton.

Fletcher's was first and finest. United had been enterprising, but failed to penetrate until Valencia displayed the awareness to head Patrice Evra's cross towards the Scot. His stunning volley flew into the top corner. "Unbelievable," said Evra. "A quality finish," added Ferguson. "It was a goal you wouldn't expect him to score."

Recognition outside Old Trafford is no longer elusive. Fletcher is arguably the Premier League's most improved player over the last 15 months. Ferguson added: "You see his performance level each year for the last few years has gone up and up. He is extraordinary like that."

Carrick's form this season has been rather more Instead Everton were condemned to defeat for the fifth time in seven matches. Injury-ravaged as they are, they have become unaccustomed to such bleak times. A depleted side prospered last season, helped in no small measure by the efforts of their goalscoring midfielders. They are, as United can testify, useful players to possess.

Valencia had arrived at Old Trafford with an unenviable scoring record at Wigan, where he struck seven times in three years. A fourth of the current campaign followed Scholes' pass, requiring a deflection off Leighton Baines but justifying United's pre-match instructions. "We have been saying to him to shoot because he has power in his shooting," Ferguson explained.

Rooney had clipped the crossbar against his former employers during a spell when Everton threatened an equaliser. The offside Marouane Fellaini had a goal chalked off, Tim Cahill was denied by Edwin van der Sar and Yakubu shot narrowly wide. David Moyes' half-time reshuffle, when he introduced the Nigerian and moved to a two-man attack, almost succeeded.

Instead Everton were condemned to defeat for the fifth time in seven matches. Injury-ravaged as they are, they have become unaccustomed to such bleak times. A depleted side prospered last season, helped in no small measure by the efforts of their goalscoring midfielders. They are, as United can testify, useful players to possess.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Darren Fletcher - "A great player," according to Evra. Such a statement would once have invited ridicule. Now, plenty would concur. Besides a glorious goal and an all-action display in midfield, Fletcher finished the game at right-back where he was competent.

MANCHESTER UNITED VERDICT: This was their biggest home win of the season and perhaps their most convincing, but nervy moments have become a feature of matches at Old Trafford. There were plenty in Everton's revival after the interval but the impressive Evra and the returning Nemanja Vidic helped keep a clean sheet. In attack, Owen couldn't quite make the most of the opportunity Berbatov's absence afforded him.

EVERTON VERDICT: Moyes' injury problems never seem to abate. As Ferguson noted in his column in the programme, that accounts for their position in the lower half of the table. Yet Everton displayed spirit, first in their defending and then in their search for a leveller. With Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea coming up, they will need to be similarly determined again.