Gunners fire four - round-up

Arsenal scored four unanswered first-half goals at Manchester City to put themselves in position to stretch five points clear at the top of the Barclaycard Premiership today.

The Gunners were 4-0 up inside the first 20 minutes at Maine Road where the goals came from Dennis Bergkamp (four), Robert Pires (12), Thierry Henry (15) and Sol Campbell (19).

With second-placed Manchester United claiming only a point earlier on at Bolton, Arsene Wenger’s Londoners appeared to be taking another significant stride towards the title.

Third-placed Newcastle were doing all they could to stay in the championship picture, Keiron Dyer putting them one up in the 17th minute against mid-table Leeds at Elland Road.

Everton forward Tomasz Radzinski was the star of today’s early kick-offs, scoring twice in the last 10 minutes of his team’s 2-1 win at home to Southampton – while a goal from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer earned United their 1-1 draw at Bolton to keep the Red Devils still within striking distance of Arsenal.

The Toffees stuck to their task after trailing to James Beattie’s 18th goal of the season in the 34th minute at Goodison Park.

Their reward came first via an 83rd-minute header from Canadian Radzinski, who saved the best till last when he nicked the points with an outstanding strike three minutes into injury-time.

At the Reebok Stadium Solskjaer left it until the 89th minute to earn the draw for United, after Bruno N’Gotty had put relegation candidates Wanderers in front with a header on the hour.

Bottom-of-the-table Sunderland’s chances of avoiding the drop are dwindling by the week – and a 2-0 half-time deficit at home to Middlesbrough had the look of a hammer blow.

The architect was former Derby forward Chris Riggott, who scored his first two goals for his new club in the 21st and 28th minutes.

The only goalless zones in the Premiership so far today were in Charlton and Aston Villa’s mid-table encounter at The Valley and acros capital at Stamford Bridge, where fourth-placed Chelsea could do with a win over Blackburn to stay in front of the likes of Everton.