Arsenal's Robin van Persie celebrates his goal against Sunderland with Theo Walcott in London Sunday. — Reuters LONDON – Robin van Persie fired Arsenal into the top half of the Premier League table with a classy double in a 2-1 victory over Sunderland while Newcastle denied Tottenham a fifth straight win with a late equalizer in a 2-2 draw Sunday. Van Persie again showed his importance to Arsenal by opening the scoring after just 29 seconds at the Emirates and then curling home a free kick seven minutes from time, sandwiching Sebastian Larsson's sublime equalizer for Sunderland in the 31st. Shola Amoebi was fourth-place Newcastle's savior, coming off the bench to drill in a low shot in the 86th minute and maintain his team's unbeaten record after eight games. Newcastle needed to rally twice at St. James' Park, with Amoebi canceling out Jermain Defoe's goal in the 68th after Demba Ba leveled in the 48th following Rafael van der Vaart's opener from the penalty spot before the break. In the day's other match, Chris Brunt and Peter Odemwingie scored for West Bromwich Albion in a 2-0 victory over struggling Wolverhampton Wanderers, which has now lost five matches in a row to slip to fifth from bottom. Having lost playmakers Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri in the offseason, Arsenal is increasingly turning to Van Persie for inspiration this season and the Netherlands striker delivered against Sunderland to take his tally in the league to five goals. Van Persie's first goal, which came when he ran onto Gervinho's through-ball and fired a low shot into the corner, was the quickest in the Premier League in nearly four years. Arsenal is still 12 points behind league leader Manchester City, which beat Aston Villa 4-1 on Saturday, and 10 behind second-place United, held 1-1 by Liverpool on the same day. Juventus stays top Juventus stayed atop Serie A following a 0-0 draw at Chievo Verona, one of five scoreless stalemates in the Italian league Sunday. Juventus and Udinese each have 12 points through six matches but Juve leads on goals scored. Udinese also drew 0-0 at Atalanta, and Cagliari stayed one point behind the leaders after another scoreless result against Siena. Ten-man Genoa and Lecce also played to a 0-0 draw. In the day's only match with a goal, Bologna got its first win by beating Novara 2-0 with scores from Gaston Ramirez and Robert Acquafresca in coach Stefano Pioli's debut. Earlier in the lunchtime fixture, Cesena held Fiorentina to a 0-0 draw despite losing striker Adrian Mutu to a straight red card.
