Man City stays 5 points clearLONDON — Robin van Persie's red hot form stepped up a gear on Saturday as his hat trick fired Arsenal to a 5-3 win at Chelsea in a remarkable see-saw match, while Manchester City stayed top of the Premier League by beating Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-1. City remained five points clear of Manchester United and moved nine clear of third-placed Chelsea and fourth-placed Newcastle United with second-half goals from Edin Dzeko, Aleksandar Kolarov and Adam Johnson at the Etihad Stadium. Wolves' goal came from a Stephen Hunt penalty after City skipper Vincent Kompany was sent off but it could not stop them slumping to a second defeat by City in four days after losing 5-2 at home in a League Cup match Wednesday. Manchester United bounced back from its 6-1 mauling by City last weekend with a 1-0 victory at Everton where Javier Hernandez scored the first-half winner. Those results left City top with 28 points from 10 games, followed by United (23), Chelsea (19) and Newcastle United (19), at least until they meet Stoke City on Monday. Liverpool beat West Bromwich Albion 2-0 to move into fifth place on 18 points, two clear of Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal. Wigan Athletic suffered a seventh successive league defeat, a 2-0 loss at home to Fulham, and slipped to the bottom of the table, while fellow strugglers Blackburn Rovers drew 3-3 at Norwich City who came back from 3-1 down and equalized with a Grant Holt penalty with the last kick of the game. In other actions, Swansea City beat Bolton Wanderers 3-1 and Sunderland drew 2-2 with Aston Villa. The eight matches produced 31 goals with eight of them coming in an astonishing match at Stamford Bridge. Arsenal won with a hat-trick from skipper Van Persie, including two in the last seven minutes, and one each from Andre Santos and Theo Walcott. Chelsea led twice with goals from Frank Lampard and John Terry but although they then came back to equalize with an 80th-minute goal from Juan Mata, it went on to concede five at home for the first time in a league match since Liverpool beat them 5-2 in 1989. The stunning victory was Arsene Wenger's 500th since he became Arsenal manager in 1996, Arsenal's first away win in the league this season and Chelsea's first home defeat as the English top-flight continues to dish out goals galore. Rangers go top In Aberdeen, Rangers cemented their position at the top of the Scottish Premier League with a 2-1 win against Aberdeen at Pittodrie Saturday. Goals from Kyle Lafferty and Nikica Jelavic allowed Ally McCoist's side to move 12 points clear of second placed Motherwell and a further point in front of Celtic.
