London: Manchester United moved five points clear at the top of the Premier League thanks to their late winner in a 1-0 victory against Bolton on Saturday while second-placed Arsenal only managed a 2-2 draw at West Bromwich Albion.
United was down to 10 men following Jonny Evans' sending off in the 76th minute when substitute Dimitar Berbatov capitalized on Bolton goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen's error to grab the winning goal in the 88th for his league-high 20th of the season.
Arsenal, which has a game in hand, scored twice in the final 20 minutes — through Andrey Arshavin and Robin van Persie — to claim a point at the Hawthorns but lost ground in their title challenge.
Fifth-placed Tottenham's push for a top-four finish was held up by drawing 0-0 at home to West Ham, which climbed out of the relegation zone with their point.
Wigan won 2-1 at home to Birmingham, which dropped to second from bottom, but remained in last place by a point. Wolverhampton stayed in the relegation area despite its 1-0 victory at Midlands rival Aston Villa.
In a congested lower half of the table, three points separate the bottom eight teams.
In other results Saturday, Everton beat Fulham 2-1, Blackburn scored a late equalizer to draw 2-2 at home to Blackpool and Stoke thrashed midtable rival Newcastle 4-0.
United manager Alex Ferguson watched his side get out of jail from the stands, as he was serving the first match of a five-game touchline ban for criticizing a referee earlier this month.
Evans, back in United's team after injury, was shown a straight red card for a studs-up challenge on Bolton midfielder Stuart Holden, who had to be carried off on a stretcher with a deep gash in his left knee.
Matt Taylor then missed a close-range header that would have put the visitors in front and Berbatov made him pay, taking advantage of Jaaskelainen's inability to hold a long shot from Nani to slot the rebound into an empty net.
United avoided losing a third straight league game for the first time since December 2001.
"It wasn't a 100 percent top performance today but we never gave in," Ferguson said. "That's the fantastic character of this club. There is no other club in the country that has got that character. We're fantastic at getting something out of a dead situation, a lost situation. We did that today, full marks to them."
Arsenal gave renewed hope to Manchester City and Chelsea, who play each other at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, of a second-place finish by dropping two more points in the title race.
Steven Reid and Peter Odemwingie scored either side of the break to give West Brom a two-goal lead, but Arshavin started Arsenal's comeback in the 70th minute and Van Persie equalized eight minutes later.
"I am disappointed we dropped two points, but it was psychologically important for the rest of the season to show character and not lose the game," Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said.
City is five points behind Arsenal, with Chelsea a further two back. Tottenham is two points behind Chelsea.
Tottenham's disappointment at only drawing with West Ham would have been slightly tempered by the news hours after the final whistle that star winger Gareth Bale had signed a 4½-year contract with the club.
Spurs were denied at White Hart Lane by the woodwork, some poor finishing by striker Jermain Defoe and some great goalkeeping by West Ham's Robert Green.
Matt Jarvis was Wolves' match winner at Villa Park and Maynor Figueroa's injury-time winner salvaged the crucial win for Wigan.
Liam Ridgewell had put Birmingham ahead in the sixth but Tom Cleverley equalized in the 25th.
Seamus Coleman and Louis Saha scored to ensure that David Moyes began his 10th year as Everton manager the same way he started his first: by beating Fulham.
Coleman headed Everton in front in the 36th and former Fulham striker Louis Saha also netted before Clint Dempsey pulled one back for the visitors.
Blackpool went 2-0 up at Blackburn through two first-half goals by returning captain Charlie Adam but Christopher Samba and David Hoilett pegged the visitors back.
Jon Walters, Jermaine Pennant, Danny Higginbotham and Ricardo Fuller scored Stoke's goals against Newcastle.
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