In a topsy-turvy Saturday afternoon Manchester United and Manchester City scored hard-fought wins to maintain status quo at the top of the English Premier League with wins over West Brom and Norwich City respectively.
An own goal from Gareth McAuley and another from Robin Van Persie gave United all three points at Old Trafford, as 10-man City played out an end-to-end 4-3 win over giant-killers Norwich City.
At Old Trafford, United got off to a perfect start with the league leaders going into the lead in the ninth minute.
Ashley Young played a little one-two with Shinji Kagawa, returning to the starting lineup for the first time since November, and then fired in a low cross from the left, which McAuley could only deflect off his right shin into his own net.
The rest of the first half was pretty underwhelming, with United looking in control but not really threatening the goal, while West Brom, missing several of their first-team players, rarely ventured into the United half with any real purpose.
In the second half, West Brom came out the aggressors, looking for the equalizer, with United pretty much hanging onto their 1-0 lead, as the home team's rearguard, which has conceded so many goals this season, for once, held firm.
Substitute Robin Van Persie made the game safe in the 90th minute with a special strike as the Red Devils grabbed another three points to maintain their seven-point lead at the top of the table.
At Carrow Road, City also got early goals - two of them - through Edin Dzeko, who was preferred to Carlos Tevez. The first goal, scored after 80 seconds, was an absolute peach.
Sergio Aguero after running into the opponent's penalty area on the right crossed for David Silva on the left, who played a first-time pass to Dzeko waiting in the middle, with the Bosnian firing home his own first-time volley into the back of the net.
The second, in the fourth minute, was a little more scrappy, with Aguero again playing a huge part. The Argentine striker, criticized for missing a hatful of chances recently, squared the ball perfectly to Dzeko to slam home with goalkeeper Mark Bunn out of position.
Just when it looked like City were in control, Norwich reduced the deficit through former United youth team player Anthony Pilkington, with the forward seeing his freekick deflected off Gael Clichy and in past Joe Hart in the 15th minute.
Then a real moment of controversy came, with Samir Nasri, returning from injury, sent off for what seemed an innocuous coming together with Sebastian Bassong five minutes before halftime.
The Norwich defender completed a perfectly legal tackle on the City playmaker, with his follow through catching Nasri on the ankles. The former Arsenal man took offense with the two squaring up against each other -- head-to-head quite literally.
Nasri was a little bit more of the aggressor, and referee Mike Jones showed a straight red to the City midfielder, with Bassong only seeing yellow. It was really just six of one and half a dozen of the other, and both players should have just seen a yellow each and received a talking to from the official.
City, however, made light of the man disadvantage, with Aguero getting a deserved goal in the 50th minute to take the scores to 3-1. Yaya Toure's pass found its way, off a touch from Bassong, to Aguero, who made no mistake in chipping it above Bunn.
Russell Martin made it 3-2 in the 63rd minute, heading home from close range after some good work from Robert Snodgrass and Bassong.
However, it was 4-2 four minutes later, as Dzeko saw his shot, which was initially saved by Bunn, crash off the post and in off the goalkeeper. Norwich, refusing to give up, made it a one-goal game yet again, with Martin again finding the back of the net with fifteen minutes remaining.
Despite some huffing and puffing from the home side, City clung on to keep United within touching distance.
In the early game, Tottenham came back from a goal down to score a vital 2-1 victory over Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.
John O'Shea had given the home side the lead in the 40th minute, smashing home off a freekick from Sebastian Larsson, after Hugo Lloris had kept out an initial shot from Steven Fletcher.
However, Spurs scored two quickfire goals in the first six minutes of the second half to take all three points.
Carlos Cuellar headed the ball off a near-post corner into his own net in the 48th minute, before Aaron Lennon fired the winner three minutes later to take Spurs to third in the table past Chelsea, having played two games more than the Blues.
Results: Sunderland 1-2 Tottenham; Manchester United 2-0 West Brom; Norwich 3-4 Manchester City; Aston Villa 0-3 Wigan; Fulham 1-2 Swansea; Reading 1-0 West Ham; Stoke 3-3 Southampton.
