Arsenal maintain lead at the top

The Premier League's top four teams at the start of the day remained unchanged after wins too for Manchester City, Liverpool and champions Manchester United, who held on to second place after a 1-0 victory at Birmingham in the day's evening kick-off.

 Arsene Wenger's side moved on to 19 points, stretching their unbeaten start to the season to seven matches as Robin van Persie netted the only goal of the game for the Gunners after 13 minutes.

 Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger was delighted with his team's first league victory at West Ham in four matches.

 "We have had problems taking points at Upton Park recently. We had our chances and overall we deserved the victory," he said.

 "It was a good test to defend a 1-0 advantage and not to make mistakes. I believe we did that very well. We have matured, we have more belief and we are really hungry."

   Christiano Ronaldo's goal, after a Frank Queudrue mistake, gave Manchester United yet another 1-0 win and kept them in second place in the table as Birmingham were made to pay for excellent chances spurned in the first half.

 Rio Ferdinand was forced to clear off the line from a Gary McSheffrey header early on and shortly after Cameron Jerome failed to lift the ball over the United defenders after a fluffed clearance by Edwin van der Sar.

 Earlier, Manchester City kept up their superb home form this season, coming from behind to beat Newcastle 3-1 to stay in third place.

 After a scrappy start, Obafemi Martins conjured a goal out of nothing on 28 minutes to put Newcastle in front at Eastlands.

 City equalized 11 minutes later when Martin Petrov slammed home Stephen Ireland's pinpoint cross.

 Petrov then turned provider to put Sven-Goran Eriksson's side in front just before halftime, crossing from the left for Emile Mpenza to head home.

 Martins had Newcastle's best opportunity to equalize in the second half before Brazilian Elano made the points safe with an unstoppable free kick five minutes from time.

 Manager Eriksson enjoyed another home win for his team, their fifth in all competitions this season. "This team is very good and when they play more games together they will get even better", he said.

 Liverpool sit fourth, four points adrift of Arsenal, thanks to a hard-fought 1-0 win at Wigan, Yossi Benayoun scoring the vital goal 16 minutes from time after some fine build-up work from Jermaine Pennant.

 Meanwhile, Chelsea can consider themselves lucky not to have lost their 66-match unbeaten home record as Paul Konchesky and Diomansy Kamara missed two gilt-edged chances late in the second half after Didier Drogba was sent off for a second bookable offence.

 The fans at Stamford Bridge made their displeasure at the result and stuttering performance clear by singing the name of recently departed coach Jose Mourinho. Chelsea are now seven points adrift of the top and have also lost captain John Terry to a fractured cheekbone.

 Reading's poor start the season continued as a Benjani Mwaruwari hat-trick helped Portsmouth to a resounding 7-4 win while Sunderland went down 2-1 at home to Blackburn.

 Derby County remain bottom of the table on goal difference from Bolton Wanderers after the two sides drew 1-1 at Pride Park.

DPA