Captain John Terry headed Chelsea's winner in the 67th minute at Stamford Bridge, sending Jose Mourinho's runaway champions 12 points clear at the top of the table.

European champions Liverpool moved up to second place with their seventh consecutive league win, courtesy of second-half goals from Spanish forward Fernando Morientes.

Arsenal's already faint title hopes look dashed after they lost Brazilian midfielder Gilberto to a 58th minute red card and Newcastle's Peruvian winger Nolberto Solano fired in an angled winner after 82 minutes.

Unbeaten in their title-winning season in 2003-04, Arsenal's fifth away defeat this season in an ill-tempered game kept them rooted to sixth place with 26 points.

Chelsea are top on 43, with Liverpool on 31 and third-placed Manchester United [Images] (30) hosting Everton on Sunday.

Charlton Athletic ended a run of six league and cup defeats with a 2-0 win over bottom club Sunderland, Blackburn Rovers beat West Ham United 3-2 and Aston Villa snatched a late 1-1 draw at Bolton Wanderers.

Pressure will ease on Birmingham City manager Steve Bruce after they edged Fulham 1-0 at St Andrew's, while fellow relegation battlers West Bromwich Albion also snaffled the points with a 2-0 win over visiting Manchester City.

Having waited 50 years for their second league title, Chelsea will almost certainly have to wait barely a year for their third.

Wigan put up a fight, as they did before losing 1-0 to a late winner in Chelsea's season opener in August.

Terry's header from a Frank Lampard [Images] corner means Jose Mourinho's men have won all nine of their league games this season at Stamford Bridge.

Comparing Saturday's victory with the away game, Mourinho told Sky Sports News: "Same result, but different. In Wigan, we didn't deserve to win, today we deserved to."

Even so, the Portuguese coach was clearly not entirely happy with Chelsea's performance.

"We were good enough to win, good enough to control the game but not good enough in relation to the potential of my team," he said. "We didn't play well."

It was a good day too for Liverpool as Rafael Benitez's side maintained their own superb run of form.

CLEAN SHEETS

Liverpool came through their 10th match without conceding a goal in all competitions -- a feat not achieved since Kenny Dalglish's championship-winning side in 1987-88.

"The team is working very hard in defence and also going forward," Benitez told Sky Sports News.

"We continue to win, the players continue to do a good job and if we make a mistake (keeper) Pepe Reina can save them."

Benitez could not have asked for a better send-off before his team leave for the Club World Championship in Japan [Images].

"It's a perfect situation for us winning and being near the top of the table before we go," he said.

Newcastle's first victory in five games will be a big relief for manager Graeme Souness after facing opposition from a section of the club's fans.

But it infuriated Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger, who felt referee Dermot Gallagher had not protected his men and said his club would appeal against Gilberto's red card.

"It's very difficult to take, the way we lost today," he said. "We were the better team, especially in the first half.

"In the second half, they (Newcastle) decided to go more physical and I feel the referee allowed them many fouls and, on top of that, I still don't know why he sent our player off."

Down at the wrong end of the table, Birmingham's first home league win of the season was only secured with six minutes remaining when Nicky Butt headed home.

West Brom's goals came from Diomansy Kamara and Kevin Campbell against a City side who finished with 10 men after a late red card for former England [Images] striker Andy Cole.

Their wins will turn up the pressure on Harry Redknapp after he returned this week from Southampton to manage Portsmouth, who play at Tottenham Hotspur on Monday.

Sunderland, who suffered their 10th defeat in a row in all competitions, are bottom on five points. Portsmouth have 10, Birmingham 12 and Everton, West Brom and Fulham all have 16.

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