Sir Alex Ferguson has warned his Manchester United players not to get carried away after taking over top spot.

United took over from Liverpool at the top of the table on Saturday when they stunned Bolton Wanderers with a late goal to win 1-0.

Dimitar Berbatov's last-minute header put United above Liverpool, at least until this morning's Merseyside derby.

United are on a roll, recording their 10th straight clean sheet at the Reebok Stadium, but Ferguson knows there is a long way to go to the end of the season.

"Being top is not decisive at this stage but it is always nice because it is the best place to be," said Ferguson.

"We have been playing catch-up in terms of fixtures for a while now. We still have another game in hand against Fulham on February 14.

"Only after that will we have a good idea of where we stand between Liverpool, Chelsea and ourselves."

Chelsea did their best to keep the pressure on United by beating Stoke at Stamford Bridge, but it needed a dramatic late fightback with Juliano Belletti's header cancelling out Rory Delap's goal before Frank Lampard grabbed the winner in the third minute of injury-time.

The result should go some way to lifting the pressure on Blues boss Luiz Felipe Scolari, who needed something to lift his spirits after it was confirmed Joe Cole is out injured for the rest of the season.

"What you need, Frank gives to you," said Scolari. "He is a man. Before I have some pressure, now I don't have pressure.

"Frank is part of the history of this club. He is a fantastic player and he and his family will remember his goal in the last minute of his 400th appearance."

Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill insisted his fourth-placed team deserved their 2-1 victory at Sunderland as questions were asked over both the Villans' goals.

O'Neill's men came from behind as James Milner appeared to divert the ball into the net with his arm before Gareth Barry fired in a penalty after a Paul McShane challenge on Gabriel Agbonlahor which appeared to start outside the area.

"I didn't know there was any sort of dispute with the penalty, it seemed straightforward," O'Neill said.

"But the referee gave it, it was a penalty and Gareth Barry put it in brilliantly and I thought we deserved to win," he added, saying he had not seen a replay of the Milner goal.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger hailed his side's ability to fight to the end after they snatched a late victory at Hull to keep the pressure on Villa.

Daniel Cousin had cancelled out Emmanuel Adebayor's opener but late goals from Samir Nasri and Nicklas Bendtner gave the points to Arsenal.

"We had the resources to come back and win in a convincing way because we kept going," Wenger said.

"I think we have scored 16 times in the last 33 games in the last 15 minutes and we did that again today."

Away from the battle at the top, all the focus has been on Manchester City and their audacious bid to bring Kaka to Eastlands.

The mega-deal threatened to be a distraction as City battled to a 1-0 win over Wigan, playing the final 35 minutes with 10 men after Richard Dunne saw red moments after Pablo Zabaleta's first goal for the club.

Hughes was proud of the way his players stuck to their task in a gritty display.

"It has been a difficult week preparing the team considering the interest around the club," he said.

"But we really stuck at our task. We had to dig in and beat a side that has been in arguably as good form as any recently in the Premier League."

Wigan were left to rue a stunning miss from Amr Zaki, who headed over an open goal.

"He will be appearing on one of those videos of gaffes," Steve Bruce said. "It was an unbelievable chance and deeply frustrating for us."

Gareth Southgate has admitted he could have "no complaints" if he was sacked as Middlesbrough manager by chairman Steve Gibson after a 3-0 defeat at West Brom extended their winless run in the league to 10 games.

"Steve is a ruthless businessman," he said. "If he thinks there needs to be change, he will make change. We had a similar run to this last year.

"I could have no complaints if he did that (make a change) based on the results we have had."

Blackburn moved out of the drop zone thanks to a 3-0 win over Newcastle that ended with Magpies players fighting amongst themselves following the dismissal of Nicky Butt.

"Psychologically it is very good," Rovers manager Sam Allardyce said. "It means if we continue to win football matches we don't go down there any more."

Benni McCarthy opened the scoring from the penalty spot, and Jason Roberts then grabbed a brace either side of Butt's red card.

The third goal sparked a tussle between Joey Barton and Jose Enrique but Joe Kinnear played down the incident.

"I think Joey is just fired up by the way we have conceded. We have missed someone like that to be honest," he said.