London: Chelsea and Arsenal profited from late headed winners to stay in the top two spots in the Premier League on Saturday while Manchester United beat a protesting Spurs 2-0 after Nani's contentious goal. Man City slipped further off the pace with a second successive loss.
Branislav Ivanovic pounced in the 84th minute for Chelsea as the leaders came from behind to beat Blackburn 2-1.
Arsenal had been denied by a string of fine saves by West Ham goalkeeper Robert Green before Alex Song nodded in Gael Clichy's cross in the 88th against the last-place club.
Big-spending Man City, which lost to Arsenal last weekend, went down 2-1 at Wolverhampton — a team second from bottom in the standings.
Also on Saturday, Clint Dempsey's first-half double gave Fulham a 2-0 win over Wigan and Aiyegbeni Yakubu clinched Everton's 1-0 victory over Stoke.
In the late match, third-place Manchester United hosted Tottenham.
At Ewood Park, Chelsea came under intense pressure from the start and lax defending meant it was fortunate not to have conceded before Benjani Mwaruwari did put Blackburn ahead in the 21st.
Benjani rose above Chelsea captain John Terry and met El Hadji Diouf's cross with a downward header to claim his first goal of the season.
But Nicolas Anelka leveled in the 39th, sweeping home after Didier Drogba headed on Florent Malouda's cross.
The recovery was completed in the 84th when Ivanovic met Yuri Zhirkov's cross at the far post.
"We were a little bit lucky," Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti said. "To win here was important because they were better. We were not great again. Blackburn put us under some pressure and we were not able to play our football.
"We knew it would be difficult to win here because Blackburn are a very good team with a lot of strength and physical ability and long balls."
Arsenal's winner came even later at Emirates Stadium, with Song diving in to head home Gael Clichy's cross in the 88th. Samir Nasri and Theo Walcott had earlier been frustrated by the cross bar.
West Ham stayed rooted to the foot of the table on just six points, with the loss increasing the pressure on manager Avram Grant.
Man City looked to have recovered from its setback last weekend when Emmanuel Adebayor's first goal of the season from the penalty spot put the visitors ahead in the 23rd. Wolverhampton defender Richard Stearman conceded the spot kick by fouling David Silva.
But Nenad Milijas leveled for Wolves on the half-hour and David Edwards added the winner in the 57th by slotting a rebound past goalkeeper Joe Hart into the right corner
At Craven Cottage, Dempsey's double lifted Fulham up eight places to eighth.
The United States forward headed in a cross from Carlos Salcido on the half-hour before adding his second by meeting Chris Baird's pass for a powerful finish in the area.
Everton stretched its unbeaten run to five matches thanks to Yakubu's first goal of the season, while condemning Stoke to its fourth straight loss.
Yakubu beat goalkeeper Asmir Begovic in the 67th after Tim Cahill's shot rebounded off the post.
At Manchester, Nani scored a contentious goal to round off Manchester United's 2-0 victory over Tottenham on Saturday, with referee Mark Clattenburg overruling his assistant amid furious protests from both English Premier League teams.
United was already leading through Nemanja Vidic's 31st-minute header when Nani had a penalty appeal turned down in the closing minutes after bursting into the Tottenham penalty area.
The Portugal winger was then seen handling the ball while lying on the turf. But while Spurs goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes lined up what he believed to be a free kick, Nani nipped in front of the Brazilian and prodded the ball into an empty net.
The goal was initially ruled out by Clattenburg's assistant Simon Beck, angering the United players, but after the officials ruled that the whistle had never been blown, Gomes led the Spurs protests.
United captain Rio Ferdinand accepted that it was tough on Spurs after Nani used his hand.
"Handball but gotta play to the whistle-harsh but true," Ferdinand tweeted minutes after the final whistle.
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