Manchester City rediscovered its attacking verve in the English Premier League Saturday, beating Fulham 3-0 to maintain its perfect home record and keep Manchester United at arm's length in the title race. City's 12th straight league victory at Etihad Stadium left the leader three points clear of United, which visits fourth-place Chelsea Sunday looking for a win to maintain the pressure on its neighbor. The most resounding victory came at Emirates Stadium, where Arsenal rebounded in style from its miserable recent run in the league by hammering Blackburn 7-1 — with Robin van Persie grabbing a hat trick to take his tally for the campaign to 22 goals. Thierry Henry also scored for Arsene Wenger's team, which climbed above Newcastle and Liverpool provisionally into fifth place. Sergio Aguero converted a penalty for his 15th league goal of the season and also set up strike partner Edin Dzeko as City battled through heavy snow that afflicted the majority of games in the English program. Fulham defender Chris Baird scored an own goal to compound the misery for Fulham. Elsewhere, Sunderland won 1-0 at Stoke, Wolverhampton Wanderers capitalized on the sending-off of Djibril Cisse on his home debut for Queens Park Rangers to rally to a 2-1 win. Bolton dropped into the bottom three with a 2-0 loss at Norwich, Swansea came from behind to defeat West Bromwich Albion 2-1 and bottom team Wigan held Everton to a 1-1 draw. Bayern loses ground Bayern Munich salvaged a 1-1 draw at Hamburg SV courtesy of substitute Ivica Olic's second-half strike Saturday but slipped two points behind Bundesliga leader Borussia Dortmund. Second-placed Bayern, which has now won only one of its three league games since the the winter break, has 41 points from 20 matches and is level with Schalke 04, which drew 1-1 with Mainz 05. Dortmund took command of the Bundesliga Friday by beating Nuremberg 2-0 to move on to 43 points. Other results: Hanover 96 1, Hertha Berlin 0; Bayer Leverkusen 2, VfB Stuttgart 2; VfL Wolfsburg 0, Borussia Moenchengladbach 0; Hoffenheim 2, Augsburg 2. Espanyol rallies Espanyol substitute Juan Albin scored in stoppage time as his team rallied twice to draw 3-3 at Athletic Bilbao Saturday in the Spanish league. Also, Mallorca edged Real Betis 1-0, while Racing Santander drew 1-1 at Levante.
