A late own goal by Anton Ferdinand rescued a 2-2 draw for Premier League leader Manchester United at home to Sunderland Saturday. Sunderland, managed by former United stalwart Steve Bruce, was heading for its first win at Old Trafford since 1968 when defender Ferdinand deflected a left-foot drive from Patrice Evra into the net three minutes into added time. Earlier, Darren Bent gave the visitors a seventh-minute lead with a crisp turn and low right-foot shot from the edge of the penalty area past goalkeeper Ben Foster. Dimitar Berbatov pulled the champion level in the 51st minute with an acrobatic finish before Kenwyne Jones headed Sunderland back in front eight minutes later. Jones then seemed certain to make it 3-1 when, six meters out and unmarked, he had the ball taken off his toes by a brilliant sliding challenge from Michael Carrick. Sunderland defender Kieran Richardson, back at his former club, was sent off in the 85th minute for kicking the ball away. United stays top with 19 points from eight matches, one point ahead of Chelsea which hosts fourth-placed Liverpool Sunday. Sunderland is sixth on 13 points. United manager Alex Ferguson criticized referee Alan Wiley's fitness after the draw. Ferguson claimed that Wiley took 30 seconds to book a player so he could take a rest and struggled to keep up with the pace of the Premier League match. Elsewhere, Hassan Yebda's header handed Portsmouth its first points of the season in a 1-0 win at promoted Wolverhampton Wanderers. The bottom club ended a run of seven straight defeats after French-born Algerian midfielder Yebda, making his first league start, headed home a first-half Kevin Prince-Boateng cross. Portsmouth's dismal form had seen the struggling south coast club become the first English top flight side to lose its opening seven league games of the season for 79 years. Tottenham Hotspur rose to third place with 16 points after twice fighting back from a goal down to draw 2-2 at Bolton Wanderers. Ninth-placed Burnley made it four home wins out of four by beating Birmingham City 2-1, while Hull City put last week's 6-1 thrashing by Liverpool behind them with a 2-1 home victory over Wigan Athletic. Inter goes top In Milan, defending champion Inter Milan needed a last-minute goal by Wesley Sneijder to beat Udinese 2-1 Saturday and move top of the Serie A standings. Dejan Stankovic had given Inter the lead in the 22nd, but Antonio Di Natale equalized just five minutes later with his ninth goal of the season. The hosts missed Thiago Motta's offensive spark from midfield, and the attack lacked focus after Diego Milito went off. However, Inter kept pressing and it paid off in injury time when Sneijder scored his first goal for the club since signing from Real Madrid in the summer. It was a much-needed win for Inter, after losing to Sampdoria in the last round and then being held to a draw against Russian club Rubin Kazan in the Champions League. “With Sneijder back we passed the ball better than against Sampdoria and against Rubin Kazan,” said Inter coach Jose Mourinho. “He moved the ball well and looks after it well.” Earlier Bari vs. Catania tie ended in a goalless draw.
