Liverpool's English Premier League title hopes suffered a huge setback as it lost 3-1 away to Fulham Saturday and finished the match at Craven Cottage down to nine men. Liverpool's sixth loss in seven matches left it nine points off the top of the table and undid much of the good work achieved by last week's win over champion Manchester United. In all eight red cards were shown in Saturday's matches – a record for one day in the Premier League. Table-topper Chelsea maintained its lead over United with a second 4-0 win this week over Bolton Wanderers. Second-half goals from Dimitar Berbatov and Wayne Rooney saw United keep Chelsea's lead to two points after it beat Blackburn Rovers 2-0 at Old Trafford in Saturday's late kick-off. Earlier, Arsenal enjoyed bragging rights in north London after a 3-0 derby win over Tottenham Hotspur. At the other end of the table, basement club Portsmouth won in the league for only the second time this season, beating Wigan 4-0 at Fratton Park with Aruna Dindane scoring a hat-trick. Second-bottom West Ham drew 2-2 with Sunderland, also the scoreline in Stoke's match against Wolves. Everton and Aston Villa, who both had a player sent-off, drew 1-1 at Goodison Park.Burnley added to the pressure on Hull manager Phil Brown with a 2-0 victory over the relegation candidates at Turf Moor. At Craven Cottage, Fulham went ahead against the run of play when striker Bobby Zamora turned in a Damien Duff cross in the 24th minute. But before half-time Liverpool was level with Spain's Fernando Torres pouncing after Andriy Voronin's header came back off Aaron Hughes. However, Fulham regained the lead when Norway's Erik Nevland struck from close range in the 73rd minute. Worse followed for the Reds with defenders Phillip Degen and Jamie Carrragher sent-off for fouls on Clint Dempsey and Zamora respectively. And Fulham wrapped up the match when Dempsey netted three minutes from time. Chelsea took the lead on the stroke of half-time through a Frank Lampard penalty after Bolton's Jlloyd Samuel was sent-off for a foul on Didier Drogba. And Chelsea doubled its lead after Deco scored in the 61st minute following good work by Nicolas Anelka. Zat Knight's own goal and Drogba's late effort made it 4-0. Robin van Persie scored twice as Arsenal put Tottenham's title aspirations in perspective. The Dutchman opened the scoring in the 42nd minute. From the kick-off, Gunners captain Cesc Fabregas surged through the visitors' defense to make it 2-0. Van Persie piled on the misery for Harry Redknapp's team in the 60th minute. Crucial win for Real Gonzalo Higuain scored two goals Saturday to give 10-man Real Madrid a much-needed 2-0 win over Getafe that also trimmed Barcelona's lead at the top of the Spanish league to one point after the defending champion drew 1-1 at Osasuna. Madrid defender Raul Albiol was sent off in the 27th minute. Barcelona defender Gerard Pique scored an injury-time own-goal on a cross from Javier Camunas for Osasuna to steal a point. Seydou Keita broke the stalemate in the 71st after a swift passing move by Barcelona around the area saw the Malian control Carles Puyol's cross from the right and score from close range his sixth goal of the season. Barcelona leads with 23 points. Madrid has 22. Sevilla is third with 19 after a 2-0 victory at 19th-place Xerez. Napoli stuns Juventus Napoli fought back from a two-goal deficit for the second time in three days to shock Juventus 3-2 in Turin Saturday and prevent Ciro Ferrara's team from closing the gap on leader Inter Milan. Marco Borriello scored a brace as improving AC Milan moved up to fourth with a 2-0 defeat of newly-promoted Parma, who dropped to sixth. Marek Hansik scored a brace while substitute Jesus Datolo scored one and created one as Napoli moved up to fifth while second-placed Juve remains four points behind Inter. For Juve David Trezeguet and Sebastien Giovinco scored.
