PREMIER LEAGUE RESULTS: Fulham romp to emphatic victory over United

 BOBBY Zamora chalked up his fifth goal in four matches as Manchester United's title ambitions were dealt a blow as they were beaten at Fulham for the second year in a row.

MASTERMIND: Roy Hodgson plots a second consecutive home win over Manchester United for his Fulham side (Getty Images)

Last season, United were undone 2-0 at Craven Cottage and Roy Hodgson's side went one better this time around to leave the visitors three points behind league leaders Chelsea with the Londoners still to play against West Ham tomorrow.

Fulham were on top from the word go and the only surprise was that it took until 22 minutes for Danny Murphy to break the deadlock as the former Liverpool midfielder slotted home from the edge of the area.

And just 18 seconds after the restart, Zamora, fresh from notching twice in Fulham's 3-2 midweek win over Basle, netted from close range after fine work from Damien Duff.

United huffed and puffed in a bid to get back into the match with Sir Alex Ferguson introducing Dimitar Berbatov to proceedings, and both Wayne Rooney and Luis Antonio Valencia had good chances to score.

But Fulham, always a threat on the counter-attack, netted a third through the excellent Duff to inflict a fifth defeat of the campaign on the champions.

Arsenal closed the gap on the leaders with a 3-0 defeat of Hull at the Emirates Stadium.

Brazilian midfielder Denilson opened the scoring in the first half with a curled free kick although Hull manager Phil Brown was infuriated at the awarding of a foul in the first place.

The Tigers were awarded a penalty in the second half when Mikael Silvestre was penalised for a shirt pull on Hull striker Caleb Folan, but after Giovanni's tame effort was saved by Arsenal keeper Manuel Almunia, the home side countered and scored their second with Croatian striker Eduardo tapping in from close range after neat play from Abou Diaby.

The French midfielder finished the game off with ten minutes left when he exchanged passes with Andrey Arshavin before neatly finishing.

Meanwhile, ten-man Liverpool slumped to their seventh league defeat of the season as bottom club Portsmouth ground out a hard-fought 2-0 win at Fratton Park.

Pompey took the lead just after the half-hour mark when Nadir Belhadj unleashed a screaming half-volley while Frederic Piquionne sealed victory for Avram Grant's men.

Javier Mascherano saw red just before half-time for a nasty lunge on Tal Ben Haim as the pressure increased on underfire Reds boss Rafa Benitez.

"If you look at the first half we were doing well, even with their goal, but then came the Mascherano incident," he said.

"And the sending off changed everything. We had some chances and we should have scored but now we have to hope we win our next game."

Elsewhere, big-spending Manchester City got back to winning ways in a thrilling 4-3 victory over Sunderland, but the result was not enough to save Mark Hughes' job at Eastlands with the City manager fired shortly after the game and Italian Roberto Mancini immediately named as his replacement.

City, drubbed 3-0 by Tottenham in midweek, made a flying start and found themselves 2-0 to the good after just 12 minutes.

Roque Santa Cruz, handed a start at the expense of Emmanuel Adebayor, broke the deadlock after just four minutes and Tevez doubled the Blues' advantage from the spot after Craig Bellamy was felled in the box.

But the Black Cats roared back and a John Mensah header as well as Jordan Hendersen's strike levelled things up after 24 minutes.

Bellamy grabbed the fifth goal of the half on 35 minutes but Kenwyne Jones headed home his first goal since October 3 to level things up again only for Santa Cruz to bag the winner on 69 minutes before Michael Turner was sent off at the death.

But the result mattered little to the Manchester City owners with Hughes waving goodbye to each corner of the ground before retiring to the dressing room.

Tottenham Hotspur claimed a hard-fought 2-0 win over Blackburn Rovers, courtesy of a double from England forward Peter Crouch.

The first came with a hint of controversy as he appeared to foul Ryan Nelsen before heading home, but after having had a goal disallowed, he grabbed his second with seven minutes to go.

And John Carew's solitary goal was enough to give Aston Villa a 1-0 win - their fourth consecutive league victory.