Liverpool and Manchester City play out bore-draw at Eastlands

LIVERPOOL and Mancester City's fourth-place ambitions took a blow on Sunday as they played out a scoreless draw at the City of Manchester stadium.

BORE DRAW: Shaun Wright-Phillips makes a break for Manchester City but it's quickly stopped by Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano (Getty Images)

With Tottenham Hotspur moving into the final Champions League place with a 3-0 win at Wigan Athletic, neither team benefitted from a point in Manchester.

But neither team could genuinely boast of deserving to win the game as the two Premiership giants flattered to deceive in Manchester.

Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel came closest to breaking the deadlock in the opening 45 minutes but headed Steven Gerrard's corner wide from four yards out.

But the Slovak centre back made amends with 15 minutes left on the clock, tackling City striker Emmanuel Adebayor as he raced through on goal.

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez brought on Spain striker Fernando Torres late on to try and spark the game into life but it was to no avail as the clock ticked slowly towards 90 minutes.

Meanwhile, Tottenham may have been lucky with their first goal but there was no begrudging Spurs the result as forgotten frontman Roman Pavlyuchenko bagged a late brace to secure the points.

Jermain Defoe looked yards off-side as he passed home Gareth Bale's cross to break the deadlock in the 27th minute but after Wigan held strong for another hour, substitute Pavlyuchenko stepped up to complete the win.

The first was a delicate chip over Wigan keeper Chris Kirkland with three minute left before a scrambled finish deep into stoppage time.

Liverpool and Manchester City's failure to take three points allowed Aston Villa back into the race for fourth place as they completed a 5-2 defeat of Burnley at Villa Park.

England winger Stewart Downing scored twice for the Villains as they recovered from conceding an early Steven Fletcher goal.

Ashley Young restored parity in the first half before Downing's brace put the home side firmly in control and after Emile Heskey and Gabriel Agbonlahor had sealed the win, Martin Paterson notched a late consolation for Burnley.

Burnley's relegation rivals Bolton Wanderers also lost by three against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park.

Nikola Kalinic opened the scoring with four minutes left in the first half before goals from Jason Roberts and Gael Givet secured a 3-0 win - Blackburn's biggest win of the season.

Elsewhere on Sunday, Bobby Zamora's injury time winner saw Fulham move ahead of Birmingham City and into ninth in the Premier League after a 2-1 defeat of the Blues.

Chris Baird's own goal handed Birmingham the lead in the third minute but the Cottagers fought their way back into the match and equalised through Damien Duff's 20-yard strike.

And after Fulham shot-stopper Mark Schwarzer had acrobatically tipped James MacFadden's long range stinger on to the bar, Zamora did his England hopes no harm by curling a delightful free-kick past Joe Hart to seal the win.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, Chelsea moved four points clear of Manchester United after the defending champions slipped up at Everton.

Chelsea had no problems completing a 2-0 victory at Wolverhampton Wanderers with Didier Drogba continuing his lethal form with both goals.

But United struggled to a 3-1 defeat against Everton at Goodison Park.

After Russian winger Diniyar Bilyaletdinov equalised the Red Devils' Dimitar Berbatov's 16th minute opener, Everton never looked back and Ryan Gosling stabbed home Steven Piernaar's cross in the 76th minute to edge the home side ahead.

Teenager Jack Rodwell completed the win in the 90th minute, breezing past Jonny Evans before drilling a shot across United goalkeeper Edwin Van Der Sar for the Toffee's third goal.

Arsenal moved two points behind United in third after a 2-0 defeat of Sunderland at the Emirates Stadium.

Niklas Bendtner headed the Gunners in front in the 27th minute and after a frustrating remaining hour, captain Cesc Fabregas made sure of the win with an injury time penalty following Frazier Campbell's clumsly foul on the Spanish midfielder.

Elsewhere, West Ham United beat Hull City 3-0 and Stoke City came from behind to beat Portsmouth 2-1.