Newcastle United's seized control of the battle for fourth place in English football's Premier League as Tottenham and Chelsea stumbled in the race for a Champions League qualifying berth.
Newcastle beat Stoke City three nil, which moves them up to fourth place with four games remaining.
Tottenham slipped back to fifth losing one nil to relegation-threatened Queens Park Rangers while Chelsea's one all draw with Arsenal has them in sixth spot.
With an eye on this week's Champions League semi-final return leg against Barcelona at Camp Nou, Chelsea made eight changes to his starting line-up.
Wigan Athletic's hopes of pulling clear of the relegation zone suffered a setback as they lost 2-1 at Fulham, while Blackburn Rovers ended a run of five consecutive losses with a 2-nil win over Norwich.
The win left Rovers third from bottom, three points adrift of Wigan in 17th place and QPR in 16th.
Bolton Wanderers, meanwhile, remain in the bottom three after a one all draw with Swansea, while Aston Villa and Sunderland alslo drew one all.
