A deserved 3-1 home victory for struggling Southampton over English football champions Manchester City has given Manchester United the chance to extend their lead to 12 points in the Premier League.
City needed the win at St Mary's to keep the pressure on United, but instead they slumped to their third league defeat of the season, and manager Roberto Mancini concedes his side only has 10 per cent chance of winning the title as he doubts United will drop 12 points.
United host Everton overnight.
Queens Park Rangers' hopes of Premier League survival suffered another blow as they were beaten 4-1 at Swansea City, moving the hosts to seventh and leaving QPR bottom and six points away from safety with 12 games to go.
Chelsea stayed ahead of Tottenham and Arsenal in the race for third place as they beat Wigan 4-1 through goals by Ramires, Eden Hazard, Frank Lampard and Marko Marin.
Gareth Bale scored both goals as Tottenham stayed one point behind Chelsea in fourth thanks to a 2-1 win over Newcastle.
Arsenal survived the sending off of Carl Jenkinson half an hour from time to win 1-0 at Sunderland, Santi Cazorla getting the goal 10 minutes before half-time to keep them within four points of Spurs.
Stoke City beat Reading 2-1 to climb to 10th place while Norwich City and Fulham drew 0-0 in the other match.
