KEY POINTS:
Arsenal strode into the New Year with their lead at the top of the Premier League intact after a comfortable 2-0 victory over London rivals West Ham United this morning (NZ time).
Early goals from strikers Eduardo and Emmanuel Adebayor did the damage at the Emirates as Arsenal
completed the double over a side that beat them home and away last season.
Manchester United, who lost top spot on Saturday after a surprise 2-1 loss at West Ham, kept close on the tail of the Gunners thanks to a Carlos Tevez goal in an nervy 1-0 defeat of Birmingham City at Old Trafford.
Arsenal have 50 points from 21 games, two points more than champions United, while Chelsea have 44 are after coming from behind to beat Fulham 2-1 in a lunchtime kickoff with goals from Salomon Kalou and Michael Ballack.
Everton moved up to fifth after a 2-0 victory at Middlesbrough while Portsmouth are sixth following a 2-0 win at Reading, who played virtually the entire match with 10 men after Ibrahima Sonko was sent off in the fourth minute.
Aston Villa were at home to Tottenham Hotspur later while fourth-placed Liverpool are not in action until tomorrow when they welcome struggling Wigan Athletic at Anfield.
West Ham have a knack of springing surprise results against title chasing sides and are still the only visiting team to win a Premier League match at the Emirates but last night they were left with an impossible task.
Arsenal needed less than two minutes to take the lead when Eduardo pounced with a sharp finish to follow his double in the 4-1 defeat of Everton on Saturday.
In a frantic opening, Anton Ferdinand almost equalised but the game was effectively over after 18 minutes when Adebayor threaded in a shot from an acute angle.
Arsenal have now won all six of their London derbies this season. "We did the job early and controlled the game," Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger told BBC Radio.
United were far from their best against Birmingham and for long periods of the second half were hanging on for the points.
The one piece of real quality came after 25 minutes when Tevez was played in by a superb Cristiano Ronaldo flick and he finished coolly.
The Argentine also hit the woodwork in the second half but Birmingham's late pressure nearly brought an equaliser for Mikael Forsell who shot wastefully wide.
Chelsea overcame the absence of a host of big names to win the west-London derby against a Fulham side who were under the charge of new manager Roy Hodgson for the first time.
Danny Murphy gave second-from-bottom Fulham a 10th-minute lead from the penalty spot after Moritz Volz was tripped by Joe Cole and they were comfortable until the break.
All season, Fulham have performed well in the first half and of the 37 goals they have conceded, 30 have come in the second half.
So, it was no surprise that they again lost their way as Chelsea equalised in the 54th minute when Alex nodded a deep corner back across goal for Kalou to head in from close range.
Chelsea took the lead eight minutes later when Clint Dempsey held back Ballack as he sought to reach a free kick and the German dispatched the resulting penalty.
"In the first half it wasn't so good but we came back as Chelsea should," Ballack told Sky Sports.
"It was a little bit loud in the dressing room (at halftime) but we couldn't keep playing like that and we made more pressure from the first minute of the second half."
- REUTERS
