Edwin van der Sar lost his record-breaking run without conceding but Manchester United won 2-1 at Newcastle to move seven points clear at the top of the English Premier League with a game in hand yesterday.

After stretching his record to 1,311 minutes without conceding a goal since 8 November, Dutch goalkeeper Van der Sar handed Newcastle a ninth-minute lead at St. James' Park by failing to hold a shot, only for Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov to make up for the mistake.

The result means Alex Ferguson's team has 65 points from 27 games. Chelsea, who won 1-0 at Portsmouth on Tuesday and Liverpool, who beat Sunderland 2-0, have 58 from 28.

Fourth-place Aston Villa lost further ground with a 2-0 loss at Manchester City and only lead Arsenal by three points in the race for the fourth Champions League spot.

The Gunners won 3-1 at last-place West Bromwich Albion on Tuesday.

Everton and Blackburn drew 0-0 and West Ham won 1-0 at Wigan thanks to a goal by Carlton Cole although the striker was then sent off for his second yellow card.

Stoke eased their relegation worries with a 2-0 victory over Bolton. A poor clearance from Wanderers' Andy O'Brien allowed Stoke's Glenn Whelan to head James Beattie clear to fire in.

Ricardo Fuller grabbed the second, following up a parry by Bolton keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen from a Whelan shot.

Tottenham did the same by outplaying struggling Middlesbrough 4-0 Tottenham's Robbie Keane grabbed his first goal since returning from Anfield as his side blew away their Carling Cup blues to easily overcome Middlesbrough. The Spurs skipper belted in the opener after Michael Dawson cleverly nodded on Luka Modric's in-swinging corner. Roman Pavlyuchenko poked in Modric's pass, before the impressive Aaron Lennon slotted in Keane's through-ball.

Boro's Tuncay was denied an equaliser early on by a tight offside decision as Lennon chipped in a well-taken fourth.

An injury-time goal from Manucho stole Hull a valuable three points in their relegation battle as they beat Fulham.

Manucho sidefooted in at the far post from a Richard Garcia cross after a game in which Fulham dominated.