Manchester United provisionally reclaimed top spot in the Premier League after exposing the size of the task facing Harry Redknapp at Queens Park Rangers by beating the bottom-place team 3-1 on Saturday.
Jamie Mackie put QPR ahead at Old Trafford, where Redknapp was watching from the stands hours after replacing the fired Mark Hughes.
But the west London team failed to secure its first win of the season, with Jonny Evans equalizing before Darren Fletcher and Javier Hernandez scored to put United back on the winning path after losing at Norwich last weekend.
United is now two points ahead of Manchester City, but the defending champions are at Chelsea on Sunday.
West Bromwich Albion dislodged Chelsea from third by keeping up its flying start to the season with a 4-2 victory at Sunderland.
While West Brom celebrated their fourth successive win, United halted a run of back-to-back losses.
But like so often this season, Alex Ferguson's side had to fight back from a losing position.
Seven minutes into the second half, Anders Lindegaard turned Kieron Dyer's low cross away from his goal and Mackie put the ball into the net from close range.
"It's not great," Fletcher said. "The only positive is we keep coming back — we cannot allow it to keep happening."
The game turned in United's favor only after Paul Scholes and Ashley Young were replaced by Anderson and Javier Hernandez.
It was defender Jonny Evans, though, who equalized. The Northern Ireland international nodded Danny Welbeck's header from Wayne Rooney's corner into the net in the 64th to claim his third goal of the season.
Four minutes later, Fletcher scored his first league goal since recovering from a chronic bowel complaint that threatened his career, heading in another corner from Rooney.
Hernandez claimed his ninth of the season before United defender Rafael da Silva cleared Clint Hill's header off the line.
"I would tell the fans: 'Don't lose faith'," said QPR coach Mark Bowen, who temporarily took charge of the team as Redknapp watched from the directors' box. "The quality is there but everything is conspiring against us at the moment. It's individual errors which are costing us rather than team errors."
While QPR believes it is underperforming, West Brom is exceeding expectations, sitting just four points behind United after another impressive win.
Zoltan Gera put West Brom ahead in the 30th and, after Simon Mignolet fumbled Chris Brunt's pass, Shane Long put the ball into the empty net.
Although Craig Gardner pulled one back for Sunderland from a free kick, Romelu Lukaku restored West Brom's two-goal cushion from the penalty spot after Adam Johnson tripped Liam Ridgewell.
Again Sunderland tried to mount a fightback when Stephane Sessegnon scored, but Marc-Antoine Fortune's neat finish in stoppage time put West Brom's win beyond doubt.
"We have had a lot of plaudits and the players deserve it because so far, we have been a really good team," West Brom manager Steve Clarke said. "But you don't get carried away in the Premier League. We are still this side of Christmas, there are a lot of games to be played, a lot of points to be fought for."
Everton is three points adrift of fourth-place Chelsea after being held to a 1-1 draw by Norwich.
Steven Naismith's first-half opener for the Toffees was canceled out in the 90th when Sebastien Bassong headed past goalkeeper Tim Howard.
Wigan moved five points clear of the drop zone as Jordi Gomez's hat trick secured a 3-2 victory over struggling Reading.
Charlie Adam scored his second goal of the season for 11th-place Stoke in a 1-0 victory over Fulham.