MANCHESTER United moved six points clear atop the English Premier League after rallying to beat Arsenal 2-1, while Liverpool defeated Blackburn 3-1 to tighten its grip on fourth spot.

After Cristiano Ronaldo’s 54th-minute penalty had canceled out a strike six minutes earlier by Emmanuel Adebayor, Owen Hargreaves sent a free kick past Gunners goalkeeper Jens Lehmann in the 72nd.

United’s 25th victory of the campaign puts the team six points ahead of second-place Chelsea, and manager Alex Ferguson said his team only had to beat Blackburn and the Blues to hold on to the title.

“I said before that we needed to win these three games,” he said. “We’ve won one of them. We’ve got two to go. If we win them then we are champions.”

Arsenal is now nine points behind and, having been knocked out of the Champions League on Wednesday, appears almost certain to be without a trophy for the third season in a row.

“Yes, we are out,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. “The least we can say is that for the last two months we have not been very lucky. You can see that again today. It’s difficult to find an obvious reason but, with the quality of our performance, it’s difficult to blame anybody.”

Needing to win the game to get back into title contention, Arsenal created better chances in the first half and Adebayor put the Gunners ahead soon after halftime when Van der Sar and United teammate Rio Ferdinand failed to deal with Robin van Persie’s cross from the left. Adebayor bundled the ball home from barely three meters although it looked like the ball came off his hand.

United responded by equalizing in the 54th.

Gallas blocked a pass from Michael Carrick with his hand and Ronaldo stepped up to score from the spot.

The second goal came after Gallas needlessly fouled French countryman Patrice Evra a few meters outside the Arsenal area and Hargreaves curled the free kick inside the near post with Lehmann making no move.

(SD-Agencies)