THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON — Manchester City stretched its perfect home record in the Premier League to nine games Saturday with a 4-2 win over Bolton.
With the top four clubs in action on Sunday, City climbed the standings to fourth place because Portsmouth lost its unbeaten home record and 11-match undefeated streak with a 1-0 loss to Tottenham.
City’s win means it has 33 points, four fewer than leader Arsenal, which hosts third-place Chelsea on Sunday, when defending champion Manchester United is at Liverpool.
Everton moved level with city rival Liverpool on 30 points after a 2-0 win at West Ham in another of Saturday’s eight matches. It was the Toffees’ second win in a week at the Hammers, continuing their longest unbeaten run for 21 years.
City took a seventh-minute lead against Bolton, which had lost just one of its past eight matches, when Rolando Bianchi scored from a rebound after Michael Johnson’s shot was blocked.
But Bolton rallied with two goals before halftime, El-Hadji Diouf making it 1-1 with his first Premier League goal in a year and Kevin Nolan scoring from close range in the 40th.
"When I looked at the players as they were about to come out for the second half, they looked a bit like a defeated team," City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson said. "I said if they carry on looking like that, we would not win the game.
"It changed them and after that they were a lot more positive."
City equalized three minutes after halftime through Dietmar Hamann’s deflected shot, and former England striker Darius Vassell put City back in front in the 77th from Martin Petrov’s cross.
Novice defender Kelvin Etuhu rounded off the scoring in injury time with a fierce shot.
Tottenham, which is slowly climbing the standings after its worst start to the season since it was last relegated in 1976-77, had an early goal by Steed Malbranque ruled out for offside at Portsmouth.
But Spurs managed its first away win of the season through an 81st-minute goal by star striker Dimitar Berbatov, who side-footed past goalkeeper David James after a cross by Aaron Lennon.
"To win here is very important for the whole club," Tottenham assistant coach Gus Poyet said. "We were in control and that’s important. The players deserved the three points."
Although Portsmouth had not lost at Fratton Park until Saturday, it had drawn five of its seven previous matches there and has now dropped 13 of 24 points at home.
"It’s got to be our worst performance of the season," Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp said. "And we got what we deserved, which was nothing."
Spurs now have 18 points and are in 12th place.
Everton stretched its unbeaten run to 12 matches, with goals at the end of each half by Ayegbeni Yakubu and Andy Johnson lifting their side to sixth place.
Yakubu, who also hit the winning goal in Wednesday’s 2-1 League Cup quarter-final victory at Upton Park, hit his ninth goal of the season in the 45th before substitute Johnson put the game away in injury time.
Last-place Derby’s struggle to avoid relegation looks even tougher after a 1-0 loss to visiting Middlesbrough, with Turkey striker Tuncay Sanli scoring in his third straight match.
.The Rams have six points, six fewer than 19th-place Wigan, which beat visiting Blackburn 5-3 behind a hat trick by Marcus Bent.
Blackburn striker Roque Santa Cruz also had three goals as his team fought back from 3-0 down to 3-3 despite having Brett Emerton sent off in the 57th, but Bent scored in the 66th and 81st.
The home side had led through first-half goals by Denny Landzaat, Bent and Paul Scharner, but Wigan lost striker Emile Heskey to injury before the interval and Santa Cruz got a goal back in the 45th.
The striker scored again in the 50th and again in the 61st after Emerton got his second yellow card. It looked like a remarkable comeback, but Bent put Wigan back in front and then scored into an empty net from a pass by Julius Aghahowa.
Sunderland is two points ahead of Wigan after its 1-1 draw with Aston Villa took it above Fulham, which hosted Newcastle later Saturday. Sunderland had a last-minute goal by Danny Collins disallowed.
Birmingham and Reading drew 1-1 in Saturday’s other match.
West Brom took the lead of the second-tier League Championship when it rallied for a 4-2 win over Charlton, while Watford dropped to second place when it lost 1-0 to visiting Plymouth.
Bristol City is in third place and still in contention for a second straight promotion after it beat Cardiff 1-0.