Manchester City's Micah Richards (left) fights for the ball against Arsenal's Emmanuel Adebayor during their English Premier League match at The City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester, England yesterday. Adebayor scored twice as Arsenal won 3-1. - AP

LONDON (AP):

Emmanuel Adebayor scored two goals and Arsenal beat Manchester City 3-1 to go two points ahead in the Premier League after Manchester United could only draw 1-1 with Tottenham.

Defending champions United, which led the Gunners on goal difference going into yesterday's games, needed a last minute equaliser by Carlos Tevez to avoid defeat at White Hart Lane after Dimitar Berbatov put Spurs ahead in the 21st.

The results mean that Arsenal have 60 points and United 58. Chelsea are third with 54 after a 1-1 draw at Portsmouth and Liverpool moved up to fifth with a 3-0 victory over Sunderland.

FIRST AT MAN CITY

Adebayor scored in the ninth and 88th minutes and provided a headed pass for Eduardo da Silva to score in the 26th as the Gunners became the first team to win in the league at Manchester City this season.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger had told his players to push for a third goal after Gelson Fernandes had replied for Man City in the 28th.

"I believe we controlled the game, but at 2-1 you never know,'' Wenger said. "We are not a team who is comfortable when we just defend, so I pushed the team to go and score a third goal. It came because City opened up.''

Man City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson said his team was punished for its poor start.

"Arsenal are good, no doubt about that, but we started the game too soft,"' the former England coach said. ''I think we did OK ... It's important we have to fight, we have to do better.''

PROVIDED LEAD

Adebayor gave Arsenal a 1-0 lead when Man City midfielder Martin Petrov lost possession in his own half. Bacary Sagna ran into the box and crossed to the Togo striker, whose shot was partly deflected by City defender Micah Richards past goalkeeper Joe Hart.

Adebayor then set up the second goal, beating two City defenders in the air to head a left-wing cross down to Eduardo, who turned to shoot home from six metres.

City hit back two minutes later when Arsenal left back Gael Clichy lost the ball to Vedran Corluka, who laid the ball back for Fernandes to slide it home inside the area.

Alexandre Hleb and Cesc Fabregas exchanged passes on a breakaway by Arsenal, and Adebayor arrived unmarked to drive the ball in from 13 metres and score his 18th league goal of the season.

Spurs went ahead on a breakaway in the 21st minute at White Hart Lane, Jermaine Jenas passing out to Aaron Lennon whose cross was pushed away by goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar but turned in from close range by Berbatov.

CLAIM OF HANDLING

Furious United players claimed Jenas handled the ball during the move and Van der Sar was shown the yellow card for protesting to referee Mark Clattenburg. The Dutch goalkeeper was one of six United players to receive cautions.

United equalised deep into injury time when Tevez forced the ball home from a corner.

"I think you can see an upward swing of Tottenham Football Club there's no doubt about that," United manager Alex Ferguson said of the Spurs team. "Juande Ramos has done a fantastic job. Bearing in mind Spurs have played six games in 19 days they take great credit. But we dominated the final period of the match because we needed to get a result. The players were prepared to gamble and they took a lot of risks in the last 20 minutes of the match and it paid off.'