Bent Hat-trick Earns Wigan Win in Eight-goal Thriller

Wigan Athletic and Blackburn Rovers served up a contender for game of the season at the JJB Stadium, with the home side running out 5-3 victors over their Lancastrian rivals.

Denny Landzaat, Marcus Bent and Paul Scharner had put Steve Bruce's side three goals up within 37 minutes, before Roque Santa Cruz pulled one back just before half-time. The Paraguayan striker added another five minutes after the break, but any hopes of a Rovers comeback appeared to end with the sending-off of Brett Emerton with half an hour to play. Moments later, though, Santa Cruz completed his hat-trick, making the scoreline 3-3 with half an hour to play. Bent then tapped in his second goal of the game to restore Wigan's lead and completed his hat-trick with nine minutes to go. Wigan's day, though, was marred by the sight of Emile Heskey being stretchered off in the first half.

With the 'Big Four' all in action tomorrow, the focus this afternoon was on the bottom of the top-flight. Derby County remain rooted to the foot of the table after another home defeat, their fifth in the Premier League this season. Middlesbrough's Sanli Tuncay scored the only goal of the game in the first half at Pride Park, the Turkish forward hitting the target for the third game in succession and moving Gareth Southgate's side away from the relegation zone. Wigan's win means the Rams are six points adrift in 20th place.

Sunderland moved out of the bottom three, for a couple of hours at least, despite throwing away the lead against Aston Villa. Danny Higginbotham's 10th-minute header was canceled out by Shaun Maloney. The Black Cats have now won only once in their last 11 games.

Manchester City took advantage of the top sides' inactivity with late goals from Darius Vassell and Kelvin Etuhu securing a 4-2 win over Bolton Wanderers at the City of Manchester Stadium. Roland Bianchi gave the home side an early lead, El-Hadji Diouf and Kevin Nolan put the visitors ahead at half time, before a Lubomir Michalik own goal restored parity three minutes after the interval. Vassell's 77th-minute goal, his first of the season, and Kelvin Etuhu's last-minute strike, his first for the club, were enough to give City their ninth win in nine home league games this season, and move them back into the Champions League places.

A Dimitar Berbatov goal with nine minutes to go gave Tottenham Hotspur victory over Portsmouth at Fratton Park. Pompey have failed to score in four home league games since their 7-4 victory over Reading in September.

Everton moved level on points with their city rivals Liverpool after their second victory over West Ham United in the space of four days. Yakubu Ayegbeni and Andrew Johnson scored the goals at Upton Park. Alex McLeish's first home game as Birmingham City manager ended in a 1-1 draw with Reading. Mikael Forssell opened the scoring for City, but Stephen Hunt's penalty earned Reading a point.