Manchester City returned to the top of the Premier League with a 1-0 victory over Aston Villa.
The hosts set out to frustrate their opponents at Villa Park and held out for more than an hour before Joleon Lescott hooked home Gareth Barry's knockdown from a corner to give the title-chasers a deserved lead.
The home side belatedly committed bodies forward in the closing stages and almost snatched a point when Darren Bent's close-range effort was superbly kept out by City keeper Joe Hart.
That was the only major scare for City, who are back two points ahead of local rivals Manchester United at the Premier League summit.
In the day's other game, Peter Odemwingie scored a hat-trick as West Brom piled the misery on relegation-threatened Wolves with an astonishing 5-1 victory in the Black Country derby at Molineux.
Odemwingie opened the scoring with a deflected strike on 34 minutes, but Steven Fletcher equalised stylishly on the stroke of half-time.
Wolves went close to taking the lead early in the second half, but after his defence failed to clear a corner Wayne Hennessey fumbled Jonas Olsson's shot and could not claw the ball back before it crossed the line. From there it was one-way traffic.
Odemwingie scored West Brom's third from close-range before Keith Andrews' strike found the bottom corner via a deflection.
Odemwingie then completed his treble in the 88th minute.
The hefty margin of defeat saw Wolves drop into the relegation zone on goal difference below Blackburn and increases the pressure on manager Mick McCarthy as boos echoed around Molineux at the final whistle.
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