Tevez brilliance saves City

Super ... Carlos Tevez's gem was the highlight for Manchester City. Source: Jon Super / AP

A piece of individual magic from Carlos Tevez handed Manchester City a 1-0 win against Wigan in a dress rehearsal for next month's FA Cup final.

Franco Di Santo and Arouna Kone missed good chances for the Latics who remain in the relegation zone and three points from safety.

The first half was rather low key as both sides returned to league action after their emotionally and physically-draining semi-final victories last weekend.

Wigan started confidently, stroking the ball around neatly but without great penetration. They won two corners inside the first four minutes, but failed to capitalise.

Aleksandar Kolarov flashed his free-kick wide before Sergio Aguero shot across goal and failed to win a free-kick outside the area, but other than that there was little activity of note in the opening 30 minutes.

		P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
1	Man United	33	26	3	4	40	81
2	Man City	32	20	8	4	31	68
3	Chelsea	32	18	7	7	31	61
4	Arsenal	33	17	9	7	29	60
5	Tottenham	32	17	7	8	15	58
6	Everton	33	14	14	5	14	56
7	Liverpool	33	13	11	9	19	50
8	West Brom	32	13	5	14	-1	44
9	Swansea	32	10	11	11	1	41
10	Fulham	33	10	10	13	-7	40
11	West Ham	33	10	9	14	-9	39
12	Southampton	33	9	11	13	-7	38
13	Newcastle	33	10	6	17	-17	36
14	Norwich	33	7	14	12	-21	35
15	Sunderland	33	8	10	15	-8	34
16	Stoke	33	7	13	13	-13	34
17	Aston Villa	33	8	10	15	-24	34
18	Wigan	32	8	7	17	-21	31
19	QPR	33	4	12	17	-25	24
20	Reading	33	5	9	19	-27	24

There then followed a flurry of activity as Wigan produced a sparkling move with Kone bursting forward and Shaun Maloney backheeling into the path of Di Santo.

The Argentinian did brilliantly to jink round two defenders and open his body to shoot but Hart parried low to his left. City raced upfield in response but Aguero failed to get a touch on Tevez's dangerous low cross.

City survived a couple of scares soon after the restart as first Maloney wrongfooted Micah Richards and beat Hart with a shot from a tight angle only for Joleon Lescott to clear off the line.

Wigan appeared to go close again when Paul Scharner headed against the bar from a free-kick but the flag had been raised for offside.

After that near miss, heartbreak followed for Wigan as Tevez struck a typically sublime winner. The Argentinian turned away from two defenders on the edge of the area and jinked past a third before curling a shot into the top corner.

It was his eighth goal in nine games and left Wigan in the bottom three as one of their valuable games in hand had slipped away.

City, meanwhile, cut Manchester United's lead at the top to 13 points, and now the side's must do it all again at Wembley next month.

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Schwarzer saves pen, denies QPR

Surprise, surprise ... Mark Schwarzer celebrates another penalty stop. Source: Carl Court / AAP

Fulham's Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer produced heroics from the penalty spot once again to break Queen Park Rangers hearts in a 3-2 win at Craven Cottage.

A Dimitar Berbatov brace ensured 10-man Fulham gained sweet revenge over relegation-threatened QPR in the thrilling win. 

The Cottagers, who were beaten by their west London neighbours earlier in the season, got off to the perfect start and went three up.

Bulgarian Berbatov scored in his fourth consecutive game as he calmly rolled home an early penalty before adding a second soon after.

An own goal by Clint Hill gave the Cottagers a seemingly unassailable lead, but Adel Taarabt's strike late in the first-half gave Rangers glimmer of hope.

Loic Remy then saw his penalty saved by Mark Schwarzer before making amends just minutes later.

Harry Redknapp's side couldn't find the equaliser and now remain seven points from safety with seven games of the season remaining.

		P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
1	Man United	30	25	2	3	39	77
2	Man City	30	18	8	4	29	62
3	Tottenham	31	17	6	8	15	57
4	Chelsea	30	16	7	7	27	55
5	Arsenal	30	15	8	7	26	53
6	Everton	30	13	12	5	12	51
7	Liverpool	31	13	9	9	19	48
8	West Brom	31	13	5	13	0	44
9	Swansea	31	10	10	11	1	40
10	Fulham	30	10	9	11	-3	39
11	West Ham	30	10	6	14	-9	36
12	Southampton	31	8	10	13	-9	34
13	Stoke	31	7	13	11	-9	34
14	Norwich	31	7	13	11	-19	34
15	Newcastle	31	9	6	16	-15	33
16	Sunderland	31	7	10	14	-10	31
17	Wigan	30	8	6	16	-20	30
18	Aston Villa	31	7	9	15	-26	30
19	QPR	31	4	11	16	-23	23
20	Reading	31	5	8	18	-25	23

Last season QPR suffered an embarrassing 6-0 defeat at Craven Cottage and it looked like there could be a similar scoreline after a dominant first-half display by the hosts.

Marquee January signing Christopher Samba gifted the Cottagers their first two goals, bringing down Ashkan Dejagah to allow Berbatov to net an eighth-minute penalty. Things got worse soon after when Samba lost possession of the ball on the edge of his own box, allowing Berbatov to coolly slot home past Julio Cesar.

Chants of "going down" echoed around Craven Cottage when Hill put a John Arne Riise cross into his goal, but QPR rallied and launched the unlikeliest of comebacks.

Taarabt, who stormed out at half-time of last season's Craven Cottage encounter, reduced the deficit on the stroke of half-time firing low past Mark Schwarzer.

Six minutes into the second half referee Lee Probert pointed to the spot after Giorgos Karagounis was fooled by the quick feet of Taarabt, but Remy's penalty was saved to his left by Mark Schwarzer.

The France international, though, soon made amends, losing marker Philippe Senderos and continuing forward before thrashing home off the underside of the bar.

The veteran Australian had to be at his best for the rest of the match and, despite Steve Sidwell's late sending off, Fulham held on, condemning QPR to a potentially season-defining defeat and leaving their Premier League status in serious danger.

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