The weekend’s Premiership fixtures started early at St. James’ Park, where Newcastle United took valuable points from Chelsea and moved level with Manchester United.

Newcastle took the lead in bizarre fashion as Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink diverted a Chelsea corner into his own net with an emphatic finish the Dutch striker would have been proud of had it been at the other end.

Despite a Chelsea equaliser just before hal-time, from Lampard, Bernard sealed the points for Newcastle just after the break.

Chelsea’s defeat also meant that they slipped to fifth place as Everton manged to gain a point at Middlesbrough, with Steve Watson’s earlier strike being cancelled out in the second half by Juninho, who was enjoying his first appearance since last year’s World Cup Final.

At the other end of the table, West Ham managed to beat Tottenham 2-0, with the first goal from Les Ferdinand, recently signed from Spurs.

Not so lucky were Sunderland who find themselves rooted to the bottom of the table after losing to Fulham at Loftus Road, with the only goal from Saha.

Fellow relegation battlers. West Brom, also suffered defeat away from home as James Beattie returned to form with a glorious 25 yard effort, which was enough to give Southhampton the points.

Sunday’s League Cup Final saw a high profile clash between old rivals Liverpool and Manchester United. Gerrard opened the scoring for Liverpool with a goal just before half time with a shot which owed much to a deflection from the leg of David Beckham.

United pressed for the equaliser throughout the second half but a superb performance from Jerzy Dudek denied Sir Alex Ferguson’s men.

As United pushed more and more men forward, in an effort to pierce Dudek’s goal, Liverpool were allowed to break at speed, Michael Owen taking advantage of thelack of rearguard to score a second and give his side the Cup.

Defeat in the final proved to be a double blow for Man United as earlier that day Arsenal had eased past Charlton 2-0 at Highbury with Jeffers and Pires on the score sheet, which extended Arsenal’s lead at the top of the league to eight points.