Manchester City close gap with Manchester United

Manchester City came back into the premier league title race after they thrashed West Brom with a 4-0 win reducing the gap with leaders, Manchester United, to five points who slumped to a surprise 1-0 loss at Wigan.

Starting the night eight points behind Manchester United, City knew a win was desperately needed if they were even to think about a miraculous turnaround and manager Roberto Mancini handed rebel striker Carlos Tevez a first start in almost seven months who gave an impressive performance.

His fellow countryman, Sergio Aguero scored he opener, when he ran at the West Brom defence in the sixth minute and put a 20-yard drive beyond Ben Foster's reach.

Former Atletico Madrid scored his second when Nasri slid the ball to him to beat Foster from eight yards.

A hat-trick would have soon come had he been able to extend his leg on to Nasri's fizzing cross-shot, but that was soon forgotten as he created Tevez's first goal in 11 months with 61 minutes gone.

Silva made it 4-0 with 65 minutes on the clock, chipping over Foster after racing on to an Aguero pass.

Manchester United delivered one of their worst displays of the season and were deservedly sunk by Shaun Maloney's fine curling shot in the 50th minute, inflicting the champions' first league loss since Jan. 4.

Meanwhile, Arsenal strengthened their grip on a Champions League spot as early goals from Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott put them on the way to a comfortable win over 10-man Wolves at Molineux.

Van Persie scored the opener from the penalty spot after Wolves' on-loan defender Sebastien Bassong was sent off for bringing down Walcott, who added a second a minute later.