Manchester City added to the pressure on the shoulders of Newcastle United manager Sam Allardyce with a 2-0 Premier League away win at St James' Park on Wednesday that saw then leapfrog Liverpool into fourth place in the table.

Defeat meant Newcastle had taken just one point from a possible 12 as high-flyers City, managed by former England coach Sven Goran Eriksson, went fourth after their first away league win since the opening day of the season.

Liverpool, who had been fourth, were held to a 1-1 draw by relegation threatened Sunderland.

The draw was a huge blow to Liverpool's title hopes as it left them 12 points behind leaders Arsenal but saw Wigan move out of the relegation zone.

In the day's other Premier League matches basement club Derby appeared close to a precious away point only to concede a last minute goal in a 1-0 defeat against Bolton Wanderers.

Elsehwere South Africa international Benni McCarthy scored the only goal of the game as Blackburn Rovers beat Sunderland, a result that saw the visitors, who finished the match with 10 men, return to the bottom three.

Victory saw Rovers boss Mark Hughes put one over his old Manchester United team-mate Roy Keane, now in charge of Sunderland.

Elano gave City the lead shortly before half-time when he shot low past Shay Given after the ball was played into his path by Darius Vassell.

Allardyce, who recently received backing from United chairman Chris Mort amidst reports he was about to be replaced by former Newcastle and England forward Alan Shearer, brought on injury-prone striker Michael Owen at half-time.

England international Owen had been on the field for less than a minute when he had a shot saved by Joe Hart.

Instead it was City substitute Fernandes Gelson, who made an immediate impact when, moments after coming on, he made it 2-0 in the 76th minute.

Liverpool were kept waiting until the 49th minute to break down a determined Wigan at Anfield before in-form striker Fernando Torres scored his 16th goal of the season.

Steven Gerrard, the Liverpool captain, then saw a 20-yard shot parried by Wigan goalkeeper Chris Kirkland.

Late drama
But Liverpool were made to pay for their failure to dominate this match when Wigan defender Titus Bramble scored his second goal in as many games to make it 1-1 with 10 minutes left.

Kirkland - who used to play for Liverpool - then made a brilliant double-save from Gerrard as the England midfielder followed up his own long-range strike.

Derby twice hit the woodwork and saw Bolton keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen make several fine saves at the Reebok Stadium. It seeed they were on course for a point only for a defensive lapse to let in Stelios Giannakopoulos late on.

Sunderland missed a chance to take a 50th minute lead at Ewood Park when, after Christopher Samba fouled Daryl Murphy, Dean Whitehead's poorly-struck penalty was saved by Brad Friedel.

Shortly afterwards, Rovers had a penalty after Samba's shot struck the raised arm of Danny Higginbotham. McCarthy showed Sunderland how it should be done with a powerful shot to put Rovers ahead in the 57th minute.

Sunderland were then reduced to 10 men when experienced former Blackburn striker Dwight Yorke - another former United team-mate of Keane's and Hughes' - was sent-off for a second bookable offence 19 minutes from full-time.