LONDON, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Manchester United and Arsenal enjoyed emphatic residence wins over Wigan Athletic and Southampton respectively on Saturday to join Chelsea and Manchester City inside the best 4 and give the Premier League summit a familiar feel.
United beat Wigan 4-0 at Old Trafford, with Paul Scholes among the scorers on his 700th appearance for the club, while Arsenal hammered Southampton 6-1 in the Emirates to hand the promoted side a fourth straight defeat leaving them bottom.
Chelsea and City failed to win but the European champions stayed top rated after the west London derby at Queens Park Rangers completed in a 0-0 stalemate ending their 100 percent record.
Champions Manchester City also dropped points inside a 1-1 draw at Stoke City where Peter Crouch place the house side ahead with the clear use of his arm just before Spaniard Javi Garcia replied having a debut header from a Carlos Tevez cross.
City manager Roberto Mancini was upset Crouch's objective was permitted to stand, saying: "If we speak about their goal, it was not football but basketball, I do not know how it was feasible that the referee did not see it".
Former England striker Michael Owen, hoping to revive his career at Stoke, came on also late to make an impact.
Leaders Chelsea have 10 points from four matches followed by Manchester United (9), Arsenal (eight) and Manchester City (eight).
In the late game, Liverpool drew 1-1 at Sunderland leaving them in 17th location with just two points from their opening four games - their worst league commence for 101 years.
NO HANDSHAKE
The build-up to the match at Loftus Road was overshadowed by whether QPR's Anton Ferdinand would shake hands with Chelsea's John Terry and Ashley Cole after Terry was cleared in court of racially abusing Ferdinand inside the same fixture final season.
Cole defended his team mate in the court case in July, and inside the event Ferdinand snubbed them both although the visiting players had been given a torrid afternoon by the home fans.
Each teams had probabilities to win till the dying moments and Chelsea manager Roberto di Matteo stated he was pleased to leave with a point.
"For us, Loftus Road is a very tough ground due to the history between the clubs but we'll take a point, and we are nevertheless best at the moment," said the Italian.
United closed to within a point of Chelsea with victory more than Wigan however they struggled initially and missed the possibility to take the lead inside the third minute when they got a fortunate penalty.
The referee ruled Danny Welbeck was felled by Wigan keeper Ali Al Habsi but the United striker appeared to have dived to win the spot kick which Javier Hernandez missed.
It took United until the 51st minute to take the lead when Scholes scored, before Hernandez created it 2-0 and debutants Alex Buttner and Nick Powell completed the rout on a red-letter day for the club.
Also as Scholes making his 700th United look, Ryan Giggs was playing his 600th Premier League match and Rio Ferdinand featured for the club for the 400th time.
United manager Alex Ferguson was unhappy with their first-half performance however they had been much greater following the break.
"We had been much more aggressive ourselves within the second half when it comes to acquiring for the ball," he told Sky Sports.
He also praised Scholes saying, "there is no-one much better at carrying out what he did these days."
ARSENAL ROUT
Arsenal also had a thumping win after playing superbly, particularly within the very first half after they established a 4-0 lead over Southampton thanks to goals from Lukas Podolski and Gervinho and own targets from Jos Hooiveld and Nathaniel Clyne.
Though Daniel Fox pulled 1 back for Southampton just ahead of the break, Gervinho added his second and Theo Walcott also scored against his old club to complete the rout.
Swansea City, who started the day in second location, slipped to fifth following losing 2-0 at Aston Villa exactly where Paul Lambert won for the very first time as the team's new manager.
West Bromwich Albion, who went in to the game in third spot, lost 3-0 at Fulham exactly where Dimitar Berbatov scored twice, which includes a penalty, as well as the guests had Peter Odemwingie sent off inside the initial half.
In the Stadium of Light, Steven Fletcher opened the scoring for Sunderland immediately after 29 minutes with their initial shot on target just before Luis Suarez equalised for Liverpool 19 minutes from time to salvage a point for Brendan Rodgers' side.
In the early game, Norwich City and West Ham United played out a 0-0 draw at Carrow Road.
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