Leeds revival floors Chelsea as Beckham returns in style

Chelsea crashed to their first defeat in 12 Premiership games on Saturday as Leeds United's recent revival moved into overdrive with a 2-0 win in front of a jubilant Elland Road crowd.

Manchester United got back to winning ways and moved level with Chelsea in second place. But Arsenal can go seven points clear of both of them if they beat Liverpool at Highbury on Sunday.

Leeds' win means Terry Venables side has now taken ten points from their last four games to move back back into mid-table safety after having coming perilously close to the relegation zone.

A Jonathan Woodgate header and 16-year-old James Milner's second in three days sealed the victory, but Venables was quick to play down the significance of the win.

"No, this run hasn't turned our season around or made it a success story but it is I hope the start of us believing in ourselves.

"To have beaten a side like Chelsea, whose manager Claudio Ranieri is a man I respect and is a gentleman, is terrific for the team and the supporters."

Ranieri admitted he had made a mistake by changing over half his line-up for the second successive game. "We have taken only one point from the last two games so, of course, I was wrong," the Italian said.

United's win over Birmingham was capped by a superbly taken goal by David Beckham on his return to the starting line-up.

With Rio Ferdinand also back from injury and Roy Keane making his first Old Trafford start since undergoing hip surgery, United played some scintillating football and could have won by a much bigger margin.

Diego Forlan put them ahead 12 minutes from the break, lashing in a volley after Beckham had headed Mikael Silvestre's cross back across the goalmouth.

The England captain then celebrated his return to the starting team with a delightful chipped goal to kill off the match.

United boss Alex Ferguson was delighted with the performance of his side, but admitted two Fabien Barthez saves at 1-0 had been crucial.

"He's (Barthez) won us the game today," said Ferguson.

"We were a bit wasteful with our finishing and when you are 1-0 up there is always the danger you can cut you throat and that nearly happened."

Birmingham boss Steve Bruce said United were displaying trophy-winning form. "When Manchester United have their big aircraft flying they are a wonderful team," he said. "They are going to be a match for anyone in the Premiership or the Champions League.

Andy Cole became only the second player - after Alan Shearer - to reach the 150-goal mark in the Premiership in Blackburn's 2-2 draw with West Ham.

The bottom-placed club had got off to the worst possible start when goalkeeper David James allowed Damien Duff's trickling shot to slip through his legs with barely three minutes gone.

Everton named Wayne Rooney in their starting line-up 48 hours after he was sent off against Birmingham.

But even the wonder-kid was unable to break down a resilient Bolton defence, who held out for a point that keeps them just above the relegation zone.

Bolton boss Sam Allardyce said his back four's dogged display augured well for the fight for survival.

"The quality of our defensive display was the best part of our game and that hasn't been the case for our last 15 games,

Kevin Lisbie struck after six minutes to give Charlton the points against West Brom with a 1-0 win.

West Brom had to suffer the agony of seeing a fine Scott Dobie drive come back off the bar in the dying seconds.

It was an equally miserable day for Sunderland who went down 2-1 at Southampton thanks to a scrambled Jo Tessem goal with virtually the last kick of the match.

Tore Andre Flo had earlier cancelled out James Beattie's 12th Premiership goal of the season to put Sunderland within touching distance of a precious point.

Sunderland boss Howard Wilkinson was left fuming at the officials' decision to play four minutes of stoppage time but refused to blame his players.

"They have kept going in the face of some very peculiar decisions," he said. "We didn't deserve to get beat today but we've got to keep going."

The 200th goal of Dion Dublin's career was enough to give Aston Villa the three points against Middlesbrough, who had to play for over an hour with ten men after Mark Wilson received a second yellow card.

A quality finish from Nicolas Anelka six minutes from time saw Manchester City nick the points at Fulham who had enjoyed the better possession but once again failed to capitalise.

City moved up into the top half of the table but Fulham are now in serious danger of being dragged into the relegation dog fight.