EPL: Arsenal held at home, West Ham win

London: Arsenal was held 0-0 by Sunderland to halt its charge for the Premier League title while West Bromwich Albion and West Ham picked up crucial victories at the other end of the table on Saturday.

Sunderland was thankful to Simon Mignolet at the Emirates Stadium, with the French goalkeeper producing an inspired display to keep second-place Arsenal at bay in a one-sided match.

League leader Manchester United, which has played the same number of games as the Gunners, can move six points clear at the top if it beats Liverpool away on Sunday.

In-form West Ham eased past Stoke 3-0 to climb out of the bottom three, replaced by Birmingham which lost 3-1 at home to relegation rival West Brom.

In the other games, Bolton and Fulham both scored late goals to clinch 3-2 wins over Aston Villa and Blackburn respectively, and Everton rallied to defeat Newcastle 2-1 away.

Third-place Manchester City hosted bottom club Wigan later Saturday.

Substitute Marouane Chamakh's close-range header against the crossbar was the closest Arsenal came to breaking the deadlock on a day of frustration for the London team, which will now travel to Spain ahead of the second leg of its Champions League last-16 match with Barcelona.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger will be thankful his stretched squad sustained no more injuries, with Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott and Robin van Persie among the players already out, but will be concerned his side wasted the chance to apply heavy pressure on United.

Mignolet defied Nicklas Bendtner with a superb tip over the bar at the end of the first half, while Samir Nasri saw his compatriot deny him three times to somehow keep the score level.

There was more movement at the foot of the standings as West Ham continued its upward progress with a comfortable victory over Stoke.

Demba Ba, with his fourth goal in three games, Manuel da Costa and Thomas Hitzlsperger were the scorers for the Hammers as they moved a point above Birmingham, which came back down to earth after its 2-1 win over Arsenal in the League Cup final last weekend.

Alex McLeish's side was deservedly beaten by West Brom, which produced an inspired second-half performance to claim a first win since mid-January.

Youssouf Mulumbu, James Morrison and Paul Scharner found the net for the visitors after the break, with Chile midfielder Jean Beausejour scoring Birmingham's consolation.

Those two victories brought Blackburn back into the relegation picture after its defeat at Fulham.

Bobby Zamora scored the winner from the penalty spot, his first goal in more than a year, to see Fulham home and leave Blackburn just two points off the bottom three.

Blackburn twice came from behind to equalize, through goals by Grant Hanley and David Hoilett, after strikes from Fulham winger Damien Duff at Craven Cottage.

Bolton provisionally moved above Liverpool into sixth place thanks to the victory over Villa, whose winger Ashley Young will rue missing a penalty when his team was 2-1 up.

Darren Bent and Marc Albrighton twice put Villa ahead only to be hauled back by a brace from Gary Cahill, before substitute Ivan Klasnic scored the winning goal for Bolton.

Leon Best opened the scoring for Newcastle at St. James' Park but goals by Leon Osman and Phil Jagielka earned Everton the win.