PREMIERSHIP - SATURDAY
Stoke 1 Manchester United 1
Manchester City 2 Everton 0
Chelsea 4 Swansea 1
Newcastle 3 Blackburn 1
Liverpool 2 Wolves 1
Wigan 1 Tottenham 2
Arsenal 3 Bolton 0
West Brom 0 Fulham 0
LEAGUE TABLE
Pld Pts
1 Man Utd 6 - 16
2 Man City 6 - 16
3 Chelsea 6 - 13
4 Newcastle 6 - 12
5 Liverpool 6 - 10
6 Tottenham 5 - 9
7 Stoke 6 - 9
Demba Ba struck twice inside three first-half minutes and then added a third nine minutes after the restart to ease the Magpies to a comfortable win.
Junior Hoilett had pulled one back for the visitors after 37 minutes, but they never looked extending their run of five successive league victories at St James' Park.
Manchester United's 100 per cent start to the Barclays Premier League season came to an end as Peter Crouch's first goal for Stoke secured a 1-1 draw for the Potters at the at the Britannia Stadium.
United went into the game without Wayne Rooney - rumoured to have picked up a hamstring injury - and lost Javier Hernandez early on after he was tackled by Jonathan Woodgate, but took the lead in the 27th minute when Nani played a one-two with Darren Fletcher before clipping the ball past Asmir Begovic.
Red Devils goalkeeper David de Gea then pulled off great stops to deny Andy Wilkinson and Jon Walters, but the Spaniard had looked shaky dealing with crosses and it came as little surprise the hosts' 52nd-minute equaliser came from a corner, which Crouch met with his head to open his account for his new club.
United returned to the summit after second-half substitutes Mario Balotelli and James Milner combined earlier in the day to send Manchester City to the top for a few of hours with a 2-0 victory over Everton.
The Toffees, who had won the last four meetings between the sides, proved tough to break down.
It was not until the arrival of Balotelli after an hour that City managed it, the striker's shot deflecting in off Phil Jagielka, before Milner finished Everton off in the final minute.
Fernando Torres scored his second goal in a week for Chelsea before being given a straight red card for a rash challenge as the 10-man Stamford Bridge outfit beat Swansea 4-1.
Sunday's defeat at Manchester United had seen £50million man Torres score for only the second time in his Blues career before producing one of the worst open-goal gaffes in Premier League history.
He found the net on Saturday with another fine finish before seeing red for inexplicably diving in studs first on Mark Gower in between two Ramires goals which were followed by Ashley Williams' consolation and a comeback goal for Didier Drogba.
Robin van Persie scored his 100th Arsenal goal as the Gunners put their recent troubles behind them with a comfortable 3-0 victory over 10-man Bolton at the Emirates Stadium.
After a drab first-half display the Gunners sprung to life in the second half and opened the scoring when Van Persie beat Jussi Jaaskelainen at his near post just 40 seconds after the break.
David Wheater then saw red for pulling back Theo Walcott when he was through on goal before Van Persie brought up his ton with a clever flick and Alex Song struck late on to complete the morale-boosting win.
Liverpool ended their two-match losing run with a 2-1 win over Wolves at Anfield.
A Roger Johnson own goal, diverting in Charlie Adam's shot, and another magical Luis Suarez strike appeared to have put the Reds in the comfort zone at half-time.
However, Steven Fletcher pulled one back early in the second half and despite creating - and missing - a number of good chances the home side were grateful for the final whistle.
First-half goals from Rafael van der Vaart and Gareth Bale sealed three points for Tottenham but they were forced to cling on for a 2-1 win in the face of a late assault by 10-man Wigan.
Van der Vaart swept home a third-minute opener after an error by Maynor Figueroa, then Bale headed home a corner from Luka Modric.
Spurs should have been out of sight at half-time but Wigan struck back in the 49th minute through Mohamed Diame before Steve Gohouri's 63rd-minute dismissal hit their hopes of a comeback.
West Brom goalkeeper Ben Foster made up for his blunder in his side's last home game with a superb double save to bag a 0-0 draw against fellow strugglers Fulham.
Foster had gifted Stoke's Ryan Shotton a last-gasp winner the last time out at The Hawthorns, but atoned with superb stops in quick succession to keep out John Arne Riise and substitute Bryan Ruiz.