Arsenal and Everton both won on Saturday afternoon to keep the race for Champions League qualification wide open going into the final six games of the Premier League season.
Elsewhere there were score draws between Aston Villa and Fulha and Southampton and West Ham, whilst Liverpool were held to another goalless draw at Reading.
Emirates Stadium was the venue for the most dramatic action of the day as Arsenal hit three goals in the last 5 minutes to secure a 3-1 win over Norwich and rise to third place in the table.
A relatively quiet match was livened up just after half-time when Norwich took the lead through Michael Turner. It was somewhat strange that less commotion was made about the awarding of the freekick that led to the goal, as Kei Kamara had clearly tripped over his own feet in the build-up rather than having been fouled by Kieran Gibbs.
The Gunners responded with a debatable decision of their own when a corner that should never have been resulted in Kamara fouling Olivier Giroud in the box. The linesman may have been a long way away but he made a strong call and Mikel Arteta just about dispatched the resulting penalty.
An own goal from Sebastien Bassong after fantastic work from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain put Arsenal ahead, before a terrific save from Lukasz Fabianski and a well hit shot Lukas Podolski made sure of the points in injury time.
Everton kept the pressure on the top four with another win, this time at the expense of Queens Park Rangers at Goodison Park.
Darren Gibson's deflected strike on 40 minutes opened up what had been a tight affair, and Victor Anichebe doubled the home side's lead 11 minutes after the restart.
The result leaves Rangers seven points from safety having played a game more than 17th placed Sunderland, whilst Everton are three points off fourth place ahead of the vital trip to Arsenal on Tuesday evening.
A lively 1-1 draw between Aston Villa and Fulham edged Paul Lambert's men closer to safety, but had it not been for some Mark Schwarzer heroics they could've had all three points.
Villa did manage to take the lead through a fine curled effort from Charles N'Zogbia on 55 minutes, but their lead lasted just 11 minutes when Fabian Delph headed into his own net.
The point puts Fulham on 40 points and makes them all but safe, whilst Villa have creeped three points clear of the drop zone.
Southampton and West Ham also moved closer to securing their Premier League status for next season with a battling 1-1 draw at St Mary's.
Rickie Lambert and Andy Carroll both went close before Gaston Ramirez hit the opener just before the hour mark with a clinical finish.
The aforementioned Carroll continued his good goalscoring form with the equaliser just seven minutes later.
Both sides are now seven points clear of the bottom three with six games to play.
Liverpool were held to back-to-back 0-0 draws as Nigel Adkins picked up his first point as Reading manager.
Alex McCarthey was the undisputed man of the match as the Reading keeper pulled off a string of impressive saves to leave a further dent in Liverpool's faint remaining hopes of European qualification for next season.
Reading meanwhile remain bottom of the league, level on points with Queens Park Rangers.
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