BY Telegraph.co.uk

Zat Knight's sending off was a major moment," said O'Neill. "I've seen it a couple of times now and while I'm aware that I have the benefit of replays I will look at it again. I might appeal and we have until noon to do so. It wasn't a penalty. The Chelsea player went over and there was no contact."

The Big Blue: Michael Ballack (r) takes a tumble
Chelsea defender Ricardo Carvalho later apologised for his foul on Gabriel Agbonlahor that led to his dismissal in a game that saw Chelsea extend their unbeaten home Premier League record to 72 consecutive games.

Andrei Shevchenko converted the penalty following Knight's dismissal then added a second goal before Alex gave Chelsea the lead but Martin Laursen equalised before Carvalho saw red for a nasty lunge. Ballack's free-kick seemed to have won it but Gareth Barry made it 4-4 when Ashley Cole was sent off for handball.

Chelsea will appeal against Cole's sending-off on the grounds of wrongful dismissal and they later issued a statement in which Carvalho said: "It was never my intention to hurt Gabriel Agbonlahor with the tackle. I was going for the ball and I don't want people to think that I tried to hurt another player. I didn't see him after the game to apologise but I asked for a message to be passed onto him."

To add to Chelsea's problems, Frank Lampard limped off in the first half and could be ruled out of Saturday's visit of Newcastle. With Didier Drogba and John Terry still injured and Carvalho and Cole suspended, Chelsea are running out of players.

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Manchester United swept Sunderland aside with a 4-0 win at the Stadium of Light which took them back to the top of the table before Arsenal's game at Portsmouth last night, with two goals from Louis Saha.

Steven Gerrard's last-minute goal spared Liverpool's blushes at lowly Derby. Fernando Torres had given Liverpool an early lead but Jay McEveley sent an angled shot past Jose Reina to equalise midway through the second half before Gerrard struck.

Newcastle's problems continued when they were jeered off by their fans after a 1-0 defeat at Wigan. Ryan Taylor scored the winner and afterwards Newcastle manager Sam Allardyce admitted that the performance was "unacceptable". Spurs thrashed Fulham 5-1 with Robbie Keane scoring twice.

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