LONDON: Manchester City fired manager Mark Hughes, Fulham swept to a stunning 3-0 victory over Manchester United and last-placed Portsmouth beat Liverpool 2-0 on a day of shocks in the Premier League on Saturday.

Although Man City beat Sunderland 4-3 to climb to sixth in the standings, they announced less than two hours after the game that Hughes had been sacked and replaced by former Inter Milan coach Roberto Mancini.

Hughes’ departure came despite the victory over Sunderland with Roque Santa Cruz scoring twice after he had left Robinho and Emmanuel Adebayor on the bench. City now have 29 points from 17 games, 11 fewer than leader Chelsea wh have 40.

Danny Murphy, Bobby Zamora and Damien Duff punished United’s makeshift defense at Craven Cottage and denied the defending champions any chance of drawing level on points with leaders Chelsea.

Murphy dispossessed United’s Paul Scholes and shot Fulham into a 22nd minute lead from 30 yards and the second half was only seconds old when Zamora fired home after Clint Dempsey’s headed pass. Duff added the third with a left foot volley in the 75th minute against a United defense which was missing four central defenders through injury.

Arsenal outplayed Hull 3-0 to stay in third place and move within two points of second place Man United with a game in hand. Goals by Denilson, Eduardo da Silva and Abou Diaby settled a game that had a first half flareup with several players pushing each other after a challenge by Samir Nasri on Hull’s Richard Garcia.

Hull should have equalised when 1-0 down but Geovanni’s penalty was blocked by Manuel Almunia. Two goals by Peter Crouch steered Tottenham to a 2-0 victory at Blackburn and John Carew gave Aston Villa a 1-0 victory over Stoke, a fifth straight win for Martin O’Neill’s team which remained level on points with Arsenal.