A 3-1 victory at home over Blackburn Rovers keeps Manchester United three points clear at the top of the Premiership as title rivals Arsenal kept the pressure on with a 2-0 at Middlesbrough.
United, with three games remaining, lead the way on 74 points after two goals for Paul Scholes and one for Ruud van Nistelrooy delivered the result.
Arsenal, with a game in hand, are on 71 after French duo Sylvain Wiltord and Thierry Henry were on target in the second half at The Riverside.
The chase for the other two Champions League places took an interesting twist as Chelsea, Newcastle United and Everton all lost.
Newcastle stay third on 61 after a 2-1 reverse at Fulham with Chelsea, 2-1 losers at Aston Villa, fourth on 60.
Liverpool move up to fifth on 58, above Everton (56) after beating their city rivals 2-1 at Goodison Park.
West Bromwich Albion were relegated despite a 2-1 win at bottom club Sunderland, who were already down, while West Ham United look destined to join them in the first division after losing their relegation dogfight with Bolton Wanderers 1-0.
West Ham are now six points adrift of Bolton with four games to play.
Birmingham made sure of their safety with a 2-0 win at Charlton Athletic while in the day's other game FA Cup finalists Southampton beat Leeds United 3-2.
Manchester United faced a difficult test against a Blackburn team who had beaten them at Ewood Park in December and who had done the double over Arsenal.
The visitors looked lively and after Van Nistelrooy had headed United into a 20th-minute lead Blackburn deservedly levelled through Henning Berg after Fabien Barthez had flapped unsuccessfully at a cross.
Scholes restored the lead late in the first half and added his second on the hour - but only after substitute goalkeeper Ricardo had marked his league debut by conceding, then saving, a penalty.
United were then able to cruise home, conserving energy for Wednesday's return against Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals.
Arsenal took a long time to get going against a Middlesbrough side who had little to offer in attack. With United ahead they needed to up the pace in the second half and they duly did so three minutes after the restart with a sidefooter by Wiltord.
The French midfielder should have got a second soon after and Ashley Cole had one disallowed but the Londoners endured a nervous few minutes until Henry curled in a terrific free kick eight minutes from time.
Liverpool revived their hopes of a top-four finish after winning one of the most important Merseyside derbies for years. Danny Murphy hit the winner after a David Unsworth penalty had cancelled out Michael Owen's 31st minute opener.
Everton, who have not beaten Liverpool at Goodison since 1997, ended with nine men after late red cards for David Weir and Gary Naysmith.
Villa produced a great performance to deservedly beat Chelsea, both goals coming from Swedish international striker Marcus Allback. John Terry pulled one back with a late header but it was too late for Chelsea, who still have to play Liverpool and Everton. Fulham silenced the doom-mongers with a spirited display under caretaker manager Chris Coleman. Newcastle went ahead with an Alan Shearer header but after they had defender Andy Griffin sent off on 63 minutes, Fulham charged back.
French midfielder Sylvain Legwinski slammed in a 30-metre drive to level it and former Newcastle midfielder Lee Clark got the winner four minutes from time.
The crunch relegation battle at The Reebok was decided by a brilliant individual goal by Nigerian Jay-Jay Okacha, who ran 60 metres before unleashing a screamer into the top corner after 38 minutes.
It was a fourth win in five games for Bolton and left West Ham, who finished with 10 men after a red card for Ian Pearce, looking doomed.
Two goals for Derek McInnes gave West Brom a rare win and handed Sunderland their 11th successive defeat - but Bolton's win condemned Gary Megson's side to an immediate first division return.