Manchester United came from behind to score three times in eight minutes to beat QPR 3-1 leaving their new manager Harry Redknapp in no doubt about the size of the task he faces to save them from relegation.
QPR, who announced earlier on Saturday that Redknapp was taking over after Mark Hughes had been fired the previous day, took the lead in the driving rain at Old Trafford with a 52nd-minute Jamie Mackie tap-in.
United improved after a pedestrian opening 45 minutes and left QPR reeling as goals from Jonny Evans - on his 100th league appearance - Darren Fletcher and substitute Javier Hernandez secured their sixth comeback win in the league this season.
United manager Sir Alex Ferguson told Sky Sports he was impressed with the way QPR played but always thought his side would win.
"As so often happens when there's a change of manager, they were very determined and worked hard and put in some good counter-attacking play and I thought we were too lethargic in the first half, in particular," he said.
"But when we scored, after Anderson came on, we came to life. Maybe the rain falling so heavily slowed us down a bit, but we are better than that.
"But Harry being here had an effect on the way they played. It's obvious you change your manager and you get a couple of results, and they came close today, but once we started playing, there was no question about who was going to win."
Redknapp, who has agreed a two-and-a-half-year deal with Rangers, will take control for the first time against Sunderland on Tuesday aiming to deny the north-east club a second win in West London in just over a week after they beat Fulham last weekend.
Rafael Benitez was jeered by Chelsea fans before his Stamford Bridge reign began with a dour 0-0 Premier League draw against champions Manchester City yesterday. The former Liverpool manager's arrival in the dugout shortly before kick-off was serenaded by jeers and boos from the home supporters who continued to chant Di Matteo's name throughout the first half.
The enmity towards Benitez stemmed from the run-ins he had with former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho during his time at Liverpool and the popularity of former player Di Matteo who guided the Londoners to Champions League and FA Cup glory in his eight months in charge.
"I was just concentrating on the game, I was not paying attention to anything else, just the performance of the players on the pitch," Benitez told reporters after a point apiece kept Chelsea fourth and City second in the standings.
"I can understand [the boos] because of the rivalry in the past but the majority of the fans will understand. I am a professional and I want to do my job, I want to win for the club and I want to win with them."
Chelsea, now without a win in five league games, improved after a sluggish first half but created few openings to test City keeper Joe Hart.
It was easy to see why both teams have struggled to make an impression in the Champions League this season. Chelsea's fate is out of their hands going into the final game and City, still unbeaten in the Premier League after 13 games, are condemned to a group-stage exit for the second successive season.
Both were solid but unspectacular and the stalemate did little to enthrall as the rain fell.
Striker Fernando Torres, recalled by Benitez after being dropped to the bench by Di Matteo against Juve, wasted the home side's best chance when he fired over in the second half.
Defender Cesar Azpilicueta did force Hart to tip over his rasping drive late on and City, who had dominated the first half, almost won it at the death but Matija Nastasic directed a free header straight at Petr Cech.
Roberto Mancini, whose side were knocked off top spot by Manchester United's 3-1 win over Queens Park Rangers on Saturday, said City had "lost two points".
"Games here are always hard but today we played well while missing the last pass," he said.
"Last year we lost a good game, this year we took one point. "I am not happy but I prefer this."
FIFA have refused Cote d'Ivoire striker Didier Drogba permission to leave China's Shanghai Shenhua on loan before the January transfer window.
FIFA said they had received a request to be registered outside an open registration period from the former Chelsea forward, whose season in the Chinese Super League is over.
Austria's Julian Baumgartlinger (R) and Markus Suttner (L) fight for the ball with Ivory Coast's Didier Drogba during their international friendly soccer match in Linz, Nov 14, 2012. The 34-year-old wants to keep himself sharp for the African Nations Cup which begins on Jan 19.
"Any professional player who is registered with a club that is affiliated to one association shall not be eligible to play for a club affiliated to a different association," FIFA, soccer's world governing body, said in a statement on Thursday, quoting their rules on the status and transfer of players.
Under the rules, Drogba, who spent eight seasons with Chelsea after joining the European champions from French side Marseille, cannot play for another club until Jan 1.
Drogba teamed up with former Chelsea strike partner Nicolas Anelka at Shanghai in June after agreeing a two-and-a-half-year contract with the big-spending club.
Drogba scored eight goals in 11 games for the Chinese side but Shenhua finished ninth in the 16-team table, 20 points behind champions Guangzhou Evergrande.
Lazio, Napoli and reigning champion Atletico Madrid were among the 13 teams to qualify for the knockout stage of the Europa League this morning.
However, there was a setback for another of the competition's big names as Liverpool was held to a frustrating 2-2 draw at home to Young Boys, leaving the English side's hopes of progressing to the last 32 in the balance.
Five-time European champions Liverpool, will be eyeing one of the remaining five qualifying spots in the final round of games in two weeks' time but others can take it easy.
Raul Garcia's early goal earned Atletico a 1-0 victory over Hapoel Tel Aviv, allowing the Spanish side to progress to the last 32 from Group B with Viktoria Plzen.
A goalless draw at home to Tottenham was enough to put Lazio through in Group J, on a day fans of the Italian club were suspected of involvement in a hooligan attack in Rome that led to seven Spurs fans being hospitalized.
Napoli won 2-1 at AIK Stockholm to seal a top-two spot in Group F with Dnipro, which beat PSV Eindhoven away by the same scoreline to eliminate the Dutch hosts.
Athletic Bilbao, last season's finalist, was knocked out without even playing following the cancellation of its match against Hapoel Kiryat Shmona because of the fighting in Israel. Sparta knocked out Bilbao by drawing 1-1 at already-qualified Lyon in Group I.
The top two teams in each of the 12 groups go through, where they will be joined by the eight third-place finishers in the Champions League groups.
Liverpool was denied a spot in the knockout stage by two superbly taken second-half goals by Young Boys, with Raul Bobadilla scoring the Swiss team's first goal with an angled volley and Elsad Zverotic clinching a draw in the 88th by smashing home left-footed from the edge of the box.
Joe Cole, the former England winger and forgotten man at Liverpool, made his mark in a rare appearance by setting up the opener for Jonjo Shelvey in the 33rd and then scoring himself in the 72nd.
"Conceding a late goal is disappointing," Cole said. "It was just game management at the end, to see the game out, which let us down.
"It was a great finish from the kid at the end, but we made it hard for ourselves. It's a lesson learned."
Liverpool plays Udinese away in its last match and will need a win to be certain of qualifying.
Inter Milan were held to a 2-2 draw at San Siro by a spirited Cagliari. Inter had a chance to close the gap on the Serie A champions-Juventus but they couldn't.
Despite Rodrigo Palacio giving the hosts an early lead, Marco Sau put the Sardinians in front with a brace and it took an own goal from Davide Astori for Inter to pull level.
Inter had several chances to score, notably through Diego Milito, in a lively second half. But the Argentine striker missed two clear chances from close range and was denied a third time by alert Cagliari 'keeper Michael Agazzi.
In the closing minutes Inter piled on the pressure and were unlucky not to be awarded a penalty when midfielder Walter Gargano was hauled down inside the box. Cagliari held on and in the end were worthy of a share of the points.
Stramaccioni was also red carded for protesting towards the end of the game, and club president Massimo Moratti hit out at what he said was another questionable refereeing decision.
"That's three games in a row we've suffered injustice and not got the result we deserved because of a refereeing decision," he told the media.
"I can't get over it. The penalty was as big as a house!"
Inter's first draw in 13 matches left them in second place on 28 points.
Sunderland capitalized on the early sending-off of Brede Hangeland to beat Fulham 3-1, earning only its second Premier League win.
Steven Fletcher, Carlos Cuellar and Stephane Sessegnon all scored in the second half for the visitors while Fulham was down to 10 men, with Hangeland given a straight red card for a reckless 30th-minute tackle. Substitute Mladen Petric equalized in the 62nd minute for the mid-table home side but it couldn't hang on at Craven Cottage, with a bad day made worse by game-ending hamstring injuries to Sweden winger Alex Kacaniklic and Costa Rica playmaker Bryan Ruiz either side of halftime.
The victory lifted Sunderland three points clear of the bottom three, with Fletcher grabbing his sixth goal of the season.
Hangeland's contentious dismissal was a game-changer but was probably justified as the Norway defender leapt in rashly - and studs-first - on midfielder Lee Cattermole, even though his feet were on the floor when contact was made with the ball.
"I thought the referee was the only person in the ground who thought it was a red card ... (although) by the letter of the law, it was a red," Fulham manager Martin Jol said.
"A sending-off changes the dynamic of a game," Sunderland manager Martin O'Neill said. "We had to take advantage of that, and I thought we did. I was pleased for us to score some goals, pleased to win away from home."
O'Neill's team came into the match as the lowest-scoring side in the league but has been kept out of the relegation zone by Fletcher, who opened the scoring in the 50th when he ran on to Adam Johnson's fine through-ball and slipped a low finish past Mark Schwarzer.
Petric equalized by turning in Damien Duff's cross and Fulham continued to create chances, only for Cuellar to reclaim the lead for Sunderland by heading in Johnson's left-wing corner. That goal was scored Fulham briefly down to nine men while Petric was receiving treatment on a deep gash in his shin.
Sessegnon made the game safe when the Benin forward smashed in a swerving shot from 25 yards, his first goal of the season - although visiting goalkeeper Simon Mignolet made superb saves from Petric and Steve Sidwell late on. It was Sunderland's first away win this season.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic netted four goals as Sweden came from behind to claim a 4-2 victory over England in Stockholm.
Ibrahimovic opened the scoring in Sweden's brand new Friends Arena after 20 minutes. The goal came from a quick counterattack after Sterling was caught in possession just inside the Sweden half. Mathias Ranegi then drove forward and found Martin Olsson on the left who crossed for Ibrahimovic inside the area. Ibrahimovic's initial shot was blocked but the Paris Saint-Germain striker was first to react, poking past Joe Hart and into the roof of the net for the first goal in the new stadium.
After a lacklustre start the visitors slowly came to life and equalised 10 minutes before the break. Sterling began the move with a great ball out wide to Ashley Young.
The Manchester United winger's cross into the box was inviting and duly stabbed home first time by Danny Welbeck - the striker's fifth shot on target for his country and, impressively, his fifth goal.
And just three minutes later the visitors were ahead. Again Sterling was involved, drawing a foul on the edge of the area.
Up stepped captain Gerrard with another fine delivery, who swung a ball into the far post where Caulker was on hand to side foot home from close range under pressure from two defenders for a debut goal and a half-time lead.
England continued where they had left off after the break with Young inches away from a third goal and there were even more reason for visiting fans to cheer on the hour mark when Jack Wilshere made his long-awaited return to international football.
The Arsenal midfielder's arrival was swiftly followed by Carl Jenkinson, Tom Huddlestone and Ryan Shawcross yet the substitutions appeared to have disrupted England with Ibrahimovic equalising within minutes of the trio's arrival.
A simple pass from substitute Anders Svensson found the striker unmarked in the box and he struck a sweet volley past Hart to level the scores with his 37th international goal.
Ibrahimovic was not finished there. With just five minutes remaining, Sweden were awarded a free kick some 25 yards out. There was never any question over who was going to take the kick, Ibrahimovic duly stepped up and fired it low, and past Hart into the corner of the goal for his hat trick.
With 90 minutes on the clock, a weak-clearing header by Hart fell to the striker who grabbed his fourth of the night in unforgettable style with an overhead kick from more than 30 yards.
