LEAD: City and United reassert Manchester dominance

Jan 22, 2012, 18:02 GMT

London - Mario Balotelli converted an injury-time penalty to give Premier League leaders Manchester City a 3-2 victory over Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, while Manchester United won 2-1 at Arsenal.

The Italian striker had earlier been the centre of controversy when he wasn't sent off after appearing to stamp on the head of midfielder Scott Parker.

'He kicked Scott Parker in the head,' said Spurs manager Harry Redknapp. 'He does it a lot, he backheeled him in the face and cut his head. No-one can make excuses that he didn't do it, anyone can see he did do it.'

The defeat leaves Spurs eight points behind the league leaders, who are three clear of Manchester United. Arsenal trail Chelsea in fourth by five points.

'It's massive, we knew how big a game it was,' said City midfielder James Milner. 'They've been playing really well and they had the incentive with how we played at their place (winning 5-1 in August).

'It was an exciting game for the neutral but we'd like it a bit more boring next time.'

At the Etihad, four goals came in an astonishing nine-minute burst that began 11 minutes after half-time.

Strikes from Samir Nasri and Joleon Lescott seemed to have City in control, but Jermain Defoe and a Gareth Bale wonder-strike pegged them back before Balotelli settled it at the death.

City broke the deadlock 11 minutes into the second half, David Silva sliding in Nasri with a majestic through ball.

The France midfielder hasn't really convinced since his move from Arsenal, but he finished superbly.

Three minutes later, City doubled their lead. Nasri's corner was flicked on by Edin Dzeko, and Lescott bundled the ball - just - over the line.

Within a minute, Stefan Savic misjudged a long clearance from Younes Kaboul, and Jermain Defoe ran on, rounded and rounded Joe Hart to score.

Dzeko then blazed over when clean through, and five minutes after their first goal, Spurs pulled level through Gareth Bale, who struck a wonderful curling left-footed effort into the corner form 25 yards.

Defoe just couldn't reach a Bale cross to give Spurs the lead in the final minute, and the game was settled by Balotelli after he'd been brought down by Ledley King.

'We had a great chance when Gareth laid it across to Jermain, we were all up on our seats thinking it was 3-2,' Redknapp said.

'It proves we're as good as anyone, they weren't better than us today but they nicked it in the 94th minute. We had a bad two or three minutes and conceded the two goals but we showed great character to come back and I could see us winning from there.'

At the Emirates, United lost Phil Jones early to what looked a serious knee injury, but took the lead on the stroke of half-time as Luis Valencia headed in a Ryan Giggs cross.

Robin van Persie missed a sitter six minutes after the break after Tomas Rosicky had capitalised on a Chris Smalling slip.

Per Mertesacker then cleared off the line from Danny Welbeck, before Van Persie equalized after fine work from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain with 19 minutes remaining.

United had wasted a number of chances, but Welbeck sealed the game from Valencia's pass with nine minutes remaining.