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London - Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes were sent off as Manchester United crashed to a 2-0 loss at Fulham on Saturday, tightening the Premier League title race by losing consecutive matches for the first time in four years.
The leaders, beaten 4-1 at home to Liverpool last week, lost Scholes in the 18th minute when he used his hands to block Bobby Zamora's shot on the goal line.
Danny Murphy dispatched the penalty into the top corner.
Goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer kept Fulham in the match before Zoltan Gera added a second goal with an acrobatic volley in the 87th.
With the defending champions about to lose their first match at Craven Cottage since 1964, Rooney was shown a second yellow card for throwing the ball away in the 89th.
Peter Crouch scored twice to lead Portsmouth to a 2-1 victory over Everton and boost its prospects of avoiding relegation.
The striker's headed goals either side of halftime clinched Pompey's first win in more than a month.
The three points had looked in doubt when Leighton Baines put Everton ahead in the fourth minute with a free kick that curled in off the far post.
"It was massive we got a win today," Crouch said. "We started badly. Thankfully we showed a lot of character to come back."
Pompey, who had won just one of their last 13 league matches, leveled in the 22nd when a corner was only half cleared before reaching Glen Johnson, who headed across goal for Crouch to find the net.
The England forward pounced again with 15 minutes remaining at Fratton Park, heading past United States goalkeeper Tim Howard.
