Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti is urging his players not to lose confidence despite the 1-0 defeat at Birmingham seeing them lose three of their last four games.
The 1-0 win over Fulham sandwiched defeats by Liverpool and Sunderland and Lee Bowyer's early strike heaped more agony on Chelsea who are now level on points with Manchester United in the Barclays Premier League table.
Ancelotti said: "We have to take confidence from the way we played. It is just the result that was disappointing.
"It is a strange Premier League this season. There are a lot of opportunities for teams to close the gap at the top. We are losing opportunities but so are other teams.
"It is a more difficult competition this season because more teams believe in themselves."
United drew level with Chelsea as goals from Patrice Evra and Javier Hernandez saw off nine-man Wigan who had Antolin Alcaraz and Hugo Rodallega sent off.
Confident United boss Sir Alex Ferguson said: "We know that come the second half of the season we will definitely get better and now we are joint top with Chelsea."
Arsenal remain third despite losing 3-2 at home to Tottenham and manager Arsene Wenger was unable to understand how his side were defeated.
"If you look at the stats and the numbers, it is very difficult to understand how we lost this game - a drop in concentration, some basic errors, some bad luck as well," he said.
Samir Nasri and Marouane Chamakh put the Gunners in control but Spurs came back with goals from Gareth Bale, a Rafael van der Vaart penalty and Younes Kaboul.
Spurs boss Harry Redknapp claimed his side's win was more evidence that the league is no longer being dominated by the traditional top four of Untied, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool.
He said: "It's wide open this league this year, it's wide open.
"Chelsea are not as good as they were; Man United are not as good as they were three or four years ago.
"They're still excellent teams but they're not the force they were. They were almost invincible, the pair of them.
"I think Tottenham are now getting closer and the championship is wide open."
Bolton manager Owen Coyle saw his side thrash Newcastle 5-1 and then revealed the recipe for success was everyone enjoying their work.
"Everyone is giving their all and they're doing it with a smile on their faces," he said.
"We're enjoying the wins but the only league table I've ever looked at is the one after the season is finished. I'll see then if we've improved."
Kevin Davies and Johan Elmander both scored twice and Lee Chung-yong also netted, Andy Carroll getting Newcastle's consolation with the visitors also having Fabricio Coloccini sent off with 15 minutes to go.
West Brom's decline continued with a 3-0 home defeat to Stoke with a penalty each from Matthew Etherington and Jon Walters, the latter also scoring from open play.
Glen Johnson, Maxi Rodriguez and a Dirk Kuyt penalty continued Liverpool's revival as their 3-0 home win over West Ham left the visitors at the bottom of the table.
Luke Varney and Marlon Harewood piled on the pressure for Wolves by firing Blackpool to victory in front of Prince William.
As the Prince watched at Bloomfield Road a Kevin Doyle goal meant the final score was 2-1.
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