Man City moves top of EPL, Liverpool in the hunt

London: Manchester City moved provisionally top of the Premier League with a controversial 2-0 victory at Newcastle while Liverpool stayed in contention with a 5-3 win at Stoke as both teams benefited Sunday from controversial refereeing decisions.

Goals from Edin Dzeko and Alvaro Negredo secured City's 10th consecutive win over the Magpies as Manuel Pellegrini's well-oiled scoring machine extended its unbeaten run in all competitions to 15 games.

But the result did not reflect the intensity of a game dominated by referee Mike Jones' decision to cancel Cheikh Tiote's apparent equalizer, ruling that Yoan Gouffran interfered with play in an offside position.

Negredo secured City's win in added time while league top scorer Luis Suarez scored twice for Liverpool and Steven Gerrard converted a disputed penalty.