Portsmouth's Jermain Defoe (left) is picked up by his teammates as they congratulate him for scoring their side's second goal during the English Premier League match against Stoke City at Fratton Park, Portsmouth, yesterday. - AP

LONDON (AP)

Liverpool rallied from two goals down to beat Manchester City 3-2 yesterday and stay neck-and-neck with Chelsea at the top of the Premier League, and promoted Hull climbed into third place after a 1-0 victory at last-place Tottenham.

League leaders Chelsea out-played Aston Villa 2-0 at Stamford Bridge with goals by Joe Cole and Nicolas Anelka, but Liverpool's comeback at City of Manchester Stadium put them even at the top with 17 points. Fernando Torres scored two goals and Dirk Kuyt added the winner in injury time.

Made some mistakes

"In the first half we made some mistakes with both goals," Liver-pool manager Rafa Benitez said. "In the second half we changed to more attacking, more pressing. We had our chances and we scored three goals and could have scored more."

Playing first division football for the first time in their 104-year history, Hull followed up its shock 2-1 win at Arsenal last week by beating Tottenham. Geovanni scored with a powerful free kick in the ninth minute a week after his long-range goal against the Gunners.

More pressure

The loss leaves Tottenham last with only two points from seven games and puts even more pressure on manager Juande Ramos.

Portsmouth beat next-to-last Stoke 2-1, Bolton won 3-1 at West Ham and Newcastle came from two goals down to draw 2-2 at Everton.

On Saturday, Arsenal needed an injury-time equaliser from Cesc Fabregas to draw 1-1 at Sunder-land, and defending champions Manchester United won 2-0 at Blackburn with Wayne Rooney scoring one goal and crossing for Wes Brown to score the other.

After Stephen Ireland put Man City ahead in the 19th minute, Javier Garrido made it 2-0 in the 41st with a free kick.

Torres turned home Alvaro Arbeloa's cross in the 55th minute and, after City defender Pablo Zabaleta had been sent off in the 67th for a two-footed foul, the Spain striker made it 2-2 with a glancing header in the 73rd from Steven Gerrard's inswinging corner.

A serious knee injury to Martin Skrtel led to six minutes of injury time, and Kuyt scored his first league goal in 26 matches for the Reds.