Wayne Rooney made it a perfect day for Manchester United as Sir Alex Ferguson's side took full advantage of their title rivals' misfortunes.
United brushed aside Wigan, who self-destructed in the second half with two unnecessary red cards, but perhaps more importantly Rooney made his first appearance since the contract saga that saw the England striker threaten to leave before signing a new five-year deal.
The setbacks suffered by Arsenal and Chelsea made it imperative that United did not slip up too and they made no mistake as headers by Patrice Evra and Javier Hernandez ensured Ferguson's men second spot in the Premier League table, behind Chelsea only on goal difference.
Rooney should have put the icing on the cake by scoring too but passed up a glorious opportunity.
For Wigan, red cards for Antolin Alcaraz and Hugo Rodallega virtually ensured they would get nothing from the game.
Roberto Martinez's men had started well, showing from the start however that they were not going to lie down and be rolled over.
The visitors were presented with a fabulous chance in the opening exchanges to stun United when Nemanja Vidic slipped as he tried to clear Charles N'Zogbia's cross. The ball popped up in the air and Jordi Gomez should have at least hit the target - instead he scooped over to the huge relief of most of those inside Old Trafford.
Nani's free-kick from deep on the left nearly surprised Ali Al Habsi in the Wigan goal, but he managed a scrambled save, before Rodallega charged through the United defence and drove in a shot, but it was straight at Edwin van der Sar.
Al Habsi had to be smart to keep out Nani again but Wigan showed their threat on the break when N'Zogbia swept into the penalty area but his shot - with his right foot rather than his favoured left - was disappointing from a good position.
There was another let-off for United when Ronnie Stam stabbed wide after United's defence looked all at sea again, then N'Zogbia burst between Ferdinand and Rafael and was only denied by Van der Sar coming out to block.
From the corner Rodallega tried the spectacular with an overhead kick but the ball went miles wide.
After so many let-offs the stage seemed set for United to make Wigan pay and so it turned out in the last minute of the half as Evra scored his first goal for three and a half years.
Park Ji Sung floated a cross to the back post and Evra rose and sent a downward header past Al Habsi.
Rooney came on in the 57th minute to cheers and some boos as he and Paul Scholes replaced Macheda and Park.
Almost immediately the match swung even further in United's favour as Wigan skipper Alcaraz was sent off after picking up his second yellow card for rash and needless challenge on Darren Fletcher.
Wigan completely lost their heads and two minutes later Rodallega was following his captain down the tunnel after a crazy two-footed challenge on Rafael.
That left Wigan to play for half an hour with just nine men and Ferguson went for the jugular with Hernandez coming on for Michael Carrick.
Rooney, with only a penalty to his name this season, nearly made it 2-0 when he rose above Steve Gohouri and sent a fierce header goalwards only for Al Habsi to tip over.
It did not take long for United to get the goal however as Hernandez's powerful diving header from Rafael's cross easily beat Al Habsi.
Hendry Thomas tried to get Wigan back into it with a long-range free-kick that was easy for Van der Sar before Rooney should have put away the easiest of chances in injury time.
Nani's cross reached Rooney inside the six-yard box but he did not make good contact and Al Habsi was able to save.
After the match Sir Alex Ferguson said he was delighted to take three points on day when his main title rivals lost and Wayne Rooney returned to action.
Ferguson said: "It has been a good day for us, no question of that. If you had said at the start of the day would you take being joint top of the league I would have said 'yes'.
"We know that come the second half of the season we will definitely get better and now we are joint top with Chelsea.''
Rooney made his first appearance since the contract saga that saw the England striker threaten to leave before signing a new five-year deal - and he came off the bench after 57 minutes mainly to cheers although there were some jeers too.
Ferguson added: "That [the reception] was good - that will be pleasing for him, settle him down and make him realise he is at the right club, no doubt about that. It was a quiet comeback, he got involved in a few of the bits of interplay but in the main he just needed that 25 minutes or so.
"He will play against Rangers on Wednesday and that will be the perfect match for him to come back and get 90 minutes.''
Wigan had started brighter than United and passed up several chances before Evra struck just before the break, and the match swung in United's favour entirely when Antolin Alcaraz and Hugo Rodallega both got themselves sent off for unnecessary challenges.
Ferguson added: "I thought Wigan were very aggressive, they had a lot of real aggressive challenges that tested the referee throughout the game. They put themselves about.
"The centre-back [Alcaraz] had a few tackles and fouls in the first half and when you do that you ride your luck and it was a silly challenge on Darren Fletcher, who was going back toward his own goal.
"The second one [Rodallega] I thought the boy was off the ground but I need to see it again.''
Ferguson had begun the match with an inexperienced attack of Federico Macheda and Gabriel Obertan and there was not even a place for £30 million Dimitar Berbatov on the bench.
The United manager confirmed the striker was not injured, saying: "I just left him out - picking my subs today I just thought I had to give a different type of variety.''
Wigan have dropped into the bottom three as a result of the defeat but manager Roberto Martinez said he could comfort from his team's resilience after going down to nine men - last season they were on the receiving end of a 5-0 drubbing.
Martinez said: "Everything was going according to plan - we looked really resilient and strong and were frustrating Manchester United and we looked like the team who were going to score. But we allowed the frustration to develop and that knocked our concentration.
"When you go down to eight outfield players it's easy to capitulate but be showed real character and steel to form the basis for a good platform for the future.''
Martinez said he did not want to comment on the performance of referee Martin Atkinson but admitted his players should have controlled themselves better.
He added: "It's not just those two incidents - this is one of the toughest places to come in European football and we allowed that frustration to develop over the small decisions, not the big calls. We should have controlled ourselves a bit better.''
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