Arsenal have established themselves as Premier League title favourites courtesy of a 2-1 win over Manchester City on Monday night.
Arsene Wenger's Gunners produced a quality display at the Emirates Stadium, particularly in the first half, before City pressed hard for a late equaliser but were unable to twice breach Petr Cech and his defence.
Theo Walcott opened the scoring in the 33rd minute with a glorious finish from the edge of the area after cutting back onto his right foot following a pass from Mesut Ozil.
The German playmaker then notched his 15th assist of the season on the stroke of half-time when slotting through a lovely ball for Olivier Giroud who rifled between the legs of City keeper Joe Hart for his 10th in the league this term.
Earlier, City had a brilliant chance to open the scoring but Kevin De Bruyne opted to shoot from an angle rather than square it for David Silva, who had raced to a clever position at the back post, only to see the ball whiz past the upright in what was a huge let-off for the Gunners.
Arsenal had been solid defensively until the 82nd minute when Yaya Toure finally broke City's away goal drought which was heading towards four matches. The midfielder allowed Bacary Sagna's pass from the right to run across him before producing a sublime finish with his left foot that denied Cech a record 170th Premier League clean sheet.
It set up a tantalising final 10 or so minutes which saw Manuel Pellegrini's City come hard at the Gunners but Wenger's men held strong and ended up with a deserved three points.
The victory saw Arsenal remain in second where they sit two points behind Leicester City while opening up a four-point gap on City who have now lost five games before Christmas ahead of their home clash with Sunderland in five days. The last team to lose as many at this stage of the season and win the title was Everton back in 1987.
The Gunners, who meet Southampton on Boxing Day, now enter the festive period sitting in second place from where they have won their past two titles.
2015/16 BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - SEASON SCORES
Arsenal: 2 (Theo Walcott 33', Olivier Giroud 45+1')
Manchester City: 1 (Yaya Toure 82')
Emirates Stadium, London - 60,053
