Two goals from Emmanuel Adebayor and one from Eduardo da Silva keeps the pressure on Manchester United and Chelsea.

Gelson Fernandes did manage to pull one back for City, but it was in effect a token gesture.

Arsenal played with a composure that comes with losing only one game in the league and that was to Middlesbrough months ago.

City almost took the lead early on when Dietmar Hamann played the ball forward.

However, Stephen Ireland failed to read the situation and a grateful Jens Lehmann was able to make the save.

That seemed to act as a wake-up call to Arsene Wenger’s side, who took the lead in the ninth minute after Martin Petrov carelessly lost possession.

Bacary Sagna took advantage and delivered a cross into Adebayor’s path, with the Togo striker bundling home with the aid of a deflection off Micah Richards.

Sagna was again given room down the right in the 21st minute but put too much weight on the cross and the chance was lost.

Arsenal extended their lead in the 25th minute when Eduardo scored with a superb overhead kick after a header down from Adebayor.

It was marvellous effort by the Brazil-born Croatia striker, but City were thrown a lifeline in the 27th minute after Gael Clichy was caught napping.

He lost possession on the byline to Vedran Corluka and the Croatian picked out Fernandes. The midfielder calmly slotted his close-range effort beyond Lehmann for his second goal for the club.

It was Arsenal, however, who continued to look the more dangerous of the two teams going forward.

Adebayor almost extended their lead in the 30th minute when he got on the end of a cross from Sagna.

But goalkeeper Joe Hart stood tall and managed to parry the ball to safety.

Then William Gallas raced forward and sent a shot wide of the target after Adebayor’s effort had only been partially cleared.

The home fans were getting frustrated at the lack of devil shown by their side when they did get forward.

Petrov scuffed a shot wide in stoppage-time after being released by Ireland.

Gallas then picked out Cesc Fabregas in the 54th minute on the edge of the area.

He tried to chip Hart from an acute angle but his effort cleared the crossbar.

City boss Sven-Goran Eriksson then made a change a minute later as Daniel Sturridge was not getting any change from Gallas.

The experienced Darius Vassell came on but it was Arsenal who continued to dictate the pace.

Adebayor set up Fabregas in a good position in the 58th minute but his effort failed to trouble Hart and went over the crossbar.

Eriksson, normally so passive, was out of his technical area, trying to urge his team forward.

And City came close to grabbing the equaliser in the 66th minute when Vassell got on the end of a ball from Hamann, only for Lehmann to kick it clear.

Elano, who had been quiet, latched on to the rebound but lofted his effort over the top.

City had a scare in the 77th minute when Arsenal launched a swift counter-attack.

Adebayor picked out Eduardo on the left and he tried to release Fabregas, only for Michael Ball to make a timely interception.

Fabregas then chipped the ball into Adebayor, but he was unable to get any power on his header.

Adebayor sealed the victory two minutes from time with his second goal of the game following a neat build-up involving Fabregas.