Arsenal emphasised their Barclays Premier League title credentials by becoming the first side to win at Eastlands in the league this season following a commanding 3-1 triumph.

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.

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.

As the game wore on the home fans were getting frustrated at the lack of devil shown by their side when they did get forward and Eriksson, normally so passive, was out of his technical area, trying to urge his team forward.

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