Arsenal surpassed Manchester United with their latest display of perfection as Ruben Amorim suffered his first defeat since being appointed head coach.
The Gunners closed the gap on leaders Liverpool, who drew 3-3 in Newcastle, to seven points with goals from Jurrien Timber and William Saliba (both from corners) and secured their fourth win in a row.
Since the start of last season, Arsenal have scored 22 goals from dead ball situations – the most in the Premier League.
'If you go for a corner, that's an opportunity to score a goal, so if you both score from corners, [set-piece coach] Nico [Jover] It will be buzzing and I'm so happy,” said Declan Rice, who took the corner for Timber's opener.
“When I see the clips, I know how much weight to put on the ball and it's just about repetition. I put some good shots in there and could have gotten a few assists, so it was nice to get one.”
After four games without a win in the league, the Gunners have now won three top-flight matches in a row.
“If you have a dip in the league, you get written off,” Rice added.
'We're sticking together as a group and we knew the run of results wasn't good enough, now we're starting to see a turn in that.
'People get carried away. You just have to be around in February. Liverpool have dropped points, they are still seven points behind, so we will see what happens.”
Head coach Mikel Arteta added: 'We want to be affective in every phase of the game, but the team has the belief from every angle to threaten the opponent and try to score.
“It's a very special evening, I'm very happy to celebrate 100 games in this incredible stadium. And the way we played…'
On his team's problems with set pieces, Amorim added: 'The set pieces changed the game. We could have been more aggressive towards the Arsenal box. Until the set pieces the game didn't have too many chances for either side, the set pieces ruined the match.
“They can put a lot of players close to the goalkeeper and it is almost impossible to fight for the ball, but we have to be able to defend them and we already know we have to be better.
“We were committed and we lost from set pieces.”
Amorim added: “We have to get better in this situation, but like in any area we need time to improve.
“We have to manage the games with a different methodology.”
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