Manchester United suffered their worst defeat at the Etihad Stadium since 2004 as Manchester City ran riot.
Sergio Aguero scored twice, and Yaya Toure and Samir Nasri added further goals, with Wayne Rooney grabbing a consolation in a 4-1 triumph for City manager Manuel Pellegrini in his first Manchester derby.
As for Newcastle Utd, we started the fixture with Hull (on Saturday) three points away from top spot, but on Sunday we are now three points away from relegation.
Premier League
1 Arsenal 12
2 Tottenham 12
3 Man City 10
4 Chelsea 10
5 Liverpool 10
6 Everton 9
7 Southampton 8
8 Man Utd 7
9 Swansea 7
10 Stoke City 7
11 Hull City 7
12 Newcastle 7
13 A Villa 6
14 West Brom 5
15 West Ham 5
16 Cardiff 5
17 Norwich 4
18 Fulham 4
19 C Palace 3
20 Sunderland 1
The in-form Aaron Ramsey, Per Mertesacker and Bacary Sagna found the target for the Gunners - who have now enjoyed four successive victories in the league and seven in all competitions - with Geoff Cameron's first goal in English football proving to be scant consolation for the Potters.
It took just five minutes for Arsene Wenger's side to break the deadlock, with Asmir Begovic only able to parry a Mesut Ozil free-kick into the path of Ramsey - who reacted quickest to stroke into the back of the net.
Stoke have caused Arsenal problems in the past, though, and restored parity on 26 minutes when Marko Arnautovic saw a volley crash back off the post and Cameron was on hand to expertly roll the ball past a sprawling Wojciech Szczesny.
Mertesacker came close to restoring the home side's advantage on the half-hour mark, as he saw an effort cleared from in front of the line, but he did not have to wait long before making a telling contribution.
Ozil swung over a corner from the right and his fellow Germany international, meeting the delivery at the near post, was able to send a header which looped over Begovic and Laurent Koscielny into the bottom corner.
Arsenal's third, which arrived on 72 minutes, was almost an exact replica of their second, with another set-piece from Ozil met by another floated header - with Sagna netting for the first time in 19 months.
Cardiff 0 - 1 Tottenham
Man City 4 - 1 Man Utd
C Palace 0 - 2 Swansea
Arsenal 3 - 1 Stoke City
Later in the afternoon, Tottenham looked as though they were heading for a frustrating goalless draw at Cardiff until Paulinho netted a stoppage-time winner to bag all three points.
Spurs dominated large sections of the game at Cardiff City Stadium but were denied on countless occasions as Cardiff keeper David Marshall made crucial saves from Roberto Soldado, Christian Eriksen, Paulinho and Gylfi Sigurdsson.
Even when former Swansea man Sigurdsson did beat Marshall, his effort struck the crossbar, but Paulinho finally made their dominance tell as he tapped in Erik Lamela's pass from close range to seal a 1-0 win.
Earlier in the day, Swansea cruised to their second away win of the season with a comfortable 2-0 victory at Crystal Palace.
Swansea made the dream start after two minutes when Jonjo Shelvey's ball hit Adrian Mariappa and fell invitingly into the path of Michu who hammered a low shot under Julian Speroni and into the net.
The visitors made a fantastic start to the second half too with Nathan Dyer doubling their lead with a high finish into the roof of the net after Alvaro Vazquez's shot fell into his path.
Swansea dominated proceedings from start to finish and might have won by more.