Arsenal swapped places with champions Manchester United at the top of the Premier League on Saturday after a 3-1 victory at Manchester City preceded United's 1-1 draw away at Tottenham Hotspur.
Two goals for Emmanuel Adebayor and one for Eduardo de Silva made Arsenal the first team to win at City in the league this season and put them on 60 points.
United, who could have returned to the summit with three points in a later kickoff at White Hart Lane, trailed to Dimitar Berbatov's first half effort but levelled three minutes into stoppage time with a close-range Carlos Tevez volley that went in off Tottenham defender Michael Dawson.
United are two points behind, while third-placed Chelsea are six adrift after drawing 1-1 at Portsmouth for whom deadline day signing Jermain Defoe scored on his debut.
Everton stayed fourth after a 0-0 draw at Blackburn Rovers while at the bottom end of the table there were important victories for Wigan Athletic against West Ham United and Bolton Wanderers over Reading. Bottom club Derby County drew 1-1 away with Birmingham City.
Liverpool can go fifth with a point at home to Sunderland later on Saturday.
Arsenal were seconds away from a three-point lead but United minimised the damage of a below-par performance with virtually the last kick of the game at White Hart Lane to deny Spurs a first win over them since 2001.
With virtually every player on the pitch inside the Spurs area for a late corner, including United keeper Edwin Van der Sarr, Tevez connected at the near post.
Tottenham, beaten 3-1 by United in the FA Cup last week, were good value for their lead, given to them in the 21st minute by Bulgarian Berbatov after Van der Sarr failed to hold a low cross from Aaron Lennon.
Earlier, the prolific Adebayor took his league tally this season for Arsenal to 18. He opened the scoring after nine minutes, then turned provider after 26, heading down Gael Clichy's cross to Eduardo who chested down and volleyed in.
City were handed an unexpected lifeline minutes later when Vedran Corluka robbed Clichy and set up Fernades for a neat finish past keeper Jens Lehmann who started in place of the injured Manuel Almunia.
Arsenal did not sit on their lead in the second half but had to wait until two minutes from time to make the points certain after Cesc Fabregas's ball reached Adebayor on the edge of the area.
City's only other defeat at home this season came against Tottenham in the League Cup.
"At the moment I am enjoying myself like a little kid," Adebayor, who has scored eight goals in his last six games, told Sky Sports. "At 2-0 we thought we had already won it but they scored and that made it a bit difficult."
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by John Mehaffey)