Arsenal beat Sunderland 3-2 on Sunday to move back to the top of the Premier League after Robin van Persie secured victory with a well-worked winner 10 minutes from time.

It was Arsenal's 10th successive win in all competitions, but they made hard work of it after racing into a 2-0 lead in the opening 14 minutes before allowing Sunderland to pull level early in the second half.

Arsenal looked set for another straightforward win after goals from Dutch striker van Persie and Swiss defender Philippe Senderos gave them a 2-0 lead after only 14 minutes in the early kickoff.

Sunderland fought back with Ross Wallace scoring against the run of play after 25 minutes and Kenwyne Jones heading the equaliser three minutes after the break.

Persie strikes
Van Persie struck the winner in the closing stages. Arsenal, who have led the table for the last three weeks, were knocked off the top by Manchester United on Saturday after the champions beat Wigan Athletic 4-0 at Old Trafford.

Arsenal have 22 points from eight matches, United 20 from nine.  Two goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and one each from Carlos Tevez and Wayne Rooney secured United's sixth successive league win without conceding a goal.
In the only other Premier League match played on Saturday, Aston Villa beat West Ham United 1-0 at Villa Park with a 24th-minute free kick from Craig Gardner.  Villa climb from ninth to fifth in the standings with 14 points from their opening eight games. After a bright start , Wigan are slipping down the table with four losses in their last five matches.