JOIN USA clinical double from Edin Dzeko helped Manchester City move to second in the Premier League with a 3-0 win at Manchester United on Tuesday while Arsenal's title hopes all but evaporated in a 2-2 draw with Swansea City.
Manchester City took the lead after 43 seconds at Old Trafford and never looked back, exposing United's soft centre almost at will with Dzeko and Yaya Toure netting in the second half to inflict another painful defeat on home boss David Moyes.
City, in ominous form after a 5-0 win over Fulham on Saturday, have moved into the slipstream of Chelsea and are three points behind the league leaders with two games in hand.
After the embarrassment of Saturday's thrashing by Chelsea, the onus was on Arsenal to show they were still in the title race and were not going to be dragged into a dogfight for a top-four finish.
Swansea, however, were up for a scrap and scented blood, taking the lead after 11 minutes when Bony directed a precise header into the net for his 11th league goal of the season.
The Swansea threat seemed to have passed when Podolski levelled in the 73rd minute with a volley and Giroud put the hosts ahead soon after by poking home from close range. But with the clock ticking down calamity struck and Flamini, the player Wenger was criticised for not starting against Chelsea, deflected the ball inadvertently into his own net.
"You wonder how we could draw a game like that," a bemused Wenger said. "At 2-1 we became too conservative because of what happened on Saturday and instead of continuing to attack it worries us more to keep the score."