Arsenal returned to winning ways with a 2-0 victory at AFC Bournemouth on Sunday that sees them move above Manchester City and into third place in the Barclays Premier League.
The Gunners came into the fixture on the back of four league matches without a win and having failed to score in their last three but two goals in quick succession midway through the first half at Vitality Stadium ended that run.
Mesut Ozil netted the opener with a powerful finish before Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain swiftly doubled the lead to score his first BPL goal away from Emirates Stadium.
The victory moves Arsenal level on points with Tottenham Hotspur in second and to within five of leaders Leicester City, who the Gunners host in a crunch title clash next Sunday.
AFC Bournemouth, meanwhile, suffered their first defeat in four matches and remain five points clear of the relegation zone in 15th position.
Eddie Howe's men were unchanged for Sunday's contest, while Arsenal brought in Oxlade-Chamberlain for Joel Campbell.
The early stages saw Mathieu Flamini booked for a heavy challenge on Dan Gosling while Alexis Sanchez lashed a shot over from a tight angle after latching on to Aaron Ramsey's bouncing pass.
It was the match's first shot on target which produced a goal from Ozil on 23 minutes. A deep cross from Ramsey was headed down by Olivier Giroud and the German playmaker impressively arrowed a right-footed shot into the roof of the net.
Within 88 seconds, the lead was doubled. A poor piece of defending saw Steve Cook give away possession and Ramsey took advantage to slip a pass to Oxlade-Chamberlain, who directed an excellent finish in off the far post.
Bournemouth almost got back into the game when Harry Arter beat two men and unleashed an impressive dipping strike that was kept out by an acrobatic Petr Cech save.
Both sides exchanged decent chances early in the second half, with Adam Smith forcing his way past Laurent Koscielny before firing a shot against the side netting for the hosts.
A few moments later, Sanchez collected a pass from Ozil at the other end and had a shot beaten away by Artur Boruc.
AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe: "It was a slow start from us, which is totally against what we wanted. We wanted to put them under pressure and really make it a difficult start to the game. They dominated possession, we found it hard to get really good pressure on the ball which is unlike us.
"They scored two goals on the back on that and from that point I felt we reacted very, very well and second half we dominated. It's the early stages of the game that I was disappointed with."
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger: "It was a must-win game - we had not won for a while. We started strong and after that you could see that our worry was to keep the result. We have only lost one game but we had not won for four games and of course that was on our mind.
"The most important is always to win. The confidence was not completely at its maximum but sometimes you have to scrap through games like that and get the three points. We had a strong start, with good finishing and we controlled the game. We beat a good side, it was three difficult points but three very important points."
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