Ashley Cole's magnificent first half goal was enough to extend Arsenal's unbeaten run to 47 games and see off brave Manchester City at Eastlands.

The England international showed remarkable poise to strike early in the first half after he seized on a loose ball in the penalty area.

But Arsenal had to dig deep to ensure they hung on to all three points, as Kevin Keegan's City pressed them hard from the start and could consider themselves slightly unfortunate not to anything from an entertaining game.

Using possession astutely and tackling with purpose, the Blues made a bright start and showed no signs of having an inferiority complex against an Arsenal side that had been victorious on the last 10 occasions they had met.

Shaun Wright-Phillips played Jon Macken in on four minutes with a clever ball inside Ashley Cole but as cleanly as the striker got his shot away, his effort was too close to Jens Lehmann to cause the German goalkeeper trouble.

Nicolas Anelka was next to try his luck moments later, wriggling away from Sol Campbell - who was making his first appearance of the season - to unleash a volley that flashed Lehmann's left-hand upright.

There is always a feeling, though, whenever Arsenal play that no matter how much pressure they are put under, no matter how much teams try to ruffle them up, they are only one break away from a goal. So it proved.

In the blink of an eye, Wenger's men had burst forward, the ball racing between Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry into the feet of Jose Antonio Reyes, who tried to play Henry back in.

Richard Dunne intercepted that pass but Cole had ghosted in to reclaim possession and he ghosted past Sylvain Distin to nonchalantly flick a left-foot shot past the helpless David James.

To their credit, City refused to buckle and tried as hard as they could to get a foothold back in the game. Chinese international Jihai Sun ended one adventurous run with an effort that had Lehmann scrambling across his goalmouth.

With their superior firepower, however, Arsenal always looked the more likely side to score and Henry was desperately unlucky not to add a second on 28 minutes when James denied him with a magnificent save.

Whereas City were all huff but no puff, the Premiership champions - with the superb Bergkamp and Henry excelling - oozed the class and had the weapons to blow their hosts' house down at anytime.

They surprisingly failed to add to their tally before the interval, though they should have extended their lead shortly after the re-start when Henry skipped to the byline, crossed for Freddie Ljungberg but the Sun cleared the Swede's shot off the line.

Try as Arsenal did, however, they simply could not shake City off and Anelka again went close on 54 minutes, when he latched on to Macken's excellent cross only to see that Lehmann was equal to the task.

Arsenal responded through the diligent Cole again, but this time the England international saw an upright prevent him from scoring again with James well and truly beaten.