In-form striker Emmanuel Adebayor continued his fine goalscoring run as he set Arsenal on their way to a 3-0 win over Newcastle United, which sent the Gunners back to the top of the Premier League.
The Togo international, whose best efforts could not lead his country to the African Nations Cup, crashed in a flying header five minutes before the break to make it nine goals in his last seven appearances - scoring in each and netting the opener in three successive league matches.
A superb 25-yard strike by Mathieu Flamini midway through the second half and another from Cesc Fabregas made sure of an 11th home win for Arsene Wenger's men, who leapfrog over Manchester United, for 24 hours at least.
It was a positive start by the hosts, going into the match unbeaten in seven Premier League outings.
On seven minutes, full-back Gael Clichy burst forwards and almost collected a quick exchange pass from Fabregas, but saw his run halted on the edge of the penalty area by Steven Taylor.
Newcastle - with new executive director Dennis Wise watching from the comfort of the Emirates Stadium premier 'Diamond Club' seats - were well beaten, also 3-0, here on Saturday to end their FA Cup dreams, but Kevin Keegan's men again looked to have plenty of ambition going forwards, particularly down the flanks, if without any end product.
Arsenal pressed again on 17 minutes, with Alexander Hleb's cross from the right picking out Diaby on the penalty spot, but a flying challenge from Nicky Butt was enough to put the midfielder off his header - and see him get clattered into the bargain.
Adebayor almost capitalised on a rash pass from Taylor inside his own penalty area, which goalkeeper Shay Given coolly back-heeled behind as the Togo frontman, with 18 goals already, closed in.
Steve Carr then made a timely block in the six-yard box to clear Bacary Sagna's low cross from the right as Eduardo arrived at the far post.
A lovely interchange between Hleb and Flamini put the Frenchman into the right side of the penalty area.
His chip across goal found Adebayor - but the Togo striker got under the ball and lashed a fierce volley over the crossbar.
However, on 40 minutes, the big African got it right to head Arsenal into the lead.
Flamini was again the provider, this time riding a challenge from Butt and bursting into space before delivering a perfectly-weighted cross towards the far post, where Adebayor made no mistake.
Flamini was then called into action at the other end when he cut out Milner's pass at the near post.
Newcastle were not about to lie down and continued to take the game to their hosts, making use of all available space on the flanks.
At the other end, Diaby made space for a shot from the edge of the area, but his effort flew harmlessly wide.
After 56 minutes, Newcastle introduced Joey Barton, as David Rozehnal made way.
Arsenal continued to press as they looked to make sure of a return to the Premier League summit, with current leaders United set to host Portsmouth on Wednesday night.
On 67 minutes, Given was called into action again when he got down quickly to dive on Flamini's low 20-yard strike, which looked to be sneaking into the bottom right corner.
Eduardo was replaced for the final 20 minutes by Nicklas Bendtner - paring the young Dane in attack alongside Adebayor since their bust-up in the Carling Cup semi-final defeat at Tottenham.
Moments later, and it was 2-0.
Diaby collected the ball by the right touchline, and fed Fabregas. He in turn played it back to Flamini. The midfielder set himself before unleashing a superb strike into the top right-hand corner from 25 yards.
Any hopes Newcastle had of getting back into the match ended when Fabregas made it 3-0 with ten minutes left from Bendtner's centre.
Adebayor was given a deserved rest when Walcott came on for the closing stages.
By then, though, the hard work had already been done as the Gunners showed little sign of letting up in their title challenge.
Newcastle, however, almost snatched late consolation goal when Butt's free-kick skipped up off the wall and onto the crossbar.
