Arsene Wenger hailed a "dynamic performance" after Arsenal cruised to a 3-0 win over Aston Villa which saw them strengthen their grip on third place in the league.
The Gunners made it seven straight league wins to capitalise on Tottenham's goalless draw at Chelsea with first half goals from Kieran Gibbs and Theo Walcott.
Villa regrouped after the break, but rarely threatened, before Mikel Arteta cracked in a fine free-kick in stoppage time as Arsenal coasted to victory.
Wenger said: "I felt it was a very dynamic, fluent performance in the first half with top technical quality.
"It was a controlled performance in the second half, but our fatigue came in a bit because we gave a lot at Everton on Wednesday night.
"We have consistency at the moment, so let's go home and wait for the next game."
Arsenal have now increased their lead over Spurs to three points, with fifth-placed Chelsea now eight behind in the race for guaranteed Champions League football next season.
Wenger, though, is not taking anything for granted.
"At the time [we were 17th] I agree it was a dream to be in third, but what you do is you come in and do your job as well as you can, stay positive and work hard. I was optimistic because the attitude of the players was positive every day.
"We have gone through difficult times, we have learned that nothing is guaranteed and we must keep humility and focus to finish the season in a strong, convincing way."
Wenger added: "In the past month it has turned our way so we have to make sure we keep the momentum. We look to be a team on the up so that is positive.
"We look at the next game and try to win it - that's all we can do."
Walcott's goal on 25 minutes was perfectly executed, the England winger collecting a chipped pass from Alex Song before slotting the ball past Shay Given.
The Cameroon international supplied a similar cross for captain Robin van Persie to net a last-gasp winner at Liverpool.
Wenger said: "I would like to give credit to the pass from Song, because it is not the first time he has done that.
"You do not see many defensive midfielders [do that]. If you look at the assists that he has made this season, you will see that his numbers are top in Europe."
Arsenal had made just one change from the team which won at Everton in midweek, with Gervinho replacing Aaron Ramsey, but were forced into another before kick-off when centre-half Laurent Koscielny could not overcome a knee problem in the warm-up, so Johan Djourou was drafted into the backline.
"He tried in the warm-up, but could not play," Wenger said.
"He came to see me and said he was not sure that he could play with that pain.
"Straight away after the first run he said he could not even move. How bad it is we have to assess that."
Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish felt the early goals his side gave away were "pretty lamentable".
He said: "From our point of view, it was very weak defending.
"At 2-0 down in the second half, we said if we could get a goal back then we could have made Arsenal nervous and we did have a couple of chances.
"But we have to be realistic if people thought we would come here and win."
Villa have an eight-point cushion ahead of the relegation zone, but their next two fixtures are at home to Chelsea and then away at Liverpool.
McLeish said: "There are a few teams who have less points than us, but we need to get ourselves a bit further up the table.
"We have a game next week and have to be positive.
"We have got to concentrate on the glass being half full rather than half empty."
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