Tottenham 0 - Arsenal 1: Tomas Rosicky stunner sinks Spurs

"It is a derby and we know the derby is for winning," he said.

There seemed to be something more significant than the acquisition of three points about the way the Arsenal fans remained behind en masse to celebrate another derby win and receive the appreciation of their heroes.

Nobody, though, was getting far enough carried away to think this is any sort of mission accomplished, of course.

A glance at the fixture list and the prospect of a visit to Chelsea next week is enough to keep any of those thoughts at bay.

But Arsene Wenger can go to Stamford Bridge knowing that because they still have to play both Jose Mourinho's side and Manchester City, to a large degree their hopes of ending a 10-year wait for the title in their own hands.

All he can hope for is another slice of magic like the one Tomas Rosicky produced after just 72 seconds of yesterday's kick-off.

"I think that was definitely one of the best goals I have scored," the Czech Republic winger said. "I am delighted by a goal like that but the most important thing is that we won the game.

"After the ball bounced back to me I just wanted to hit it. I was aiming for the far post but I just wanted to hit it. Luckily it went in."

Of course, next week's game will be Arsene Wenger's 1,000th. The 64-year-old is far from putting together any scrapbooks to mark the milestone, but if he were to then Rosicky's thunderous shot from the right-edge of the penalty area would certainly find a place.

"It will go in my collection of great goals," he said. "I told Tomas that, because first of all he is not a typical goalscorer. He surprised everyone.

"We had no time to even realise what he was doing and it was in the back of the net. It was an unbelievable goal.

"Top five? My memory is not big enough to collect them all in one go but it's one of the top goals we scored this season." From that moment on, Arsenal were as outplayed as they have been by anybody in the Premier League this season.

But while Tottenham had an unprecedented 59 per cent of possession, the could not find away past Arsenal's stalwart defence.

Arsenal, in fact, had the next best chance - a break from the halfway line by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain that sadly only led to a badly-fluffed lob.

Emmanuel Adebayor seemed determined to unsettle his former club to the full extent of his ability but even with that weapon at their disposal, Tottenham managed only two shot on target - the last a desperate final curler which Wojciech Szczesny clung resolutely on to.

"It is a huge result," Wenger said. "We were under pressure to win and it was a very important game. We got the early goal and after that it was a bit of a mixture. The early goal influenced the way we played too much. We missed a second goal and after that we wanted to protect the lead and we were under pressure.

"They were absolutely up for it and we needed some special resilience to get away with it. For us it's three massive points.

"It gets us a bit it closer to Chelsea and makes the game next week even more interesting. We're back to four points with a game in hand and we have played two away games on the trot. So we have five games at home. We'll see. But it makes the next game a very big one."

And none come bigger than top-of-the-table Chelsea. Technically a derby. So technically, as Koscielny would have it, for winning.

"We are against direct rivals," Wenger said. "We just came out of three big games against Everton, Bayern and today without losing. Mentally every time you need to be absolutely focused."

More so than in their often-flaky past, Arsenal really seem to be.