It's Arsenal's for the taking: Inspired Ozil can fire Wenger to the title

If this was the defining match of the Premier League season so far, then it was the night when Arsenal announced themselves as favourites to win the title.

The roar of 60,000 supporters at the full-time whistle was one of joy, passion and - most importantly - belief.

Because it now truly feels like this is Arsenal’s season. It’s certainly their title to lose if we are to assume that at some point Leicester will fade away.

While the rest of the division's big clubs are in varying degrees of turmoil, Arsenal are stable, together and brimming with confidence.

On Monday night, they showed the character of champions to beat their biggest title rivals Manchester City 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium.

It almost made more of a statement that they had to pass a huge test and defend resolutely against a barrage of City attacks in the final stages after Yaya Toure had scored to put the visitors back in the game.

Arsene Wenger has consistently defended the mentality of a group of players which have always seemed fragile.

With Arsenal, you usually sense that the next crisis is just around the corner.

This time, though, it really might be different.

Even without the likes of Alexis Sanchez, Santi Cazorla and Francis Coquelin, they found a way to beat a City that were able to start a £50 million signing on the bench in Raheem Sterling.

They are two points behind leaders Leicester at Christmas and will be eyeing top spot for the turn of the year.

In many ways, this display was similar to the manner in which Arsenal beat City 2-0 in Manchester in January that started their excellent run of form in the calendar year 2015.

Arsene Wenger has so often lost against the better sides because of his desire to outplay opponents and the subsequent amount of space afforded to players with the quality to punish them.

Here, the hosts sat deep, restricted space between the lines and looked to spring on the counter-attack.

It could hardly have worked out any better. Wenger spends much of his time talking about “efficiency” in front of goal and his players went in 2-0 ahead at the break having scored with both of their attempted shots on goal.

It needed a little luck and the night may have panned out very differently had Kevin De Bruyne not dragged wide of the post from a fantastic position in the 32nd minute.

It might end up being a sliding doors moment in the title race because one minute later, Arsenal took the lead through a brilliant strike from Theo Walcott as he curled into the corner from the edge of the penalty area.

He was set up by Mesut Ozil and the assist King took his tally to 15 for the season in the Premier League in added time at the end of the first-half as he fed Olivier Giroud and the striker fired low into the bottom corner.

In the second-half, the game-management was almost perfect and the Gunners and it would have been all over had Joel Campbell and then Aaron Ramsey missed glorious chances to score a third.

Toure’s stunning strike late on ensured a nerve-jangling denouement as Wenger paced on the touchline, shadow kicking every ball and squeezing his players forward to close space on the pitch.

Wenger will never have a better chance to win his first title since his dominant Invincibles side in 2004. This was the night when every Arsenal fan truly began to believe.