Emmanuel Adebayor scored the decisive third goal in a pulsating encounter from which Manchester City emerged with their 100 per cent record intact.
Two weeks after dominating at Old Trafford, yet finishing on the losing side against Manchester United, Arsene Wenger experienced similar emotions on the blue half of the city after a staggering contest where for long periods, they appeared the most likely winner.
When Shaun Wright-Phillips sent over a vicious cross, ex-Gunner Adebayor had no intention other than to find the net, which he duly did, sending a capacity crowd into ecstasy.
It meant City have now won four matches, the Togo striker scoring in the lot.
It was the visitors who started better and William Gallas should have put them ahead with a far post header. Instead, the Frenchman sent it fizzing over, providing City with an escape the fickle finger of fate ensured they took full advantage of.
True, without Gareth Barry's curling free-kick after Craig Bellamy had been blocked off by Bacary Sagna, or Richards' towering header, there would have been no goal.
Yet as Almunia pushed the header onto a post, then helplessly turned it home as the ball cannoned straight back towards him, the assist should go down in a column marked 'luck'.
So eager to impress, Adebayor was a notable presence without doing anything significant.
Had Bellamy not wasted a cross, he might have been presented with a tap-in.
Wenger has been criticised for his lack of summer signings. But after 20 months on the sidelines following major knee surgery, having Tomas Rosicky available must feel like a new arrival.
The momentum definitely changed following the Czech star's introduction for Denilson, their passing becoming more threatening, their attacks presenting more obvious danger.
Gallas had already brought one excellent reaction save out of Given with a stooping near-post header when Rosicky collected Sagna's short pass and fed the ball calmly through to Van Persie.
Joleon Lescott lunged in despairingly, but Van Persie simply skipped past the £22m man and drove a precise shot into the bottom corner.
Wenger probably could not believe how Arsenal failed to get their noses in front during the minutes that followed, as his team assumed total control.
But when Richards cut inside Song after receiving Wright-Phillips' pass he found Bellamy, who swept home to City's glee.
That would have brought joy enough to Eastlands. But, having presented Wright-Phillips with a tap-in after beating three men near the by-line, only for the England star to miss, Adebayor decided it was time to do the job himself as he headed home the third.
City survived a breathless finale in which Wright-Phillips stretched their lead before Rosicky pulled one back and van Persie hit a post.
