Tomas Rosicky's early stunner was all Arsenal needed to defeat North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur in this afternoon's Premier League game at White Hart Lane.

It took the Gunners just 72 seconds to go in front through Rosicky, who silenced the home supporters with a rocket half-volley from the right corner of the penalty area that Hugo Lloris was powerless to prevent.

The visitors should have doubled their lead on the quarter-hour mark but Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain duffed his attempted dink with just Lloris to beat after surging through the Tottenham backline.

Spurs then saw plenty of the ball but couldn't carve out an opening and soon Oxlade-Chamberlain had another chance to score but he could only drag wide from just outside the box.

Lukas Podolski was the next to go close for the Gunners, firing into the side-netting from a narrow angle, as they started to look menacing on the counter-attack.

Just a couple of minutes after half time Spurs were somehow denied an equaliser when Nacer Chadli's goalbound shot was kept out on the line by a combination of Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny.

Next to come close for the hosts was former Gunner Emmanuel Adebayor, who outjumped Koscielny but could only head wide at the back post.

Arsenal weren't seeing much of the ball but almost stole a second when Mertesacker's shot after a Mikel Arteta free kick was instinctively kept out by Lloris.

Tottenham's last effort to salvage a point came from Adebayor, whose curling effort from 20 yards was a comfortable height for Wojciech Szczesny to stop.

A win for Arsenal sees them move level on points with Liverpool in second. They are four points adrift of league leaders Chelsea but do have a game in-hand.

Tim Sherwood's Spurs stay fifth but now have played two games more than Everton, who have two games in-hand on them and have two points fewer.