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Manchester City rediscovered its attacking verve in the English Premier League on Saturday, beating Fulham 3-0 to maintain its perfect home record and keep Manchester United at arm’s length in the title race.

City’s 12th straight league victory at Etihad Stadium left the leader three points clear of United.

The most resounding victory came at the Emirates Stadium, where Arsenal rebounded in style from its miserable recent run in the league by hammering Blackburn 7-1 — with Robin van Persie grabbing a hat-trick to take his tally for the campaign to 22 goals.

Thierry Henry also scored for Arsene Wenger’s team, which climbed above Newcastle and Liverpool into fifth place and within two points of Chelsea — the holder of the final Champions League qualifying spot.

Argentina forward Sergio Aguero converted a penalty for his 15th league goal of the season and also set up strike partner Edin Dzeko as City battled through heavy snow that afflicted the majority of games in the English program.

“If we want to win this league, we need to win lots of games here until the end. We can’t think about United or Tottenham,” City manager Roberto Mancini said.

Fulham defender Chris Baird scored an own-goal to compound the misery for Fulham, which was the first team to take points off City this campaign by rallying to a 2-2 draw in the reverse fixture in September.

Elsewhere, Sunderland’s impressive run under new manager Martin O’Neill continued with a 1-0 win at Stoke, while Wolverhampton Wanderers capitalized on the sending-off of Djibril Cisse on his home debut for Queens Park Rangers to rally to a 2-1 win and climb out of the relegation zone.

Bolton dropped into the bottom three with a 2-0 loss at Norwich, Swansea came from behind to defeat West Bromwich Albion 2-1 and bottom team Wigan held Everton to a 1-1 draw. 

AP