But they will also rue their luck after twice hitting the post, either side of Haaland’s winner in the second half.
After Rayan Cherki’s stunning solo effort opened the scoring, City gifted the visitors a route back into the game when Kai Havertz charged down Gianluigi Donnarumma’s attempted clearance to equalise.
But the contrast in quality up front proved the difference.
Haaland pounced to sweep in his 34th goal of the season, 25 minutes from time, before Havertz headed over a glorious chance deep into stoppage time.
Guardiola’s men looked to prey on Arsenal’s anxiety in a blistering start.
Cherki’s deflected shot then came back off the post and City claims for a penalty against Gabriel Magalhaes for handball were ignored.
The visitors were just starting to gain a foothold when a moment of magic from Cherki prised open the Gunners’ notoriously mean defence.
The French international danced through challenges from Gabriel and Declan Rice before coolly slotting in the bottom corner.
However, Arsenal were handed an immediate lifeline thanks to Donnarumma’s disaster.
The giant Italian was the scourge of Arteta’s men when playing for Paris Saint-Germain in last season’s Champions League semi-finals.
But he handed them a gift as he dallied and allowed Havertz to charge down his attempted clearance into the top corner.
The nature of the equaliser knocked City off their stride and it took until Guardiola’s halftime team talk for the hosts to regain control.
Haaland should have scored when he hit the post after Arsenal failed to clear a corner.
But then came two moments which will haunt Arsenal if they fail to end their long wait to win the title.
Donnarumma redeemed himself with a massive save when one-on-one with Havertz before Martin Odegaard’s follow-up effort was hooked off the line by Matheus Nunes.
Moments later, Eberechi Eze hit the inside of the post and saw the ball roll agonisingly along the line rather than into Donnarumma’s net.
City pounced on their moment of fortune to retake the lead.
Haaland outmuscled Gabriel to meet Nico O’Reilly’s cross and hooked past David Raya.
Arsenal were denied by the woodwork once more when Gabriel’s header deflected off O’Reilly on to the post and Havertz failed to turn in the rebound.
Gabriel was then lucky to stay on the field after an attempted headbutt on Haaland received only a yellow card.
But they had the chance to level when Havertz connected sweetly with Leandro Trossard’s cross, but could not keep his header down.
Arteta fell to the ground in disbelief but now has the job of trying to raise his players for their final five games of the campaign.
Arsenal have on paper the kinder run-in but appear to have run out of steam when it matters once more.
**English Premier League results**
Everton 1 (Beto 54) Liverpool 2 (Salah 29, van Dijk 90+10)
Nottingham Forest 4 (Gibbs-White 62, 69, 77, Jesus 90+8) Burnley 1 (Flemming 45+2)
Aston Villa 4 (Watkins 2, 36, Rogers 46, Abraham 90+3) Sunderland 3 (Rigg 9, Hume 86, Isidor 87)
Manchester City 2 (Cherki 16, Haaland 65) Arsenal 1 (Havertz 18)