Arsenal held off gritty Bolton's challenge to maintain their nine-point lead at the top and stretch their unbeaten start to the Premiership season to 29 games. The Gunners' victory equalled the 29-game record set by Leeds in 1973-4 and Liverpool in 1987-8.
The Gunners also set a club record of 31 league games unbeaten.
Arsenal were a class apart for the first 40 minutes. They took a 2-0 lead through Robert Pires and Dennis Bergkamp and looked like they were cruising.
Then Ivan Campo struck for Bolton out of the blue and the Gunners spent the rest of the game living on their nerves.
Bolton manager Sam Allardyce thought Arsenal's achievement was the best of the three because of the quality of the modern Premiership. He said before the game: "The Premiership is possibly the best league in the world now, so I think that Arsenal's achievement would be bigger than Leeds or Liverpool.
"If Arsene goes on to win the 'treble' he'll be like Sir Alex Ferguson, a modern-day great for his club." Yet the Bolton boss' side fought back from a seemingly hopeless position and might have pinched a shock point. He said: "After the goal, we put them under pressure further up the pitch and we created chances. It was a daunting task, but we showed great spirit against a quality side. Now we have to get something against Newcastle next weekend." Victory laid another ghost from last season for Arsenal. In March 2003, they lost 2-0 at Blackburn, a defeat that heralded the slump that cost them the championship. That slump continued with a 2-2 draw at Bolton when Allardyce's team fought back from 2-0 down.
Last weekend, Arsenal won 2-0 at Blackburn. Wenger said: "We were at our flattest last season when we lost at Blackburn and the draw at Bolton was another setback. We put one of those things right last weekend. We put the other right this weekend.
"We weren't thinking about a record. We just wanted to show our hunger. I think people are starting to appreciate the way we play. We're a young team. It's not as if we're trying to get old horses over the finishing line. There's far more to come from this team." The Arsenal manager added: "We've seen this story before. We were terrific early on - great passing, great movement, great goals.
"We eased up at 2-0. Maybe we thought: job done. Then they got a goal and they played very well. They're well-organised and they passed the ball well.
"Maybe we were a bit lucky at the end, like we were against Charlton in our last home game. Our dominance had gone by the second half.
"So we needed different qualities to make sure we won the game. We showed we know how to win when we weren't at our best." Bergkamp returned for Arsenal after a rib injury. Freddie Ljungberg was back in the squad after an abdominal injury, but Gilberto continued on the right.
Bolton were without hamstring victim Youri Djorkaeff and long-term casualties Florent Laville and Ricardo Gardner.
The kick-off was delayed for 15 minutes because of the high winds. Bolton started with Campo as a midfield anchor in front of the back four. Davies operated as a lone striker, supported by breaks from Jay-Jay Okocha and Henrik Pedersen.
Bolton midfielder Kevin Nolan had the game's first attempt, a third-minute snap shot that blew away on the wind.
Premiership top scorer Thierry Henry was more accurate a minute later. He burst o nto Patrick Vieira's pass and unleashed a 25-yard shot which beat Jussi Jaaskelainen and thudded off the bar. Henry and Robert Pires quickly tested the Bolton keeper with curlers from distance.
Pires broke the deadlock after 16 minutes. Edu and Bergkamp built the move. Pires collected the Dutchman's pass and bent a 20-yard shot past Jaaskelainen. That meant Bolton have kept only one clean sheet in their last 17 games.
Jaaskelainen denied the Gunners with a point-blank stop to thwart Ashley Cole's effort, but he had no chance in the 24th minute as Bergkamp stretched to guide home Henry's left-side cross for Arsenal's second.
Wenger had warned the leaders to beware of Davies after his inspirational display against them in December, when Henrik Pedersen equalised to cancel out Pires' goal. In the first half, Davies was isolated by the physical presence of Sol Campbell and Kolo Toure.
Jaaskelainen saved low from Gilberto before Bolton shocked the Gunners four minutes before half-time - after their first corner. Jens Lehmann punched out the swirling kick, Bruno N'Gotty returned the ball and Campo reacted fastest inside the six-yard box.
Bolton almost sprang an even bigger surprise in stoppage time as Stelios Giannakopoulos headed against the bar with Lehmann beaten.
Davies nipped in between the Arsenal centre-backs to head wide Giannakopoulos' cross as the second half opened.
Suddenly Wenger's warning looked prescient. Nicky Hunt showed Bolton's growing confidence with a well-timed tackle as Pires threatened to break clear.
Wenger's expression grew concerned. His side had lost their early fluency. A decisive third goal eluded them. Jaaskelainen flung himself full length to keep out Henry's volley as Arsenal tried to step up the pressure.
Bergkamp fired too high before Wenger sent on Ljungberg for Gilberto to increase the threat. Bergkamp beat the offside trap and passed to Ljungberg who was blocked by Simon Charlton.
Bolton almost had the last word when Campo fired over in stoppage time. So Arsenal finished among the records.
They are nine points ahead of Chelsea and 12 clear of Manchester United, unbeaten with nine games to play. But they had to do it the hard way.
MAN OF THE MATCH (Shared): Thierry Henry, lively as ever - unlucky not to score and set up the second goal for Bergkamp; Jussi Jaaskelainen - his early saves kept Bolton in the game.