Kevin De Bruyne opened the scoring, before Stones headed in a second shortly before the interval.
The Belgian made it three ten minutes after the break and Erling Haaland capped off a fine display with a late fourth after Rob Holding pulled one back for the Gunners.
Stones, who won 100% of his tackles at the Etihad Stadium, was impressed with City’s fighting spirit in a crucial encounter.
“I wouldn’t say it was total control. We have to give them a lot of respect and credit,” he said.
“We didn’t play our football as we normally do, we had man to man pressure and it was very difficult to play our usual passes. We tried to counter that by going more direct to Erling [Haaland].
“I’m delighted with the desire and how clinical we were tonight, we could have had more too. Bit disappointed by conceding the goal but I’m made up with the three points.”
The victory takes us to within two points of the league-leaders with Pep Guardiola‘s side still having two games in hand.
We have won four of the last five Premier League titles and the English defender believes that our experience of high pressure matches could be a key ingredient going into the final stretch of the title race.
“We’ve been through tough moments and situations at this stage in the season in the past and it’s done us so well,” he declared.
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“We know how to cope with situations and what to do in certain scenarios. It’s just about experience of being in those situations. Everyone’s been there and everyone has that hunger.
“We train and we know our jobs and what is asked for us on the pitch, it’s about us going out there and doing it.
“Those situations really do help in the big pressure moments.”
