Arsenal are once more a step behind Manchester United at the top of the Premiership, having won a league match here for the first time in seven visits. The first half was a stroll for Arsene Wenger's side, but the strength of Aston Villa's subsequent recovery at least brought the odd bead of sweat to Arsenal's brow.
They remain comfortably placed, a point adrift of the champions with a game in hand, and should extraordinary deeds be required to wrest the title from Old Trafford, then Arsenal clearly have the men to achieve them.
Yesterday, David Seaman and Robert Pires produced moments which raised an otherwise run-of-the-mill encounter to exceptional heights.
Early in the second half, Seaman showed all his old expertise in keeping out a penalty from Gareth Barry which, had it gone in, would have brought the scores level at 1-1 and might well have inspired Villa to pose a real threat to Arsenal's unbeaten away record in the league.
Then, a few minutes later, Pires increased their half-time lead with a piece of outrageous individualism. Even by Arsenal's recent standards this one was special - and also necessary, given the stimulating effect on Villa's attack of the decision to introduce Dion Dublin for the second half.
Dublin's goal 21 minutes from the end, scored with a header of typical power and accuracy, assured Villa Park of a tense finish which went a long way towards banishing the home fans' grim memories of what had gone - or in Villa's case not gone - before. It also posed the question of why he had not been on at the start.
After all, it was he who had caused Arsenal's defenders so many problems at Highbury before Christmas, when Aston Villa led 2-0 at the interval only to be beaten by Thierry Henry's winner in stoppage time. Perhaps Dublin was a casualty of the break in continuity caused by the departure of one manager, John Gregory, and the return of Graham Taylor in his place.
Taylor rightly pointed out that Villa's second-half improvement was down to more than one man. "Yes, Dion caused them great problems," he said, "but in the first half we did not show the passion we had in the second."
Sven-Goran Eriksson saw Darius Vassell, whose well-taken goal brought England a draw in Holland last month, asked to take on the Arsenal defence with only occasional support from Paul Merson. It was a thankless task.
The Villa midfield seemed to have taken root in the lumpy, bumpy pitch, so rarely did George Boateng, Hassan Kachloul or the gauche German 19-year-old Thomas Hitzlsperger move into attacking positions. This will never be easy for any team when Patrick Vieira is in such awesome form, but until half-time Villa appeared to accept the situation just a mite too easily.
The goal with which Arsenal went ahead was a scrambled affair. Kachloul went in dangerously high on Edu and Dennis Bergkamp tapped the free-kick to Sylvain Wiltord whose long, low shot, while well-struck, should have been held by Peter Schmeichel. He spilled the ball to Vieira, however, and the Frenchman's shot rebounded off the goalkeeper to Edu, who finally found the net.
Eventually, Pires stole the show. Boateng seemed to be well placed to cut out Freddie Ljungberg's crossfield pass but it reached Pires, who flicked the ball over the Dutchman's head, ran past him and then beat Schmeichel with an exquisite lob.
ASTON VILLA: Schmeichel, Delaney, Mellberg, Staunton, Samuel, Kachloul (Hadji 45), Boateng, Hitzlsperger, Barry, Merson (Hendrie 79), Vassell (Dublin 45). Subs Not Used: Enckelman, Stone. Booked: Boateng. Goals: Dublin 69.
ARSENAL: Seaman, Lauren, Campbell, Stepanovs (Dixon 45), Luzhny, Ljungberg (Grimandi 71), Vieira, Edu, Pires, Bergkamp (Kanu 76), Wiltord. Subs Not Used: Wright, Tavlaridis. Booked: Luzhny, Ljungberg. Goals: Edu 15, Pires 60.
Referee: S Dunn (Bristol).
