Arsene summed it up simply, brilliant and resilient. The first half we served up the a most exquisite display of football that typifies wengerball. Hleb pulling Villa apart with an almost magical ability to keep the ball at his feet. For the second half Martin O’Neil must gave Villa a team talk that the FA would pay millions for, they came out a totally different team as did Arsenal.

We started with some good possession and crisp passing but it was Villa who scored in the 14th minute. Flamini giving away possession, putting us immediately on the back foot, a deflected header caught Clichy in a poor position allowing Villa to score. Flamini being Flamini made amends by blasting a Rosicky lay-off in the bottom corner.

Hleb and Rosicky caused Villa all sort of problems, some quick footwork and one touch passing ensued, it was a beautiful thing to see. Flamini was in the mood for a second, Sagna and Eboue finding much joy on the right hand side. I was not long before Sagna found Adebayor with a lofted cross, headed home for a second by the lanky centre forward.

The rest of the half continued in very much the same vein, but we failed to put add another to the score.

The second half was a different game completely, with Villa working harder to close down Arsenal, not allowing us space, and putting pressure on our defence. O’Neil showed why he would be a perfect choice for England. Arsenal was not given anything for free, Villa worked hard, this time they were getting on top of us literally, with Carey posing a constant threat in our goal area.

Fifteen minutes into the second half we had a great opportunity going forward, Carew realised the trouble they were in and chose to bring down Hleb with a cynical challenge from behind. The ref could half produced a red card but brandished a yellow instead.

From the minute Hleb went out of the game, we took on a different complexion, went into resilience mode setting out to prevent Villa from scoring and looking to play on the counter attack. Villa applied pressure and was the better team, but we showed that there are two sides to this team, we were confident in defence and produce a steely titaniumy (strong as steel but more lightweight and nimble) display to keep out the in form Villa. On a night of thunder and brimstone we came through the toughest of challenges with 3 points.

Hleb got a gash to the back of his legs for all his troubles, it shouldn’t be too bad though. Up next Newcastle, a good time to put Fat Sam out of his misery.