Another thriller of a game at Highbury. Three Arsenal goals again, but this time there had to be.

Paul Merson put Villa ahead, brushing Upson aside and finishing with a cute lob over Taylor, at the end of a "route one" move.

Their second was a scrappy affair, Steve Stone finishing well after a bit of pinball.

Arsenal had had over 60% of the game at half time but were 2 goals down. Shades of Charlton maybe, but the Gunners showed their newfound character this time.

Wiltord smashed home a volley after Parlour's attempted cross found it's way to him thanks to deflections off 2 defenders. Sylvain had been on the pitch for about a minute.

Then Henry levelled things. Vieira win the ball on the half-way line on the left wing, and sent a diagonal ball forward for Henry to run onto. It was awkward but Tel just managed to control the ball as it fell to him, and kept his cool to stroke it home.

We thought we'd got a winner when Henry turned provider to slip the ball through the defence for Wiltord, but it was given offside. I thought not at the time, and replays suggest we were indeed hard done by.

But halfway through 4 minutes of injury time, Pires set Henry loose with a pass from just inside the Villa half, and Henry slotted a low shot past Enckelman to win the game.

The Merse was gutted. In post-match interviews he made a good point about their defending towards the end, pointing out that in those last couple of minutes (after we'd taken the lead) "the best player in the world" (Paddy) hoofed the ball into row X. His point was that Villa need to learn to do that sort of thing at those sort of times. Our point is: perhaps the lesson of White Hart Lane has been learned.

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