Arsenal:
               Lehmann
Eboue (Djourou 67) Toure Senderos Flamini
  Pires Cesc (Diaby 16) Gilberto Reyes
    Henry (van Persie 64) Adebayor

Villa may have been rubbish, but they did get a few chances, and the fact that we kept a clean sheet was due as much to good defending as to bad finishing. Lehmann made some excellent stops.

The only negative to come from the game was the injuries to Cesc Fabregas and Emmanuel Eboue, they are both rated as only 50-50 for the Champs League second leg in Turin on Wednesday.

On 6 minutes Reyes was put through on the left and cut back a perfect ball to Thierry Henry near the penalty spot. He had plenty of time to shoot, but it was on such a nice plate for him that he could have just blasted it first time and have been 90% for a goal. But he decided to slip it on to Robert Pires who was further to the right inside the box. But Pires, understandably, was not expecting the ball. He'd moved forward a touch, presumably and properly to be there for the rebound if Henry's shot was saved. And as a result the pass went a tad behind him, and Bobby fell over trying to get hold of it.

A couple of minutes later Villa put a dangerous looping cross towards Lehmann's right hand post, but he managed to catch it right under the bar. A minute later Henry was tripped near the right corner of the Villa box. The ref didn't see it but the lino gave it. Reyes hit the free kick straight into the wall.

On 14 minutes the visitors had a chance to take the lead. Eboue had been caught out of position a little naively when chasing back from an attack. He got to a Villa player, who had the ball on Eboue's wing, then Henry came over to help and Eboue should have dropped back to cover the space behind. He didn't, and another Villa man came into that space to receive the ball when Henry and Eboue combined failed to prevent the pass. It was squared to Kevin Phillips on the edge of our box and he took a couple of very nice touches to make space for the shot, but then hit a pretty poor low shot that was very easy for Lehmann to drop onto.

A quarter of an hour in, Cesc limped off with a foot injury to be replaced by Abou Diaby. Nice to see Diaby getting some game-time, but let's hope that Cesc is ok for Wednesday. His presence on the pitch grows more and more with every game, and it could be by next season that people will talk about his importance to the Arsenal game as they used to talk about Patrick Vieira. Not that those people will be right, in my view, because our midfield is so strong now. Personally I think that Hleb is more than capable of playing Cesc's role alongside Gilberto if we want a crafty attacking player there, and then there's Diaby of course.

On 18 minutes a nice move forward, involving Diaby and Henry interchanging passes, ended with Henry's final ball into the box for Diaby being cut out just before reaching him. Villa took the ball up the other end and Phillips was put through 1 on 1 in the box on his left. Lehmann came out well which helped make sure that Phillips chipped the ball wide.

From that goal-kick came the first goal. Eboue whacked a magnificent long pass, from deep on the right side of defence towards the left side of the box for Henry to chase. Sorensen came over and managed to get a hand on it first, but didn't push it far enough. Henry ran back to retrieve and hit the ball as he turned, a perfect looping shot over the keeper and towards the far post. Aaron Hughes, who'd been at fault for trying to play Henry offside rather than track back with him, had managed to get back to the goal-line and did well to head it out from under the bar. But amends were not made, as it popped up to the right for Adebayor who jumped and headed it straight back in. It hit the bottom of the bar and went in off the top of Hughes' head.

Seconds after the restart, Eboue fired a cross/shot from the right wing which found Henry coming across the 6 yard line from left to right. He tried just jumping over the ball which was a cute idea, but the keeper didn't make the move towards his left hand post which would left space to make it work. Henry gets some criticism in the stand for things like this, and the early incident where he was bound to score if he hadn't passed to Pires instead. But let's face it, he's not just a goal machine, he's an all-round player who enjoys making goals for his team-mates too. And that's one of the things that must make him such a joy to play with, so aren't we better off accepting and enjoying it?

On 25 some great running from Adebayor on the left wing nearly created one for Henry. The squared ball came to him in the D and he controlled with his first touch and tried a difficult shot with his second as the ball rose, but it went wide. Villa's goal-kick quickly came back to Arsenal, and Mathieu Flamini matched Eboue's effort for the first goal with a wonderful long lobbed pass forward for Henry. Thierry brought the ball down with an outstretched leg and, as Sorenson approached, chipped it over the keeper with his second touch, a very high chip which bounced on the goal-line and in.

On the half-hour, a terrific cross-field pass from Pires found Reyes on the left. He took it forward then played it back across the pitch to Adebayor on the right. His high cross was going past behind Henry 10 yards out so he tried an overhead but missed the ball.

In injury time Eboue got forward and forced a near post save.

Within a minute of the second half getting under way, it was 3. And what a goal! Another long high ball found Adebayor ahead of Henry, the former on the edge of the box. Henry saw that the ball was dropping a little behind his partner so stopped his run, and probably gave a call. Adebayor saw what was going on and stuck his foot out so that it popped back to Henry off his heel, a beautiful little touch that was so reminisncent of Kanu that it's not true (and now that the Togalese striker has trimmed his Dwayne Dibley, he's looking just like the legendary Nigerian as well).

Henry received that magnificent pass and, 20 yards out, struck the sweetest of shots, curling inside the right post.

On 57, Eboue played a lovely one-two with Pires under close pressure on the right touchline, and tried to take the ball on only to be hacked down. The free kick was played down the line and deep to the goal-line then chipped back to the edge of the box where Phillipe_Senderos rose and headed down towards the left post, it was heading just inside that post but Sorenson did well to get down and save.

Reyes pinged a cross-field ball to Henry on the right touchline, and he gave us a bit of bonus entertainment by controlling the ball in the air and juggling it as he moved forward 15 yards, the ball not having touched the ground since Reyes' played it. Quite unnecessary, pure entertainment.

A minute later, Reyes brought the ball in from the right after a corner on that side, and hit a thumping shot which just rose too much to sneak under the bar.

On 65, Adebayor foudn himself with the ball in a central position a few yards outside the box, squared it to Henry and then ran on into the box. Henry chipped it forward for him and Adebayor threw his head at the ball, directing it inside the right post and forcing an excellent diving save from Sorensen.

Then Villa had another of their rare attacks. A good one as it happens, ending with the ball being played square across our box from left to right, to Moore level with the post. He tried to sneak his shot between Lehmann and his left hand post, and it would have gone in if the keeper hadn't stuck his foot out to make a super save.

Then van Persie came on for Henry, the latter not looking in any trouble at all so it's just a question of resting him for Wednesday. Soon after, Johan Djourou came on for Eboue.

Hendrie had a shot which went over the bar, but Lehmann looked to have it covered. And then, 4 minutes after coming off the bench, van Persie came up with a superb 4th goal. The ball had been played forward for him by Pires, into the right side of the box, just wide of the post. Sorensen came over to block his path and Robin was foced to take it to the goal-line. He stopped the ball on the line and, with Sorensen and a defender between him and goal a yard away, worked the ball infield a yard with a couple of dainty touches, before whacking a left foot shot into the roof of the net.

On 75, Kolo Toure suddenly had a mission. He drove forward, moved left, lost the ball, won it back again, drove forward again, and unleashed a thunderous drive from just outside the box which forced Sorensen into another superb save - somehow he managed not only to get something behind it but also enough behind it to send the ball looping up and just over the bar. Not at all easy when the ball's moving that fast in every direction but backwards.

Hendrie had another shot, soft and straight into Lehmann's arms. I used to think Hendrie was good.

On 80 minutes Adebayor broke down the inside right channel and mesmerised the defender in front of him with some superb control as he took the ball forward. Diaby made a run into the space square of Adebayor, and held his run to make sure he stayed onside so that when the square ball did come, it was a nice easy finish which he pulled off with aplomb, banging the ball into the roof of the net for his first Arsenal goal. Lovely.

Then there was fantastic save from Lehmann after a bit of a scramble in our box. The ball was bouncing inside Lehmann's left hand post and he had to drop back to claw it away.

Good battling from Reyes won a free kick on the right wing. Van Persie whipped it into the box and Gilberto tried to just glance it on but got a touch too much on it and sent it over the bar.

With a minute to go, even Flamini got into the action up front (not that it's unusual when he plays in midfield, but we've not seen much of it from him as a left back - further evidence that he's learning that role at a breathtaking speed). He had a shot from the left corner of the D but didn't get behind it well enough giving Sorensen an easy save. Moments later Flamini had another go, this time a powerful drive from 25 yards out which flew inches wide.

In injury time, Djourou nearly turned the ball into his own net with a 'defensive' header, prompting the inevitable "Shall we score a goal for you?".

It's a bit sad to see David O'Leary having such a hard time of it. We sang his name quite a lot during the game. So did the Villa fans, but in their case the songs were about how we could have him back.