A stunning goal from Robert Pires and a vital penalty save from David Seaman maintained Arsenal's unbeaten away record in the Premiership this afternoon as they overcame Aston Villa 2-1 at Villa Park. Arsenal went 1-0 up after just 15 minutes through Edu before Pires doubled the Gunners' advantage in the second-half. In between, Seaman had impressed the watching Sven-Goran Eriksson when he saved Gareth Barry's spot-kick and although Villa made Arsenal sweat when Dion Dublin reduced the deficit to a goal, the outcome was never in doubt.
On the foot of this result, Arsenal return to second spot in the Premiership table, just one point behind champions Manchester United yet they have a game in hand that could see them leapfrog above the Red Devils to top spot.
Arsenal seem to be enjoying a good run of form at a crucial stage of the Premiership campaign. Today, they completely dominated the opening 45 minutes and Aston Villa struggled to cope with the wave after wave of attack from all corners of the field. However, after the break, Villa upped a gear or two and the teams looked more evenly matched.
Arsenal looked threatening from the first whistle and it was no surprise when they took an early lead. Hassan Kachloul was adjudged to have fouled Edu some 25 yards out and Dennis Bergkamp stepped up to take the free-kick. He rolled it to Sylvain Wiltord whose low, dipping shot could only be parried by Peter Schmeichel. The Dane managed to block the rebound effort from Patrick Vieira but the loose ball found Edu and this time there was nothing Schmeichel could do as Edu nudged the ball into the empty net.
Despite Arsenal's complete dominance, it was Villa who came closest to changing the scoreline when, on 55 minutes, Lee Dixon was adjudged to have brought down Barry and the Villa player stepped up to take the penalty kick himself but Seaman guessed correctly and managed to palm the ball away above his head, much to the delight of the travelling support.
Four minutes later, Arsenal found themselves 2-0 up when Freddie Ljungberg found Pires and the Frenchman firstly chipped the ball over Boateng before then lobbing the advancing Schmeichel. Although Dion Dublin pulled a goal back on 70 minutes when he nodded home Hadji's left-wing cross, Villa failed to capitalise on this strike and never really tested Seaman again before the final whistle.
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
