Arsenal v Aston Villa: Live text commentary, news, links, rumours and Villa banter

End Of Match: Excellent day.

86': A fabregas free kick hits the wall and goes out wide for a corner. Very nervous times.

81': Nine minutes to go plus stoppage time. I really can smell three points today.

80':

I was just writing that if Arsenal keep pushing up like this opportunites are going to come our way and it did. So I changed my post!!!!

Bloody lovely!

79': 2-0 Gabby!!!

79': Just over 10 minutes lads.

78': Ashley Young seems to be playing in the middle, directly in front of the central midfielders but not as a striker. It's wroking well as he is closing the space out and not allowing the Arsenal players to get forward.

74': As you'd probably imagine it is all Arsenal now and probably will be for the next 15 minutes plus the probably four to be added. We need to handle this and leave with three points. We've done better than them today and we deserve the win.

73': Denilson shoots from distance and Brad gets it easier than you'd have thought. Much like a James Milner cross.

72': 2-0 to Fulham also. Has the Harry Redknapp bubble burst for Spurs?

72': We need to keep focused for these last few minutes now. Come on ..

71': That was close. Cross from the left and Adebayor hit it against the post. But this is Arsenal so they get a corner.

70':

We just need to hold on now for 20 minutes. In fact, if we just do what we've done for the last 70 we'll be fine.

I actally don't normally do this but I did say in my preview that Young and Gabby are the ones that could shine for us today and if it stays like this, they have.

69': Fucking love it! Sorry, I don't normally swear but .. Young got the ball wide on theleft, brought it in and put in a lovely cross that Gabby put in with his head.

68': 1-0

65': A lovely pass from Barry to Gabby. Who crosses across the pitch to Milner who crosses it directly, not off anyone, to the Arsenal keeper. Come on; £12mn. for this? IT's a joke. I could have crossed better than that and I'm left footed.

62': Gabby really is fast. Laursen takes the ball of Adebayor and passes long, Gabby gets there in plenty of time - passes back to Ashley Young who tries a cross field pass - he has two players to aim for and picks the Arsenal player in the middle. We're doing so well, it's the little things we're messing up - quite frustrating.

61': Adebayor coming on for Arsenal. They could have Wright, Henry and Bergkamp for them today, I don't think it would matter. Defensively we have been excellent.

59': Nice ball from Milner to Young, who crosses I suspect becasue he didn't know waht esle to do , because he crossed to empty space. This is one of my little issues - it's better to keep teh ball then do something that is going to give the ball away and there was no way that Young thought he was crossing to someone as there was nobody there.

56': We just got a free kick in the box and while it's nice I really don't understand why. Friedel jumped into the Arsenal players jump - not the other way around - why should keepers be protected so much?

51': Arsenal have a free kick. Not sure why, but it's in a dangerous position. I've just watched the replay and there was no contact from Davies.

50': Deep corner from Barry and the ball almost lands at the feet of Gabby. He tries and it's valiant but he was only going to get that in if he was already there. The ball in theory went to nobody. But it is all us at the moment ..

50': Lovely little lobbed volley pass by Sidwell to Milner who .. doesn't even get a cross in and loses the ball to an Arsenal player. Still, we've got a corner now.

47': He cant. He shoots it wide. IN fact, wide probably isn't the right term. He got the bend on it but it was really too far away from the goal to trouble anyone but the ball boy.

47': Long ball from Ashley to Gabby who hold is up well, passed back when he gets some support and we have a free kick, I think, within Ashley Young range. Can he make up for his earlier mistake?

46': We kick off.

Half Time: We're about to kick off, everyone ready?

Half Time: Davies is out for the second half, bandaged up.

Half Time: Good first half. We should be leading but we're played well and we'll come out playing well again in the second half. This game is ours for the taking. Let's take it in the next half please.

45' (+1): It's all gone quiet in North London. Sing up Villa.

45': 1 minute of extra time to come ...

43': We quite literally have everyone back. When we clear the ball long, there is nobody there as they're all back defending. This is what yo have to do against Arsenal - soak it up a bit then when ytou can attack, attack in numbers. We're doing it well.

41':

Taken by Young, punched out by the keeper only to Petrov. He shoots and it's on target but it hits one of a few Arsenal players standing on the penalty spot. Arsenal then break and Walcott is running against two defenders and who do you see overtake him and take the ball - our Gabby.

That really is determination and fight.

40': We really are giving 110% in this match and we're getting to all 50/50 balls and winning them. A little bit of luck or something special from the ones we know have something special to give and we can win. I'm putting my fiver on. We have a corner!

37': You know, if I was a betting man, I'd put a fiver on us to steal this. Just seen Randy in the crowd, nice of him to come over and watch.

37': Not the best free kick I've ever seen and Arsenal deal with it comfortably.

37': Free kick, in line with the 18 yard box but 8 yards out. Barry to take.

33': Gabby plays some nice football and crosses to the penalty spot to Barry running in and all Barry can do is hit it against the keeper. We're getting closer.

32': Again, another shot for Young - this time he tries to chip the keeper from 45 yards. Was never going to happen. If Sidwell cocking up the other night was bad, Young getting paid nearly £50k a week and not converting from the penalty spot, is just as bad and I think he knows it.

32': Young again gets past two and shoots. This time direct to the keeper.

29': Steve Sidwell has a nice touch about him. and clearly lots of energy. Barry is getting forward at every chance and Ashley Young wants to make up for his penalty - he just struck a shot with the outside of his foot from 25 yards and it was narrowly wide.

27': The game seems to have found its natural pace. A little slower than the start, but still with a bit of tempo and willingness.

23': Curtis Davies is receiving treatment for a cut on his head. Not much blood that I can see, but it's a cut and he's not on the pitch.

21': This really is end to end stuff and we're giving as good as we get. I can smell a goal but maybe that is because we should have had two.

20': Lovely cross from Young to Sidwell, who brought this down and volleyed. Straight to the keeper, but great football.

18': Young steps up to take it, we miss. Still 0-0.

17': Young was brutally tacked by Walcott. Nice.

17': Penalty for us!

15': A bit of me thinks we're getting into this game. I'm getting quite excited.

14': Good save from Friedel, but he dropped it but we got it away.

8': Corner for Arsenal. They look like they're going to score soon.

5': Corner. Come on Martin Laursen.

4': This is a game we can win and we've done well at Arsenal under Martin O'Neill. Let's hope for more of last season with just a little bit of luck. I'm going for a beer.

4': Walcott crossed across the goal to nobody.

2': The formation is a very clear 4-5-1 - let's hope it comes to 4-3-3 quite often. Arsenal have started brightly, but you'd expect that.

1': An early chance saved by the Arsenal keeper - it was straight to him.

Before Kick Off: The lads are out .. about to kick off.

Before Kick Off:

Some team news:

Arsenal: Almunia, Clichy, Sagna, Gallas, Silvestre; Fabregas, Walcott, Denilson, Diaby; Bendtner, Nasri. Subs: Toure, Vela, Ramsey, Song, Djourou, Fabianski, Adebayor.

Aston Villa: Friedel; L Young, Davies, Laursen, Cuellar; Sidwell, Barry, Petrov, Milner, A Young; Agbonlahor. Subs: Guzan, Knight, Harewood, Salifou, Gardner, Reo-Coker, Carew.

Before Kick Off:

Some team news:

Arsenal: Almunia, Clichy, Sagna, Gallas, Silvestre; Fabregas, Walcott, Denilson, Diaby; Bendtner, Nasri. Subs: Toure, Vela, Ramsey, Song, Djourou, Fabianski, Adebayor.

VILLA: Friedel; L Young, Davies, Laursen, Cuellar; Sidwell, Barry, Petrov, Milner, A Young; Agbonlahor. Subs: Guzan, Knight, Harewood, Salifou, Gardner, Reo-Coker, Carew.

Before Kick Off: You've got to go back to the previous century to find the last time we beat Arsenal in the Premier League. It was at Villa Park on December 13th 1998.

Before Kick Off: We've won only one game out of the last 26 we've played in London. If anyone fancies us getting something today, you can get 6/1 at some bookmakers - so probably more if you're willing to look around.

Before Kick Off:

Harry Redknapp is demanding that coin throwing fans be banned from football grounds for life here and I agree with him.

Does that mean Drogba will be banned too, or is it  rule for htem and a rule for us?

Before Kick Off:

Morning all and welcome to this lovely Saturday morning. Instead of posting a normal blog post this morning I've decided to start with the match commentary post and throughout the day if anything comes up, it will get posted here.

Thought it a sensible way of spending my Saturday in front of the PC and TV.