Aston Villa 1 Arsenal 2:Arsenal retain their lead at the top of the Premier League after coming back from a goal down to take all the points in a hard-fought victory over Aston Villa.

Craig Gardner had given Villa hope of their first win over the Gunners in 18 meetings when he put them ahead early on in the match.

But Arsenal responded by handing out a footballing lesson for the remainder of the half and could easily have added to goals from Mathieu Flamini and Emmanuel Adebayor.

In a bid to save Villa's blushes, O'Neill must have given his players a stern talking to at half-time because the side came out much stronger.

John Carew could have no complaints about being yellow-carded for a late challenge on Hleb which led to the midfielder being injured and replaced by Theo Walcott.

Young was now more of a threat and another inviting cross led to a Carew header thumping against the Gunners bar after 61 minutes with Almunia well beaten.

Villa looked the more likely to score and the visitors were now showing little of the sublime football which had been the feature of their first-half performance.

Despite this, there was no beating down the Gunners who were determined to keep their lead at the top of the Premier League.

As the game progressed, O'Neill brought on midfielder Patrik Berger for Bouma and switched Barry to left-back in a bid to try to salvage the game as the heavens opened.

But Arsenal weathered the spell of Villa pressure and Diarra found himself in a good position only to drill his shot well wide late on.

Young was then booked for going down too easily in the box under a challenge from Sagna and Arsenal held on to maintain their unbeaten league record.