Mikel Arteta seems to be stamping his authority on games much more these days. He is following the ball and making himself available for every player in a ten yard radius. He reminded me a little of Xavi at points yesterday, swiveling and turning in half circles away from challenging opponents and

I had the feeling that this might have been a tough fixture, a fixture that we would have to dig deep in to get a result and that is what we did.

So many people refer back to teams of the past and situations that see us fold. I think back to Sunderland at the Stadium of light last season, we took the lead, missed a penalty and could not deal with the pressure that Sunderland put on us and the inevitable late equaliser appeared.

The stage was set for a similar collapse, Aston Villa had clawed their way back into the game after Robin van Persie put us up from the spot on 17 minutes. Walcott was tugged back in the box after a neat piece of skill. Ten minutes into the second half a Vermaelen header sold Mertesacker short and Albrighton nipped in and fired between Szczesny’s legs. Mertesacker is getting plenty of unfair flack for his part in the goal. Mertesacker was the last man, if he fouled the Villa wide man he would have been sent off and our already depleted back line would have been even further damaged over the Christmas fixtures. The error was from the vice captain, he doesn’t make many errors but it was his error.

Villa piled on the pressure after that, N’Zogbia took on makeshift right back Francis Coquelin as often as he could and their wide players put in many crosses that had to be dealt with. Fortunately we had the excellent Laurent Koscielny once again outstanding at everything. Reading of the game, distribution of the ball, winning a high number of aerial duels and his greatest strength, one on one defending. He should be up there for the ‘second’ best Arsenal player of the season.

We managed to keep Villa at bay and Arsene sent on Yossi Benayoun along with Andrey Arshavin to try and grab all three points. In the 87th minute, both substitutes had a big contribution to the late winner. Andrey Arshavin had a deflected shot that went out for a corner kick, our 15th of the game. van Persie’s inswinging corner was met by the head of Yossi Benayoun from six yards, awful marking but Benayoun was in the right place at the right time.

Mikel Arteta seems to be stamping his authority on games much more these days. He is following the ball and making himself available for every player in a ten yard radius. He reminded me a little of Xavi at points yesterday, swiveling and turning in half circles away from challenging opponents and passing very crisply.

You could see the difference in the midfield without Alex Song. Emmanuel Frimpong was not at his best and Wenger’s switch with Rosicky changed the game. That is the second time that the Rosicky > Frimpong has made a difference. It was the same change that Wenger made in Udinese earlier this season.

Aaron Ramsey, Gervinho and Robin van Persie were not at their sharpest so I expect changes for the game on Tuesday. Tomas Rosicky and Yossi Benayoun both deserve starts for Arsenal. Alex Song will be back so perhaps we will see Mikel Arteta rested to the bench.

Aston Villa deserved a draw from the game but we will gladly except the three points. With Chelsea and Tottenham playing later we can gain points on at least one of those teams.

Man of the match: Laurent Koscielny