Two strikes from Darren Bent were enough to give his side a well deserved victory and mathematically secure Villa's Premier League status for 2011/12 season.
Bent's double will help ease both Villa's fans and board that the £20ish million the midlands paid to Sunderland was a worth while investment and caretaker manager Gary McAllister was quick to sing his praises after the final whistle
“What a great signing. Since the first minute he [Bent] arrived he's been class.
“ The guys been excellent around the place. It was a big show of faith by the owners of Aston Villa to go and invest the money, and I think people raised their eyebrows a wee bit at the start of that transfer window but at the end of the month when people went for 50 and 35 million I think he's looking like not a bad buy.”
Arsenal took most of the first half to really click into gear and Villa mad the majority of chances in the opening 45 minutes.
“I thought we could have been three maybe four.
“There was two of their back four who maybe were a little rusty, they'd been out a while and I think we caught them a little bit by surprise.”
The second half saw Arsenal come out firing with the introduction of both Chamakh and later Bendtner but the visitors defended in numbers and held fast for almost 90 minutes, referee Michael Oliver providing a helping hand by dubious ruling out Chamakh's header on 75 minutes after the young Moroccan was deemed to have pushed Walker as he rose into the air.
Villa couldn't hold the onslaught forever but Robin van Persie's 89th minute goal wasn't enough stop Villa from snatching all three points on a special afternoon for the visitors and their fans.
“This is a fixture that you always look for” McAllister finished with.
“It takes care of itself as far as motivation, players should want to come to grounds like this and win, because when you do you've done something so the players can be very happy.”
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