MARTIN O'NEILL came for a point and got a point and was delighted.
He ran on the pitch at the end and three Aston Villa players threw their shirts into the crowd, as if they'd won the league !
When Liverpool could only draw 1-1 at Sheffield United at lunchtime, that looked like a great result for Arsenal. But Arsenal could only draw 1-1 at home.
Theo Walcott made his debut, replacing Ljungberg, and made a big difference to the game when Arsenal were 1-0 down.
Walcott pinched possession boldly from Steven Davis and started a high-speed attack which ended with Eboue hitting the bar.
He stretched the tired Villa defence. He took players on with panache.And he crossed the ball to the far post for the equaliser. Van Persie went for the header with Jlloyd Samuel, the ball squirted beyond them to Gilberto Silva, who blasted in from a narrow angle in 83 minutes.
So Arsenal were seven minutes from misery but saved by a dramatic late goal.
The debut of Theo was an important moment for the squad. Arsene needs more players and the kid, at seventeen, looks ready to contribute.
A shy lad, he needs games, goals and approval. All that will come in time.He has time on his side.
In style, Theo Walcott looks more like Marc Overmars than Thierry Henry. He has uncanny skill and lightning acceleration.
If he can time his runs off the ball as well as Overmars, Walcott might be scoring 10 goals a season by 2007-2008.
A terrific header for England Under 21s gave him a big lift on Tuesday night, and this success against Aston Villa will keep him on a high.
Maybe he will share the left wing spot with Freddie this season.
The best part of the Walcott cameo was : he did not lose a ball. Theo Walcott did not lose one ball. He was efficient as well as exciting.
WHY DIDN'T ARSENAL win comfortably?
Three reasons : August goalkeeping by Jens Lehmann, preparations interrupted by internationals, and they passed on at least seven occasions when the crowd wanted to see a shot. They tried to walk the ball into the net.
Thierry Henry was anonymous and Arsene Wenger was furious with France coach Domenech for playing Henry for the whole game last week. Arsene moaned that he had seven players who played 90 minutes in last week's international friendlies.
An entirely legitimate beef ! Henry was in Bosnia on Wednesday night, Robin van Persie was in Dublin, Hleb was playing for Belarus, and so on.
Villa kept eight or nine men behind the ball until Mellberg scored with a header in 53 minutes and after than they had eleven men behind the ball.
They killed the game before the goal. And they killed it again after the goal.
Their goal came when Davis hit Villa's only corner of the match and Mellberg got in front of Adebayor and Lehmann to head home.
Goalkeepers are on holiday in July and don't have to be brave and don't have to make instant judgments on crosses. August can be a tricky month them as they recover their nerve and fine-tune their radar.
Will Lehmann be as awesome this season as he was in a World Cup season? He has already said this is his last at Arsenal as he wants to end with a season in Germany. That's not an entirely smart comment to make in public.
It was on OK performance by Arsenal, in the end.
But they dropped two points.Man United hammered Fulham 5-1 on Sunday and Chelsea beat Man City 3-0.
On Sky, Jose Mourinho made a point of noting that Arsenal will NOT be title contenders.
The BBC's Alan Hansen says the same.