Birmingham, Jan 19: Arsenal beat Aston Villa 2-0. Arsenal surged back to the top of the English premier league with a comfortable, but controversial, 2-0 away win over Aston Villa on Sunday(January 18). A quickly-taken free kick and a penalty, both by Thierry Henry and both hotly contested, decided the match after Villa had made an encouraging start. The victory extended Arsenal's unbeaten start to the season to 22 games and took them top on 52 points -- two ahead of Manchester United, beaten 1-0 by lowly Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday, and seven clear of Chelsea, who host Birmingham City later on Sunday. Villa had lost only one previous home league game and began confidently, though they were almost caught out in the 14th minute when Robert Pires unleashed a fizzing 25 metre volley which Thomas Sorensen tipped over the bar. But the Danish goalkeeper wasn't even looking when Arsenal went ahead in the 28th minute.
As Villa were organising themselves to defend a free kick on the edge of the box, Henry caught them out by taking it quickly -- with Sorensen interested only in trying to position his wall, many of whom were not even facing the ball.


Villa protested, in vain, just as they did seven minutes into the second half when the referee awarded a penalty after Nwankwo Kanu ran into Olof Mellberg – Henry converting the spot kick.


Arsenal negotiated the remainder of the match without any major scares but Villa manager David O'Leary complained his players had been asked by the referee to give 10 yards and wait for the whistle.


Referee Mark Halsey denied that he had told the Villa players to retreat. "Henry said he wanted a quick free kick. I didn't ask the Villa players to go back 10 yards," the official said. "In law I'm under no obligation to tell the Villa players that a quick free kick is to be taken and I'm under no obligation to blow the whistle at any free kick."


Results of English premier league soccer matches played on Sunday: Chelsea 0 Birmingham City 0 Aston Villa 0 Arsenal 2



Playing on Monday: Newcastle United v Fulham (2000)


P W D L F A Pts 1. Arsenal 22 15 7 0 42 14 52 2. Manchester United 22 16 2 4 40 15 50 3. Chelsea 22 14 4 4 40 17 46 4. Charlton Athletic 22 10 7 5 31 23 37 5. Liverpool 21 9 5 7 31 23 32 6. Fulham 21 9 4 8 33 29 31 7. Newcastle United 21 7 9 5 27 22 30 8. Southampton 22 8 6 8 21 18 30 9. Birmingham City 21 8 6 7 19 25 30 10. Bolton Wanderers 22 7 8 7 26 33 29 11. Tottenham Hotspur 22 8 3 11 26 31 27 12. Aston Villa 22 7 6 9 21 27 27 13. Middlesbrough 21 6 7 8 20 26 25 14. Everton 22 6 6 10 25 29 24 15. Manchester City 22 5 8 9 31 33 23 16. Blackburn Rovers 22 6 5 11 32 36 23 17. Portsmouth 22 6 4 12 25 33 22 18. Leicester City 22 4 8 10 31 38 20 19. Wolverhampton Wanderers 21 4 6 11 19 43 18 20. Leeds United 22 4 5 13 19 44 17


Bureau Report