Arsenal 3 Aston Villa 1: Eight Henrys have ruled England in their various ways. Now a ninth is conquering the nation's football fields, as well as some abroad, by adding the wisdom of Henry VI to the youthful inspiration of Henry V. From David Lacey at Highbury

Henry IX speaks better English than Henry I, is doubtless more tolerant of turbulent priests than Henry II and keeps a better diet than Henry VIII. And happily for Thierry Henry, sorcery is no longer a capital offence, otherwise he would have gone up in smoke by now.

Surely no one but a practitioner of the demoniacal arts could make a ball do his bidding the way that Henry has done not once but twice in the space of four days. For the free-kick which the Arsenal striker curled into the net over the heads of Aston Villa's defenders on Saturday was just a slightly more angled version of the one which had looped over Roma's wall in the Champions League.

Add the quality of Henry's game in open play, not only the superbly struck goals but the movement off the ball and his consistent creation of chances for others, and clearly something will have gone wrong if he is not shortly declared someone or other's footballer of the year.

Certainly he should not be denied such an honour because France had a poor World Cup. As Arsene Wenger observed: "The World Cup is for four weeks but a year is 52 weeks. In a season you have more games to play and more things to win."

Not that Wenger or Henry will be terribly put out if the majority of the votes go elsewhere. Henry's free-kick and penalty against Villa have helped put Arsenal beyond the reach of Liverpool at the top of the Premiership for another week while the successful return of Robert Pires to their attack after an eight-month absence is nicely timed for the hectic holiday programme. But surely Wenger's team will not beat Manchester United quite as imperiously at Old Trafford this weekend as they did at Old Trafford in May to complete the double.

Sol Campbell is suspended for Saturday's visit to Old Trafford for the United game and, while Martin Keown is fit, the middle of Arsenal's back four continues to give cause for concern. The partnership of Campbell and Pascal Cygan remains tenuous. In going for the ball they resemble Laurel and Hardy negotiating a door

However, speed of reaction, mental as well as physical, is crucial to the way Arsenal are scoring many of their goals and the swiftness with which Dennis Bergkamp fed a deflected pass from Gilberto through to Pires, who sprinted past Steve Staunton to give Arsenal the lead after 17 minutes, said it all.

Even Henry's free-kick, four minutes into the second half, did not quell Villa's spirits and after Thomas Hitzlsperger had walloped their second away league goal of the season they began to carry the game to Arsenal with even greater vigour.

Then Steve Staunton unwisely trailed a leg as the newly-arrived Fredrik Ljungberg sprinted into the penalty area and Henry's kick restored his team's two-goal lead.

ARSENAL: Shaaban, Luzhny, Campbell, Cygan, van Bronckhorst, Toure (Keown 67), Vieira, Silva, Pires (Ljungberg 77), Bergkamp (Wiltord 71), Henry. Subs Not Used: Jeffers, Taylor. Booked: Luzhny, Henry. Goals: Pires 17, Henry 49, 82 pen.

ASTON VILLA: Enckelman, Mellberg, Johnsen, Staunton, Samuel, Leonhardsen, Taylor, Hendrie (De la Cruz 45), Hitzlsperger, Dublin, Vassell. Subs Not Used: Angel, Postma, Allback, Kinsella. Booked: Hitzlsperger, Taylor, Dublin. Goals: Hitzlsperger 64.

Referee: G Barber (Hertfordshire).