Instead, they still find themselves without a win in their last 14 games against Arsenal during which time the Londoners have won ten times.
The surprising feature of the game was that Arsenal's rapid attacks were rarely effective with their big guns struggling to make an impact.
Their performance explains why Arsenal have only won two of their away games this season and are surprisingly out of the top six.
Villa certainly adapted better to their third game over the holiday period as they produced their best home performance of the season.
They have not dominated opposition so easily as they did on this occasion with Gavin McCann and Milan Baros their leading players.
Transfer-seeking Mark Delaney didn't put a foot wrong in his make-shift central defensive role and the ease he took Thierry Henry out of the game would seemingly require urgent talks to keep him at Villa Park.
Arsenal, with only one Englishman in their side, took some time to settle against some determined tackling and Villa appeared to be the more dangerous side in attack.
Baros, who appears to be improving with every match, set the tone when he made a good run down the right and set up Luke Moore but the youngster's tame shot was easily dealt with by Jens Lehmann.
It appeared as if the former Liverpool striker was raising his game for the big occasion and enjoyed taking on Arsenal's defence.
Kolo Toure in particular found the going tough against Baros as Villa continued to pressurise Arsenal's resolute defence.
Arsenal's front men were unable to make the blistering start they had managed against Portsmouth when they scored four first-half goals as Villa rose to the challenge and refused to be over-whelmed by the visitors' reputation.
An indication of Villa's determination to take the game to the opposition occurred in the 35th minute when acting skipper, Gareth Barry, moved up into the attack to fire in a dangerous long-range shot.
Lehmann had the ball well covered but at the last minute it swerved in flight and the Arsenal keeper had to fling himself awkwardly backwards to make a fortunate save.
The incident apparently brought the game to life as Arsenal responded with a move which resulted in Mathieu Flamini gaining possession after Eirik Bakke had failed to intercept a throughball.
However, the Frenchman casually flipped his shot over the bar with only Thomas Sorensen to beat.
Villa's best chance of going ahead came seven minutes into the second half when Moore sent Baros clear. However, he hesitated as he looked to find a colleague and seeing no-one in close proximity carelessly blasted his shot over the bar.
Fredrik Ljungberg then fired an effort against Villa's crossbar as the game continued to be played at a high pitch. Surprisingly little had been seen of Henry. The Frenchman was strangely subdued and later became involved in a heated debate with the rugged McCann as referee Uriah Rennie had to be in top form to keep control.
Better finishing by Bakke might have dramatically changed the game but the on-loan midfielder was twice wayward with his final shot as he failed to take advantage of an off-key Arsenal side.
In quick succession Wenger finally sent on Dennis Bergkamp, Jose Antonio Reyes and Robert Pires in an attempt to spark a late revival but it was all to no avail.