While having every sympathy with the Gunners for their loss of striker Eduardo da Silva to a broken leg last weekend, Villa boss O'Neill feels Wenger's men have a certain physical edge of their own.

After Saturday's 1-1 draw, he said: "While Arsenal are a very good side, they can't just corner the market on being the only team which has to resist a challenge.

"They put in a few challenges themselves, so I don't agree with what Arsene Wenger said.

"I thought there was a challenge which [Mathieu] Flamini made which was pretty harsh and he has gone in two-footed off the ground and he got away with it. Nobody mentions it because nothing happened."

O'Neill retorted: "If I was to look at Sky Sports News after he (Wenger) had said it, that they are the most fouled team, and then the stats are flashed up which say they are 12th - he is a brilliant manager but a bad mathematician."

The Villa boss added: "Arsenal have not got to the position they are in without a great team spirit and they do keep going.

"I think they have scored a lot of goals in the last 15-20 minutes of a game, if you are interested in that kind of statistics.

"But I think against us, they were lucky."