Vieira intercepted a pass and found Henry, who showed considerable control to wrong-foot Peter Schmeichel and send the ball home.

Sylvain Wiltord - on the field for all of two minutes - had pulled a goal back for Arsenal just after half-time.

Arsenal old-boy Paul Merson stunned the Gunners with a cool lob from a route-one Aston Villa attack in the 20th minute to give the visitors a shock lead at Highbury.

Then Steve Stone picked his way through the rubble of the home side’s defence to double the advantage 14 minutes later to leave Arsene Wenger’s men reeling.

Just four days after hammering Juventus, Arsenal were just not at the races in the first half in which their midfield failed to function, their defence creaked alarmingly and Dennis Bergkamp was booked for deliberate handball.

Arsenal were stunned by the setback and Villa began to pour forward in search of the second goal, making the home defence look jittery against Dublin’s prowess in the air.

But Enckelman had to make a good save at the expense of a corner when Vieira made space for a left-foot shot at the other end.

Henry and Robert Pires fired long-range efforts straight at the goalkeeper but when Villa broke away Bergkamp used his hands to stop their flow on the halfway line and was shown a yellow card.

And total confusion in the Arsenal rearguard allowed Steve Stone to put Villa two-up in the 34th minute.

Lauren’s mistake was cleared up by Sol Campbell’s header but Hendrie seized possession and put the ball back in the box for Dublin whose attempted drag-back appeared to flick off Vieira and run through to Stone who slotted it smartly past the helpless Taylor.

Enckelman dived to smother a fizzing low drive by Pires as Arsenal hit back and Stone headed away Lauren’s dangerous cross into the six-yard box but the home side’s pressure owed more to desperation than design.