Arsenal 5 Aston Villa 0: Mesmeric Henry leaves O'Leary on the brink

As O'Leary so eloquently put it: "They buried us. They are an exceptional team who play wonderful football, the way football should be played. I hope it is the side that will be in the Champions' League final. Against Barcelona, what a dream final that would be."

The more cautious Arsène Wenger thinks his team may need to win their seven remaining games to qualify for Europe, rather than by capturing the trophy this season, but he was moved to smiles about a Thierry Henry-inspired show. Of his two-goal star, the manager said simply: "He is the best. When you have the best, why replace him?" Reminded that he may need to, he insisted: "I am 100 per cent confident he will stay, but I can't answer for him."

Any thought that last Tuesday's exhilarating European victory over Juventus might persuade Arsenal to lessen pressure on the pedal did not even survive to the kick-off. In his programme notes, Wenger urged: "We can do even better than that, much better." Not much better, surely? But against opponents who were lacking their sturdy captain, Olof Mellberg, and who struggle with a bleak record in this fixture, Arsenal wasted no time in proving their boss right. It has been 13 years since Villa won at Highbury, and their last win of any sort against Arsenal was back in 1998, 13 matches ago.

Even the loss of Arsenal's flavour of the week, or possibly the season, Cesc Fabregas, after a quarter of an hour did not disturb Arsenal's masterful rhythm. Caught from behind by Gavin McCann with what looked like a cynical - and unpunished - foul, the Catalan midfielder reported a problem with his right foot to the dug-out and limped off soon after. He will have a scan today and, like Emmanuel Eboué, who has a groin strain, is what Wenger calls "a small 50-50" for Wednesday's visit to Turin.

Despite their preoccupation with containment, Villa found time to mount the occasional early raid, and Kevin Phillips provided a reminder that he remains a formidable predator, shooting low on target and then lobbing just wide.

Immediately, Henry provided him, and a delighted crowd, with a lobbing lesson which saw Arsenal score twice. First, the striker sped after a long through ball and was narrowly beaten to it by Thomas Sorensen, who did well to flick it away from Henry's toes without bringing him down. However, the keeper was still well out of his ground and in no position to do anything about Henry's glorious lob.

Fortunately for Villa, Gareth Barry was on the line to head away, but only as far as Emmanuel Adebayor who put it in the net via the crossbar and the back of Barry's head. Another six minutes and Arsenal claimed an even more spectacular goal. A high ball from Reyes was controlled on his instep with deceptive ease by Henry, who left poor Sorensen stranded with a classic lob.

Already Villa were chasing shadows. The most elusive, of course, was Henry, and just 45 seconds into the second half he notched his 12th in 10 starts against Villa, and 27th of the season, with another effort of sheer genius, fastening on to a headed clearance and curling past Sorensen from outside the area.

Three Villa substitutes did nothing to stem the flood and it seemed an act of kindness on Wenger's part when Henry was removed after 64 minutes to rest for the Juventus return. The downside for Villa was that Robin van Persie was his replacement, clearly determined to emulate the great man. Nor did it take him long, surging to the byline and teasing the grounded Sorensen before scoring from a tight angle.

Villa's humiliation continued. Substitute Abou Diaby completed the rout inside the last 10 minutes, taking a pass from Adebayor and shooting high past Sorensen. In Wenger's opinion, his team were "out of reach early". They were impressively untouchable all afternoon. Were they watching apprehensively in Turin?