Arsenal defender Gilles Grimandi was sent off in injury-time - after squandering the chance to enable Arsene Wenger to register his first away victory over Aston Villa in his five years in charge of the Gunners.

Grimandi had the opportunity to settle a game short of quality when he found himself with only David James to beat four minutes from time after beating the offside trap.

But, in keeping with the fare served up all afternoon, he prodded his shot weakly into the arms of the grateful England keeper.

Then with a few seconds remaining Grimandi was dismissed by referee Barry Knight for a second yellow card after bringing down Villa striker Darius Vassell.

There have been some thrilling and controversial clashes at Villa Park in recent years between the two clubs - but this game will not live in the memory for long.

Villa have failed to find the net consistently all season while scoring away from Highbury has also been a problem for Arsenal - and on this evidence it was not hard to understand why that has been the case.

Both sides struggled to find any rhythm and fluency and the number of clearcut chances could be counted on one hand.

Arsenal will be the happier of the two sides with a point which cements their second place in the Premiership and they had the game's best player in Patrick Vieira.

He was a dominant figure in the centre of the park, constantly breaking up attacks and setting up the few moments of danger for the Gunners.

Villa manager John Gregory had switched to a 4-4-2 system to accommodate David Ginola but in doing so he has negated the threat posed by their most potent source, Paul Merson.

He now finds himself having to play the right midfield role and has less chance to make an impact.

Villa began in positive fashion and Lee Hendrie, sent off at Highbury earlier in the season, was only just wide with a low deflected shot.

Paul Merson's resulting corner picked out the recalled Juan Pablo Angel whose header was punched clear by Alex Manninger.

But after that bright opening Villa went off the boil and Arsenal came more into the game with Vieira making his presence felt.

It was his defence-splitting pass that set up one of the best chances ofthe opening 45 minutes as Fredrik Ljungberg found himself with a clear run at goal.

But he over-ran the ball slightly and the presence of Villa keeper David James was enough to put him off and saw the chance go begging.

Both sides struggled to find any fluency and when Dennis Bergkamp did find himself in a yard of space his close control let him down after he received a pass from Ray Parlour.

Ljungberg got past the challenge of Steve Stone on the left of the area but Sylvain Wiltord's shot after latching onto the low cross was blocked byAlpay.

Vieira became the first player to be booked after bringing down Julian Joachim.

But the half-time whistle was greeted with boos from a section of the fans - and it was hard to disagree with them over the lack of quality served up in the first 45 minutes.

Arsenal looked more purposeful in the early part of the second period although James comfortably dealt with a low effort from Ljungberg and then Vieira was too high with his 25-yard effort.

But it was referee Knight who brought the crowd to voice with the Villa fans incensed by his decision to book skipper Gareth Southgate for a challenge on Wiltord when he appeared to win the ball.

Stone was also yellow-carded for a shove on Silvinho before Arsenal created one of the few decent openings just before the hour mark.

Ljungberg took up another good position inside the box but, when he squared the ball back to Wiltord, the Frenchman fired into the side-netting.

There were ironic cheers from the Villa fans when Joachim got in a low 25-yard volley which was easily saved by Manninger as it represented their side's first effort on target of the second half.

Bergkamp then had a rare opportunity when he got on the end of a cross from Parlour, but he failed to make clean contact on his attempted flick andJames was able to save comfortably.

Teams

Aston Villa: James, Joachim (Dublin 77), Alpay, Wright, Southgate, Taylor, Stone, Ginola, Hendrie, Merson,Angel (Vassell 65).

Subs Not Used: Enckelman, Delaney, Barry.

Booked: Stone, Southgate.

Arsenal: Manninger, Luzhny, Grimandi, Silvinho, Dixon, Vieira, Parlour (Vivas 84), Lauren, Ljungberg (Pires 75), Bergkamp, Wiltord (Henry 76).

Subs Not Used: Lukic, Cole.

Sent Off: Grimandi (90).

Booked: Vieira, Grimandi.

Att: 36,111

Ref: B Knight (Orpington).