Aston Villa should take heart from their performance at The Emirates and the fact they took two points from the Premier League leaders -according to two of Martin O'Neill's most experienced players.

Striker John Carew and skipper Gareth Barry believe, now that the dust has settled and the players have had time to reflect on the cut and thrust of Saturday's 1-1 draw, that they should be proud of their achievements, particularly in light of the fact that Villa lost two key players in Nigel Reo-Coker and Curtis Davies through injury in the first half.

The Gunners also showed in their 2-0 demolition of Champions League favourites AC Milan in midweek that they are not a team to be taken lightly.

Carew believes that Villa have finally given the top four sides in England reason to sit up and take notice.

Villa took two points from Arsenal in the 1-1 draw at the weekend, took all three points from Chelsea in a 2-0 win at Villa Park back in September, shared the spoils with Avram Grant's men in a 4-4 draw at Stamford Bridge and took two points from Liverpool at Anfield in December.

The only top side Villa have yet to make a dent in is Manchester United who have already done the league and cup double over Villa this season and who Martin O'Neill's men face at Old Trafford at the end of this month.

Carew said: "Our performance against Arsenal shows how far we have come. We were a few seconds away from three points and ended up with just one. That was disappointing. As it turned out, it felt like we had lost when we really should have won.

"We played well and I suppose if you had said before the match that we would get a point from the league leaders, then we would have been happy but now here we are feeling disappointed with a draw."

The giant Norwegian added: "Are we serious contenders for Europe? Absolutely. We showed again that we can be up there amongst the big four, taking them on and taking points from them."

Carew himself has a fine record against Arsenal and beat them twice with Valencia in the Champions League, contributing the odd goal or two along the way.

He said: "Whenever I met Arsenal with Valencia I always managed to turn in a good performance but I wish we could have beaten them at Aston Villa.

"We worked so hard. When you think we had to change the team and then change again due to injuries, it was a great effort."

Team-mate Gareth Barry also believes Villa should feel heartened by their performance after watching Arsenal's Champions League match at the San Siro on television in midweek.

He said: "Looking at the big picture it was a fantastic result to draw away from home against the top of the league. But everyone's going to talk about that last minute goal.

"As you can imagine it felt a tiny bit like a defeat at the end. But we can still hold our heads high and we continue our push up the table.

"To be looking at three points and an unbelievable scalp and then to only get one point after playing so well was hard to take but we have to look at the big picture."

The Villa skipper continued: "If you're going to pick up a result at Arsenal, every single player has to perform. That's what happened on Saturday, there were so many great performances and we all worked hard for each other.

"We've drawn at Liverpool, Chelsea and now Arsenal - that says a lot about this team. It's probably the biggest improvement on previous years.

"In the past we've probably rolled over a bit too easily at places like Arsenal, but we're very resilient this season and we've caused a lot of problems for the big teams."