Villa were today handed a huge boost when Gabby Agbonlahor and Stiliyan Petrov declared themselves fit for tonight’s crunch clash with Premier League leaders Arsenal.

The duo were both injured in Wednesday’s 4-0 win at Blackburn, but they came through training yesterday and were set to be included in manager Martin O’Neill’s line-up.

“Gabby came off with a gashed foot and he had a very sizeable indentation in his foot – a stud mark,” said O’Neill. “There was also quite a bit of swelling underneath as well.

“Thankfully he trained yesterday – he wanted to train, which delighted me. So I’m hoping he might come through OK.

“Stiliyan aggravated his ankle and at 3-0 felt he could allow us to see it through.

“His performances rec-ently have been very good and I’m encouraged by that – so is he and so are the crowd. Hopefully he’ll be OK.”

Six-goal top scorer Agbonlahor is itching to face the Gunners – to show them what he’s about, after being linked in a £15m swoop last week.

“If I’m playing well week in, week out I will get other clubs looking at me,” he said. “I think that’s a good thing for me.

“I’ve heard about it (speculation) but that’s about it really. At the moment I just want to keep playing my game and scoring.

Agbonlahor is the Premier League’s leading English scorer and wants to push his claims for a senior England call.

“Everyone wants to play for their country and hopefully if I continue doing what I can in the Premier League then I might get a chance,” he said.