"They made us work, it was the hardest away game of the season. It was end to end and they could have got something out of it, while we could have scored a couple more," Ferguson told Sky Sports. "It was a fantastic game of football, the passing and everything was really good quality. We showed a lot of guts tonight, there was a lot of character in the team and we weren't going to lose the game tonight. That spread right throughout the team and you could see that."
"Aston Villa played good football and have a great appetite with young players that are not afraid. They stretched us at times and we had to show our character to get through it. I look at that fixture and say 'we have been here, it is a difficult place to come and Arsenal and Chelsea have to come here'.
"It will be interesting because when Villa get their players back from injury they will be a real handful. This is a significant result for us. We are climbing up the table but it is getting to Chelsea that is the problem. We are on a great run and we hope they stumble and we can keep our consistency going. I think there's a great quality in the Premier division - the standard is very, very high. All we can do is maintain our form as it is. That's what we keep saying - play the way we are, and we'll get our rewards."