Arsenal's Martin Odegaard says teammates 'must ignore the refereeing'
The Gunners were unable to remain top of the Premier League, with Liverpool taking over at the summit.
Villa, who beat Manchester City days earlier, are also firmly in title contention at present.
Post-game, Odegaard said:"I thought we did enough to get a result from it - they didn't create too much - apart from the goal.
"It was a bit easy, too, the goal and we were sloppy as well. We missed a few big changes - it's an annoying and frustrating one."
Odegaard added on the officiating, which appeared to upset manager Mikel Arteta: "We have to focus on ourselves. We can't think too much about the other stuff.
"We have to look at ourselves, look at what we could have done better, especially in front of goal where we really should have done better.
"Some periods of the game, we could have controlled it a bit more, too. We have to be more ruthless."