John McGinn admitted the ‘T-word’ has been banned at Aston Villa amid controversial Arsenal victory

John McGinn admitted the ‘T-word has been banned at Aston Villa.

McGinn's early goal was enough to earn Aston Villa a 1-0 win over Arsenal and move Unai Emery’s men to within two points of the Premier League summit.

Arsenal had been knocked off the top spot by Liverpool earlier on Saturday, and needed to beat a formidable Villa to regain their place - a side that had won 14 consecutive home matches in the Premier League since a February defeat against Mikel Arteta's men.

Villa, who had until Saturday never won 15 top-flight home matches in a row, struck early via McGinn and enjoyed some luck at the last as Kai Havertz's late equaliser was disallowed for handball.

While the win confirmed Emery's side’s status as Premier League title contenders, McGinn insisted the word ‘title’ had been banned in the Aston Villa dressing room.

Despite Villa having made their best start to a season since 1980-81, the year they last won the title, McGinn stressed it was important for his team-mates to remain grounded.

Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, the Scot said: “I'm banning the T word. It's game week 16.

“So there's a long, long way to go. And like I said, we respect everyone round about us, who have been in these positions for years. They are so experienced in it. We are newbies, can we keep up?

“I don't know. We'll see. Hopefully. The targets have certainly been revised, whether that's as ambitious as what you're trying to force, I mean, I don't think so. But we'll take a couple of days. We've got a game on Thursday in Bosnia.

“Hope it's not too cold to try and get get first in the group and then we'll reevaluate for next week. We've actually lost Luca and Douglas I think for the Brentford game, we always have a really tough game there.

“So it's getting our minds back on it and in trying to improve our away form which isn't horrendous but it can be improved."