By Boris Mellor
November 20 2005

A few weeks ago, after the Spurs game, Wenger declared Arsenal reborn. Some chose to misinterpret that statement. It was relief that he had got a draw at the old enemy’s home. It only applied to one game. That "our slide was halted" but only putting of the Gunners inevitable decline.

The critics shrugged off Wenger’s explanations that international breaks, and injuries, had disrupted his preparation, Arsenal were just not good enough. This pessimistic outlook has even been accepted by some Arsenal fans. That we would probably miss a CL place.

But Wenger’s reborn statement was not relief that a poor team had got back into one match; he meant that all the confidence was back. A good team had found its’ way again. The team had realised they could cope without their captain. Arsene had insisted that they are not "just work in progress" but a team that can win trophies this season. But Arsenals lowly position seemed to belie that, but now they are fourth and hitting a good run of form.

Wenger’s reborn theory was put to a severe test at Wigan; a team that was 3-1 down pulled the score back to 3-2. This was truly "squeaky bum time"; with a half time score of 2-3 surely Arsenal would concede more and blow it? But Arsenal dominated the second half, true Wigan had chances and could have equalised, but if Fabregas could shoot better, or Henry and v Persie link up even better than they already have, the match would have been beyond Wigan’s reach.

Lets look at the positives, we dominated possession, had more shots on target, and played flowing football. Van Persie is not scared to shoot and Henry is awesome. The Henry RvP partnership continues to blossom, Fabregas gave incisive passes. The game was watched by Wigan’s largest ever crowd, and the neutrals loved it. Congratulations to Wigan on making it such a spectacle.

But you are Arsenal fans you want to analyse the defence, you want the "cloud not the silver lining", – so what is there to analyse? The defence was, on quite a few occasions awful, making terrible errors. Cygan was nowhere near the Wigan first goal, that is he was not to blame. He was heavily involved in the second. But obviously its not Wenger’s wish to have him at left back, otherwise he would not pay Clichy's and Cole's wages. Toure looked like a dead man on leave, not surprising as he had a tough match against Italy only a few days before. Surely he must be rested for FC Thun? Even Campbell was not at his best, but inspite of all this the team achieved a fantastic victory.

Reasons to be cheerful

The Gunners beat a team, away, who are in second place, and have a defence that hardly ever concedes, and had just won six games in a row. Meanwhile Arsenal had not won a game away so far. This is our first away win in the Premiership, you will have to forgive me but I am going to celebrate. Henry is proving to be a good Captain, and Cygan even gave him an assist. Henry scored one of the finest free kicks you will ever see, no doubt some will complain that he should have lobbed it in for Campbell or Cygan’s head. That it was too flash. But on a more serious note our flowing football missing for much of the season, which was reborn in the second half against Spurs, is clearly here to stay. The result against Wigan proves it was not a still birth.