By Boris Mellor
December 14 2006

In the preview I wrote about the fact that Arsenal have a match every 3 days and surmised that Wenger would have to make full use of his squad.

"That means the Wenger Rotor will have to operate, but he will need to get it right. It is difficult because the squad is still not at full strength. But if Wenger believes that it is possible to compete for the league (personally I haven’t much hope on that score) then he will have to get the team on a run now."

I must admit I was astonished by Arsene’s selection, he certainly needed to rotate, and sure the Beast needed a run, but Flamini, Ljungberg and Walcott, with the Beast didn’t seem very balanced. Too many water carriers, and a pure winger did not augur well. They certainly didn’t achieve much balance, as individuals they all tried their best, but there was never a meeting of minds. I hate to agree with Glenda, but as he said at half time they were flat, in straight lines, no angles. It made it easy for Wigan to outnumber them. 

With Wigan  playing at frenetic pace I often feared that the back four would give away a goal, they nearly did but for a moment of genius by Jens. They were also uncomfortable under arial bombardment.

The first half was not much fun for Arsenal fans as Wigan had most of the shots, and the Gunners made a couple of chances at most. At times the defence struggled to get the ball, and the midfield failed to direct their passes to another Gunner. Afterwards Wenger blamed the wind, try a couple of spoons of bicarbonate in water Arsene, sometimes the old remedies are the best.

But, as battered as Arsenal were, they did not concede, if they had I fear they would have sank without trace. It was a relief to get to half time with a clean sheet. Arsenal improved in the second half, and after 15 minutes the game began to spread out, Wigan were no longer covering the same amount of ground, they were tiring and now Arsenal began to make chances, nonetheless Wigan still created chances as well. Arsenals attacks lacked finesse and suitable finishing. I also groaned as Heskey was taken off, who knows his replacement could be dangerous.

But it was Arsene’s substitutions that made the difference, bringing on Fabregas and van Persie, for Baptista and Flamini, immediately improved the performance of the team, the flatness was gone. Just as Arsenal fans were giving up any hope of 3 points Fabregas delivered a beautiful ball over the heads of the Wigan defence. This was no hoof, it was a precision ball that landed in front of Adebayor, who only had to give it the slightest touch to bring it under full control, this was followed by Ade nutmegging Kirkland with only 2 minutes left.

Some pundits have suggested the second half was boring, I suppose it depends on what you find exciting. But even after the goal Arsenal had to hang on for grim life, and most of the half had been end to end, not classic football, but a rough and ready cup-tie.

Well the rotor nearly sheared off, but it muddled through. To play without Hleb, Fabregas, Gallas, van Persie, Henry and Rosicky and still win such a tough game indicates that a run is possible. After all it’s only the second time this season Wigan have not scored at home. So Wenger had picked a team that could win, but only just.

Fair Play Paul Jewell

By the way, fair play to Wigan manager Paul Jewell who was offered a let out by Sky who prompted him to say that the Fabregas tackle just before the goal was a foul. Jewell made it clear it was a perfectly good tackle, as was obvious from the replay, but Sky persisted all night in playing the tackle with a crap commentary suggesting it was a foul.

The result was that 606 was inundated with Wigan fans saying that Referees favour big clubs, sure like the decisions we got at West Ham and Chelsea. Amazingly one Wigan fan got so fed up with it all that he rang in to point out that the tackle was legitimate.

 Pardew owes Wenger £10,000 to pay his fine, after all if Arsene had got it right over at Upton Park and beat the Hammers Pardew would have been sacked a whole month earlier. So Arsene must have saved him a £100,000 in salary, so a 10% cut is only fair. Although Curbs might want to claim £100,000 from Arsene as the result kept him unemployed for another month. There again Dowie might want to claim off Wenger because Charlton didn’t get the presents from Arsenal that Fulham, West Ham, and Man City got. There again (stop this bloody rambling and finish the article. The Editor)..............