One Song One Goal

By Boris Mellor
April 12 2009

Arsenal had a very poor first half, and could have gone in at half time two goals and a man down. Gibbs could possibly have earned a red when he pulled down Valencia. He certainly must not repeat that error in the next few days, he may not be so lucky.

It may be that Wiley felt that Valencia had not been deprived of a definite goal scoring opportunity, that the Wigan player had pushed the ball too far ahead. Perhaps it makes up for all the lousy referee decisions that we suffered this time last year.

Remember we were told what comes around goes around - so here we are getting a few back at last. No doubt more fuss will be made about this than there was about Diouf's thuggish tackle on Almunia a few weeks back.

Anyhow reducing Arsenal to ten men often makes them angry and motivates them, which is certainly what was needed. Fortunately Wenger motivated them at half time without needing a player sent off.

I am not sure that Almunia would have made the mistake that Fabianski made for the Wigan first goal. However, to be fair, he did recover well for the rest of the match.

Perhaps the sight of RvP and Ade warming up on about 59 minutes provided the motivation required, for suddenly Walcott and Arshavin upped their play. Some good combination play by the pair led to an excellent strike by Walcott for the equaliser.

Then it was Silvestre's turn to surprise us all when he slotted home a Cesc assist. Cesc has only been back a week and he has a hatful of assists already. Arshavin hit a belter from a Koumas miss pass to make it 3-1, and Song scored a great individual effort to finish Wigan off 4-1.

One Song One Goal

Game of Two Halves 

Do forgive the cliche, but Arsenal Times reporter on the spot in Wigan  Brian of the BOF insisted that it was the only way the match could be understood. The Bank Posse are insisting that he must now attend all away matches until the end of the season.

If you had told me at half time we were about to win four one I would have laughed. However it was the proverbial game of two halves, in the first all Wigan, and in the second all Arsenal. Arsenal were more ruthless with 12 shots (6 on target), to Wigan's 7 shots (3 on target).

Wenger had accomplished his mission, to get three points and rest players. It's now 18 games since this team lost in the Premiership. However there is no time for celebration, nothing is won and Wenger is down to his last two center backs. At least the striker and midfield complement is looking more secure.

With Monday a Bank Holiday we will no doubt be kept waiting on Djourou's chance of recovery.

Wenger will have some tough decisions to make about his defensive options for Wednesday night. Gibbs will not get away with similar errors in the CL.