Wigan. We better win.

We really should win.

Squillaci cost us two points last season in this fixture with an own goal in the 81st minute.

There are are must-win games because a team needs points late in the season or to progress in a tournament, and then there are these kind of games (of which Fulham at home was one). Games that you have to win if you want to compete, games that make no sense to lose. You lose a couple of those every year, and that’s fine, but we’ve already had those. Which makes this game a must-win. (In my head, every game is a must-win. I’m not that discerning.)

Wigan haven’t exactly had our number the past few seasons, but that late collapse in April 2010 still hurts. Last season we beat them twice and drew once, on that above own-goal by Squillaci.

Recent form – Wigan

League position: 19th
Record: 2W-3D-8L; 12 goals for, 24 goals against
Last five: L-L-L-D-W; 6 goals for, 10 against
Last meeting: Arsenal 3-0 Wigan, Jan 22 2011. Robin van Persie had time to miss a penalty while he scored that sumptuous hattrick, as he got back on track after missing the early part of the season through injury:

(Warning: turn down the sound unless you like crap music.)

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(Yes, I used this section about Wigan’s recent form to showcase Robin van Persie.)

Wigan have only won twice this season, 2-0 over QPR in August and 2-1 last weekend over Sunderland; they sit in 19th with just nine points. Four points from their last two games has given them some momentum, however, and they are showing some fight, with their winner over Sunderland coming in injury time and what looked like a winner over Blackburn in the match before coming in the 88th. They drew that game on a late penalty for Blackburn, but didn’t let that bother them on their travels to Sunderland.

Franco Di Santo, a young Argentine, has banged in 4 goals for Wigan in 11 games, a decent return on a low-scoring team (tied for lowest in the league with 12 in 13 games). Hugo Rodallega, who can usually be counted on for ~10 goals, hasn’t found the net yet this season, probably because Wigan’s midfield struggle to create chances. And they lost N’Zogbia in the summer and didn’t replace him or his 14 goals created (9 scored, 5 assisted last season; 7 scored, 7 assisted the season before).

Recent form – Arsenal

League position: 7th
Record: 7W-2D-4L; 26 goals for, 23 goals against
Last five: W-W-W-W-D; 14 goals for, 6 against

As you probably know, our recent form has slipped a little, but both the loss to City and the draw to Fulham are understandable if unfortunate. We’ve settled into 7th spot in the Premier League, an odd position that I can’t quite wrap my head around. Neither Newcastle nor Tottenham have imploded, though it’s still early days. Annoyingly, Spurs are five points up with a game in hand, and are finding ways to win despite some trouble in Europe.

RvP finally stopped scoring, missing a few chances against Fulham. Wenger recently sent up warning flags about him, acknowledging that he’s playing too much and will likely suffer a dip in form or be injured (that’s my interpretation, anyway). We all know this is a possibility, but I for one am optimistic that other players will pick up the slack if this happens. Gervinho, Walcott, and Ramsey all need to push for more goals, though they are also likely getting worn down with all the playing time this season.

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Line-up

I expect we’ll see all our top players again (and no, that doesn’t mean Diaby), rested as they were in the Carling Cup match. I can’t imagine Wenger changing much in our front three or our mid three. Santos is our only left back, and Szczesny has the #1 spot sewn up for now. We may see some shuffling in the other three defenders, though it will most likely be Mertesacker and Vermaelen in the middle and the in-form out-of-position Koscielny on the right.

Shockingly, Diaby may not make the bench because he picked up an injury against Fulham. He should ring Owen Hargreaves about finding better doctors.

Look for Arteta to have a good game in the middle.

I can’t be arsed to check into the Wigan line-up more than I have above. I kind of feel bad about that, as if I’m not taking them seriously, but really, other than di Santo they don’t have a ton of attacking talent that we should be aware of. Martinez is a good coach scraping by with whatever he can get his hands on, and this season that hasn’t been much.

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Okay, running out of steam a bit here. Suffice it to say that our momentum has been slowed a bit by the Fulham draw and City loss, and a win here gets us back on track for a great run of games. We should win, we need to win, etc, and if we don’t, we could fall even further behind Tottenham, Liverpool, Newcastle and Chelsea. Ugh.

The game kicks off at 3pm UK, 7am my time, 10am Eastern. Look for the liveblog.

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For a bit of light reading, this interview in the Independent with Johan Djourou is worth your time. He’s a thoughtful man who’s been at Arsenal the longest of any of our players.

In other news, the draw for Euro 2012 was today, and for some reason ESPN thought I would care what happened to Ireland more than any other team. And RvP tweeted a cute pic of him and Mertesacker growling at each other, as Holland and Germany were drawn in the same group.

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Category: Premiership, Wigan