Wigan 1-Arsenal 4

By: Martin | April 12th, 2009

Well, I honestly don’t know what to think about that game (highlights here). As Dickens said, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

The good is quite obvious. We won, by a large margin, in an important game, with many of our first-choice 11 injured or on the bench. We completely took over the game in the second half–once Walcott scored his equalizer from Arshavin’s sublime through ball, it was literally as if someone flipped a switch that awakened the sleeping giant. From that point on we had constant possession of the ball, were constantly pressuring Wigan’s defense, and, frankly, Wigan were almost comically outmatched. The win ran our unbeaten run in the league to 18, the longest such streak since the Invincibles roamed Highbury 5 seasons ago. And once again, this young team showed its character by coming back from a halftime deficit to get a win. On the surface, it would seem like nitpicking to complain about such a result.

And yet. If you didn’t see the game, you probably can’t appreciate quite how bad we played in the first half. We were very lucky to only be down 1-0, and very lucky to still have 11 men playing. Mido scored his goal off a corner due to some extremely poor defending, but it was no less than Wigan deserved. They were outrunning and outplaying us. Instead of just sitting back and guarding their box, they were aggressively defending us in our own end and preventing us from moving the ball forward at all. How many times did Fabianski take the ball and go to distribute, only to grow frustrated because Wigan players were running around everywhere? We would basically get it forward to midfield, make a bad pass, and then Wigan would run forward on the counterattack.

The pivotal moment of the game came at the end of the first half, when Kieran Gibbs hauled down Antonio Valencia, who was by him and through on Fabianski. Referee Alan Wiley judged Valencia not to be in total control of the ball, and there was a good chance Fabianski would have beaten Valencia to the ball, so Gibbs only received a yellow. Honestly, that call could have gone either way, and had the roles been reversed and had an Arsenal player been brought down in such fashion, I have to admit I would have been screaming for a red. On the resulting free kick, Ben Watson took a great chance and had Fabianski beaten, but was unlucky to hit the post. If either Gibbs gets sent off, or Foster’s free kick slips inside the post, we may very well be having a completely different discussion about this game. It also could have been 2-0 right after half-time, when Mido got a header over the top of Fabianski, but Gibbs got back to clear it off the line.

I’m so mental that I avoided all knowledge of the game all day so I could watch it, since the only American airing of the game that I know of was Fox Soccer showing it at midnight. I looked at my clock at half-time, saw that it was 1 a.m., and thought, “I’m staying up until 2 a.m. on a Saturday night, and I’m sitting here watching THIS?!” Fortunately, it all became worth it in the second-half, as Arsenal took over and scored four sublime goals.

I’m hoping the first-half served as a wake-up call to Arsenal that we can’t overlook anyone, and we’ve got to show up to play against each and every opponent from here on in. Based on the way we came out in the second-half, the team certainly seems to have gotten the message. It’s not the first time that Arsenal (or any other team, for that matter) has followed up a glamorous, high-profile European match in some exotic destination with a road trip to a place like Wigan and struggled. And it won’t be the last. The important thing is we got the 3 points, and I don’t think we’ll be lacking in motivation for the next couple of games.

The other bad news was the injury to Johan Djourou, our third injured defender in 2 games. There didn’t appear to be much contact on the injury, his knee just buckled and went down, and sometimes those can be the most serious. He looked to be in a lot of pain and was barely able to limp off the field with assistance. There’s nothing official yet, but Wenger said he’ll be out against Villareal on Wednesday, which leaves us with only 4 fit defenders. I’ve got a sinking feeling we may not see the young Swiss again until August. Yikes.

All in all, though, this was a great result for us, and will hopefully allow us to concentrate on advancing in the Champions League and FA Cup. 70 points has always been good enough to guarantee a 4th place finish, and often considerably less than that is good enough. We currently sit on 61 with 6 games to play, including matches against Middlesbrough, Stoke, and Portsmouth. Aston Villa and Everton play today in a virtual knockout match in terms of possibly reaching the top 4. Here’s hoping for another draw there. (UPDATE: Ask, and ye shall receive. A 3-3 draw means we’re 8 points up on Villa and 9 up on Everton with 6 games to play. Something pretty dramatic would have to happen in the run-in for us to miss out on 4th place.)

In other news, for the second consecutive weekend, Villareal has lost a starting midfielder to injury. This time, it’s first leg hero Marcus Senna, who limped off the field and will not play on Wednesday. The importance of this injury can’t be overstated. Arsenal will be coming out looking to push forward and score some goals on Wednesday, and Senna, as one of the world’s best holding midfielders, was instrumental to their hopes of stifling our attack. Tough break for them, but should make for slightly easier going for us.

Also, on loan striker Jay Simpson has said he hasn’t really enjoyed his spell at West Brom and wants to play for Arsenal next season. The young man has been with the Arsenal academy since the age of nine, and has put in some good performances with the reserves and in the Carling Cup this season before moving out to West Brom. Having him in the squad would certainly shut up so many members of the English media that always harp about the lack of English players and academy products in our squad.

But the bottom line is I just don’t think he’s good enough to feature in our first-team. He’s only a bit younger than Nicklas Bendtner, and older than Carlos Vela, and both of those players are ahead of him in terms of development. Plus, this is a squad with van Persie, Adebayor, Eduardo, Bendtner, and Vela, plus guys like Walcott and Arshavin who are capable of playing up front if needed. Even if one or two of those players move on this summer, it’s hard to see where Simpson fits in. I’d love to be proven wrong, but I imagine he’ll be sent out on loan again or sold outright this summer.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy Easter–back midweek with Villareal stuff.