Well as I predicted, it was a tense night.
Arsenal scored after 11 minutes through a Podolski header. Wigan’s defending was shocking but we were glad for the gift.
But after that, we did the same thing we did against QPR and put our foot off the pedal – and this time paid the price. Once we scored Wigan were the better team and the scored a well deserved equaliser. You can dispute the freekick however you want, it was a foul and we still had to defend the freekick, which we didn’t.
So at half time it was 1-1 and a draw was no good for any side.
A combination of poor defending from Wigan and a higher tempo from Arsenal saw us score 3 goals in quick succession but the 4-1 result is an unfair reflection on the match. We weren’t 3 goals better than Wigan and they deserve a lot of credit for their performance – at times we look vulnerable at the back.
And it’s important to note that the injury to McManaman changed the game.
The result is certainly the confidence boost we need, but we need to play much better if we’re going to get all 3 points against Newcastle. They will be more relaxed against us but will still want to put in a performance in their last home game of the season. And with the pressure off, they have nothing to lose.
Our job is simple. We need to win and nothing else matters. Sunday is our cup final. We always see drama and excitement on the last day of the season, so lets hope the drama isn’t us missing out on the Top 4 on the last day.
For Wigan, they couldn’t follow up their heroic FA Cup win with another miracle tonight, although they did come close. They looked dangerous at times tonight and after getting the equaliser, it was anyone’s game. They are a good team that play attractive football, and it’s a shame they’ve gone down – especially when there are plenty of other teams that play boring football and offer the Premier League very little. Hopefully, they will bounce back soon and I wish them all the best.
Wigan deserved better? They didn’t have a single chance until mike dean gifted then a free kick. I understand that you don’t want to seem biased, and by not praising Arsenal all the time that perhaps makes you a more legitimate writer, but I think you’ve overstepped into becoming biased against arsenal. It seems unanimously agreed upon that it wasn’t a free kick, and Wigan hasn’t had a single sniff at goal before that. Even Paul Jewell (former Wigan favourite who had some unsavoury clashes with Arsenal back when he was Wigan manager) admitted it was never a free kick, while every pundit agrees.
As for the game “changing” when McManaman went off; Gibbs had McManaman in his pocket the whole time, (which was great to see considering clichy’s pathetic attempts to even get with 5 yards of McManaman for the entire cup final) so that seems a bit exaggerated against Arsenal as well.
Get behind the team, 23 points out of 27 (I may be wrong but it’s something like that) is outstanding considering where we were. Be positive instead of surrounding the team with negativity!
What a foolish article, arsenal fans just never seems to appreciate their team’s affort at all. Dis guys dnt even deserve to go level in d first half, they dnt hav a single corner, the only chance was d free kick wich everyone believe was a mistake 4rm the ref, and u can see dat dat goal was a big blow to arsenal. Wigan were d better side against city and dey won but there’s no way u will tell me they were the beter side against arsenal an lost 4-1. All pundit were praisin our performance tonight and u are here writtin nonsense, Just bcos u are an arsenal fan u get critical of every little mistake we made, do u want dem to play like barca b4 they win. Learn to apreciate ur team its not by mistake dat we ar were we ar today. Since d beganin of dis year its only d big teams dat hav takin point 4rm us