Without wishing to resort to clichés so early there really is no other way to describe yesterday’s game but as a game of two halves.
The first was not good from an Arsenal point of view. Firstly ex-Sp*rs bloke Mido put Wigan ahead, then we lost Johan Djourou to what looks like a serious injury. With no impact or contact from another player his knee just appeared to give way and he was taken away on a stretcher. We’ll have to wait for official confirmation but it doesn’t look good and raises issues about our defence which I’ll come to in a bit.
Sylvester came on to replace him at centre-half. Meanwhile we were really struggling to get a hold on the game at all. The classic post-Europe hangover performance. I don’t think we created a chance of note in the first half at all. Kieran Gibbs cleared one off the line after Fabianski found himself in no-man’s land and we can count ourselves somewhat lucky that we didn’t go in at half time down to 10 men and two goals behind.
Kieran Gibbs got away with a yellow card when he appeared to haul down the Wigan player who would have been through on goal. Mike Wiley saw it, reached for his pocket and I have to say I was surprised, pleasantly of course, that it was only a yellow card. He gave a free kick on the edge of the box which the Wigan guy smacked off the inside of the post. A let-off all round but maybe we deserve a bit of luck every now and again. It’s not like we haven’t had our share of bad luck this season. All the same I can understand Steve Bruce being upset with the ref – if the situation was reversed I’d be very unhappy that the red card didn’t come out for the Wigan player.
The second half was a different story, eventually. I was beginning to think the game was stinking of Stoke, we seemed leggy and lethargic, and then we scored. The ball came to Andrei Arshavin in the box and as he twisted and turned to try and make space he fell, but at the same time stuck out a leg, knocked the ball to Theo and he finished stylishly to equalise.
We then brought on van Persie and Adebayor and although neither of them scored their presence put Wigan on the back foot a bit. The second goal was rather cheeky. From a thrown in Arshavin played a pass to Cesc through the legs of the defender, he waltzed into the box, played it right across goal and Sylvester had the easiest tap in of his life.
Two late goals sealed the game. Firstly Arshavin capitalised on a Wigan error, after an Arsenal break had broken down on the edge of the box, to fire home the third. Then Alex Song jinked his way through the Wigan defence and slid it into the bottom corner to make it 4-1. He’s really going through a good run of form, fair play to him.
So the scoreline might have been a bit flattering but a 4-1 away win after a midweek Champions League game is not to be sniffed at. If you want to pick the bones out of it go right ahead, you can do that with any game, but the bottom line us we won, we’re on an 18 match unbeaten run in the league and 4-1 on a Sunday morning makes me happy.
Afterwards Arsene was more interested in talking up the positives than dwelling on the negatives, focussing on the character of the team. He said:
We have shown great character and mental strength again for such a young team. We have shown some quality and mental quality that are very interesting for the future.
All the same I think there’ll be certain things he’ll be looking at ahead of the Villarreal game on Wednesday. Kieran Gibbs is a promising player but got a rough ride at times yesterday while the goalkeeping coach might want a word with Fabianski about when to come off his line. I thought he looked solid from crosses/corners etc, but he does have a tendency to run about a bit, but I guess that’s an experience thing as well.
The other thing he might look at is how much better we were when Denilson went off. It’s not a criticism of Denilson per se, but when Cesc dropped back a bit we took control of the game. I don’t think we get anywhere near the best out of Cesc when he’s deployed just behind the striker. We want him deeper, dictating the play from our half. And I don’t think it was any coincidence that Arshavin, who showed some beautiful touches yesterday, was in the game more when he had Cesc behind him.
Anyway, that’s for him to decide. The other worry is Djourou, of course. Arsene says:
It looks as though he’ll be out for Wednesday. We lost two central defenders in two games, we have a few more games to go and we haven’t got enough of them to lose one every game.
We really are down to bare bones now. Toure and Sylvester are the only two fit centre-halves at the club at the moment, after that we’re looking at Song to fill in (which he did reasonably well at the tail end of last season). It is a worry though. We have game after game after game in the next few weeks and if Djourou misses the rest of the season any further injuries could be devastating.
I’m not sure what kind of contingency plan we might have. I don’t know who might come up from the reserves/youths or if there’s any way to recall Senderos from his loan at AC Milan. Fingers crossed we’ve had all the bad luck we’re going to have with injuries at this stage.
Anyway, all will become clear in the next few days. Looking around at the rest of the news this Sunday there’s an interview in the News of the World with Arsene Wenger in which he talks very candidly about his transfer policy and the form of the team. It’s stuff we’ve gone over on the blog time and time again so I’m not going to comment on it. It’s a very interesting read though.
Update: I should point out that the interview only appears IN the NOTW. It wasn’t given to them. Arsene did not speak to them. The whole thing has been lifted wholesale from L’Equipe.
Some good news ahead of the Villarreal game – Marcos Senna picked up an injury last night and will miss the game. He’s a top player who bossed the midfield in the first leg so his absence will be a big loss to them.
And that’s about it. It’s another beautiful day here in Dublin, I’ve got a game of 5-a-side later on, so I shall leave you to it.
