Arsenal v. Wigan 1-0 6/Dec/08

Unfolding in the Barclays Premier League this time Arsenal gunned down a visitng Wigan side full of mistakes in an match that resulted ridiculously strange. In previous encounters Arsenal had unpleasant times, due to the fact that Wigan had studied well enough the Gunners. The latest of these was in the Carling Cup context which went favourable for the Londoners. Ambient at the Grove could not be more emotive even with a dismal display by the visiting side.





Arsenal tried to pursue the idealistic "Fantasy football," that for years Wenger has been inculcating in the youngies, in the first minutes but the vast majority of balls were fought on the strong physical one-on-one challenges, and on the 15' the lead came from the boots of Emmanuel Adebayor, after a deflection by Bramble on a van Persie pass. With both sides managing possession and attacks equally the second goal seemed less likely for the Gunners even when van Persie had a deflected opportunity in the 22'. After Samir's criminal foul by Palacios, the match turned quite crispy and by the 35' a rate of three fouls per minute had been commited by both sides. Among the foulers was Song, who continuosly became dispossessed or in any case, giving away to many balls.
As far as the 40' the tactics used by Bruce were not enough to match the solid defending Arsenal. The innovative 4-3-3 used in the last Cup clash was forgotten in order to put the regular and almost reglamentary English 4-4-2. First half ended with an Adebayor woodwork shot.





Neither squad made any referent move in their lineups and Eboue's introduction to the match was really dull. With Wigan regaining confidence by the minute the Gunners had to recurr to a different tactic and that was the physical. By the 55' both teams had two chances each. Even with the previous ill-fated game the match was turning quite interesting and the set pieces provided several opportunites for the Arsenal, as Sagna's 53'. The finishing made by van Persie at 56' nearly went on the net. An interesting match was taking place. Fortunately enough for the Latics van Persie shot went just wide at 64' as well as Denilson woodwork the next minute. Heskey found some crosses while Zaki entered fresh and quick. And yet again Chris Kirkland showed his credentials and saved three shots by Adebayor in five minutes. Next minutes saw an awful quantity of wide and missed shots.
A good thing to rescue was that Arsenal had the will to seek the goal in the final minutes. Several mistakes by Wigan's fullback could have extended the lead for the Gunners at least two goals. Final five minutes were a pack of untalented rampages to home goal. Wigan was an inch to equalize and again Eboué had to be replaced in another performance to forget. Eboué's dismay has beenthe point of discussion between many sites.