A week is a long time in football

Arsenal 1-2 Wigan

What a difference eight days make. On Sunday 8^th April, the referee’s final whistle at the Emirates was greeted with cheers and wild celebrations as the Gunners defeated the world’s richest club. Yesterday’s final whistle only prompted those very same supporters to shake their heads in disappointment and disbelief, having witnessed their side’s defeat to one of the Premier League’s smallest clubs. While Arsenal had been absolutely outstanding against Manchester City, their performance last night was nothing short of abysmal. Not one of those players in red and white could emerge from the game with any credit whatsoever and each and every one of them should hang their heads in shame. The sheer lack of effort was disgraceful and the arrogant approach to this game from the home side was quite frankly disgusting. It’s all well and good geeing yourselves up for a massive game against Manchester City but you have to show every single team in this league respect, you cannot just turn up on the day and expect to win the game, you have to earn the right to play your football and you can only do this by showing passion, commitment, grit and determination.  What makes matters even worse is that this was not a Wigan team who produced a fantastic performance out of the blue; they have been playing extremely well for several weeks now, only losing two of their last eleven games and one of those, against Chelsea, was down to poor offside decisions. In fact Roberto Martinez’s side had also just beaten title chasing Manchester United during the week, so what more of a warning did Arsenal need that this side are no push overs?

The main problem with this Arsenal team is that there are far too many individuals who talk a good game in the press, but then fail to back it up on the pitch. In the build-up to this game I lost track of the amount of times I saw an Arsenal player profess their desire to seal third place and not let the gap between the Gunners and Tottenham disintegrate. Players such as Theo Walcott, who never lives up to any of the numerous statements he makes to the press. For the past week we read this nonsense time and time again, but then come kick-off it was like watching rabbits caught in a car’s headlights as Arsenal just watched Wigan run riot. Bacary Sagna in particular, had his worst game in an Arsenal shirt, allowing Victor Moses to do anything and everything he wanted. Almost every time Moses had the ball, he was able to simply glide past the French right back as if he wasn’t there.

The visitors did not waste any time, racing into a two goal lead within eight minutes and stunning the Emirates crowd. The first goal came as a direct result of an Arsenal corner, something that the Gunners have been susceptible to all season, but Wenger has still not addressed it. A poor Van Persie corner was cleared at the near post to Sagna, whose attempt to head the ball back to the Dutchman was easily cut out, allowing Wigan to counter attack, on the left flank through Jordi Gomez. Although the Arsenal players chased back, they had been caught and no one could get back in time to prevent Gomez from slipping the ball through to Franco Di Santo, who was in acres of space bearing down on goal. Out came Szczesny, to narrow the angle, but rather than stand up until the last possible minute and make himself as big as possible, the Polish international went to ground far too quickly, allowing the ball to flick off his trailing leg, loop over him and back into the path of Di Santo to tap into the empty net. Barely a minute later and it was two-nil, as Moses tormented Sagna once more before playing a low ball into the box, which Szczesny seemed to dive over, allowing Gomez to fire home from close range. With Wigan’s supporters barely totalling 200, each goal was greeted with an eerie silence, as the visiting players celebrated wildly, while the home supporters could not believe the nightmare unfolding before their very eyes. Although several newspapers today have highlighted the fact Arteta was not on the pitch for either goal, due to an ankle injury, and so Arsenal were down to ten men, this is not an excuse for the woeful defending which led to both goals.

Although the home side did seem to respond well to conceding the second goal, as Al-Habsi saved well from a Benayoun header and Vermaelen reduced the deficit with a good headed goal from Rosicky’s cross, before Djourou narrowly volleyed wide, Arsenal did not create anything of note after this short flurry. In fact Al-Habsi did not have to make a save in the entire second half, as the Gunners dominated possession but did very little with it, while Wigan posed the greater threat on the break. Arsene Wenger described his side as running out of petrol in the second half, saying they have given so much over the last few weeks that they simply ran out of steam. Well this excuse doesn’t wash with me, after all on the previous Wednesday, while Wigan fought tooth and nail to achieve an historic 1-0 win against Manchester United, Arsenal had their game, against Wolves, effectively won inside the first ten minutes. Wigan, like QPR before them, simply wanted it more. The Gunners are far too busy congratulating themselves for saving a season which started so badly, with the irony being they haven’t actually achieved anything yet.  If they continue to take their eye off the ball, the hurt and disappointment of failing to qualify for the Champions League will greatly overshadow the optimism which accompanied their recent resurgence. There were times last night when the Arsenal players looked like they were moving in slow motion as Wigan players would knock the ball past them and simply glide effortlessly past and regain possession. Wenger, rather than looking for feeble excuses, complaining about time wasting and then ludicrously not shaking Martinez’s hand at the end of the game, should castigate his own players. “Never again” came the cry following the debacle at Loftus Road, but yet just over two weeks later here we are again. 

Yesterday’s defeat now simply piles more pressure onto the next game against Chelsea. Defeat in this fixture would plunge Arsenal right back into the desperate four way scrap for the two remaining top four positions, just when they had been threatening to pull away and secure third spot. Mikel Arteta seems to have suffered a serious ankle injury which could leave Arsenal having to field Ramsey in the middle of the park. The young Welshman is desperately short of form, appearing to be a fraction slower than everyone else around him and so effectively slowing the game down and not possessing the speed of thought to provide killer through balls. Meanwhile, Robin Van Persie, who has obviously been phenomenal all season, has recently seen his form dip slightly. As the team captain, the Dutchman now needs to come to fore once more and lead his team into the Champions League. Failure to do so now, having fought so hard to recover from such a dreadful start, would be utterly demoralising.