Another collapse underlines what Arsenal are missing
This game may have been a reminder why football is the most popular sport across the globe. But it was also a reminder why Arsenal are not good enough to win the Premier League. Too often when Arsene Wenger’s side have gome looking for leadership this season, it’s been sitting injured in the stands or not available. “Arsenal need men,” Glenn Hoddle said this week. He had a point.
Those Wigan fans who left the ground early, confident the game was over and that Arsenal’s two-goal lead could not be overtaken, must be cursing themselves this morning after a simply astonishing last 10 minutes saw Roberto Martinez’s men come from two goals down to win this encounter 3-2.
Goals from Ben Watson, Titus Bramble and Charles N’Zogbia stunned everybody in this corner of Lancashire – including the players themselves – as Wigan not only cancelled out Theo Walcott’s opener and Mikael Silvestre’s second but eventually overtook it.
It was no less than they deserved after harrying and pressuring Arsenal all afternoon. The visitors seemed able to resist Wigan’s probing but as the game entered its final stages, their resistance crumbled to dust, taking with it whatever fleeting Premier League title ambitions they still harboured.
Wigan have beaten Liverpool, Chelsea, Aston Villa and now Arsenal this season, but no victory was as good as this one.
“Without a doubt that was the best of the lot,” Martinez grinned. “Because we have beaten our weakness, which is accepting disappointment and reacting in the right manner. You don’t get results like this by accident, we deserved it.”
Yet despite the huge boost in confidence and momentum that is likely to give Martinez’s squad – plus the fact the win puts them seven points clear off the relegation zone – the Spaniard is not getting overly-confident quite yet.
“We shouldn’t get carried away. After Wednesday night’s draw with Portsmouth, everybody said we were nearly relegated and now we should not think we are safe.”
It also shows you how important it is to have a solid defence and a decent goalkeeper – two things Arsenal lacked.
In an omen of what was to come, eventually, Wigan started as the better side as Arsenal looked extremely nervous in defence, particularly because usual goalkeeper Manuel Almunia was absent with a wrist injury.
That means Arsene Wenger had to utilise Lukasz Fabianski, a goalkeeper who is yet to convince most observers that he is good enough for this level and the nerves he displayed seemed to affect the entire Arsenal side.
Early on, Fabianksi stayed rooted to the spot as a Watson corner beat every single player in the crammed six-yard box while N’Zogbia also caused problems for the Gunners’ backline.
At the other end, Nicklas Bendtner forced Chris Kirkland into one fine low save while Walcott also did his best to open the scoring but could not quite break the deadlock.
It was end-to-end activity but not end-to-end action as the sides both frequently gifted possession to the other but neither team looked potent enough to take advantage.
However, all that changed when Walcott made the most of a brilliant ball from Bendtner on the edge of the box and he shimmied through the Wigan defence and slotted past Chris Kirkland.
Walcott then almost doubled the lead immediately as he again ran at the Wigan defence but his right-footed effort cleared the crossbar with Kirkland well beaten.
Straight after the interval, Samir Nasri appeared to pull Watson down in the box but Wigan’s frantic appeals for a penalty went unheard by referee Lee Mason. And to compound the home side’s anger, Nasri then played a huge part in Arsenal’s second goal as Silvestre nodded home his corner.
Game, set and match to Arsenal. Or so the majority of the DW Stadium thought.
However, Wigan had other ideas and magnificently set out to prove to their fans how much playing in the Premier League means to them.
Victor Moses and N’Zogbia combined time and time again to cause ageing centre-backs Sol Campbell and Silvestre serious trouble and they finally broke through as Moses pulled the ball back in from the left wing for Watson to slide past Fabianski to make it 2-1.
That was soon 2-2 as Fabianski dropped an N’Zogbia corner on to Titus Bramble’s forehead and he could not miss from less than two yards and as Arsenal stood around wondering how three points had become just one, N’Zogbia tried his luck from 25 yards and hit the back of the net to sensationally deny Arsenal even that meagre gain.
“I believe that we cannot say today that we lost the game because of the goalkeeper,” said Wenger. Quite rightly as well. The blame deserved to be spread around.
“I believe that we were not focused and not disciplined and we were caught. We were a bit unlucky as well but overall in football you have to keep focus for 90 minutes or you will always be punished.
“Especially against a team with nothing to lose and fighting not to go down.”
MATCH RATING: **** – The ending was brilliant and a well-deserved climax to what had been an eventful encounter.
REFEREE: Lee Mason (Lancashire) 5 – Did not control the game with any authority and made a selection of strange decisions that rightly angered both sides.
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