Wenger: Christmas no time to ease up

Wigan 0 Arsenal 1

Arsenal’s recovery from that devastating night at Bradford is gaining momentum, and Arsene Wenger is not about to let Christmas get in the way.

His team’s St Stephen’s Day derby with West Ham might have become the victim of a Tube strike, but Arsenal’s hard-working manager will not take that as the signal to down tools and put his feet up for the Strictly Christmas Special.

Last Christmas heralded an unwelcome dip for Arsenal, a home draw against doomed Wolves and a run of three defeats to see in the new year. It’s not easy to find the goodwill in that little lot.

Not that Wenger, being questioned as never before in the wake of that Capital One Cup capitulation at Bradford City less than a fortnight ago, is playing Scrooge. He insists he will have a traditional dinner with his family “of course”.

The throwaway line that followed — “we will watch a game during Christmas dinner” — was a joke, we assumed.

But workaholic Arsene is usually serious, especially when the rumblings over a lack of silverware and the fall-out from Valley Parade have registered on the Emirates Richter Scale to such an extent that his future as manager is the subject of fierce debate.

And yet Wenger was able to leave the drenched DW Stadium with three points to add to the rout of Reading a few days earlier, hoisting ‘crisis club’ Arsenal into third place in the Premier League table, albeit briefly.

It wasn’t the best they will play this season — in truth, they were matched by luckless Wigan in most departments — but it was another victory to confirm for Wenger that the Bradford gloom will lift just as surely as winter gives way to spring.

“Suddenly, there are a lot of good things to talk about,” said Arsenal’s manager, “but let’s not go overboard. As much as we had not to be depressed after what happened, we have to keep our feet on the ground and focus on the next game.

“I always said the group is very good mentally and that will come out in the end, and hopefully we can show that now. Our game is based on movement, technical quality and fluency, and that demands confidence, so it is very important we have confidence to play.”

Arsenal’s victory came courtesy of Mikel Arteta’s penalty on the hour, denying Ali Al Habsi a rare clean sheet on his 100th appearance for Wigan and leaving Roberto Martinez to rue the safety-first rule he suspects unconsciously guides referees’ key decisions.

Martinez, convinced Theo Walcott went down far too easily when he felt contact from Jean Beausejour, also believed Wigan should have had a late penalty for handball.

Martinez was nevertheless able to point out positives, not least the performance of Republic of Ireland misdfielder James McCarthy, “the highlight of the 22 players,” declared his manager.

More of the same will be required as Wigan go into Wednesday’s clash at Everton still 25 points shy of Martinez’s 40-point survival target.

WIGAN (3-4-1-2): Al Habsi (7); Boyce (6), McCarthy (7), Figueroa (6); Stam (6), Jones (7), McArthur (6), Beausejour (5); Maloney (6) (Gomez 89); Di Santo (6) (McManaman 76, 5), Kone (5).

ARSENAL (4-4-2): Szczesny (7); Sagna (6), Mertesacker (6), Vermaelen (6), Gibbs (6); Oxlade-Chamberlain (7) (Ramsey 75, 5), Arteta (6), Wilshere (7), Cazorla (6) (Koscielny, 90); Podolski (5) (Coquelin 79, 5), Walcott 6.

Referee: J Moss.