Relief and relegation at Emirates

Arsenal 4 Wigan Athletic 1

Two goals from Lukas Podolski, one from Theo Walcott and one from Aaron Ramsey are not quite enough to ensure Arsenal clinch Champions League qualification just yet; but they do mean that if Wenger’s side match Tottenham’s result on the final day of the Premier League campaign they will at the very least take fourth place.

Tottenham are home to Sunderland on Sunday while Arsenal travel to Newcastle, so after what has been at times a difficult season for Wenger’s side, there is every chance it will end with the same scenario that has greeted Gunners fans ever since 1996.

Wigan, by the way, finished 10th in the bottom tier of the Football League that year, which just goes to show how far they have come. But even a wonderful free-kick from Shaun Maloney, which had them level here 1-1 at half-time, was not enough to keep Roberto Martinez’s side up or prevent them becoming the first team in history to win the FA Cup and be relegated in the same season.

“I never expected this to happen,” Martinez insisted afterwards. “The players are an incredible bunch and they didn’t deserve this. I’m just glad we’ve seen the other side and they’ve shown what they are capable of by winning the FA Cup. This is a difficult day for the football club but we will take the positives and build for the future.”

There will now undoubtedly be speculation about Martinez’s future but in reality all the focus in the build-up to this weekend’s matches will centre not on the relegation battle, which is now over, but on whether Arsenal can finish the job and clinch that Champions League place at the expense of their most bitter rivals.

They will be strong favourites, just as they were here because Wigan had given so much both physically and emotionally when they beat Manchester City in a fairytale FA Cup Final at Wembley only three days earlier that it seemed impossible for them to arrive at the Emirates and win again.

However there were times, particularly early in the second half, when it was Arsene Wenger’s men who looked like rabbits in the headlamps as Martinez’s men squirmed all over them.

Martinez, sporting a button badge that read simply ‘believe’, took a risk by fielding an unchanged side and Arsenal made him pay as they took the lead within 11 minutes, Lukas Podolksi stooping to head home a Santi Cazorla corner almost unchallenged in the middle of the six-yard box.

But although Walcott had a goal correctly ruled out for offside the expected Arsenal deluge never arrived and nerves at the Emirates were shredded when referee Mike Dean awarded Wigan a free-kick right on half-time after Mike Arteta had tried to nick the ball from Shaun Maloney. The home crowd booed but the decision looked justified — and Maloney produced a stunning, dipping free-kick to bring his side level.

The early stages of the second half were when Wigan could have won it. Szczesny did exceptionally well to deny Kone, McCarthy had a goal ruled out and at times the visitors swarmed all over their more illustrious opponents.

But in Walcott, Arsenal have a man who is capable of producing something special when it matters; and in a game in which he was always a threat he showed remarkable pace to out-sprint two Wigan defenders and the goalkeeper to turn a flat ball across the box from Cazorla home after 63 minutes.

Podolski calmly lobbed a third, set up by a deft header from Cazorla, before Ramsey rattled home a fourth that ended Arsenal’s nerves and ended Wigan’s season.

Now there is just one more game to go if Arsenal are to keep that top-four record alive; and they don’t look like a team about to go back to 1996.

“It’s always been in our hands, we’ve got another big game on Sunday and we’ll give it all again,” said Wenger.

ARSENAL: Szczesny 7, Sagna 7, Mertesacker 6, Koscielny 7, Gibbs 6, Ramsey 7, Arteta 6 (Vermaelen 90), Rosicky 5 (Wilshere 78), Walcott 8, Cazorla 8, Podolski 8 (Oxlade-Chamberlain 78).

WIGAN: Robles 7, Boyce 6, Scharner 6, Alcaraz 6, Espinoza 6, McManaman 6 (Watson 57), Maloney 7 (Henriquez 85), McCarthy 7, McArthur 6, Kone 7, Gomez 6 (Watson 64).

Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral).