Wigan 0 Arsenal 0
Main worry for most pre-match was the Wigan pitch. Could Arsenal adapt their style? Would they be tired post Milan? Would the culture clash be too extreme?
But those who look more below the surface would note Wigan have had three clean sheets in four games, and have won six at the JJB.
Players with solid defensive Premiership experience like Kirkland, Melchiot, Brown, Edman and Scharner looked capable of getting a draw. And with the set piece threat of Koumas and Heskey, along with the unexpected, from Valencia and Palacio, a win wasn’t totally out of the question.
On a week-end of banana skins and underestimating opposition, this could be an OK point.
Arsenal have a Plan B these days, but haven’t the depth of squad to pick particular players for certain conditions and pitches, like say Chelsea for example.
Will pitches like these, more suited to rugby than football, hasten the onset of a Euro-league? Maybe.
Arsenal, though started brightly and Adebayor was sent through the middle by Fabregas. A sort of chance Torres, fast catching up in the leading scorer stakes, would have snapped up, with a dummy to offset the straightness of the pass and the goalkeeper’s run. But Kirkland saved easily from The Togo striker.
He saved another from Bendtner, and the Dane, looking good held it up and sent it just wide of Kirkland’s left post soon after.
The Dane then broke through on the left, but the pitch saved the cross by presenting a bobble at the crossing moment.
Mid-way through the half he took the ball off Brown brilliantly but was yellow carded by Styles.
Wigan defended and pressed well. Best chances came from the Americas, via Palacio and Valencia, who was testing Clichy on the right. Palacio’s shot was wild, but Valencia was hanging in some dangerous crosses.
A cross from the Arsenal left found Fabregas in the middle of the Wigan area. He instinctively headed towards the goal space but Kirkland dived to parry away.
On half-time, Senderos, who looked most assured at times, hesitated and Heskey powered dangerously into the area, and Gallas saved it for a corner.
Start of the second, same as the first – a dangerous symmetry as Adebayor had a great chance to lob Kirkland, but elected for power straight at him. The Togo man looked very much off his game, as if he was carrying a stomach upset.
Boyce came in with foot head high – but ridiculously escaped a booking, in the same place as Bendtner got booked for a raised foot about a metre lower. Styles’ authoritarian officiousness often offsets his homerishness.
Bacary Sagna went on traditional brilliant run down the right but his cross was headed away.
The dangerous Sibierski came on for ‘one goal Emile’, and immediately fired a dangerous cross, with which Koumas connected – deflected away.
Wigan were gaining the ascendancy, not helped by Arsenal, Gilberto and Hleb in particular, being caught in possession. And Valencia sent a swerving shot inside the post which Almunia cleared.
Toure came on for the lumbering Gilberto to take up a position on the right of midfield; van Persie made his first appearance since the Tottenham Carling Cup tie, and before that,for five months – on for Bendtner.
Fabregas sent in a brilliant low trajectory free kick, which, on a different day Adebayor would have latched on to. But he watched it sail into Kirkland’s hands, his head possibly still in Milan.
Van Persie sent a free kick way over and then delivered two dangerous corners. Some of his link-up play added to Arsenal’s threat with two diagonal balls, and some intelligent running into space.
In the last ten he cut inside but sent it skying again – not an easy pitch for accurate shooting. He can be forgiven for not finding Hleb free on the left, although Adebayor was lurking too, the other side.
Valencia, epitomised the goal threat Wigan undoubtedly possessed, and his cross nearly found Sibierski, but for the excellent Gallas’s intervention.
At the other end Adebayor found Fabregas‘s brilliant little run, but Kirkland was right on top of him and saved.
Valencia immediately powered down the right beat Clichy and Fabregas mishit it over his own bar. The ball came out to Koumas from the corner, and his piledriver hit Fabregas’s arm – in self-protection.
This is only the second league game this season, in which Arsenal have failed to score.
The other one was Portsmouth, with their six ex-Arsenal players. Steve Bruce, who was at Birmingham, who have had ten Arsenal players in and out in various forms, knows a thing or two about the way Arsenal play.
Makes you wonder whether things should be kept a little more in-house?
Wigan Athletic: Chris Kirkland, Mario Melchiot, Emmerson Boyce, Paul Scharner, Erik Edman, Luis Valencia, Michael Brown, Jason Koumas, Wilson Palacios, Marlon King (Kilbane 88), Emile Heskey (Antoine Sibierski 55) Subs not used: Michael Pollitt, Titus Bramble, Ryan Taylor
Arsenal: Manuel Almunia ,William Gallas, Bacary Sagna, Philippe Senderos, Gael Clichy, Gilberto (Kolo Toure 66), Cesc Fabregas Mathieu Flamini, Alexander Hleb, Emmanuel Adebayor, Nicklas Bendtner (Robin Van Persie 66). Subs not used:
Jens Lehmann, Justin Hoyte, Alexandre Song.
Referee: Rob Styles