In the next five days you will find out if Arsenal are any good.
The next two games are Villarreal and Chelsea.
Easter was wet as usual but we saw 40 Premier League goals :
Liverpool 4 Blackburn 0
Chelsea 4 Bolton 3
Wigan 1 Arsenal 4.
Sunderland 1 Manchester United 2
Aston Villa 3 Everton 3
At the JJB Stadium, Van Persie, Adebayor and Nasri were all on the bench and Fabianski started his first Premier League game of the season.
In 18 minutes, a right wing corner was knocked down and Sagna’s header went to Mido as Toure and Song ran around like headless chickens. Mido’s shot went through Fabiaski for 1-0.
Just before half-time, Gibbs pulled down right winger Valencia, who was sprinting towards the D. He wasn’t sent off because referee Alan Wiley reckoned Valencia wasn’t in full control of the ball. Gibbs got a yellow card. Watson hit the free-kick neatly round the wall but it came back off the post.
The Gibbs-Valencia incident wasn’t as clear cut as when Rio Ferdinand took out Freddie at Old Trafford about seven years ago. That day the ref gave nothing !
Lucky Arsenal could have been 2-0 down with 10 men.
When Gibbs misjudged a bouncing ball from left back Figueroa, Fabianski came out of his area to head the ball. Mido won the header and Fabianski headed Mido’s head and Gibbs got back to clear off the line.
Then Arsenal equalised.
Bendtner won a flick-on to Walcott. He was tackled but touched the ball to Arshavin, who took the ball into the box against Melchiot. The big right back waited and waited and then stuck his leg out and got the ball and Arshavin fell over his leg. But when Arshavin was on the ground he poked the ball back to Walcott, who hit it first time past the advancing Kirkland.
So it was 1-1 after 61 minutes.
Walcott was then replaced by Adebayor.
In 71, Arshavin threw the ball to Fabregas and got it back and slipped it square past between Melchiot and Brown to release Fabregas, who set up Silvestre to stab in for 2-1
After a Wigan corner, Adebayor took a nice pass from Van Persie and broke away up the field and gave an amateur pass to Koumas, not Fabregas. Koumas, hustled by two opponents, passed square to Arshavin, who smacked in a shot from the edge of the box for 3-1.
Wigan were tired and demoralised, Song waltzed past two defenders to make it 4-1.
Clearly, Arsenal were flattered by 4-1.
And they have lost Djourou with a knee injury.
The move for the Silvestre goal was quality : two quick-thinking footballers destroyed a defence.
Arshavin is a footballer’s footballer, an inside forward on the wing, like Robert Pires and Forest’s John Robertson, someone who can create from anywhere on the pitch. I had waited months to see those two quick-witted players combine.Great players make football look easy.
Wigan was the first of seven Arsenal games in 21 days. If every player was fit, that’s still too many games.
If Arsenal beat Villarreal, as I expect, they will play Porto, unless Porto bottle it and try to defend against Man United, who continue to wobble in every game they play.
Chelsea are 3-1 up against Liverpool and don’t have to win on Tuesday night. They will have an extra day to prepare for the FA Cup semi. And Hiddink knows Arshavin inside out.
WIGAN (4-4-2): Kirkland; Melchiot, Boyce, Bramble, Figueroa; Valencia, Brown (De Ridder, 78), Scharner, Watson (Koumas, 84); Rodallega, Mido (Kapo, 57). Substitutes not used: Pollitt (gk), Kingson (gk), Edman, Sibierski.
ARSENAL (4-4-1-1): Fabianski; Sagna, Djourou (Silvestre, 34), Touré, Gibbs; Walcott (Adebayor, 67), Denilson (Van Persie, 62), Song, Arshavin; Fabregas; Bendtner. Subs not used: Szczesny (gk), Eboué, Nasri, Vela.
Referee: Alan Wiley (Staffordshire).
Booked: Boyce, Bramble, Brown, Gibbs, Van Persie, Song.
Crowd: 22,954.