I RUSHED home from a party and found that Fabregas wasn’t playing.
Hleb wasn’t playing either.
And the first half was so bad I wished I’d stayed at the party.
It was garbage because the main man wasn’t there. He’s the guy they rely on. He’s the one they all look for. He’s the one who knows where the ball should go. He’s the playmaker and the brains of the Arsenal team.
Without Fabregas, it was Hamlet without the Prince.
Second half, the game improved, opened up, both sides had chances. But Wigan, as so often, didn’t quite have the composure to finish their moves.
But I like Wigan. Good chairman, good manager, good 4-4-2 most of the time, good attitude, punching above their weight, deserve a bigger crowd but live TV prevented that.
Leighton Baines had Walcott in his pocket all night and when the kid did get away, onto a nice pass from Baptista, his final ball did not find Adebayor.
After 74, Fabregas came on for Flamini and van Persie replaced Baptista.And then Toure made a terrific block to deny Camara, who then blazed a sharpish chance over the bar.
In 86, Fabregas found Adebayor’s run but his touch wasn’t good enough and Kirkland dived on the ball.
On 88, Fabregas, in his own half. hit a phenomenal pass which released Adebayor and this time he stabbed in through the legs of the advancing Kirkland.
One nil to the Arsenal !
It was a traditional English goal, the oldest ball in football : the No.4 hits a ball over the defence for the No 9 to run onto and score. (Yes, we know the No.9 had gone off by then).
That goal puts Arsenal third.
At Chelsea, they dug out a result. At Wigan they dug out another result.
Now Arsenal can beat Portsmouth at the Emirates and go on a decent run.
In that game, Fabregas will start.So the first half should be better than this first half.
All in all, not too bad.
The world’s leading developmental football coach has had a look at Walcott and Baptista. One game is worth 50 training sessions. And Theo played 90 of the 93 minutes.He could become Arsenal’s Giuly next year. Not that I think Giuly is a great player. Messi is a great player, Walcott might become a great player.
Against Pompey, let’s hope Arsenal remember : Route 1 rules, OK ? Forget eleven passes, try one pass – and bang !
What do I think of Adebayor? He makes a run for you. He makes a run into the box. And he’s improving. That’s good because he needs to improve
Which Arsenal turned up at Wigan?
The one without Fabregas. But then Arsene put him on and he hit the centre forward with two passes in 86 and 88.He could have built a 12-pass move but the manager had only given him 16 minutes to win the game and 14 of those minutes had gone, so he was direct.
But he needs someone making runs for him. He needs a centre forward who will keep making runs for him.If that happens, Hamlet won’t have to pass the ball sideways so much.
Hallelujah ! Sing it from the rooftops ! Arsene Wenger, the innovative modern coach who dispensed with centre forwards in 1997, and created a team of wingers, has seen the light and now plays with a centre forward – and it’s working !
Yes, things are looking up : Arsenal are third, Portsmouth are fourth, Australia are 244 all out on the first day of the third Test (Monty Panesar 5-90) and I’ve got a gig tonight.
WIGAN (4-3-3): Kirkland; Wright, Boyce, Hall, Baines; McCulloch, Landzaat, Skoko; Kilbane, Camara, Heskey (Johansson, 67).
Subs not used: Pollitt, Jackson, Cotterill, Todorov.
ARSENAL (4-5-1): Lehmann; Eboué, Djourou, Touré, Clichy; Walcott (Hoyte, 90), Flamini (Fabregas, 75), Julio Baptista (Van Persie, 75), Gilberto, Ljungberg; Adebayor.
Subs not used: Almunia, Hleb.