The Soccer Blog: Wigan - Arsenal Preview

Tuesday, 28 December 2010

Wigan - Arsenal Preview

Wigan – Arsenal Preview - The Offside - Arsenal blog

« Arsenal 3 Chelsea 1: Gunners Get Some Post-Christmas Cheer by Beating the Blues | Home | Wigan – Arsenal PreviewBy: Martin | December 28th, 2010
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Wigan Athletic

Position: 16th, 4-7-7 (19 points, -14 goal differential)

Home Form: 2-4-3 (-9 goal differential)

Recent Form: LLDDW

Last Meeting: Arsenal 2 – Wigan 0 (Carling Cup) (November 30, 2010)

Still feeling euphoric after yesterday’s win over Chelsea, Arsenal need to be very careful to avoid a let-down against Wigan tomorrow.

But before I get into that, I can’t resist giving you some of my thoughts on yesterday’s game. Yes, I know you don’t care, but it’s my blog and I will write my self-indulgent tripe if I want to. If you just want to read about the Wigan watch, just skip down below the block quote.

–I’m not interested in anyone trying to discredit this victory by saying Chelsea are weakened, or in a slump. It’s Chelsea. They had Drogba, Lampard, Terry, Cashley, Essien, Malouda, and Ivanovic, so injuries can’t be an excuse (no more for them than for us, anyway). They won the double last season, and rampaged through the league in the early part of this season. We outplayed a very good team and deservedly won, end of story.

–And for all the talk about tactics, and health, etc., we beat them by wanting it more and working for it more. There’s no doubt who was the better, hungrier, more aggressive team yesterday.

–Related to that, the key to the entire match for me was how effectively our forward(s) and midfielders defended all over the pitch. We’ve seen it far too often that this Arsenal team simply sits back when the other team is in possession — that was the biggest difference between us and Manchester United. Yesterday, though, defending was a great effort by the entire team. van Persie and Cesc were trying to break up play pretty deep in Chelsea’s half, Theo and Nasri were brilliant at tracking back along the wings and kept Chelsea from establishing any sort of wide threat. It should be noted that both our second two goals came on counterattacks from turnovers high up the pitch. Yes, Chelsea screwed up on both of them — but teams tend to make a lot more mistakes, and those mistakes tend to come in positions where we’re in a better position to make them count, when we’re defending like an angry swarm of bees all over the pitch. We need to do this. Every. Single. Game. If we do, there’s nothing we can’t win.

–I remember there was a span of a couple of transfer windows when the hot rumor was that Wenger really wanted to bring in Salomon Kalou. I was mystified, and I wondered what exactly he offered to Arsenal, or any football team, for that matter. I’m still wondering.

–I’ve been banging this drum for a while in the comments section and in my player ratings, but I found it quite odd over the last month or so that Squillaci was an automatic starter, when his performances didn’t seem to merit that. Koscielny and Djourou had both generally played better than him, his leadership and organizational abilities didn’t actually seem to add that much, and Koscielny and Djourou had paired together very effectively in the Carling Cup matches. I thought they were both excellent last night — does anyone doubt that these two should be our first-choice pairing until Vermaelen comes back?

–I’m NOT blaming him for the goal, which should have been defended better but in a lot of ways was just a great set piece, but Flaps did probably the worst possible thing on Ivanovic’s goal. You either have to run out kamikaze-style and try to either get a fist to the ball to punch it, or at least impede or distract Ivanovic enough to put him off, or you have to stay on your line and try to save the header. You can’t run out five yards and stop, because that gives you basically no chance of doing either.

–Generally I thought Arsenal played very well with the lead yesterday. There was a spell from about the 65th-80th minute when we just seemed so calm and in control. Things got a bit hectic after that, but we dealt with it. A refreshing change from some of our previous performances (*cough* Tottenham *cough*).

–I really hate Chelsea and tend to brand them with monikers like “classless” and “thugs.” I make no apologies for this. But credit to a lot of the Chelsea players for staying on the pitch after the final whistle to congratulate the Arsenal players. Chelsea seems to be in a tailspin, and that had to be a massively frustrating match for them, and I think it would have been entirely understandable for them to just scuttle off the pitch into the locker room, but it was a good display of class and sportsmanship.

–There were a few calls here and there that I might have disagreed with, but generally I thought Mark Clattenburg had a good game. He must have breathed a huge sigh of relief when Song buried that shot, because he had a very big call to make as to whether or not there was a penalty against Chelsea for the tackle on Cesc. But when the referee is not in any way part of the story in a big clash between two big teams, I think you have to say he did his job pretty well.

–I’m still on cloud 9. It feels like such a relief. And I hope the players feel the same way. Getting this proverbial monkey off their back will hopefully give them the belief that they can beat anyone, anywhere, anytime, and that they are capable of winning the league this year.

–That having been said, this result doesn’t mean a thing if we can’t take full points from Wigan tomorrow. So with that in mind, let’s look at that one.

Last year, you will recall, Wigan beat us at the DW, in what really was probably my single worst moment as an Arsenal fan. I really try not to be so dramatic and hyperbolic, but I’ve racked my memory banks and can’t come up with anything else. We were up 2-0 in the 80th minute, still had faint title hopes, and then . . . well, we just stopped playing. A couple of schoolboy defensive errors and a Flappyhandski howler gave Wigan a shock win. I honestly kind of blacked out or something, I just remember leaving the pub, wandering aimlessly around the Lower East Side, and thinking that I would be better off not watching sports, because anything which rendered me so despondent that I could not ignore a beautiful spring day in New York City was an evil and malignant influence on my life. Then I probably went home and listened to a lot of Smiths and Cure records or something. It was bad, faithful readers.

So we need to get revenge for that, certainly. And we should be able to do it. Wigan last year managed to pull off the rare feat of staying up despite having the worst goal differential in the Premiership. And they seem to be showing that it was no fluke — they currently sit in 16th place, above the drop, despite having the worst goal differential in the Premiership. So they can play you tough, but if you can get ahead of them, they are capable of conceding some pretty big numbers. Their defense isn’t great — only 5 teams have allowed more goals than their 29 — but their real weakness is in the attack, as their 15 goals ranks dead last in the Premiership.

They really only have 2 dangermen — Hugo Rodellega and Charles N’Zogbia, although Manchester United loanee Tom Cleverley has also scored 3 goals this year. Those 3 players account for 11 of Wigan’s 15 goals this year, so if we can contain those guys, we should be able to keep Wigan under wraps. And I hate to disrespect their defense, but it’s a unit of guys who may be solid pros, but guys whom we should not really have a problem finding a way through.

If there’s a cause for concern other than the hangover effect from Chelsea and the fatigue from just having played a match two days earlier, it’s that Wigan are on a pretty good run of form, unbeaten in their last 3 and coming off a huge “6-pointer” win over fellow relgation candidates Wolves. Wigan is riding high with nothing to lose, and there’s always an element of danger playing teams like that.

The lineup is pretty up in the air, really. I have no doubt that we’ll see a lot of rotation from yesterday’s match just because of the sheer proximity of the two matches together. I expect a lot of turnover from the starting lineups, and I suspect that most of tomorrow’s starters will be guys who did not start yesterday. Almunia is still out, I guess, as are Vermaelen and Gibbs. Cesc is suspended, as he picked up his fifth yellow card yesterday, but will be back on Saturday. Here’s my best guess at a lineup:

Flaps

Eboue-Koscielny-Squillaci-Clichy

Diaby-Denilson

Bendtner-Rosicky-Arshavin

Chamakh

Bench: Wojo, Djourou, Sagna, Song, Nasri, RvP, Theo

It could be anything, though. I suspect Flaps will keep the # 1 shirt for this one. Eboue will probably come in to spell Sagna. Squillaci will come in for either Koscielny or Djourou, my guess is that it will be Djourou.

In midfield, I think that Denilson and/or Diaby will get some time in the withdrawn role for Song and/or Wilshere. I have guessed it will be a double-change there, but it may just be one of them. I think Rosicky makes more sense than anyone else in the advanced role.

Out wide, I think Arshavin is basically nailed on to start this one, almost certainly out left. Chamakh is, too, and will probably start up top. I have put Bendtner out wide to the right. But I really am just guessing here, I just think that Wenger will be very reluctant to start guys who played most of 90 minutes two days ago in a match. And considering that that is basically our second team, it really shows how much depth we do have. It was a very stark contrast yesterday — Arsenal, so long blasted for putting two much trust in kids, had a lot of proven options off the bench, while Chelsea could only attempt to change the game by bringing on untested teenagers. It was like bizarro world. But it could help us out a lot tomorrow. Hopefully those guys can get the job done, and if they can’t, we can bring some of our “A-Team” off the bench to get that goal we need.

There’s not too much else to say, really. Manchester United play Birmingham at St. Andrew’s today. That’s a tough fixture, but if they win, they’ll be 5 points clear of us, which will make a win over Wigan crucial. Manchester City are home against Aston Villa and already up 1 goal, so we need to win to keep pace with them. And Spurs are home to Newcastle, and you would have to be a really shitty team to lose at home to Newcastle they will probably win as well. So a win is necessary just to keep pace with our competitiors, all of whom are playing pretty well right now, but I guess you never know, weird stuff happens all the time in this league, and one of them dropping points is not out of the question.

Anyway, it’s a big one. After we beat Manchester City earlier in the season, a lot of us thought that that could be the big win that would help us finally turn the corner. Arsenal promptly went out and barely beat West Ham and crapped the bed at home against Newcastle. It was one step forward, one step back. Because as good as it is to beat our big rivals, we won’t win the league unless we can consistently beat lower half of the table teams. That’s been a problem for us, and it’s a problem we badly need to figure out. Here’s hoping we can.

Hope you all had a very happy holiday season. Sairax will be your spirit guide for the match tomorrow, although apparently it is not airing live in Canada so she will either be searching for a stream or watching it on delay and posting the match review and ratings late. Adjust your reading expectations accordingly.

Come on Arsenal.

*************

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Category: Arsenal News, Fixtures, Premiership, Preview, Wigan

Tags: Arsenal News, Fixtures, Premiership, Preview, Wigan
Tweet « Arsenal 3 Chelsea 1: Gunners Get Some Post-Christmas Cheer by Beating the Blues | Home | MartinFor those who care about such things, Robin van Persie has joined twitter (@Persie_Official). Although Cesc has basically said he doesn't know how to use his phone so he will be crap at Twitter.SairaxYou're right about the Chelsea players being gracious in defeat. Fair play to them. I think a lot of them are as baffled by their own performances as we are.

Speaking of Chelsea, I was worried at the beginning of the season because I had declared Chelsea weren't 'all that' and that ManUtd would have a better chance at taking the league. I'm glad things have turned in my favour. Perhaps I'll have some bragging rights at the end of the season, particularly if we win the league!

Need to stay focused now and be ruthless against Wigan. Can't let ourselves down right now and keep the momentum going!
Gigi_manYeah Martin, yeah!! its your site, and if a fool dont want to read your thoughts, he she is a fool!!! :) (great comments BTW, always in the right line, always mind reading).

As per tomorrow, again right: its crucial. Simple. If we want to win this league, we have to win. Like Gigi Sr. used to tell me, always aim high, the highest, you re human and there will be odds along the way, but if you aim lower because of those odds, other odds will come and you will be lower than previewed. (Aha, now I know how I got that Phylosophy vein!).

I remember (thx Martino, I had managed to forget, but it serves to remember as I hope serves for the gunners), that loss, it was so sickening.

So to keep up we simply need to win. I dont know about all the changes, maybe a rest is fine, but for instance a guy like Djorou cant be tired and was apparently amazing, so why not keep him there? And, this is something I looooove, a gunner just proved me wrong, I always said that Theo was, in his own mind, a super sub and that we should keep him as such...damn I love when these guys just take Gigis words and make me eat them!!!!

And in the HMF if I was AW I d make just one change, not sure which one though.

MAnC went with 4 as I just saw, so, again, simple. WIN.

MartinAll the early game results were bad for us -- Spurs won, Manchester City won big to go temporarily top of the table.

If there's a silver lining, though, Chelsea are currently fifth. Can we get a "Thursday nights, Channel 5" chant going for the Blues?Perry S.I'm on an extended holiday and trying to keep from the web as much as possible, so if anyone knows, did we sustain any major knocks yesterday? I remember Clichy got a foot in the groin, and Fabs holding his ankle, but anything to worry about?MartinNo official word yet, but nothing appeared to be major. Clichy's would probably be the most worrying, because he got ninja-kicked in the leg and was hobbling for a few minutes, but he shook it off and finished the game fine. If he's hurt, I'm not sure who would step in for him...Darren_VEboue?MartinMost likely, unless they wanted to move Squillaci out there for a game or two until someone came back healthy. But Eboue on the left and Sagna on the right is probably our best bet, especially considering Nordtveit is reportedly getting his physical at Borussia Munchengladbach, so we probably won't be seeing him at Arsenal any more.SairaxI want sweet sweet Wigan revengeDarren_VWe better trample the crap out of them!blog comments powered by Disqus