Welcome the second half. There will be three “upgrade” breaks before we resume with my syphilis induced fever where I’m watching a clearly superior Arsenal team beat a bunch of hacks but everyone else is watching a hugely superior Wigan team get unlucky to a bunch of wussies. In fact, according to the announcers, Arsenal don’t actually have a back line, Wigan have had 36 shots on goal and Arsenal have been saved only by dint of a corrupt referee who is calling “unfortunate” offsides against Wigan.
Wigan is winning 1-0 since their real goal seems to be injure players by tackling from behind.
47′ – Heskey wins his 18,000th header which leads to… NOTHING. But the announcers make sure you know he’s totally dominating Arsenal at the moment.
50′ – Palacios tackles Denilson from behind and… wins a throw. The laws of physics no longer apply to Wigan.
51′ – HESKEY DOMINATES THE AIR!!!
52′ – a lucky escape for Arsenal as van Persie just misses a goal. If they had scored a second, Wigan would certainly be dominating this game even more than they already are.
58′ – Heskey is totally dominating Arsenal at the moment and van Persie has a great shot on goal to prove it. Plus Arsenal are having to pass the ball around and basically have shots at will, it’s such a dominating performance by Wigan.
60′ – I feel like Wigan should tie a tether to Heskey and fly him around the Emirates like an airship; he’s that good in the air.
64′ – Cattermole fouls van Persie and Figeuroa gets a yellow. The normal laws of football no longer apply.
70′ – Arsenal are lucky again, despite some great defense by Almunia and a handball by Melchiot they manage to scrap out a save.
76′ – It’s true Matt, if you see this game from a Wigan perspective Zaki is totally dominating.
82′ — van Persie booked for a “Wigan” style challenge, in which he wins the ball. I thought that was a throw in to the tackler. This “soccer” thing is hard to understand.
87′ – Great pass by Eboue, right to Zaki. There was someone who commented that “no one on this team is shit” the other day. I present for your examination: Emmanuel Eboue.
90′ – WoW… Wenger pulls Eboue and puts in Silvestre, owch, the crowd cheers. “Panic from the Arsenal” say the announcers. Sorry, I just don’t see it.
92′ – Preview of the weekend op-eds as the announcers take turns going after the fans, the boss, and anyone else for having a go at Eboue. Look, the kid is not very good and the last thing you do is leave him on when he’s making such a hash of the game. He literally didn’t know where he was on the pitch when he nipped the ball off Toure and passed it to the Wigan midfield.
Fin – 1-0 to the Arsenal and the talking heads are calling the Arsenal performance “lucky” and “panicky” and “blah blah.”
Huh… 1-0, Arsenal dominated possession, they kept a clean sheet, they had the clearest shots on goal, and they put the game away at the end despite Eboue’s shakiest game I’ve ever seen him play.
The symbol of the game is when Silvestre put his arm around Eboue as he was coming off — it’s not that I hate Eboue, I feel compassion for him, but he was having a nightmare. Do you leave him on in and lose the match in order to stroke his ego? No. You pull him off and help rebuild him in practice. Jesus, you’d think the announcers never played football.
Ok, The Good, Bad and Ugly tomorrow. I’m going to get in the tub and get ready for Bright Lights Big Costco!
That well may be the best paragraph you’ve ever written on this blog.
Zaki’s up.
C’mon, Arsenal, put this one to bed.
ZAKI IS SPRINTING EVERYWHERE!!!
Wigan don’t have the ball….
…BUT ZAKI IS SPRINTING EVERYWHERE!!!!
Eboue gone in January?
no one wants him Matt…
Anyone who watched this game it is quite clear that Arsenal did not know what to do go for a 2nd or keep it 1.0 it is a dangerous game as in the last 10 mins we where very panicked
It doeas not help when you have a clown playing for you who clearly thought he was playing for Wigan yes Eboue this must be your last ever game for Arsenal his bloody stupid play realy effected the team he kept putting us under pressure why the fuck does he not play Vela there he has pace and would have kept Wigan busy at the back.
Anyway a win is a win i dont mind if we win every game 1.0 until the end of the season but Arsen
PLEASE NO MORE EBOUE
Unfortunately, Wenger, who normally is renowned for handling his players and sticking up for them, especially the kids, made a big mistake with Eboue today. It’s the downside of a thin squad I know, but I’m crestfallen after what happened. Wenger now states ‘Eboue was a danger and had to be replaced as he had lost all confidence’? Wenger exposes the player in a position that doesn’t suit him and then doesn’t stick up for him either – I’m disappointed in Wenger, it was more his mistake than Eboue’s. I’m frankly surprised Wenger could not judge the situation better and manage the squad with more insight and foresight today.
Team still not ticking over as I’d like, but happy with the result.
My initial reaction is that I want to defend Wenger, but I think you’re right Barnaby. Arsene can’t say that the squad was so thin that he had to put a right footed full-back, just coming back from 9 weeks of injury, on the left wing. Vela was available, Silvestre did it after if he wanted a “more defensive” midfielder. Or Ramsey or Wilshere or FUCK PUT THE TEA LADY IN.
That said, I do understand why he did it, Eboue was put on the team in order to play on the wing if someone got hurt. Someone got hurt, so Eboue played. Unfortunately he had a nightmare game.
I guess I’ll have to think about this over night and respond tomorrow.
I do disagree that the squad isn’t ticking, it was a gutsy win, the kind we haven’t seen yet from this group of players, and I loved it.
1-0 to the Arsenal.
Tim, the match wasn’t bad at all, but I don’t think we were ever in comfortable cruise control and they did look a danger at times. As you know I prefer our Arsenal humming along and dispatching teams with efficiency as well as style. Been a while since we’ve really turned it on. But Wenger will have to reflect on what he’s done today and I hope Eboue is strong enough to come back and demonstrate his quality. He’s a player I’ve been irked with before but it was a poor tactical decision and the reaction by some fans was just not on and hurts the cause.