Another home game, another game where we let the opposition score first. I'm sure we don't do this on purpose, but it is becoming such a strong pattern that I am probably going to bet on the opposition's star striker to score first in our next home game. It might help pay for a chicken balti pie at half time. I was sat at the south end of the ground for this game, in what would normally be the away section - had Wigan managed to fill more than half of their allocation. That meant that I was surrounded by Red Members, many of whom didn't know any of the songs - in fact the guy next to me didn't seem to know any of the players' first names!
Wigan scored in the first half, an absolute screamer from Landzaat, which rocketed past the keeper into the roof of the net. Some blamed the defence and/or keeper, but to be fair, there was nothing that either could really have done about it - just a great strike that saw us one goal down. That deficit persisted until half time, so the mood on the concourses was a "here we go again" one.
Arsenal tried and tried for the whole second half, but Wigan played pretty well in defending their lead. Their constant timewasting was very annoying and frustrating, especially from Kirkland, but I understood why they were doing it. Their ability to keep possession, and even to create a couple of breakaway chances, was impressive, and made it hard to see how they had recently lost 8 games in a row - obviously not by playing like that.
Then, with 10 minutes to go, the game erupted into controversy. Flamini brushed past Heskey, who fell over dramatically into the box. 3/10 a penalty, but obviously Paul Jewell and Sky TV (more on them later) thought it was a nailed on penalty - despite being quite possibly outside the area. Minutes later, Flamini was a whole 46 centimetres offside (as proved by Match Of The Day later that day), in the build up to the Arsenal equaliser. Which made up for a goal we had previously had disallowed when Adebayor was marginally ONside. All six of one and half a dozen of the other.
A matter of minutes later, Rosicky scored his first Premiership goal for Arsenal, getting his head onto a ball that had been whipped in at high speed from the right. Lehmann managed to get booked by the idiot referee for timewasting - ironic considering that Kirkland had been doing far worse all game.
A good comeback from Arsenal, and Wigan can feel hard done by not to have got anything from the game - but the refereeing decisions did not treat them too badly at all on balance. They could have had a penalty, but then they could have had many more than the 2 or 3 yellow cards they did collect. We could have had a goal disallowed for offside, but we also could have had a mistaken disallowed goal given. As far as the referee went, it all evened itself out reasonably in the end.
Of course, that wasn't how Sky TV saw it. Paul Jewell would say that all the decisions were wrong - he is the Wigan manager whose team lost when they maybe deserved more - so he is bound to grab excuses. Sky on the other hand are supposed to be fairly unbiased. Not to highlight every instance where Arsenal got remotely lucky, as if it were evidence of some huge conspiracy between Arsenal and the referees and authorities. All the while, whilst utterly ignoring all the (equally numerous) instances where Arsenal were hard done by - but then those incidents don't quite fit in with Sky's one-eyed anti-Arsenal approach. Other people agree with my feelings on this, notably and amusingly here.
A decent comeback (again) from Arsenal at home. Wigan probably deserved more, but Arsenal had a little too much for them in the end, especially as they tired in the last 10 minutes or so. If only certain Manc and Chelsea-loving broadcasters would ever give us any credit for it.
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