After a controversial game last time, it wasn't a particularly warm welcome back to the Emirates for Wigan. Last season, they wasted time, they fouled, and they moaned endlessly about refereeing decisions that pretty much evened themselves out in the end. This season, though, Arsenal had a slightly better record of not letting in the first goal every time, and consequently not needing to spend the whole game trying to break down an 11-man defence. Hopefully things would be easier (and less controversial) this time. Wigan had been through a strange week, appointing Steve Bruce as their new manager, then not being allowed to have him start work, because of a dispute with Birmingham. So, nobody knew who would really be in charge of the Wigan side for the game.New manager syndrome often seems to hit Arsenal, and we seemed to get another dose of it for this game. The Wigan side that played were technically not very good, but were very committed, and worked very hard all game to close Arsenal players down, defend their area, and generally try to impress their new boss. With the very cold weather, and the return from international duty probably not helping Arsenal (not to mention missing the suspended Fabregas), the first half saw far too many misplaced passes, and too many moves breaking down before they got going - thanks to a combination of Wigan's hard work, and Arsenal being a bit off colour. All in all, the first half was fairly non eventful, and rather frustrating for Arsenal fans.
The second half was no less frustrating in general - Arsenal stepped up the pressure relentlessly, but for most of the half, it was all coming to nothing. The referee didn't really help, letting certain Wigan players (including ex-Spurs Michael Brown, plus Marcus Bent and Emile Heskey) get away with relative murder. Watching Bent clatter into Denilson with a shocking challenge, then watching somebody else push Gallas in the face when he dared to question it, wasn't nice. Then watching the ref book Bent for the foul, plus Gallas for not taking kindly to it, was ridiculous - it is crazy that you get the same punishment for virtual GBH, as for reacting to people assaulting your team mates.
Eventually, though, as so many times this season, Arsenal kept plugging away, and got the reward in the end. Gallas again showing tremendous energy and determination to get into the box and onto the end of a header. After all the time wasting and fouling, and after making no real attempt to win the game, it was pretty impossible to argue that Wigan deserved anything out of the game. A second from Rosicky sealed the win, with both goals coming inside the last 10 minutes again. A real captain's innings from William Gallas, who really is becoming a vital heartbeat in our team.
Resilient, determined stuff from Arsenal, which is good to see - and this means that the usual nightmare month of November has passed off successfully in the Premiership (albeit having only played 3 games). This time last year, we would have probably conceded first in a game like this, then made the task of breaking down the opposition more difficult, having to come from 1-0 down to get a decent result. We seem to have overcome some of those problems now, we seem to be getting wins against the teams we should be beating, and with Manchester United losing at Bolton today, it was vital to get maximum points, to take maximum advantage.
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