Friday, March 29, 2024

Match Report: Wigan 0-4 Arsenal

Streaming football – about as much fun as watching football in an actual stream. It seems bonkers that in this day an age you have to go through a pre-match panic with the aim of watching the game on a blurry six-inch screen. Right, moan over.

There were few surprises in Wenger’s starting line-up. Szczesny starting in goal, Santos, Vermaelen and Mertesacker joined by Koscielny at right-back. In the centre of the park Arteta, Song and Ramsey kept their places while Gervinho (preferred to Arshavin), Walcott and Van Persie led the attack.

Five minutes in and Wigan should have taken the lead, only a fantastic block by Santos preventing Jordi Gomez from planting the ball into an empty net. Straight away Walcott and Gervinho worked on the break to set up Ramsey, but the Welshman scuffed an effort wide. It was open.

An advert on my stream proceeded to tell me that studies have proved that busty Russian women like western men. With the game calming down a bit it was tempting to learn more…the screen froze with Andre Santos giving me a dirty look. It was a sign. I stayed put.

A nice move saw Arteta feed Walcott on the right. He flashed a ball across the box and it nearly caught out Gary Caldwell who swung a leg at it and directed it goalwards. Al Habsi’s being a pretty decent keeper took the sting out of it.

After 15 minutes of solid possession Arsenal finally scored. Mikel Arteta taking responsibility in midfield, drove forward and unleashed a fierce shot goalwards. The ball swung a bit before burying itself in the bottom corner. 1-0. A cracking strike although Al Habsi might question how it slipped through his hands. Dare I say it was Cesc-esque.

Two minutes later and Thomas Vermaelen doubled the lead. A corner from the right swung to the back post and the Belgian got a good connection with his head. It clipped the inside of the post and sudeenly it was 2-0 on the half hour mark.

A fine run and ball by Gervinho fed Van Persie in the box again. It would have been 3-0 were it not for a fine reaction save from the Latics keeper. Walcott on the follow up curled the ball over.

As Mark Clattenburg whistled for half-time the stats proved our dominance: 66% possession, with an 86% of our 317 passes finding their man. Not bad.

During the break I waited patiently for the Busty Russian women to reappear. They didn’t and I had to make do with learning that wildfires burn over 4 million acres a year. That’s quite a lot. The advert asked,”what can you do?” I assumed the answer was don’t light fires. I didn’t click.

Five minutes into the second half and Ramsey should have had a penalty. Mark Clattenburg however, decided that being tugged to the floor when you’re trying to shoot isn’t an offence. A ridiculous decision by the man in black, as clear a penalty as you’re likely to see all season.

Walcott crossed for Van Persie but the Dutchman’s header back across the six yard box was cleared as Gervinho waited to pounce. At the other end Figueroa had a long range effort which skipped past the post – a warning that the game was far from won.

Clattenburg harshly booked Song, Arteta flashed another shot at goal. Then my Twitter feed proceeded to tell me that Gervinho had scored. It seemed an impressive feat seeing as we were in our own half…thirty seconds later and I figured out what people were talking about. A Van Persie shot parried by Al Habsi and the Ivorian followed up from close range. 3-0.

Van Persie’s chocolate leg should have made it 4-0 just after the hour. Song was upended on the edge of the box, advantage was played, our captain span in the box but sliced his shot high and wide. It was a great chance, albeit one created by his own brilliance.

A couple of late tackles from behind upended Theo and Song respectively. The Cameroonian was left limping in the centre circle, but Walcott seemed unfazed as  he muscled his way through the Wigan defence. Cutting the ball back to Van Persie, the Dutchman finally got the goal his performance deserved. 4-0. It was awesome stuff from two players who are absolutely on fire.

4-0 up and cue a spate of substitutions. Walcott, Song and Gervinho went off, Benayoun, Arshavin and Coquelin the men taking to the field of play. The Israeli almost made an instant impact, but his chip over Al Habsi was cleared on its way towards goal. The game petered out with the away fans loudly applauding and cheering every pass.

All in all, a great win, a confident performance and the unbeaten league record keeps going. That’s six wins and a draw in the last seven. There will be stiffer tests to come, but we can worry about that on another day. Today we beat what was put in front of us…and we did it with a swagger.

I’m off to the pub to find a Russian woman.

Related articles

Comments

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

107 Comments
oldest
newest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Ace McGoldrick

The kind of victory that’s been missing lately. Fantastic win

ken

Four goals are nice but keeping a clean sheet on the road is even better and it looked like SZCZ had the most boring game of his life!

Sabrina

Very please with today’s performance. Not pleased with the referee or the fact that the Wigan players decided what was best to do was mow down our players.

Padwoir

Composed solid performance and 4-0 didn’t flatter us at all, nice to hand out a decent smashing at a ground that has proved somewhat of a bogey in the last few years. Pleased Gerv got a goal, smiles all round.
Oh, how good was that sliding tackle by Mertesacker right at the very end of the first half in our area with Salmon clean through, very possible goal saver and going in 2-1 at half time having conceded right then would have cranked up the tension somewhat. I thought it was brilliant. Well played boys.

Arsenal

what site did you use because mine seemed to prefer asian women

jay

dominated them. 710 passes, played some lovely one touch keep ball in the second half. might actually watch match of the day later

Cygan's Left Foot

Did anyone count how many passes we played till we scored the third goal? I swear it could be a record 🙂 .

Everton @ home next.

SAGooner

orbimho said 33 passes in build up to zhervinyu’s goal. Awesome performance today! COYG

Cygan's Left Foot

The previous record we had were around 16/17 when Le cunt scored against Man U few seasons ago :).

In this one I lost count at 18 and felt we could score after that 😀 .

Big Guns

Well done lads, keep it up…………….

Spookluke

It’s about time we inflicted a humiliating defeat upon someone. Lovely, professional, exciting stuff!

Gooneritis

was our win over chelsea not a humiliating defeat?

American gooner

touché

Spookluke

Maybe, but at least Chelsea had a good chance of winning that one. Wigan had none. It was a walk over. Chelsea was a glorious slog.

Jackrules

I hope we play the Ox against the Greeks, I was wondering if the gaffer would give him 15 mins while we were 3-0 up!

Anon

I hope we play the side that played City in the Carling Cup.

Not so much because Olympiakos is not good or anything, but because we’ve qualified, and Frimpong, Coquelin and co. have proven themselves to be reliable performers even against top players.

AR

Great match report after another good win! I loved the wildfires bit! 😀

Anyway, important to keep the confidence going and today 75% of our goals came from players who were not RVP. Things are looking up! That and the fact that Zervinhyu managed to score after all his good build up play in the last few games means this is another happy weekend for all of us gooners! Fantastic all round team effort!

COYG!

Spooner

TV5 should double up as our back up for RVP. 3 in 2 now for the Verm 🙂

Nice to see Zhervinhu on the sheet again. Our form in the last 6 is equal to that of Citeh.. Just need the 50 year blip in the spuds form to finish soon

Binda

so does RVP get an assist for Gervinho’s goal?

Goonarmy

35 yard screamers, goals from corners..Shock! This team has certainly turned a corner!
Am I alone in thinking, that this team is better than the previous year’s? Imagine if we started this season with this team. The overall work ethic, along with the change in defensive and offensive tactics, just makes you wonder why Arsene didn’t do it long ago. But nonetheless, you can’t be anything but happy. Better late than never

Master Bates

This is better than last years because players WANT to be here , They are commited

Frog

No way, we were way better off with a captain who had no interest at all In playing for us and that French cunt. Man, talk about a blessing in disguise. Off loading those two primadonnas sure did us wonders. Arshavin and chamakh next. I think we win the league next year for sure.

MJB

I’ve said it before. Nobody listened.

Frog

Actually, a lot of people have commented on the positive effect the removal of the two massive egos has had. So sorry, your no profit.

MJB

Well I’m happy then. 🙂

Look, I’m Smiling.

kunzeboom

why can’t you just be happy that this team is finally clicking…theree’s no need to hit back at cesc. he worked his socks of for this team and is as much a primadonna as lennie shawcross has a brain. that this team functions without him is great to see, though.
positive mates, no hating necessary

Frog

No. I lost all respect when he was at the car race in Spain last year instead of traveling with the team. That’s bullshit. While I don’t contest that he was a “great” player, I do claim he was a terrible captain. Worse than gallas.

Rameez

@Froq i wont question cesc’s commitment to the team.he always played his heart out and it showed how much it mattered to him to win and how much it bothered him to lose.nasri’s head was turned surely as if he was sure that he will be earning big bucks anyway. still this team looks better surprisingly.team was composed and kept their shape when wigan pressed and put pressure on us.2 years ago we cracked under such pressure.what i feel that arteta has the ability to slow down the tempo or control the tempo of the game under pressure.the way he… Read more »

Voldermort

We just look happy when we score, we celebrate as a team and everyone seems more involved. Hasn’t always been the case with us, so good to see such team spirit and it could just carry us onto something great.

John

Biggest change is the team is giving there all each game that didnt happen last year. There is also a much better attidue to defending as a team.

If players dont perform like they are paid to do then its the bench ex Arshivan doesnt deserve a spot in the team and the likes of Frimpong, Djouorou, Coqulein, Oxlade are pushing the 1st players every game.

Really feel we need to add a striker to take the burden off V Persie.

But teamwork and a strong work etchic with the quality we have will bode well for the season its.

MJB

We have strikers. Just not “INSTANT” strikers. This is the REAL world, when will folk realise that PRACTISE makes perfect NOT just a few hits in the media makes a WUNDERKIND?

Graham

Stop with the inane use of capitals, learn how to spell, and talk some sense!

ZAK THE GOON

Great performance from the lad’s, i can’t help but think that this team is are most complete side since the invisible’s. Thought Arteta was brilliant along with Santos and Koscielny.

Padwoir

Ironic that would be, complete and yet invisible. How on earth did they do it !

MJB

Pure class, thats how! 😉

HR

I remember The Invisibles. I especially liked looking at them.

GoonerTerry

@ HR you mean looking *for* them don’t you? (0;

MJB

Ramsey was shite though. Same as last game but after being rested did the same as the Dortmund game.

Padwoir

I don’t think he was mate, along with the other midfield two, he got complete control of the middle of the park,it wasn’t a stand out performance..but shall we for the sake of the thread call it more of an ‘invisible’ solid one. The thing is he spooned a couple of chances, and they tend to stick in the mind more than the not so obvious closing down of space, close marking, physical dominance and control center of the park, he was a conduit for a lot of good stuff that went on it just wasn’t apparent and never will… Read more »

American gooner

He had a pass completion of 95% mate, don’t be too hard on him. He was unlucky not to score when Theo failed to pick him up a couple of times on goal.

MJB

OK, fair dues. I’m wrong.

I guess I was a tad irritated by him kicking ‘high’ again.

damir

Ramsey will be more of a threat when he adds goals to his game. I think he’s capable to scoring goals consistently but he’s not there yet. He did have his leg snapped a while back, remember what that did to Edu, he was never the same. He needs time, love the way he plays and keeps his head UP!

Graham

Why post such unpleasant drivel.

MJB

I Loved the fact that RVP scored at the end after 3 other players did the done thing. One Man Team are we?
Also loved the ‘reverse’ assist RVP to Gervhino, pure class. Verminator strikes again! As does Arteta!

Arsenal in fine fettal me thinks. Well chuffed.

COYG!!!!!

Rodders1971

Being invisible is obviously a big help in going the season unbeaten!
Good to see Gerv get on the scoresheet today,now if only Chamak/Arsh could do the same…COYG

Witoldo

Not necessarily true, Arshavin and Chamakh have been invisible this year and we’ve gotten very little benefit from that fact.

GoonerTerry

Got to play to score mate. Got to get the right service too . Poor Cham probably can’t wait for Jack to come back. Those two seems to like playing together..

American gooner

Busty Russian like western men, heh, had the same ad show up on my stream too. I have to point out that the commentator, whoever he was, on the fox soccer stream was most annoying with his non-stop moaning over the game.

GoonerNugget

Yeah I think I had to same pundit on my stream. Kept moaning about how Sammon was isolated, how the Wigan defence was backing off, told the Wigan defence to stay on their feet (Ray Wilkins classic) and that Oxlade-Chamberlain gave away a silly foul in the last 10mins (it was Coquelin).

GoonerTerry

No that was Gary Birtles the wanker. He was an idiot of a player & now an even worse pundit. As I posted on 7AM earlier: At one stage when we were most dominant; leading 2-0 and Wigan hadn’t touched the ball for about 5-minutes he had a brain fart: “well” he said “you get the feeling that if Arsenal don’t score another goal now Wigan might score and then Arsenal will put themselves under unnecessary pressure!” Classic (0;

Witoldo

That was Terry Venerables.

Arsenalkid700

Hey its still better than those biased fuckers over at ESPN.

CAGooner

When a game is on ESPN I make heavy use of the mute button.

garyfootscrayaustralia

I did away with watching The Arsenal via ESPN a while back. When I can get Canal+ i watch it there. To my genuine surprise, I’ve retained enough GCSE French to make it worthwhile, and of course it has nothing at all to do with the fact that Super Bob is often a studio guest for Le Arse matches…

Runcorn Gooner

Went to the match.Lasting memory apart
from totally dominating Wigan was Chesney conducting the after match sing song.The
man is going to be a legend

neutral

You can find better streams online, I watched the carling cup full screen without harly any hiccups. In Denmark you can buy viasat online and watch all premeir league and champions league in high quality streams, but you can only watch live. I still prefer to catch it on the telly so I can record the match and watch it when the kids are asleep. I still don’t understand why such content is not available online everywhere, also the regional restrictions are complete garbage. I’d like to watch match of the day but you can’t get it in other countries… Read more »

garyfootscrayaustralia

please share where to download MOTD….I’m in ‘Straya and can’t get it over here.

Goonerbob

4-0 away from home? Enough said. Well done Arsenal already looking forward to the next game.

Bunburyist

Arteta and Gervinho have made a huge difference to our team from last year. Arteta brings 100% commitment, but also a calm head whose Prem experience is really helping our midfield gel. He knows exactly the right time to push forward, move the ball back, distribute to the wings, etc. As for Gervinho, we’ve missed a player like him since Pires left. I.e., someone who is not afraid to be DIRECT, and who can move the ball up the pitch quickly. Both excellent signings. I would also like to see Benayoun play more, perhaps in place of Ramsey for a… Read more »

Bunburyist

*alternate

Cygan's Left Foot

I agree with you on both those signing, but I will add The Holly one Santos, so joy to watch him on the ball and the coolest man on the planet. Once the midfield start to spot his runs and the strikers work out where he is going to cross the ball, we will have one hell of an attacking left back.

Oleg Luzhny

They didn’t even have to get out of 3rd gear today and still popped in 4. Yes Arsenal were that much better, but Wigan are abysmal. Definitely going down I’d have to say.

And now the big guns can be rested midweek with the group wrapped up.

Anon

Arseblog needs an Arsenal fixture list.

Terry-fived Gooner

Second that!

Anon

Problem is I get all my Arsenal stuff on Arseblog. They talk a lot of sense when it comes to Arsenal and don’t paint doom and gloom in most (if not any) of their articles. My internet isn’t quite fast, so when I connect to some websites it’s not really fast. On the bright side going to arseblog news doesn’t really take so long since it’s not adorned with crazy flash and interactive videos and its interface is REALLY easy to use. Besides, having an ‘news.arseblog.com/fixture’ or ‘arseblog.com/fixture’ shouldn’t really be that hard I’d say. I just want a fast… Read more »

arseblog

You have to pay to display the fixtures, seriously. You need to licence them

garyfootscrayaustralia

Blimey. Tight bastards.

Pearson

Fixture lists cost a FORTUNE!

Pele of Romford

Love it, come on you gooners!
Was out Xmas shopping with the ball and chain and the blog kept me alive. Cheers blog.
Now pub.
Cheers gooners, we’re on the up!
The other mobs sticky patch is coming.

Gooneropolis

Maybe Gervinho’s goal will give him the spark he needs to join Walcott and RVP.
If he starts bagging, Hello top four.

Scribblers

2 points off, not bad. Walcott’s not quite started scoring yet, that’ll come to I expect. His stopped trying to go for scoring positions that arn’t there though, always good.

MJB

More Gervh Goals please!!! 🙂

The Gun

The result when Thierry Henry shows his face in training i guess 🙂

paddymac

Just seen Cahill getting sent off on MOTD. Wenger was spot on to hold his ground and not pay over the odds for him in the Summer. That’s not a world class defender…

SamPye

I’ve not seen the highlights, but the general impression I’ve got from twitter/facebook and various reports is that it was never a red card.

He is a pretty good defender but we’ve got CBs in abundance at the moment (first time we’ve been able to say that for a while!) and Cahill wouldn’t add anything much to that mix so it’s just no concern. Sp*rs can have him if they want. We’ve got a BFG instead 🙂

paddymac

I agree with all that. Wenger would’ve moulded him into a better player I’m sure, and playing with technically better footballers would’ve improved his game. But there have been a number of occasions now where we’ve thought that we dodged a bullet by not signing him.

There were a lot of people saying “just give Bolton what they want”… £18m for that? No fucking way! Wenger can be stubborn and frustrating, but you’ve got to give it to him, he was bang on the money with that one.

Oleg Luzhny

Liverpool can have Cahill, I’ll take Mertesacker at half the price any day of the week.

waterbear

A very good result today but what impressed me the most is the work rate that this Arsenal team has adopted. Ramsey might not be in the best of forms atm but he runs his socks off to close down players.

Frog

Hahaha atm

neutral

I was only recently informed that the acronym ATM can also be used for ass-to-mouth, I guess that is what’s funny, too much porn Frog?

GoonerNugget

I like this team.

GoonerTerry

All together now: Who’s that team we call the Arsenal; Who’s that team we all adore…

garyfootscrayaustralia

bangin’ tuuuune…

feygooner

The moron commentator ruined it for me. EVERY SECOND OF EVERY MINUTE HE WAS WHINING ABOUT WHY WIGAN WEREN’T PLAYING 2 STRIKERS, and when he wasn’t doing that, he was complaining about their defending for the goals.

I would have said he was a huge Wigan fan, but I’m quite sure that research has shown that there are no Wigan fans, so he was just an Arsenal hater.

Anon

Somehow I rarely get such problems when I get a stream with some guy with a British accent. Most of the time they’re talking about what’s going on or state statistics like RvP’s had 15 away goals in 17 away matches and other curious statistics, while also citing some stuff from the news like quotes from players or Wenger etc…

I might just be lucky though.

neutral

I usually get commentary in Danish, which I can only half understand and all the better. Danish commentary is pretty weak though, sometimes you can not tell when a team scores, because they don’t even change the tone of voice, it just keeps droning on…

garyfootscrayaustralia

seriously guys, get on Canal+ if you can….they love us, for obvious Francophilic reasons…and Super Bob is often the studio guest…

Johnny Massacre

I love Arsenal/

Eric Irish gunner

Starting to look like a team now can’t wait for next week when I get over for the everton game

winterlovin

Best to find a pub showing the game like I did. Nursing the hangover this morning.

Eric Irish gunner

Do that before and after game mate when we win 3-1

[…] Match report (with goal clips) […]

northerngoon

one word: beautiful

Alan Gooner Wilby

Hi Andrew

I have a very decent link to a stable full screen stream I use for just a few beans

will send u the link via email if u drop me a line

Cheers

Alan.

Alan Gooner Wilby

Link sent

Kenyan Arse

In the first five minutes or so, Zhervinyu had the ball out wide. I counted 3 players waiting for his cross in the box, while he also had Andre and Song as passing options. For me, that is one of the greatest tactical changes the current squad offers. Previously Na$ri (moneygrabbing Cunt) or even Arshavin would have cut in and looked for Cesc to try a killer pass. The players in the box would have had to retreat outwards, reducing our options. We now have many variations to be played. Both wings, through the middle or use Theo’s pace (last… Read more »

Naija Gunner

Superific Gunners that’s what we are now. COYG!

Fatgooner

Nice solid performance yesterday. A few weeks ago we would have made it hard for ourselves by conceding a goal after we went two up, but on Saturday we kept it tight then scored twice more to make it nice and comfortable. Nice to score from a corner too – and for Gervinho and Arteta to get goals. I like Gervinho: even though he’s missed a few easy chances he’s a great attacking player who makes things happen. Things are going well now, but it could all go to hell if we don’t go out and buy a quality second… Read more »

GoonerNugget

I agree with everything in this post.

Podolski is tapping himself up again.

Fatgooner

Thank you GoonerNugget. It’s pathetic the way that some people just want to thumb me down because I’m Fatgooner.

Johnny

Why not link to the Bitesize highlights that are freely available on the Arsenal player? IMHO they are much better than all these stream-ripped ones…

Steve kiwi goona

In kiwi land we get these games live on sky but they must use the same thing to stream onto the net, that same commentator really got on my nerves just repeating the same drivel about the one man up front for wigan. Has any one come across the worst commentator in the world…. tommy smyth with a ‘y’ he is well and truly shyt with a y!

arseblog

I had that stream. It was Gary Birtles.

Xxxrob

“oh my god sammon is up there by himself chasing his own flick ons, Ohh they’re backig off again do they learn will they ever learn?!?!”
I seriously wanted to mute that prick haha
Excellent result although once the 3rd went in I seriously expected wenger to get rvp off and give one of the others some time. Especially as wigan started getting nasty in the tackle towards the end, seemed an unnecessary gamble to me.
Paid off thou COYG

GoonerNugget

Love it when Vermaelen is like “Fuck it I’m playing striker for a bit, brb” and brings the ball out of defence by himself. He created Arteta goals by charging through the midfield causing meaning play had to track his run.

GoonerNugget

I fucked this comment but you get the idea.

Share article

Featured on NewsNow

Support Arseblog

Latest posts

Latest Arsecast

107
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x