Wigan-Arsenal Team Line-ups

Hi Guys. New member here. I was hoping that we could win this convincingly to make up on the goal difference a bit as I dont see us doing it in the remaining games. But I think this may well finish 1-0. Diaby and Walcott need to learn to pull the trigger at times as they got into a couple of decent positions but their indecisiveness lets them down. Still here's hoping for a goal before half time. AW should bring on RVP in the second half though.

well done theo (",)

Hey welcome TGB! Do check out the forums as well - we're chatting about this game and many other issues there. Yeah I was finding Theo and Diaby a bit frustrating to watch with their Hleb-esque reluctance to just shoot. Now Theo's playing a bit more naturally and when he thinks less and acts more intuitively and confidently, he looks better.

Hi All. Thanks GoonerLou will head over to the forums to check it out! A major problem is I can see Liverpool getting something against the Chavs at Anfield which could help our cause, but I dont see ManUre dropping too many points. Seeing them win a 19th title will be sickening.

No Eduardo today I see. Odd, Sweet goal by Theo just wish we was a bit more free flowing. Eastmond is really doing well.

Heavens above. Silvestre!! 2-0. I am happy for him. He gets so much stick that he deserves a goal to boost his confidence a bit...

We have really got them on the rack. Need to get some more goals and turn it into a rout

Would be nice to see RvP for 10mins

I wonder if the boss will throw in RvP with us leading the game and Wigan not looking terribly dangerous. Nice to see Theo playing with more confidence cos the mental side of things affect his game so much.

Complacency has cost us a goal..we were playing well within ourselves after the 2nd goal and will now have to work hard again.

Not sure why Nasri was casually watching instead of marking Watson, poor goal to concede

Its painful to watch Silvestre defend. He is slower than Sol FFS!!!

Sol is fast though

OMG

Yet again Fabianski costs us.....Only this time his error is too costly.

Oh dear, yet again..

Seriously no words to describe whats happening..error from Fabianski again and our marking of Wigan players on the corner was shocking.

Let's kiss the title goodbye - one last time.

******** idiots

I can't actully understand what is happening.....oh wait yes I can.

Un-f'n-believable. This is horrible. How the **** did we lose this game??!!

Why, for the love of christ, did Wenger wait until we were on the ropes to bring on Van Persie? Unbelievably bad game management.

we really can't give Fabianski any more chances, he makes a costly error almost every time he plays. forget shipping Almunia out, get rid of Fabianski first.

sack every single one of those players out there- ******** embarrassing

wigan wigan wigan wigan

We need a goalkeeping overhaul. This is just shocking....

Absolutely shocking defending. Nothing short of abject capitulation. I'm fed up of Wenger waving his arms during the games. What the f........ is he doing during training sessions? So bloody angry. To lose that game from 2-0 up is more than careless, its criminal.

he shud organise hes def better been captain an all,

If Wednesday suggested it, this confirms it. You really aren't bigger than us anymore. Arsene out. HAHA.

an we did ye a favour on sat an blew it

Seriously most of the team deserved a literal slap in the face.

TRH you lost to Portsmouth without putting up a fight. You cant take a higher moral ground here.

If this does get it through AW's head that the goalkeeping and Defence need attention, I dont know what will because it will be the same s**t next season if we keep clowns like Fabianski and Silvestre in this side.

What like wolves doing the double over u ********s? feck off u spud p.r.ic.ks. Big mouth load shooting peasants, two wins and u think you're awesome, you're the pathetic pr.icks trawling here like the gloating little small club no marks that you'll always be. '61 NEVER AGAIN.

with out puttin up a fight we dominate against portsmouth, just unlucky with decisions .....an its how well you bounce back from such defeat, an we beat ye an chelsea after yer lose to us ye failed to beat wigan

Did anybody care what happened after their second goal. 2-2 would feel exactly like 3-2. Deltaforce is right, I'm gonna leave before people go crazy and spurs fans (who follow our club a little too much) come here to troll the ***** out of us. I think I would have been crying had it not been an end of season game, I don't think we have done a capitulation quite this spectacular before. Oh, well there's first time for every thing.

It wasn't so bad guys... Let's applaud the team. It has been a better season than last. Unfortunately, the same inexperience problems are holding us back. They got scared at 2-1 and then it was a collective meltdown. 3 players failed to close down N'zogbia on that 3rd shot. As i said last year, I want a better no1 than Almunia. He is a no2 at best and his absence today on a 'wrist' injury was strange at best. The other keepers (Fabianski, Mannone) should be sent on long loans to get experience because they are not good enough yet. I feel bad for Fabianski because his confidence must be getting lower because he always seem to make a blunder when he gets his chance (remember Porto). Goalkeeping is one area where you cannot gamble or educate young players as every mistake is likely to be punished. Let's take our young keepers out before their morale is shot down. We need an experienced hand in goal. Look at ManU, last year Ben Foster was meant to challenge Van Der Sar who is in his 40s. When VdS got injured, Foster looked like a mental wreck or a fish out of water. As much as i cant stand Ferguson, the man can't be wrong all the time after all the trophies he has won. Come on Arsene, do the sensible thing. Come on you gunners. Still proud of what these guys have done this year but they need some help to be winners.

123, till you finish higher than us in the league table you cant be compared to us. Bottomline.

arseanl til i die....an you hope ur team lost .....great fan you are......its been comming for years...... honestly 4 year sfor so called top club with nothing to show for

feck off u white tart pain inbred cunn.nnnnn.tttt

The first goal was down to Diaby and Nasri ball watching instead of picking up Watson. Second goal was Fabianski being hopeless as catching. The third goal was a great strike but also because we were demoralised after throwing away a 2 goal lead. Whatever happens I don't want to see Fabianski in an Arsenal shirt again. I know you can't blame just one player for the result but he has made so many mistakes now that you can't have any faith left in him.

Basically what I was saying is that some of the players just don't deserve Arsene's trust and should be punished - fined or given extra training, whatever. Chances should be earned.

Gael, I note what your saying. However a team of Arsenal's caliber shouldnt be f****n up games like this, especially when they are so important. I want to take positives from this but I am hard pressed to find any. Its such a gutting loss, even more so then against the chavs, mancs and yes even the scum from *****e fart lane, as we won this, we had a chance of running the chavs and mancs all the way to the wire.

defence defense defense!! over the summer

WhiteHartSpur, considering you are going for your annual anal shafting at United, I dont think you'll end the season quite like you expect.

Where were the Diaby and Nasri who're playing to get into the France squad just a month or so ago?

bloddy true , i have to gloat a small bit but seriously, get rid of wenger

unless he changed hes transfer policy

Very true Gooner Lou. Diaby, Nasri and Rosicky too need to look at themselves and ask whether they really bring to the table. Is running with the ball, beating two rival players but finally giving the ball away good enough? We just dont keep the ball well enough. Our defence are nervous all the time. No coordination betweem them and the keeper. Its like cats on a hot tin roof. Major change in mentality needed to improve from here on.

dreading the trio of bellamy Tevez and adebayor next week

Exactly Gael - the players on the pitch were responsible no matter who came on/off, no eff-ing matter who manages them even. So 'Wenger out' is irrelevant.

Can all Spurs fans just leave this site now please...we won, they lost, just leave them to their despair.

For the very first time. I agree with TRH.

I'll be over on VS firing my gun into the air.

Wyn, what i am saying is that the Arsenal team can't just rely on RVP. We have a supporting cast that if unable to deal with top opposition, should at least be able to beat lower opposition or at least not squander 2-0 leads, no disrespect intended.

Players get tired or complacent. When that happens a manager has to have the tactical awareness to change things. No point Wenger saying the players on the pitch should have done it. Yes, they should have, but they didn't for 10 minutes and he did nothing. There's absoluetly no point having a predatory striker like Van Persie sitting on the bench if you're not going to use him. Would Ferguson have left Rooney on the bench when Wigan scored their first comeback goal?

true an he has done well, play great football, so maybe the prem league and CL is out of reach, fa cup an cc is better chance of winning silverware thats what players want

I watched El Classico last week and it was a pleasure to watch two such demanding competent goalkeepers. It really hit home just how far Almunia is from that standard. I think Arsene realised after the Barcelona game that we need to spend and get rid of some of this ballast. I bloody hope he did anyway!

GF, I hear what you're saying. But we're already down to many of our 2nd or even 3rd string players, especially in defence. I don't necessarily expect someone like Eastmond to last a whole 90 minutes in a top flight game. But its really complacent thinking to expect you can beat any premiership team with your supporting cast, especially away from home. The team haven't relied on RVP for a good part of the season, but today he was available. Why not play him, especially as Bendtner wasn't providing any sort of distraction to Wigan in the 2nd half?

Wyn Mills about RvP, when we were 2-0 up, the odds on a Wigan victory were miniscule. So I guess it was thought that RvP has to be wrapped up in cotton wool for the game against Citeh. Looking at RvP's injury record and general bad luck anything is possible. Now in hindsight it does look like a blunder and sending RvP on in the 89th or 90th minute was too late. But then we are gifted with hindsight while the manager is not.

GF, those keepers do play for very good sides, granted. But their command of the area and how they organise and take crosses is far superior to Manuel.

Wyn, i get all that but this game flipped too quickly. When you are 2-0 or 2-1 up with 10 minutes to go or, most coaches would think of a defensive sub not an attacking one. I cant blame Arsene for that. 2-0 was enough to win that game and the defensive side of our game let us down.

Thing is GF, we CAN'T defend a lead. It's been proven time and time again. And with Vermaelen out it was more true today than ever. Wenger couldn't strengthen our defence because he had no-one left. Our best form of defence today was actually attack.