Arsenal:
                      Lehmann
             Lauren Campbell Toure Cygan
Pires (Flamini 75) Fabregas (Senderos 90) Gilberto Ljungberg
           Henry van Persie (Bergkamp 75)

The home side started brightly and had a shot after just a couple of minutes, a volley from the side after a throw had bounced once, but it came closer to the roof than the goal. A minute later Kolo Toure was booked for hauling down the impressive Jason Roberts as he threatened to break. Then another minute later they had a really good chance, a shot from the D was blocked near the penalty spot (possibly by another Wigan player) and fell to McCulloch who slashed it wide from a good position.

Another minute later and De Zeeuw was booked for a late slide on Thierry Henry about 30 yards out. He hit the shot towards John Filan's right hand post but the keeper got to it easily enough. The ball spilled out off his chest but no-one was there to take advantage.

The breakthrough came on 10 minutes and it was down to another Filan error, perhaps distracetd by that earlier failure. Robin van Persie had received the ball in the centre cirlce and turned his marker brilliantly before setting off for goal. He ignored the option of Freddie Ljungberg, who had made an unmarked run to his left, and instead hit a shot that shouldn't have troubled Filan at all, but which he allowed to squirm through him.

The lead was nearly doubled a few minutes later. Henry recived the ball in an advanced position on the right, so far advanced that he had to wait a while for others to join the attack. But he held things up well and then slipped the ball forward for Pires' run on the overlap. Bobby took it to the goal-line and cut the ball back nicely for van Persie who tried to trickle the ball inside the far post and only just missed it.

Arsenal were looking confident now and had a an excellent spell of possession rounded off by the second goal, foir Henry. It was a simple goal, neat passes from Gilberto and then Cesc putting sending Thierry running into the box on the right. Filan approached him and Thierry slipped the ball past and inside the far post.

The home side nearly got back into it straight away when Damien Francis was first to a cross and missed with an admittedly very difficult half volley, under pressure. 5 minutes later though they did score. It was a bit soft really. A looping free kick from their left was headed on by De Zeeuw and Camara snuck between two defenders to stoop and head past Jens Lehmann. There was a bit of nonsense before the re-start. Fabregas had the ball in our penalty area and a Wigan player barged into him trying to get the ball. It looked worse than it was, though, because Cesc was pushed into another Wigan player and there was a clash of heads. It may have looked like a headbutt and, given that, it's not surprising that other Arsenal players weren't happy. Jason Roberts got booked and I'm assuming that he's the one that did the barging rather than the accidental head thing. It always seems very strange when these things happen. The team that's just scored have no right to grab the ball off of the team that's conceded. After all, it's the latter team that has the kick-off and their possession till they've re-started the game. The other team can't (and aren't allowed to) hurry the re-start by grabbing the ball. What was even more peculiar was that this was only just over halfway through the first half. Cesc would hardly bother to waste time at this stage. Just trying to unsettle us, probably.

They nearly equalised a few minutes later when Gilberto (having an unusually poor game) gave the ball away badly in our half with an unnecessary blind back-heel. It went straight to Roberts who rounded Lehmann but then struck the ball too soft towards goal, giving Toure time to get back and clear from the goalmouth. We did look rattled.

But we restored the 2 goal cushion 5 minutes before the break, and in great style. We'd had possession for a while and the ref (Graham Poll) had let a few fouls go because we'd kept the ball, before blowing up for a foul on Cygan on the left wing. Henry wanted to take it quickly but Poll wouldn't let him. So he waited, and then whacked it goalwards from 30 yards out. It was heading at least a couple of yards inside the left post but curled outwards, hitting the inside of that post which sent it crahsing into the net. Filan wasn't too badly positioned, and moved well, he just didn't have a hope in hell of getting to it. Henry could be seen asking a cheeky question of Poll, along the lines of "was that ok?". Nice.

A few minutes later van Persie latched onto a lob forward, trying to poke it past Filan from the edge of the box. The keeper had come out leaving his goal somewhat exposed, but did well to stretch and pluck the ball out of the air.

With halftime rapidly approaching, Wigan then pulled another one back. Cygan got sucked into the middle of the pitch very easily. You could see how it started, but his decision to keep chasing the ball infield when there were teammates around to deal with it was exposed decisively when they managed to get it wide to Bullard. Sol Campbell had tried to get over to cover but ended up wrongfooted when Bullard cut inside leaving Sol on his arse, and the impressive midfielder hit an excellent drive across Lehmann and into the far top corner.

That was it for the first half, and that was it for the scoring. We should have finished things off soon after the break though. Some great running and battling by van Persie robbed the ball off a Wigan player and he took it deep. No-one was quite ready for a cut-back or cross yet though so he tried a chip from a narrow angle which wasn't too dangerous but did cause a defender to play safe and head it out for a corner. A fine corner it was too (corners have gotten sooo much better of late). It found Sol at the far post and he headed it down across goal where it went out a foot past the post, with Toure having been the same distance away from getting to the ball and turning it in.

A few minutes later, van Persie's was put through but his first touch was poor and allowed the defence to regroup. Still, the tackle that came in only served to play the ball out to Henry on the right. He chipped towards Freddie at the far post but the ball was too high for him to direct his header back into the danger area.

This was the start of another good spell for Arsenal. Cesc was having a particularly good game and nearly got on the scoresheet, only denied by some stalwart defending by the home side. As the game went on, they came back into it more and more. Roberts tricked his way past Kolo and Sol (after controlling the ball with his arm on the edge of the box) but the defenders had done well enough not to give away a penalty and in the end Roberts had let the ball get far enough ahead of him that Lehmann could come and pounce on it. A very dangerous cross from Wigan's right was missed by everyone in the box. Then the ball was given away to Cygan on th eleft and he gave it straight back to them (under little to no pressure). Roberts took the ball on down their right, till he was level with the 6 yard line, before hitting a square cross which, fortunately, found McCulloch a little further advanced and, again, the ball went straight out the other side of the box.

Like I said, a good win against a team that showed why they're flying so high in the league. But it could easily have ended as a draw, what with those late chances for Wigan and the fact that they gifted us the opening goal.

The next time we play Wigan (barring cup draws) will be the last competitive match at Highbury. We'd have liked the fixture computer to have thrown up a Liverpool or Man Utd game for that one, but judging by this performance, Wigan look capable of helping to make it an entertaining game of football as well as an emotionally memorable night.