Arsenal:
                     Lehmann
            Eboue Toure Djourou Clichy
Walcott (Hoyte 89)        Gilberto         Ljungberg
   Flamini (Cesc 74)   Baptista (van Persie 74) 
                     Adebayor

Kolo Toure returned to the back four, replacing Philippe Senderos which might reflect more the fact that Big Phil is recently back from injury than that Djourou is looking so much better right now. Either way, good move.

There was a surprise in midfield with both Theo Walcott and Julio Baptista starting the match, and Cesc Fabregas being rested. Matthieu Flamini came in alongside Gilberto, and had another good game. I've wondered aloud about playing him as well as Cesc and Gilberto, it seeming a rather defensive line-up, but it worked against Chelsea, and perhaps here we saw why. Matty may not be as classy going forward as Cesc, but neither is he as defensively minded as Gilberto. If Gilberto's there as well, Matty can get forward to good effect.

The home side nearly went ahead just before the 10 minute mark. Heskey beat offside to get onto a long ball over the top of our defence. Fortunately he didn't receive it facing goal but instead the ball came to him on the edge of the box with back to goal, from where he nodded it back towards McCullouch. Flamini managed to get to the ball first but it went straight to another blue shirt, who played it forward into the box. Camara and McCullouch chased it in, under pressure from Flamini and another, and when Camara stretched near the penalty spot to try to poke the ball goalwards we were lucky to see it skew off wide of Jens Lehmann's left hand post.

Up the other end soon after, Baptista played the ball wide right for Flamini who hit a great cross into the Wigan box where a defender jumped to head a clearance over his own bar, with both Walcott and Adebayor lurking.

It felt like we were getting enough of the ball, but Wigan were closing us down well and preventing much danger developing. One promising move saw a Walcott cross find Flamini in the box... he jumped to nod the ball down into space behind him but no-one else was following up to take advantage. We had some semi-desperate defending to do in our own box but, with Toure and Djourou looking a good partnership again, we were up to it.

In the first couple of minutes of the second half, Heskey was put clear through on Lehmann and made a mess of it, allowing the outrushing keeper to get close then failing to lift the ball high enough over him when he shot. Lehmann just reached up to pluck the ball out of the air as it went over him. Good keeping but poor finishing.

Moments later, Baptista was put clear on the right of the Wigan box, and hit a powerful near post shot which unfortunately went straight at the Wigan keeper Chris Kirkland.

Arsenal started to come into the game a bit more after this. Freddie Ljungberg was put through on the left of the box after a well-worked move, but his cross/shot was deflected beyodn the far post, with Toure just failing to get there in time to turn it in.

Gilberto hit a great ball forward for Adebayor to run onto but Kirkland did well to come out and clear. Then Walcott got free down the right and could have had a shot himself, but instead he spotted Adebayor's run through the middle and crossed for what looked a tap-in. Fair play to Fitz Hall for making up ground and putting Adebayor off, but it looked like a miss to me, the big striker failing to even make contact when the ball wasn't really that far in front of him.

On the hour Skoko hit a powerful long-range drive which swerved a bit, so that even though it was going straight at Lehmann the keeper ended up patting the ball down, and having to scramble a bit to stop it going out for a corner when it bounced up a bit funny.

With 15 minutes left, Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie came on for Flamini and Baptista. The game started to hot up.

10 minutes to go and Freddie got in on the left of the box again and hit a near post shot which Kirkland did well to save. The ball fell loose by that post and Adebayor managed to get to it first but his attempt at a goalbound hook went wrong when he got round the ball too well, sending it across goal rather than into it.

Within a minute, we had the ball in their box again, Adebayor knocking it down but van Perise just failing to get to it, and Camara had missed up the other end. One hell of a shot this, hitting it early after beating Clichy on the wing, it swerved towards the far top corner but over, with Lehmann probably stranded.

Cesc and van Persie combined nicely in the middle, the latter then feeding Walcott on the right who brought it forward then shanked a cross (or shot, it went so wrong one that couldn't tell).

Wigan weren't just defending though, and Camara very nearly got onto the end of a hoof forward. Cesc hit a great long ball into their box for Adebayor, whose difficult first touch was too strong, giving Kirkland the chance to make a brave save at the striker's feet.

Then on 87, Cesc won the ball with an outstanding tackle on our right wing. There were some calls for a foul, because he slid in, but not all sliding tackles are illegal and Cesc went in one-footed cleanly winning the ball. Still, you see them given so perhaps this was payback for Ashley Cole's blatant point-winning foul on :Älexander_Hleb: on Sunday. Anyway, Cesc brought the ball infield and forward a bit, then hit a perfect ball forward from the edge of the centre circle for Adebayor to run onto. He just beat the offside trap, touched the ball on just outside the box and, as Kirkland came to meet him just inside the box, Adebayor slipped the ball calmly under him for 1-0.

Wigan had pretty much all the play for the last few minutes but this time we hung on for the full 3 points. Baines hit a great long-range effort straight at Lehmann. A throw which went like a corner ended with a shot from the edge of the box which just looped over the defence as it came out, and easily into Lehmann's arms. Another long-range effort went well over, and then we had to scramble the ball out of our box deep in injury time (with Camara, to his credit, going over in the box and not trying to claim anything for it).

So, we won the game in hand and are back in 3rd place. Seems a bit weird given how shaky the season feels like it's been, but perhaps that's just a measure of the high standards we've set and the extent of the top 2's dominance so far this season. There are plenty of teams snapping at our heels though, so a good run is needed now to try to create a gap. With games against Portsmouth, Blackburn (twice), Watford and Sheffield United coming up next (as well as 2 cup ties with Liverpool) it ought to be possible. But we know better than to make predictions this season.