Wigan 0 Arsenal 1

 

An 88th minute Adebayor strike saved our blushes last night at Wigan, after a very frustrating game of football. Adebayors goal at the JJB, sends us to Third in the Premiership.

We started with 4-5-1 again, we rested Fabregas and Hleb, with Baptista and Walcott replacing them, who have just a handful of starts for Arsenal between them, Adebayor was once again up there on his own, I thought he would start Van Persie to be honest. Most likely he will start against Portsmouth.

The first half was somewhat poor, with creating few chances, we had alot of the ball in the opening 25 minutes, but we didn’t really do anything with it, won a few corners and that was about it. Wigan, however had a much better chance, Emile Heskey put through by Camara and he fluffed it spectacularly, it did bobble but the way Heskey had his foot at an angle, suggested he was going to chip Lehmann, I would imagine he would have fluffed that as well. Waste of space.

The second half was a vast improvement, I thought Wenger might change it at the break, but I was pleased when the same 11 came out for the second half. There was alot more attacking going on, rather than pissbawling about.Baptista was put through and had a poweful shot saved by Kirkland. Theo was very useful down the right, and eventually he would win the battle with Leighton Baines, who I must say probably had the better of Walcott in the first 45. We had a great chance when Baptista put through a lovely ball for Walcott, he could have squared it ot shot, he did the right thing and squared it to Adebayor, who missed the ball. It was the best chance of the game and perhaps Adebayors legs let him down, after playing the whole game against Chel$ki, he would have a chance to make up for it.

Baptista hit a venomous free kick, which went past Kirklands right-post, just. Soon after this Julio Baptista and the knackered Flamini were replaced by Cesc Fabregas and Robin Van Persie, as soon as they came on we were under pressure, mainly because we had brought on two attacking players for two defensive players. There was a few gaps, but once we got through the small wave of attacks we had more of a foothold. Fabregas put in a great ball for Adebayor, but his first touch let him down, and Kirkland got there before him. Adebayor tried to win the ball and Kirkland got a bit of a kicking, followed by shouting at our striker. He had to go for it, Henri Camara had a very chance but Toure got back and Blocked his shot, great defending.

Then the goal, Fabregas tackled a Wigan player, cant remember who, and to say it was a foul is complete guff. I suggest that Gary McCallister puts his contacts in the next time he his chosen to commentate on Football. A very good tackle, then Fabregas chipped a fantastic ball over the defence, their mistakes probably did make the pass look better than it was, Adebayor was through on goal, he controlled it with a nice touch and put it past Kirkland with the outside of his boot. YES! All that frustration had gone, you can’t beat a late winner, and made the trip home for the Travelling gooners much more enjoyable. There was a tiny bit more pressure after the goal, as you would expect. The ref blew up after 4 minutes of extra time, when there should have been 3, can you imagine the uproar if Wigan did get anything in that mystery minute. No I cant because it didn’t happen.

It wasnt a pretty win at all, but they are the type of games that Chelsea win, so it was very pleasing to get the 3 points.

Block 11 Player Ratings -

Lehmann – 6, Eboue – 5, Block 11 Star Man – Toure – 8, Djourou – 7, Clichy – 6, Ljungberg – 5, Walcott – 6, Baptista – 6, Gilberto – 7, Flamini  – 6, Adebayor - 7.

Subs -

Van Persie – 5

Fabregas – 7

Hoyte – 5

Toure was massive again last night, such a fantastic player. Eboue I thought was poor again last night,  of sloppy passing. It’s a slight blip for him at the moment. A vert rare blip as well, so hopefully he can get out of it and play well on Saturday. Fabregas made the two key moments, won the ball back and passed to Adebayor for the goal. He is becoming as important as Thierry Henry isn’t he.

Wenger has this to say onlast nights result  -

“This is the kind of game a year ago we would have lost 1-0, but instead we won it 1-0. Even this season we lost 1-0 at Manchester City, a game we should have won three times more than we did here. This was a much more difficult game. At West Ham they had one shot on goal, yet again we lost 1-0. I think we have learned not to make mistakes.”

 The next point of Intrest for us is the Champions League draw. Ill have something about that for the morning.

Until then.