Arsenal 2 – 1 Wigan: Arsenal “hustle” a victory
56 comments February 12th, 2007
At half-time yesterday, I was feeling slightly peckish. Foolishly, I decided my wallet was up to the task of tackling the stadium refreshments. When I arrived at the front of the queue, however, I could not have anticipated the delights that awaited me.
Me: Hello. Could I have a “Cheese Bagel” please?
Man: No sry, sold out bruv.
Me: Oh, I see. How disappointing. Perhaps a “Sweet Pretzel” then?
Man: Nah man, we don’ even sell those no more.
Me: Oh. Right. What’s that behind the pies. Is that a sausage roll?
Man: Yeh but we’re nt sposed to sell those 2 u, innit.
Me: Why not?
Man: They’re just for the staff.
Me: Oh. I understand.
Man: But I cud sell it 2 u, innit.
Me: What?
Man: I cud. Not Arsenal, me.
Me: Right. How much?
Man: Errr. 2 quidz?
Me: I’ve only got a fiver.
Man: Ah shit bruv, I don hav no change. What else you want? Make it up 2 a fiver.
Me: I only want a sausage roll.
Man: I cant do it then. But anytime u want a sausage roll, u come 2 me, yeh?
Me: Of course.
Man: We dont make enuff money here. You gotta hustle.
The world is a sick place. As if to make things worse, Arsenal were 1-0 down at this point. Julio Baptista and Theo Walcott had come in for Mathieu Flamini and Emmanuel Adebayor, and in spite of a bright start punctuated by a couple of Henry misses, Wigan had quietened the crowd and the team. Not only that, but Denny Landzaat had smashed in an absolute corker to give them the lead. Only the finger-tips of Lens Lehmann had prevented it becoming 2 nil.
The game turned on 51 minutes, when Adebayor replaced Johan Djourou, who had suffered a broken nose. Gilberto moved to centre-back (where he may start Wednesday’s cup-tie with Bolton), Baptista dropped into midfield, and Adebayor joined Henry up top. Immediately we were given a new dimension. Henry and Baptista are both classy players, but no-one can match Adebayor for sheer movement and effervescence. Unfortunately this led to him being called offside a couple of times, but the most crucial decision which denied him a goal did appear to be incorrect.
Then Wigan had what looked to me like a good shout for a penalty turned down (I haven’t seen it on TV, but from my seat it looked pretty clear), and we broke up the other end to score. – Adebayor slipping in Flamini whose cross was diverted into his own net by Fitz Hall. There were just 9 minutes left, but with Wigan’s steely resolve broken, you fancied us to get a winner.
And we did. Adebayor again split the defence with a lovely through ball, which Julio Baptista drove onto Tomas Rosicky’s head. The Czech flicked the ball into the top corner for his first Premiership goal, and arguably his most important Arsenal goal to date.
Wigan may feel they were hard done by, but if you try and defend a lead for that long against a side of our quality, you run the risk of being turned over. They may claim that Flamini was offside for the first-goal, but then Adebayor appeared to be onside for his disallowed effort. In there is some kind of over-ruling footballing karma, then perhaps it punishes people for time-wasting. I sympathise with why they did it (anybody would do the same in their position), but you can’t castigate the likes of Henry for finding it irritating and ungentlemanly. Jens mocking Kirkland’s delay tactics was hilarious, and how he can be booked for it when Kirkland escaped punishment is beyond me.
Yet again we have shown the ability to come from behind and win. It was good for me, simply because I had a bet on to that effect, but we really need to learn to start games and score in the first twenty minutes like we used to.
Still, three points is three points, and if we win our game in hand we’ll be ahead of Liverpool. Now it’s on to the cups…
