Dec 06
Match Preview: Arsenal v Wigan Athletic
Arsenal clawed back confidence and credibility in their last league outing with a fantastic 2-1 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge that took them back to fourth in the league.
That victory followed two straight defeats, first 2-0 at home to Aston Villa and 3-0 away to Man City, which had seemingly signalled a bad day away due against Chelsea and that an early end to Arsenal’s title challenge was looming. But morale is high again at the Emirates Stadium following another script rewritten by The Gunners.
The Gunners beat The Lactics 2-0 this corresponding fixture last season, but Arsenal’s tendency to drop points against stubborn opposition this season, such as in defeats against Fulham, Hull City and Stoke City, raise concerns over the probability of them converting confidence from victory over Chelsea into a victory over Wigan.
Wigan’s Emile Heskey is a physical presence and, coupled with the confident Henri Camara, may cause problems for a patched up, chopped-and-changed Arsenal defence that has shown many vulnerabilities of late; however, if Arsenal have learned from the inconsistencies so far in the season, they should be very focussed on eliminating those mistakes and allowing their quality side to seize a win with the threat of Robin van Persie and Emmanuel Adebayor up front.
Arsene Wenger has a string of injury concerns with Abou Diaby (stomach) as well as the injured William Gallas (calf), and Theo Walcott (shoulder), Tomas Rosicky (hamstring). However, Kolo Toure (calf) and Johan Djourou (hip) look likely to return.
Predicted Starting XI
Almunia
Sagna – Toure – Silvestre – Clichy
Denilson – Fabregas – Song – Nasri
Adebayor – van Persie
Match Prediction: Arsenal 2-0 Wigan Athletic
Gooner Talk will provide live coverage of this Premier League clash on GoonerTalkTV. Post-match highlights will be avaliable at midnight for those of you who were unable to watch the game.
Leave your views and predictions of this afternoon’s game in the comments section below.
if eboue and djourou are passed fit i think the team could be
Almunia
Sagna–Toure–Djourou–Clichy
Eboue–Cesc–Denilson/song–Nasri
RVP–ADE
This is RvP’s day!!
Almunia
Sagna-Toure-JD-Clichy
Ramsey-Captain-Denilson-Nasri
Boy Wonder-Ade
personal i wont like to see denilson he has been losing those 50-50s all season may be a new youth player ramsey or eboue
Chris man what you doing? You are supposed to say Arsenal will loose so they will win. xD
Song is injured so he defo wont play.
wigan are a tough nut. know of cattermole? hes the player whos job its going to be to break down arsenal outside of the area. he can be a little reckless- if he gets a yellow card early on youll stand a much better chance in this game. trying to be optumistic so im going to predict that if arsenal get an early goal, theyll run away with it and hopefully their problems will be behind them. and we at liverpool will have to play a team going into form…again. sigh…
then again heskey and camara could really hurt you, and if gallas and djourou/toure/silvestre crumble then youll lose. and that would be much better for liverpool, if a bit of a shame. you need to be much more incisive, nasri needs to do what hleb once did and rip through defences.
have fun.
Song started and made the assist for Ade.
i know eboue was awful when he came on..but i feel SOOO BADD for him now, the look on his face when he went off was awful..
booing of players is never justified. not at anfield, and not at arsenal.
Did Eboue get bood off?
WOW, right now im sitting here in total shock and disgust at the most idiotic fans i have ever seen occupy a stadium . in my whole football watching career ive never ever seen a player get booed of by his own fans… WHAT THE HELL!!! Yes he had a shocker of a game but the guy just came back from injury. if anything the fans made him play worse. now how is he ever gonna get his confidence back, we already have a shortage of players as it is.
I’m from SOUTH AFRICA and if this is how ENGLAND fans behave then please don’t bother coming for the world cup, cuz thats not what we’re about.
Just had to let that out
Gooner til i die.
why should they booe him this guy.
for me i don t see reason why they booe eboue,not being at his best should nt guaranty that kind expression.consider he just came back from injury.
I agree T.U.G.Z but how is football watching your career ? Also, you cant put every english fan into the same group as the eboue-ers. I respect that your country may not be about booing but its hardly safe enough to hold the world cup, so booing should be the least of anyones worries come 2010.
Bunch of idiots who call them selves fans when the truth is that there are thousands still waiting like me to even have a chance to have the privilege to see a great club play.. The idiots boeed him before he played a bad pass when he was doing well until then tracking back to protect Gael also.. If u try and defend booing ur own player then u are flat out out of ur mind