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I was given 4 free corporate tickets for the game – so it only cost me £600 for the weekend!
Al la Carte dinner in the Highbury Lounge, all the booze paid for and a £2 bet on a 2 – 1 win for Wigan
Saw the team sheet and got depressed when I saw Gomez on the sheet and Maloney missing.
Arsenal started brightly and i though oh sh*t this looks like it could be a Spurs game.
Then Gomez put it in the stunning pass to De Santo and the ball bounced knidly for once. We had to sit on our hands and muffle the screams of delight. Absolute stunned silence around the ground (apart from a small band of merry men in the far corner).
Then 2 minutes later – it went in again – Gomez – even more stunned silence. It was as if to say – what do you think you are doing? you are Wigan, how dare you score against us?
Then the siege of the Alamo started and I thought we have no chance of holding out for 80 minutes. I still couldn’t believe that we managed to get in at half time still leading but we all felt physically ill.
The 2nd half performamce was completely different, we had sorted ourselves out and did what we did against Man U and i don’t remember Al Habsi having to make a save from a shot on target.
But we held out and from feeling like vomiting we were suddenly high but we couldn’t jump up and down.
Still the £58 winnings paid for the bottle of champagne back at the hotel.
what a night!!
Martinez Out i say ……….
Wotcha, friendly Gooner here. I didn’t get a chance to do this yesterday, work being a bit of a mission right now, but I wanted to repost a long comment I posted on my favoured Arsenal blogsite, Arsenal Arsenal:
“OK, this is the first chance I’ve had to think about last night’s game, and before reading everything that’s been posted already, just wanted to jot down a couple of thoughts:
1. Bloody well played Wigan, for me that was the best performance of any visiting team at the Ems this season, perhaps only approached by Marseilles back in November. Turns out it wasn’t just Ferguson’s mind-games. Definitely a better performance than when United and Liverpool won. The intensity and concentration, as well as skill, that Wigan displayed was very, very impressive. I thought Victor Moses was absolutely tremendous up front (I really would love us to try to sign him this summer), and Caldwell marshalled his defence superbly. The way Wigan switched formation seamlessly, and constantly denied our players time on the ball, was really excellent. Without doubt, our guys contributed to their own downfall, but make no mistake, to a great extent, Wigan made them play badly. Pretty much the only really pleasurable moment I had the entire evening was staying to applaud the Wigan players off at the end (my seat is near the tunnel).
2. There are silver linings: for football generally, it’s got to be good that a side with as much quality as Wigan are three points closer to staying up; we’ve made life harder for ourselves but it is still recoverable, we are still ahead of the other three in the race for the two CL spots; we may well have seen the best job interview for Wenger’s successor – the level of Wigan’s performance has so much to do with the coaching, Roberto Martinez is most certainly the real deal.
3. I can’t remember Alex Song playing a worse game for a long, long time, he was woeful, sluggish and immature last night. Theo Walcott and Bacary Sagna almost as bad, and the rest, bar perhaps Vermaelen and Rosicky, were poor. I thought we were bad in the first half, but the performance in the second half was terrible, Al-Habsi had barely anything to do. But a defeat like that should be an invitation to any serious sportsman to prove themselves, to show that they can do better. Big game on Saturday now.
OK, back to the top of the page now.”
Best of luck to you guys for the remainder of the season, I’ll be rooting for you!
THanks 26May, most of the people we met recognized the Wigan performance fro what it was, it is a pity that Arsene Wenger is not able to give credit when credit is due.
On the comment re Martinez – I said to a gooner cabbie in London last year that Martinez would be the next Arsenal Manager.
Ohh – and hands of Moses he needs another year to work on his finishing.
I also managed to get some posh seats sorted for free in the arsenal bit. I cheered out first goal though and was clocked as a wigan fan from then on. Stood up and cheered at full time too I couldn’t contain myself. Didnt cheer the second as i was so shocked!
Great night out
Cheers Fatmando. Don’t worry about Le Prof, he’s just a sore loser – once he gets over disappointments he’s as magnanimous as they come!
Like many others, I’ve admired Martinez for a long time, but Monday night’s game really did seal it for me: it’s no mean thing to get a team motivated and organised enough to execute a gameplan like that, based it was on lots of movement with and without the ball. I also saw him spend a lot of time briefing Conor Sammon before he came on, which suggests to me a very careful and tactical mind.
Gooners and all those plastic Reds who schlep up to Salford from Surrey, the Midlands and Cornwall share one thing: a nagging doubt about the succession plans once our increasingly aged managers finally retire. Names get kicked around amongst Arsenal fans, from Pep Guardiola to Dennis Bergkamp, but I left the game on Monday feeling I really had seen our next manager. I know that sounds arrogant, presuming to think we’ll be able to nab your guy, but I guess that’s the way it is!
As for Moses, we shall see! He’s been very impressive for the past few months, and I can definitely see there being clubs this summer who’d be keen to make him the next Antonio Valencia. I hadn’t realised till yesterday that he’d decided to play for Nigeria – gutting, having him pile down the left wing for England would’ve been great.
And Legolad, don’t worry about having declared your true colours, Arsenal fans are a pretty meek and accommodating bunch, as long as you’re not supporting Spurs, Chelsea or Stoke.
Over to you the Martinez out Brigade, you know who you are!!……..
From Matlock to ManU
What a journey!Over to you the Martinez out Brigade, you know who you are!!…….. We have been superb of late which I put down to Bob’s change of formation which was greatly needed as for the best part of two and a half years we had been dross. So yes he seems at last to be playing a system that suits but would he have survived at any other club???
Hell no, and before you all spout this was coming all I will say is don’t talk shite not even Bob would have predicted this form.
Try and stay away from the negative past (it really did happen!!)and look to the future .Fantastic series of performances and credit to Robbie and all the players .The question I pose is being that the playing staff is the same and the formation has been tweeked then why the sudden huge improvement ?Is it that the players feel more comfortable with this system ? or did the relegation threat suddenly wake them up ?
Try and stay away from the negative past (it really did happen!!)and look to the future .Fantastic series of performances and credit to Robbie and all the players .The question I pose is being that the playing staff is the same and the formation has been tweeked then why the sudden huge improvement ?Is it that the players feel more comfortable with this system ? or did the relegation threat suddenly wake them up ?Not sure but if we stay up which is nailed on if we can keep up this form can Bob get them to start a season??? He should remind the players the season does not start in February.
The lightside did tell the darkside that the season finished in May not the end of November eh Hinders
The signs were there well before February, but we simply didn’t get our fair share of luck and key decisions.
Perhaps it all changed when DW said he would have a quiet word with Bobby and sent a team of his heavies round to give him a bit of the “Reservoir Dogs” treatment. :woohoo:
Don’t forget we still arn’t out of the relegation scrap yet, so feet firmly on the floor boys and girls.
From Matlock to ManU
What a journey!Despite the common belief that everyone at Wigan is behind Martinez this season, there have been many people that have been calling for his replacement (it’s probably caused more arguments in the “do” household than anything else) as clearly what he was trying to do was not working at he start of the season. Even I have been very depressed this season and believed we were heading down this season but I still thought that our longer term future was better served with him and that with the players we have we would be very good in the Championship.
Martinez has not just thought about staying up, he has set up Wigan to bring young players through and build for the future (all previous managers were concerned with he here and now)as our biggest problem is that he brings players on and then the key players are stolen at the end of the season so he has to start again at the start of each season)
Most critics fail to recognise that at the same time he came in, Whelan had decided premier league life had to be sustainable, so we have cut the wage bill dramatically and bought in young players with potential (apart from a major error in purchasing one failed Argentinian striker).
It has therefore taken a lot of work to make these less able players to work and find a defensive system that enables the defenders (who would probably not make it into most top half premier league clubs) stop leaking goals, which was one of our main problems. What we also lack is a striker who can score and the main reason is that those who can score are valuable and even if Wigan were prepared to pay the price, other clubs would also be clambering for their services and would they choose little Wigan? Hence the expensive mistake in Boseli, which smacked of desperation.
Just stand back and look at the total value of the Wigan side against Liverpool, Chelsea (bearing in mind that we beat them really), Man U, Arsenal and even the Stoke side which we beat recently. In each of these games the other side was siad to have had an off day, but the real reason was that Wigan stopped them from playing their game and played their own game. This was was the reason.
Martinez has turned a bunch of unrecognised players into a top class team. Just imagine what he will be able to do with a talented team and a real budget!Cheers Fatmando. Don’t worry about Le Prof, he’s just a sore loser – once he gets over disappointments he’s as magnanimous as they come!Like many others, I’ve admired Martinez for a long time, but Monday night’s game really did seal it for me: it’s no mean thing to get a team motivated and organised enough to execute a gameplan like that, based it was on lots of movement with and without the ball. I also saw him spend a lot of time briefing Conor Sammon before he came on, which suggests to me a very careful and tactical mind.
Gooners and all those plastic Reds who schlep up to Salford from Surrey, the Midlands and Cornwall share one thing: a nagging doubt about the succession plans once our increasingly aged managers finally retire. Names get kicked around amongst Arsenal fans, from Pep Guardiola to Dennis Bergkamp, but I left the game on Monday feeling I really had seen our next manager. I know that sounds arrogant, presuming to think we’ll be able to nab your guy, but I guess that’s the way it is!
As for Moses, we shall see! He’s been very impressive for the past few months, and I can definitely see there being clubs this summer who’d be keen to make him the next Antonio Valencia. I hadn’t realised till yesterday that he’d decided to play for Nigeria – gutting, having him pile down the left wing for England would’ve been great.
And Legolad, don’t worry about having declared your true colours, Arsenal fans are a pretty meek and accommodating bunch, as long as you’re not supporting Spurs, Chelsea or Stoke.
….He should remind the players the season does not start in February.But the transfer window closes end of January and so February is when the players know they are here till the end of the season. Prior to that I’m sure our “stars” are distracted by talks (and dreams) of moving to a “bigger” club.
Over to you the Martinez out Brigade, you know who you are!!……..
We have been superb of late which I put down to Bob’s change of formation which was greatly needed as for the best part of two and a half years we had been dross. So yes he seems at last to be playing a system that suits but would he have survived at any other club???
Hell no, and before you all spout this was coming all I will say is don’t talk shite not even Bob would have predicted this form.[/quote]
It’s the same formation that’s been used since December.
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