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The 4-1 scoreline flattered an Arsenal team that were under the cosh for the whole of the first half and only got themselves a grip of the game after Alan ‘I must let the top four win at all costs’ Wiley didn’t send off Kieran Gibbs for hauling down Valencia when he was clean through on goal.
This happened just before half time and when they came out for the second the first thing Gibbs did was clear Mido’s brave header off the line. Mido was badly hurt in the incident with the Gunner’s keeper and had to go off.
The sub Kapo, once again threw back Bruce’s faith in his face by showing exactly why he shouldn’t be playing for us at all. He is lazy, can’t control a ball, can’t pass a ball and certainly hasn’t a clue how to shoot, where has that superstar that played for Juventus gone????
We got an excellent start with Mido bagging after 18 minutes, Bramble had forced a great save from the Arsenal keeper but our on loan Egyptian striker managed to stretch and volley home from 6 yards. It was Mido’s earlier shot which brought the corner and the goal sealed an excellent opening 20 minutes where Valencia and Rodallega had caused trouble.
Valencia, Scharner and Rodallega continued to cause problems for the rest of the half, but last ditch tackles and some good goal keeping kept the score at 1-0. The visitors were struggling and it was the last minute of the first half when an already very biased referee gave Arsenal the boost they needed.
Valencia was fed a pin point ball, he left Gibbs for dead and the young defender did what many defenders have done in the past, he brought him down. The difference here was that Alan Wiley didn’t send him off, unlike every other defender before him. The whole stadium, including the Arsenal fans and players were expecting the red and you could see the disbelief in Gibbs face as he looked up and saw yellow, the Gunner’s fans were silent….. Only last week he sent Vidic off in a game against Liverpool for something a lot more marginal.
Gibbs stopped us scoring a second goal, potentially giving us a huge boost going into the second half. Alan Wiley did much worse as he let the whole world know where he stands when lower league clubs play any of these ‘top four’ prima donnas.
It isn’t the first either as the same ref sent off Valencia at Liverpool for daring to challenge Gerard, Pool went on to win that game when they weren’t in it against 10 men. Wiley has no excuses, but will something be done… I won’t hold my breath.
Ben Watson wrapped up the first half by rattling the post from the free kick and we went in deflated at 1-0 as we knew that we had to come out in the second half and fight the referee as well as the visiting team…
Mido’s early injury made life even harder as when he left the pitch we lost our shape. The introduction of de Ridder also didn’t inject anything new and it was bad defensive mistakes that got Arsenal level and then ahead. Walcott capitalised after the ball bobbled about in the box.
Silvestre scored ten minutes later as our defence went to sleep. We then battled on for the rest of the half but even though chances fell our way, we couldn’t put any telling shots on target. We hit the self destruct button in injury time as Koumas tracked back well but after winning the ball misplaced a pass which Arshavin spanked in.
Two minutes later the flattery was complete as Song went unchallenged to score their fourth goal. This was yet another match ruined by a kop out ref. We don’t know what would have happened if they had gone down to ten men, we might still have lost, but unfortunately we’ll not be able to find out…. Thanks Alan, I hope I never see you in charge of a Wigan game again.
Report by Jason Taylor
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Mido
Johan Djourou
Mikael Silvestre
Kieran Gibbs
