English Premier League - Half Time Report: Wigan Athletic vs Arsenal (Part 1)
Arsenal travelled to DW Stadium to take on Wigan, in a game that was going to be a real test for the Gunners. This was because the team had just managed to beat http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786 a day earlier and were looking to maintain that form, however not getting complacent
was going to be something of a challenge for Arsenal. This was because the team was producing the best results in recent history and it was only natural for the players to feel a little proud of themselves.
Arsenal were almost a completely different side from the one that took on Chelsea, as Wenger made around eight changes to his squad.
A win for Wigan on the night would help them rise to the fifteenth spot, while a win for Arsenal would see them be the new runners up in the league. That is of course if they didn't manage to win by five goals or more, in which case they would become the
new leaders of the league.
The two teams' line-ups were as follows:
Wigan Athletic: Al Habsi, Stam, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Gary-Caldwell-c14440, Alcaraz, Gohouri, Thomas, Diame, Cleverley, Watson, N'Zogbia, Rodallega
Substitutes: Pollitt, Boselli, Steven Caldwell, Gomez, McArthur, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Figueroa-c13730, McManaman
Arsenal: Fabianski, Eboue, Squillaci, Koscielny, Sagna, Diaby, Rosicky, Denilson, Bendtner, Chamakh, Arshavin
Substitutes: Szczesny, Nasri, Vela, Walcott, Wilshere, Djourou, Clichy
With the stadium looking almost filled to peak capacity, the match finally got underway with Diame and Rodallega getting things off to a start.
Wigan looked to apply the early pressure and nearly snuck a goal in, in the third minute. Rodallega dispossessed Koscielny near the Arsenal area and the ball fell to Cleverly on the left hand side of the pitch. He then went on to cross the ball into a dangerous
area, but Rodallega managed to miss the mark by inches, despite being given a free header from point-blank range.
Two minutes later, Arsenal looked to apply some pressure of their own as Thomas Rosicky played http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Andrei-Arshavin-c5771 on with a brilliant cross field ball. The Russian was close on the goal, but managed to volley his effort just over the bar.
Continued in Part 2...
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