English Premier League - Half Time Report: Wigan Athletic vs Arsenal (Part 2)
With both the teams creating a good chance or two in the opening couple of minutes, it was only natural to think of the last time these two teams had met in the previous season. In that game, despite Arsenal going two goals up they
went on to concede three in the last ten minutes and as a result Wigan got the shocking win.
However, after the early pressure from both sides, they went on to start losing possession far too easily in the middle of the park and this resulted in both of them canceling each other out early on.
On the thirteenth minute, Arsenal had a free-kick after http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Nicklas-Bendtner-c27726 was brought down by Caldwell near the edge of the area. The Danish striker took the set-piece himself but failed to really make anything of it, as the ball
deflected behind for a corner kick.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Andrei-Arshavin-c5771 took the resulting corner kick, but the delivery was so poor that it didn't even manage to beat the first defender. This was a clear indication of the fact that something was definitely wrong with the Russian, as
it just proved that there was a major dip in his form of late.
On the fifteenth minute, Arshavin looked to redeem himself. He played in an unexpected chip pass to Marouane Chamkah but with not even the striker expecting the pass, it fell right into the hands of Al-Habsi.
A minute later, it was Arshavin again. Emmanuel Eboue played on the winger, however with the ball just beyond the forward's reach, his volley attempt managed to fulff the ball and go wide of the mark. The player was on a full stretch
and couldn't have really done any better in that situation.
On the eighteenth minute, it were Wigan who had the first goal of the night against the run of play. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Charles-c8808 N'Zogbia inside the Arsenal area. The challenge looked to be on the border-line
of being a free-kick outside the box, but the referee chose to give a penalty to Wigan.
Watson stepped up to take the spot kick but despite the fact that Fabianski had guessed the right direction to dive in, the spot-kick was an incisive one and it gave the home-side the lead on the night.
Continued in Part 3...
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