Written by 26may1989

The important bit is that we are through to the League Cup semi-finals and now stand as favourites – it’s no longer a case of a good opportunity to win the trophy, it will now rank as a significant disappointment if we don’t lift the League Cup in March.

As for the quarter-final game against Wigan last night, that can be summarised in a few words: cold, one-sided and cold.

We faced very accommodating opponents, who never seriously got their game going and made life pretty easy for us. It helped that some of their best players, Rodallega, N’Zogbia, Gomez and Diame, weren’t in the starting line-up, and they included players from their ranks like Victor Moses and Ben Watson. In fact, both of those two didn’t do too badly, and Moses was unlucky to suffer a dislocated shoulder in the first half, prompting his replacement by Charles Insomnia, as the very classy Joe Kinnear once described his own player. But overall Wigan were poor on the night, and only had two meaningful attempts at goal all night, one of those coming in second half injury time.

As for our lot, as Wenger promised, a young but experienced side was fielded. Other than van Persie’s inclusion to assist in his recovery from injury, this was a genuine second string side. Wilshere and Koscielny could argue that they are first choice players at the moment, but none of the other starters could argue the same. That is not to downplay the ability of our starting side: the only starter who wasn’t a full international was Koscielny, but these were our back-up players. The formation was interesting, with three would-be strikers (van Persie, Walcott and Vela) playing in the AM roles behind Bendtner. In fact, it played more like a 4-1-4-1 (with Wilshere pushed up) than our usual 4-2-3-1, and with Wigan in such a passive mood, that made sense.

The performance was ok, nothing special, but more than sufficient to get the required result and provide a bit of entertainment along the way. It could easily have been 3, 4 or 5-0, especially given the various one-on-one chances that were missed. Vela was surprisingly culpable – he may not have convinced us that he will make the grade, and there is every chance he will be playing for a new side within a year, but one thing he has always done well is convert efficiently and stylishly when clear on goal. Not last night though. Van Persie carved open the Wigan defence with back heel passes to Vela, not once but twice, but the chances, along with a couple of others, were still missed.

Wilshere had an excellent game, as did the now convincing Johan Djourou, who won just about every header he went for, intercepted well and passed unfussily; he must now be ahead of Koscielny in the CB stakes.  That said, the Frenchman had a decent game as well, including some bursting runs forward.  Gibbs looked jittery at first but settled in and ended up having a good game. Szczesny didn’t have a lot to do but what there was he did well, including one very smart save in the first half. Vela, Bendtner and Walcott had typically mixed performances, but at least they got into good positions, and Walcott’s deliveries from corners were especially good, one of which led to our first goal, when the ball bounced off Wigan defender, Alcaraz, and flew into the net. Vela also got an assist on the evening, sending the ball across from the left wing midway through the second half for Nic Bendtner to bundle the ball home.

Van Persie’s performance was also uneven but overall seemed to be getting more into the groove of things, and clearly suited playing in the AM line well. Looks like it will be a few more games before he can really start hitting decent form though. Nasri and Eastmond came on around the 70 minute mark, and were ok, Nasri expertly rounding the keeper but then missing another of the one-on-one chances we had.

On the negative side, Denilson (a player I generally like) had a dreadful game, making mistake after mistake and giving up possession way too often. In a higher pressure game, that would have cost us. Eboué also played badly, though he is at least coming back from injury. I was annoyed at waiting until the 83rd minute before Jay Emmanuel-Thomas was brought on – how is he meant to prove himself with so few minutes on the pitch, especially when he played most of those few minutes as striker, which is not his best position?

Ratings:

Szczesny 7

Eboué 4

Djourou 8

Koscielny 7

Gibbs 7

Denilson 4

Wilshere 8 (Eastmond 6)

Walcott 6

van Persie 6 (Nasri 6)

Vela 6

Bendtner 6 (Emmanuel-Thomas n/a)

A word about the weather: did I mention it was bloody cold last night? It wasn’t an evening for anyone to enjoy playing football, so some of the disjointed and low-key performances on both sides can perhaps be forgiven a little. The fact there were players from countries like Saudi Arabia, Ivory Coast, Mexico, Brazil and Honduras on the pitch and in the occasional blizzards underlines the point. But the conditions also made it tough to be a spectator yesterday, so a bit of entertainment was essential. Some of that came from younger members of our own number, with three or four making it onto the pitch late in the game for a pretty tame (the less kind would say lame) pitch invasion. Luckily, our own Captain Marvell, the Reverend Emmanuel Eboué, was on hand to do his peace broker bit and save some running for clearly unenthusiastic stewards, who were expected to charge around to quell the high-jinks. I just hope the club isn’t so humourless as to ban the kids in question, who clearly had a great time doing mock goal celebrations in front of the North Bank.

So, all in all, the performance was fine. Obviously it didn’t match what our friends in East London managed against a strong United side (got to love that), but we go into the League Cup semis confidently and with the real prospect of picking up the trophy in March.