Reflections of the Wigan game. And why the hatred Gooners?? 

I have just returned from a devastating trip to the home of football, where Arsenal somehow lost to Wigan Athletic (1-2). Now I don't usually write reviews about each game, as I prefer to write articles about individual players, transfer targets e.t.c rather than writing up what you have all just seen, and what you will read elsewhere. However I just wanted to write a few thoughts up about the game today at The Emirates to see what you guys think. 

It was a very sluggish performance by The Arsenal and as @Grantafc says on his "Arsenal Vlog" (link will be below), we were "diabolical" especially defensively for their goals. Now, Wigan have in recent weeks and months under the tutorship of Roberto Martinez, changed their tactics to a 5-4-1 system, where they have 3 CBs and 2 Wing backs at the back and this helps them to really pack out the midfield. This worked very well against Manchester United (manure) last week, and it worked very well against us tonight. The Arsenal players to my viewing didn't seem to know where the Wigan players were going and what their set-up was, they were all over the place. You have to give credit where it's due to Martinez, his staff and his players for that change in set-up recently it really has worked, but I think it is important to mention that it is very worrying that The Arsenal boys didn't seem to be aware of this system and didn't understand their roles and the roles of their opposition players. Wigan gave us the run-around, and The Arsenal players didn't seem to know how to deal with it. 

This is a big concern for me. Now many people I have communicated on twitter in the aftermath of the match tonight have mentioned that Arsene has never really been much of a tactician, which I think is a little harsh, but one thing I would like to reflect on is something that Mr Cesc Fabregas said last season I believe, something which is very much relevant after tonight's events. That is that Cesc said that The Arsenal don't really ever look at the opposition's set up/ tactics e.t.c before a game and prefer to concentrate more on their own preparation. This to me, was evident tonight. The Arsenal team didn't seem to be aware of what the Wigan lads were doing in terms of their set up, and didn't understand how to stop it. This is a real concern and something that I believe needs to be looked into by the club, and perhaps will be in the summer when a new assistant manager comes in this summer, they may start to become more clued up on the opposition. If Tony Adams were to be the new assistant for example I am sure he would be very much a stickler for how to deal with the opposition threats' being very much an old-school type defender. But we will see on that, but back to the main point, which is: is there something in the fact that Cesc said that Arsene and his staff doesn’t study the opposition with the team? I am not saying that the boss never watches the opposition because of course he does, but what I am suggesting is maybe they need to start being more pro-active with the players in informing them and telling them what the opposition is going to do! 

I believe this is becoming more and more important as the years go on, as the premier league to my mind is getting more and more competitive, and teams such as Wigan Athletic (as they did tonight) ARE capable of coming to places such as The Emirates (the home of football) and catching teams off guard, and I believe that if we studied the opposition more closely with the team, this wouldn't be the case. It is a very important issue I believe. Write comments down below or tweet me your thoughts (link will be below). 

Finally, it's late so I want to get some sleep, but I just wanted to say that I am a massive believer in the club slogan "Victoria Concordia Crescit", and tonight I saw some disgusting examples of where this was NOT the case. This saddens me immensely. A few mindless IDIOTS quite frankly, have targeted Aaron Ramsey, a man of great potential regardless of any individual and isolated performance, and told him to amongst other things "commit suicide" now this is DISGUSTING and WRONG. Football is (at least last time I checked) an 11-man game, a team game. And I am a great believer that you win as A TEAM and you loose as A TEAM, and this includes the fans (in the team). Yes tonight was extremely frustrated, and you can rest assured that I am as frustrated as anyone, but targeting individual players and just generally blaming individual players for defeat is wrong, unless of course they do something like Distin did at the weekend and literally give the opposition a goal, which Rambo did NOT do because he was not even ON THE PITCH at the time of either goals, which Arsene I know was particularly miffed about. Anyway remember Victoria Concordia Crescit, we win together we loose together WE ARE THE ARSENAL, we remain a team! 

COME ON YOU REDS!!! 

Tweet me your thoughts to @Mr_arsenal_blog - I will reply to them all. 

Also as promised check out @Grantafc and his Arsenal Vlog: http://www.youtube.com/user/afcghk?feature=watch he does great reviews of each game, and whether you agree with him all the time or not, he always makes interesting points! COYG