Out Gunned

For the first time this season it is officially just a 2 horse race. Since Chelsea's surprising loss to Tottenham on Saturday, Man Utd and Arsenal were given a second chance to contend for the title. Man Utd had already beaten City at this stage, as it was the early game, which put them within 1 point of Chelsea at the top, making the final 3 football weekends very exciting indeed but they would of been made that more exciting if only Arsenal could go to the JJB and take 3 points from Wigan. It's seems like a lightly accurence. The last time Wigan scored more than 1 goal in a match was the start of January and they had only won 2 games from their last 16. Arsenal shouldn't have believed their luck when they saw their North London rivals take 3 points from Chelsea. All of a sudden they were back in the race for the title. They must have been so up for this game, it's untrue.

I got up after a long Saturday night in Shaw and I had two things on my mind, first, was 'Carvery' and second was 'Arsenal Game'. There is nothing more amazing when your hung-over than wolfing into a carvary on a Sunday whilst watching a match. So newspaper under my arm, believe it or not, I decided to try the Crossbar carvary, I definitely was aware of the danger I was putting myself under but I had tried the carvaries from Rosie O'Gradys and Peggy Kelly’s and they were considerably below par. The Crossbar it was. The place was dead, I stroll up get my carvary which looks pretty exquisite, I sit myself down right in front of a massive screen about 5 minutes before kick off. This is exactly what I want.

The game kicked off and it was looking like it was going to go Arsenal's way, 2 goals from Walcott and Silvestre, they looked comfortable, a little too comfortable. Not really giving a shit, they seemed to take their foot off the gas, underestimating what Wigan were capable of. You would think that they might have tried to knock in a few more goals considering the fact that they trail Man Utd and Chelsea's goal difference by about 15 goals. It was like they were content with winning 2 - 0. They lightly passed the ball around like as if they were trying to run out the clock but there was twenty minutes left in the game and on 80 minutes, Ben Watson scored a handy one from close range. There was ten minutes to go and there was only one goal in it

When the game started I was very surprised with a number of things, firstly, was the starting of Lukasz Fabianski over Almunia. Yes, I know, Almunia hasn't been up to scratch at the moment but this was a game where Arsenal could not take any chances and in my opinion Fabianski was a massive chance. He has had a number of foul ups in recent times and Almunia, the stand in captain since Faberagas' injury, has put in some top performances i.e. the Barca First Leg.

As the game came to a close on the 88th minute, a high ball came into the box from a corner, Fabianski came, he had it in his hands and fumbles. Titus Bramble nods it in to equalise. Then before Arsenal could realise the difference between their arse hole to their ear hole, N'Zogbia hits in screamer to give Wigan the 3 points.

The second problem for me, Van Persie's ass firmly on the bench from the start, okay, he might not be completely fit but we didn't see him until after the third goal from Wigan in the 90th minute. We all saw the impact he had when he came on against Totenham. Why didn't we see him earlier? This game was that important for Arsenal. They needed to win and what a game to start Van Persie on a goal run. Put him on in the 75th or 80th or something.

With that Arsenal's season was over, they are out of Europe, they are out of domestic cups, they can’t come first or second and they can’t drop to fourth. They're season is completely over and it is all about next season. They will be a force to be reckoned with next season if they do a number of things -

No. 1 - Address the Goalkeeper situation. Almunia and Fabianski are just not cutting it. Almunia would probably get into a lower Premiership outfit but a team that is trying to contend for the title and in Europe, there is just no way. Why Wenger didn't jump at Shay Given is beyond me but there are a number of other keepers that might interest him - Joe Hart, Robert Green, Craig Gordon, Lyon and France keeper, Hugo Lloris, German and Bayan Leverkusen keeper, René Adler, Ajax and Dutch keeper, Maarten Stekelenburg, Wolfsburg and Swiss keeper, Diego Benaglio, Swedish and PSV keeper, Andreas Isaksson and Russian & CSKA Moscow keeper, Igor Akinfeev. All very established keepers in there Domestic leagues and most have played in Europe and they are all in their younger years.

No. 2 - He has to think about one or even two central defenders, one established and maybe one younger one. Vermaelen was one of the signings of last summer and he will need someone of the same calibre to partner him next season, Sol Campbell and Silvestre are on the way out and even Gallas is starting stroke his white beard and with Song, I think he has become more of a defensive midfielder and is doing a stand up job aswell and when Johan Djourou comes back I'm sure he will be a reliable squad player. Gary Cahill, I definitely think should be top of Wenger's list, also Brede Hangaland would be a quality signing and I don't know how it would go down in the camp but Shawcross being signed might be an interesting story. Per Krøldrup from
Fiorentina might be a bit old but could be interesting to see how he plays for Denmark in this World Cup.

No. 3 - Try and keep the injuries to as little as possible, what a nightmare they
have had this season, currently this is their injury list - Vermaelen, Gallas, Song, Gibbs, Djourou, Fabragas, Arshavin, Denilson, & Ramsey.

Anyway, that is that, open that cheaque book Arsene and it will be very interesting summer

For those interested, checkout this blog - http://www.oleole.com/blogs/arseblog