Good Game But Arsenal Naive Again

Wigan secured a passage to the Carling Cup Final with a last minute Jason Robert's Goal.

It was a quality game to watch, much more so than the first leg, and Arsenal's quality showed and we could have had the game wrapped up by the time Robert's struck.

We played pretty well and Mike Pollitt was excellent. We created a lot of chances and deserved to win.

One minute to go and an Arsenal goal kick.. Then BANG you are out of the competition. Despite the naive way in which we conceded the goal, we were the better side.

Campbell bottled a header and was troubled by Robert's all night long, he is not the rock he was and becomes increasingly worrying with performances like this.

The defence looked shaky, Cole and Toure were missed badly and Lauren had picked up a knock. But whatever the personnel, professional footballers that get paid thousands should be able to defend a high lobbed ball forward. That is two games in a row now, I just hope it doesn't materialise into another 'set piece' style scenario.

All said and done it means a lot more to Wigan to the get to the final than it would to us.

Good luck to them in the final.

All is not lost..

Arsenal's passing was slick and the movement was good, it is puzzling how we can look like, more or less, the Arsenal of old at home and frankly, terrible away.

Van Persie's free kick was powerful and precise (a quick mention for Richard Godden who called the free kick as in with a great deal of confidence) and it's excellent to have a left footed player who can take them properly. Reyes is very good at crossing from a dead ball but cannot shoot.

Gilbert was again impressive at right back and I though Diaby, after an early introduction to English football by Bullard and Scharner, stood up well and certainly seemed to fit in well and looked like he had been at the club longer then 11 days.

He switched the ball well and didn't seem overawed in the slightest, without reading too much into it, he did seem to balance up the midfield and was strong in the tackle. Good signs indeed.

It was a really good game played in the right spirit. We lost out and it would have been nice to get to the final but there were enough positive signs and I won't be losing any sleep over it.