Morning all.
Who doesn’t love the FA Cup? Not me that’s for sure and I really hope we can make it to Wembley. But do I hope to see Rice, Zubimendi, Gyokeres, Gabriel and Timber on the team sheet for today’s match? Absolutely not. Not because I think Wigan will be easy to beat without them but because I think they need a break.
Should we win later, we’ll be into the fifth round for only the second time under Mikel Arteta. Over the last five seasons we’ve been knocked out by Southampton 1-0, Nottingham Forest 1-0, Man City 1-0, Liverpool 2-0 and last season, despite being down to 10 men, Man Utd drew against us before winning the penalty shootout 6-4.
This is another one of those days when I’ve no idea what to expect from the opposition. What I do know though is that a week or so ago, my family watched Reading defeat Wigan 2-1 so I’m for a bit of stick if we don’t win this game.
Wigan don’t have any walking wounded apparently but they do have two new interim head coaches in Graham Barrow and Glenn Whelan. Barrow is a Wigan man who was part of the backroom staff when the Latics competed in two FA Cup semi-finals, a final and a Community Shield between April 2013 and April 2014.
We were used to the big occasions. This club had four Wembley appearances in 12 months and I was involved in all of them. – Barrow.
Well, that was a long time ago and even though Wigan have beaten Arsenal in the Premier League, that was also a long time ago. Much has happened since then for both clubs. Wigan are now a League One club which is flirting with relegation having not won a league game this year.
Arsenal have no new injuries after Thursday’s draw at Brentford, in fact there’s a bit of good news as Max Dowman is back in training. Perhaps we’ll see him on the bench.
Adrian Clarke, writing in the official matchday programme:
Former manager Ryan Lowe, who was dismissed from his post a week ago, used different formations in each of his last three matches in charge. After deploying a 3-1-4-2 for several months, he had recently experimented with 4-3-3 and 4-4-2, so it is hard to predict what shape the visitors will adopt today.
Wigan are happy to be a little lopsided in the way they line up, with much of their play focused on utilising a dynamic right-hand side. Scottish wide man Fraser Murray is an influential figure down that flank, producing an impressive 113 crosses in open play, the second most of any player at League 1 level this season.
Wigan have been a low-possession team for the bulk of this campaign, averaging just 44.6% of the ball in League 1. In a terrific 1-0 success against Preston North End in round three, that figure dropped sharply to 30.5%, so we are likely to see plenty of the ball in this cup tie.
The Latics do have technical players who can pass very nicely though, like former Arsenal academy star Matt Smith, who picked up an FA Cup winners’ medal after being a substitute for Mikel Arteta’s side in the 2020 final success against Chelsea. However, in general they are content to sit behind the ball, before looking to catch teams on the break.
A few stats for you:
- Wigan have won their last six away matches in the FA Cup, conceding just one goal in this run. They’ve already had one run of seven away wins in the competition from January 2013 to March 2014 – should they win here, it would be just the fifth ever run of seven away wins in a row by a team in FA Cup history (first round onwards) and two would have been achieved by the Latics.
- All four of our goals in the FA Cup third round 4-1 win over Portsmouth came via set pieces (three corners, one free-kick) – despite only playing this one game in 2025-26, no side has more set piece goals in the FA Cup this season than us (first round onwards).
Tim Robinson is today’s referee and guess what, he from down South. Yep, born and bred in Bognor Regis. No VAR today so it’s all on him.
Catch up in the comments.
Morning Rico, a nice upbeat post.
The pitch will have taken a right old hammering from all the rain gauging the puddles in road down my street. A bit of a leveller, hopefully not?
Matt Smith, he was a very easy on the eye footballer, very technical, I did think he had a chance but it never happened for him.
Apparently Harriman Annous, after a dip in form and some injuries, is showing an uptick in form for the U21’s. The U21’s played Friday and AHA scored the only goal so I wonder if a couple or three will be involved today after 24 hours rest, I really do hope so.
A clean sheet for the Gunners and 3 or 4 goals at the other end would be nice and would calm down all the ‘neurotic’s’ in our fan base. Enjoy the day.
Good one Rico thanks.
Hope the London weather is better than here in sodden Norfolk, it’s been raining all night and now we have wet snow mixed in, with heave snow forecast for later.
With Nwaneri sunning himself in the south of France , Dowman is a good pick for the bench.
I read this morning that we are looking at 23 year old French centre back Castello Lukeba currently playing for R B Leipzig with a suggested price circa £50 million.
Morning Kev, Cicero. Thanks.
A win, good performance and a clean sheet would do me..
Do we need any more central defenders?
I see the media reckon Eze can’t cope with our system…
When Eze played for Palace he didn’t regularly come up against the defensive tactics employed by our opponents, they didn’t see Palace as much of a threat as Arsenal.
It’s tougher at the top.
Gabriel is getting on a bit, Rico, born December 1977
True re Eze and Palace Cicero..
I hope he wasn’t Cicero. 😜
So Rico, the media reckon eh? I bet they do and I bet they’re all willing on Man City so they can recycle all their old stereotypical tropes about Arsenal ‘bottling it’…
Guardiola was at it this week also, that mob in Wastelands have zero respect for Arsenal.
The women’s game has been postponed..
Yesterday a strong Man City side had to rely on an own goal and an 81st minute winner, at home, against Salford…
Leeds are winning 0-1 at Birmingham, it’s not raining in the midlands but all the same Leeds have a fight on their hands.
Fingers crossed the ground staff are on it today…
That’s so them Kev, Guardiola will soon be moaning about our squad depth..
Rain is due to stop around 2pm so hopefully conditions won’t be too bad.
Still snowing here, heavyish, a covering on the lawn but slushy on the road.
I intend forgoing my post lunch walk, and in the absence of Brighton vs Arsenal, may have a nap instead.