Arsenal 4-0 Wigan Athletic
FA Cup report by Layth Yousif
at Ashburton Grove

STRIKES from Noni Madueke and Gabi Martinelli inside the opening 18 minutes, followed by a Jack Hunt own goal, prior to Gabriel Jesus making it 4-0 before the half hour mark, saw the home side ease past the Latics on a rainy Sunday afternoon in north London. 

In doing so, Mikel Arteta’s silverware-chasing side reached the fifth round for the first time since the Gunners last won the trophy in 2020.

There was a late change for the Gunners as Bukayo Saka started, following an injury to Riccardo Calafiori in the warm-up, with Myles Lewis-Skelly switching to left-back from midfield.

In total, Arsenal boss Arteta made eight changes from the 1-1 draw at Brentford on Thursday evening, with William Saliba drafted back in after illness. Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke and Cristhian Mosquera the only players to retain their spots from the starting line-up at Brentford.

Gunners cup goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, who started the 4-1 win against Portsmouth at Fratton Park in the previous round, replaced first choice David Raya in goal. While club captain Martin Odegaard was missing from the squad, after picking up a knock late on against Bees.

Speaking after the match, Arteta said: “Very happy with the results and especially the performance, the way we started the game. 

“You really want to show how much you want it when you play against this kind of opposition in the cup, and we certainly had that attitude, and then I was a bit surprised with the level of cohesion and connections very early in the match, because when you make that many changes, that can be a part of the game – that can be lacking. But it certainly wasn’t [for us] and we scored some very, very good goals. I’m very pleased with that.”

Considering the clubs didn’t actually first play each other until 2005, Arsenal had a surprisingly rich history with Wigan Athletic.

The Latics knocked out Arsene Wenger’s side over a two-legged League Cup final in January 2006, to reach the showpiece final that spring, which they ultimately lost 4-0 to near neighbours Manchester United.

In the May of that year the Latics became the last ever team to play against the Gunners at Highbury, when Thierry Henry grabbed a magnificent treble in a majestic 4-2 victory that sealed a last-gasp Champions League qualification ahead of bitter rivals Spurs, as fans said goodbye to the old stadium on that never-to-be-forgotten afternoon.

Fast forward to 2014 when the sides faced each other in another semi-final, this time the last four of the FA Cup at Wembley Stadium in front of a crowd of 82,815. Where the Gunners eventually won 4-2 on penalties - including the first penalty which was scored by a certain Arteta, after Wenger’s side were rescued by a late Per Mertesacker equaliser in the 83rd minute, to cancel out Jordi Gomez’s second half spot-kick.

Until Sunday, the clubs hadn’t met since, with Wigan now languishing in 22nd spot in the League One relegation places, having sacked Ryan Lowe after 11 months in charge, following a poor run of results that culminated in a 6-1 thrashing at Peterborough earlier this month.

The dismal defeat dropped the Latics into the relegation zone, with the club from the north-west having won just once in their past 10 fixtures in the third tier.

Glenn Whelan and Graham Barrow have taken charge of the first team on an interim basis while the club are still aiming to “work quickly to identify and appoint” a new permanent head coach, with Wigan starting the post-Lowe era with a 2-1 midweek defeat to Reading. 

Yet despite their struggles, the 2013 FA Cup winners still brought 5,000 fans to North London to cheer on the Latics.

Right on cue the rain started to fall moments after kick-off, with it promising to be a tough afternoon in North London for Wigan, with the visitors making three changes to their starting line-up, after losing their last match to the Royals in League One.

The feeling was strengthened when Madueke latched onto a superb through ball by Eze to slot home past Latics keeper Sam Tickle to make 1-0 after only 11 minutes.

Even on a wet and grey afternoon the gallows humour of Wigan fans shone through, when, after falling behind, perhaps knowing in their hearts what was to follow, they immediately sang to the Premier League and Champions League table toppers: “How shit must you be/It’s only 1-0…”

Seven minutes later Arsenal made it 2-0 Wigan. Martinelli finished confidently past Tickle to double the lead, following another assist by Eze.

Worse was to come for Wigan, when the score swiftly moved to 3-0 to the home side, after an own goal by Latics Jack Hunt, after Gunners pressured the poor No32 into heading past keeper Tickle after only 23 minutes.

As the rain lashed down to give an apocalyptic feel to proceedings, it certainly must have felt like the rapture for Wigan as waves of unrelenting Arsenal attacks swept forward. 

Amid the downpour of biblical proportions, even Jesus made an appearance. Arsenal’s striker featuring on the scoresheet, when making it 4-0, a mere four minutes later.

With the game already lost, and we hadn’t even reached the half hour mark, Wigan’s interim bosses removed the shellshocked Hunt from proceedings, substituting the poor lad for former Arsenal academy youngster, and 2020 FA Cup winner with the club, Matt Smith.

As Hunt trudged off disconsolately, the thought arose that during Wigan’s post-Valentine’s Day thrashing, the poor lad needed a hug far more than a Tickle.

Mismatches such as this do no-one any favours, merely underlining the gap in quality, and budgets, between the two sides separated by 46 places from the top of the Premier League to the relegation places of League One.

However, for the cup romantics among us, former Gunner Smith could, and should have scored to pull a goal back moments after entering the fray, but Kepa denied the former Arsenal young gun - even if there wouldn’t have been many in the crowd that would have begrudged the 25-year-old a goal against his old club, as the sides went into the break with the home team winning 4-0.

“After half an hour, everyone was holding their breath to see if it would be a cricket score,” Wigan interim boss Whelan admitted.

He added: “A lot of credit must go to the lads. At half-time, we had a chat and spoke about rectifying and trying to work a way out of the situation.

“It was tough, but we dug in well, and the lads put in a great shift.

“We had a game plan - we wanted to be nice and compact, but one or two lads jumped out of shape trying to get after the players, and the quality Arsenal have, they punish you with every mistake.”

As if it couldn’t get any worse for poor Wigan, Arsenal’s iconic mascot Gunnersaurus scored his penalty to beat Latics mascot Crusty The Pie to win the half time FA Cup shootout.

With discussions taking place during the break whether it would be kinder for Arsenal to take their foot off the pedal, or show the ultimate professional courtesy and keep attacking at full pelt in a bid to score as many goals as possible, Gunners boss Arteta opted for the latter, when bringing on Gyokeres at the interval to replace Saka.

Even if, in reality, it was more to do with the fact the game was already won, as well as managing Saka’s workload, while also underlining the home side’s strength in depth, rather than any consideration as to Wigan discomfort, or otherwise.

Arsenal certainly continued in the same vein after the restart with Gyokeres striking Tickle’s near post as the second half commenced.

As the game progressed, it was good to note Marli Salmon make a first team appearance, when replacing Saliba before the hour mark.

This observer did have a conversation at Meadow Park on Friday evening after the Arsenal U21 captain was taken off at half time during the 1-0 win over Newcastle U21s, as to whether the talented 16-year-old would appear at some stage against Wigan.

As the clock ticked down, another who featured in the U21s Premier League 2 match on Friday evening, keeper Tommy Setford came on for Kepa with the game long won. It was nice to see the 19-year-old make his home bow after starting at Preston last season in the League Cup.

This observer has seen plenty of the pair for the Arsenal U21s and they’re both excellent prospects, giving the Gunners further positives on an afternoon to forget for their beleaguered visitors. 

Next up is the FA Cup fifth round draw before two league trips on the road this week for Arteta’s Arsenal, Wolves and then the mouth-watering prospect of the North London derby in N17.

As for redoubtable Wigan, who battled to the end, one can only wish them well in their fight for survival in League One.