Barclays Premier League: Arsenal vs Wigan – Preview

This weekend’s results did little to help Arsenal. With just 2 games left to play, there is simply no room for error for Arsenal if they are to play Champions League football next season.

Firstly, Chelsea came from a goal down at Aston Villa to record a 2-1 win that all but secured their place in the top four next season. Chelsea’s superior goal difference to Tottenham makes it virtually impossible for Spurs to catch Chelsea, so it really is between the two North London clubs for that final Champions League place.

Tottenham also came from behind to secure a 2-1 win yesterday at Stoke, leaving Arsenal currently in 5th place, but with a game in hand tomorrow at home to Wigan. Wigan won the FA Cup at the weekend by beating Manchester City 1-0 at Wembley. If they play anything like they did at Wembley, they will give the Gunners a really good game tomorrow.

Team News: Lukasz Fabianski and Kieran Gibbs are back in the Arsenal squad following injuries. Manager Arsene Wenger will have to make a decision on what goalkeeper he will play, as Wojciech Szczesny has played well in Fabianski’s absence. He will also have to decide whether Nacho Monreal or Kieran Gibbs will start at left-back. Andros Townsend gave Monreal a tough time of it in Arsenal’s last fixture, a 1-0 win at QPR.

Having said that, former Arsenal player Gael Clichy had a very tough game against Wigan’s Callum McManaman at the weekend in the FA Cup Final, so Gibbs or Monreal will have to expect a tough time of it too. McManaman won the man of the match award as Wigan shocked Man City to win the FA Cup for the first time in their history.

Arsene Wenger has a tough decision tomorrow night at left-back with Kieran Gibbs available again.

Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud will serve the final game of his 3 match suspension.

The visitors have no fresh injury concerns, but Jean Beausejour could return from injury.

Wigan may have won the FA Cup, but they need another impressive win in London at the Emirates if they are to stay in the Premier League this season. As things stand, an Arsenal win at the Emirates tomorrow would send them down, as there is a 4 point gap between them and 17th placed Sunderland, so a defeat wouldn’t be enough for them with just one game remaining after the Arsenal fixture.

A win for Wigan would give them the belief that they can pull off yet another miracle to survive, but would do Arsenal’s Champions League hopes some major damage. The only positive for Arsenal from it would be that Sunderland would need a result against Tottenham to secure their survival on the final day of the season, whilst Arsenal’s opponents Newcastle are safe after a win against QPR yesterday. Of course we do not want this situation to come up at all, we want to relegate Wigan tomorrow and then beat Newcastle to qualify for the Champions League, but I am just going through the possibilities.

A draw doesn’t help either team really. Wigan would have a shot at survival still and Arsenal would have a shot at Champions League qualification, but they would need help from other teams. Ironically, Wigan would need Tottenham’s help and Arsenal would need Sunderland’s.

Arsenal are playing catch up now. The most simple route to the Champions League is to win both games. Hopefully for once, the Gunners take the simple route and don’t have us relying on other teams. Knowing Arsenal though, they’ll make it as nervy as they possibly can.

All I know is that Wigan will be confident and very much up for it. They won’t want to have the high of Saturday’s cup final win taken away from them by getting relegated tomorrow night. Arsenal will have to be just as up for it as Wigan will be, otherwise they will be punished. All I know is that this will be an exciting 90 minutes of football. Both teams have everything to play for and both are desperate to win it. I will sit back, try to relax and hopefully enjoy this game of football.