Arsenal Win Ugly Match

Arsenal played Wigan Athletic at The JJB on Wednesday in a very ugly match pulling off a 1-0 victory late in the match.

I don't think that Arsene Wenger was really pleased with the teams performance as well based on his comments.

"It was a frustrating night until late on," said Wenger.

"I can understand if Wigan are frustrated as well
because they gave it absolutely everything, they created chances, and always looked dangerous. "But the spirit is right. This is the kind of game a year ago we would have lost 1-0, but instead we won it 1-0. "Even this season we lost 1-0 at Manchester City, a game we should have won three times more than we did here. This was a much more difficult game. "At West Ham they had one shot on goal, yet again we lost 1-0. I think we have learned not to make mistakes. "We also know how to deal a little better with the kind of game Wigan gave us, which is very physical." "Overall, I feel the team has learned quickly and is improving every week." "They show great spirit, great resilience, fight very hard, and that is why we maybe got the result."

It wasn't until the 75th minute that Cesc Fabregas came on and made the difference with a nice through pass to Adebayor who put the ball passed the Wigan Keeper to seal the victory.

The game could easily have gone either way.

In the other match it was a late goal by Drogba to put Chelsea up 1-0 against Newcastle United at Stamford Bridge. This one could easily have ended in a draw as well.

So in the tables Man United still hold the top spot with chelsea only 5 points behind. In a distant 3rd place is Arsenal. Hopefully they will pick up the pace and remain in that position to qualify for the Champions League next year again.

Alan Curbishly has been officially named the new boss at West Ham. The Hammers have struggled this season after a very nice finish last season. Not sure what Curbs will do for them, but it seems like a change that was needed.

Transfer window opens up on January 1st it will be interesting to see what rumors start about who's going where. Looks like Shevchenko may be loaned out to his old club Milan from Chelsea. Apparently his wife is finding it difficult to adapt to the English culture and it's showing in his performance as he has done very little for the £35 million they paid for him. But Chelsea has all sorts of money to blow.

This weekends matches are as follows:

Sat., Dec. 16
Arsenal vs. Portsmouth
Aston Villa vs. Bolton*
Charlton vs. Liverpool
Newcastle vs. Watford
Reading vs. Blackburn*
Wigan vs. Sheffield Utd*
Sun., Dec. 17
Everton vs. Chelsea
Man City vs. Tottenham*
West Ham vs. Man Utd*
Mon., Dec. 18
Fulham vs. Middlesbrough*

* will air on FSC