Arsenal v Wigan Preview & Arsène's FA Cup Semi-Final Record

Arsène Wenger has given us some great memories in the FA Cup in his time at the club and he has a huge chance to add another one this season. It's never felt quite so important that he does.  He has lead us to FA Cup glory on four occasions, whilst no other Arsenal manager has managed the feat more than once, however the last time he got his hands on the trophy was in 2005.

Arsenal have reached the final 5 times under Arsène Wenger and won 4 of those games and frankly that 5th time (the one with the Henchoz handball) was bullshit anyway. So that's an 80% FA Cup final record - but how does his record in the semi-finals stack up? Still pretty well, with progress in 5 of the 8 years.  The 3 defeats were suffered only against Manchester United (twice) and Chelsea. As you can see from the below infographic, there haven't been an awful lot of goals in those games so if history is anything to go by (which it probably isn't) we might expect a low-scoring game. The most common scoreline in those games was 1-0 and I would certainly take another one nil to the Arsenal this weekend.

Of course on paper we are favourites and Wigan manager Uwe Rosler agrees:

"We are the massive underdog but we have presented ourselves so far in a very, very good way. We've made our supporters proud and we're going to Wembley; we can't lose, we only can win.  Everybody highlighted the fact Arsenal now really have to go for the FA Cup and win the FA Cup. Their own players said that this week and obviously that puts a little bit of extra pressure on Arsenal." - Uwe Rosler

Pressure is the real buzz word this weekend and Rosler is of course correct that there is far more of it on Arsène Wenger and his teams' shoulders than on those of Wigan's manager and players as we meet them in the FA Cup for the very first time. They certainly enjoyed their underdog role when they managed a sensational win over Manchester City away from home - the third Premier League team that they knocked out of the competition in their superb run to Wembley. They are a club full of confidence with nothing to lose who have been immensely impressive since Rosler took the helm in December.

We certainly can't afford to underestimate this Wigan side the way that Manuel Pellegrini did last month, when he rolled out of bed, pulled on a hoodie and rocked up to the stadium to watch his team be out-fought and outplayed by Championship opposition.

Whilst I can't see Arsène donning a hoodie or him and his players underestimating their opponents, our current form and injury worries means a win is very far from a certainty. The Telegraph recently published an interesting article that claims some of the Arsenal players are taking the boss to task regarding his lack of focus on the opposition. I'm not sure how much truth there is in the article but I must say that I agree strongly with the sentiment.

I think in the past Arsène's teams were much stronger mentally and ability-wise; his best teams had an all-conquering attitude that meant that he could more-or-less pick the same team week after week and sit back while they ran rings around lesser opponents. Sadly, things have changed; Arsène's current team certainly doesn't compare to his best teams from the past and I think he needs to be much cannier tactically; to be more aware of the opposition's strengths and weaknesses and adjust his game-plan accordingly.

What was an extremely promising season has petered out badly and is in serious danger of becoming a disaster. A win against Wigan followed by victory in the FA Cup Final is the minimum requirement.

The Enigma of Lukas Podolski

Lukas Podolski - lethal at one end of the pitch... a liability at the other?  The 3rd most capped, 5th top scorer for the German national team, 28 years of age, with an excellent goals per game ratio and an ability to deliver superb balls from wide on the left should surely be a key member of Arsenal's first team. So why doesn't Arsène use him more?

He certainly was a key player in his first season at the club; arriving in the same summer that the club's captain and star striker upped sticks and took his disloyal jazz hands to Old Trafford.  Along with the superb Santi Cazorla he took to English football like a fish to water and created 11 assists and scored 16 goals, including Arsenal's goal of the season; a sensational volley against Montpellier. He also seemed to settle very well into London life, proving a popular member of the squad and a hit with the fans, going hashtag mental on social media and busting out a thumbs up once every seven minutes on average.

His second season at the club has been hindered by injury as he missed around four months but despite this he has scored and assisted regularly when played. It seems clear however that since the tail end of last season, when Cazorla was moved to the left and Rosicky played centrally that he has been increasingly marginalised by his manager. Arsène first sited tactical reasons, before claiming last October that he feels Lukas only gives 80, 90 per cent, that there was more to come from him. Recently there has been a lot of talk among the press and Arsenal fans that his casual style and lack of cover for his fullback and his penchant for giving the ball or penalties away makes him a defensive liability; a high-risk player who is dangerous at both ends of the pitch.

There is some truth to this narrative; if we look at his contribution in the last two games we can clearly see that he has been in the thick of it at both ends:

• Most recently he was caught in possession against Manchester City and they broke away and scored. He also conceded a few needless free kicks in this game but assisted Matthieu Flamini's equaliser with a cross from the left. It is only fair to point out that he was just dispossessed on one occasion in this game but it proved costly.

• Against Swansea, Lukas came off the bench when his side were losing and scored the equaliser before moments later providing a superb assist for Olivier Giroud to give Arsenal the lead. He was however culpable for giving the ball away in the build up to Swansea's absurd own goal equaliser.

It is also fair to point out that he struggles defensively and does not provide much in the way of cover for his full back and a needless penalty conceded against Liverpool in the FA Cup (a game in which he also scored) suggests he can be far too rash when he is trying to defend. I do however feel that his recent run of mistakes aren't really being taken in isolation and that he's being unfairly labelled a defensive liability. He doesn't give the ball away very often, in fact his passing success rate this season of 88.4% is third amongst our midfielders and attackers only to Flamini and Arteta.  In terms of his defensive errors that have cost us goals, he is far from alone in such mistakes. Without wanting to single out players, I think its fair to say that all of our attacking midfielders have been guilty of giving the ball aways sloppily or getting caught in possession in the build up to opposition goals.

So I think his defensive shakiness is being exaggerated and isn't enough to justify leaving him out of a side that has been struggling for goals without Theo, Ramsey and Özil. That's not to say he can't or shouldn't improve defensively. Work needs to be done on the training ground to improve his defensive positioning and discipline.  But again, he is not alone in this - just look at the amount of times our fullbacks get caught miles up the field while the opposition are breaking in numbers against two or three of our players.

So what next for Lukas Podolski? It's no secret that Arsenal have been pushing hard to sign Julian Draxler and the paper talk (which has been denied) is that Lukas would be offered in part-exchange. He will be 29 in the summer and is on a high wage so it wouldn't shock me if Arsène (if he sticks around) would consider moving him on. In the past the manager has moved players on when he considers them to be past the peak of their abilities and there is also a question over Podolski's fitness. Bizarrely he has completed ninety minutes for Arsenal on just six occasions. I think it would be a great shame if he were to leave without fully showing his class; he is a player with great experience and probably our most clinical player in front of goal.

"Podolski can score goals and when you have a goal chance you want him to have it. He is a clinical finisher and he has an unbelievable short and quick backlift. He is very accurate in his finishing. He can be effective, he can score goals when he starts and when he comes on, he is always dangerous." - Arsène Wenger

Former Germany great Oliver Bierhoff accused Lukas Podolski of stagnation at national level since his move to Arsenal. Podolski reacted angrily and the national manager Joachim Loew responded by explaining that Lukas was "indispensable in his position" but a more recent "appeal and wake up call" prior to the World Cup from the manager was taken by some to be aimed at Podolski and his Arsenal colleague, Mesut Özil. With a place in the German team and a possible FA Cup winners medal up for grabs it is certainly in the best interests of both Arsenal and Lukas for him to prove his worth before the summer.


My thanks go to 7amkickoff, whoscored and squawka whose stats I used for the article and infographic.

Monthly Awards: March

"March is the month. We play Spurs, City, Chelsea, Bayern, Everton in the cup.  We have a great opportunity to show that we are strong, which is what I think... at the end of March we will know much more." - Arsène Wenger

If March was the month that was going to make or break our season, I'm afraid it broke it (in terms of our league challenge anyway.)  The month got off to a dreadful start with a painful and limp defeat to some stampy, inbred ogres and despite our third win and third clean sheet against Spurs this season and a superb 4-1 win over Everton, a disappointing draw against Swansea and a humiliating trouncing at Stamford Bridge on Arsène Wenger's 1000th game at Arsenal meant it was ultimately a month to forget..

Form:

Player of the Month: Tomas Rosicky. Unfortunately the Czech didn't have too much competition this month. I was delighted to see him put pen to paper on a new deal. For a 33 year old, he's still very nippy and excellent at pressing the opposition, "the great  accelerator" as Arsène called him. He started regularly in March and his fine month was capped off with a superb match-winner at White Hart Lane.

Top Goalscorer: Olivier Giroud (3 goals).

Goal of the Month: Tomas Rosicky vs Spurs. A leap out of your seat beauty, screamer of a worldie, thunderbastard to savour.  Against Spurs no less.

Runner-up: Olivier Giroud's second against Everton. A superb team move involving Cazorla, Rosicky and Özil set up Olivier Giroud to complete an impressive brace from the bench.

Best Result: Arsenal 4 - 1 Everton. Tough opposition and a genuine threat to our Champions League qualification threat were swept aside by a Mesut Özil masterclass. Mikel Arteta also shone as he hammered home to give us the lead after being made to retake by referee, Mark Clattenburg.

Worst Result: Chelsea 6 - 0 Arsenal. Urgh... I desperately wanted Arsène to get one over on the classless tool that is José Mourinho in his 1000th game in charge but it couldn't have gone worse.

Quote of the Month:

"I congratulate Arsène in reaching this momentous landmark. Having also reached the same milestone at one club, I cannot emphasise enough the level of dedication, resilience as well as sacrifice required and for that I have for the utmost admiration... Over the years we enjoyed some fantastic battles and you could say we had survived together and respected each other's efforts to play good football. I always enjoy watching Arsène's sides - Arsenal play the right way" - Sir Alex Ferguson

Talking points:

The FA Cup - Whilst it is disappointing that the FA Cup is now our only chance of silverware, the elimination of Manchester City by Wigan means we are heavy favourites for the competition. We all know that we've failed to win cups that we really should have in the past and this time nothing less than the trophy will do.

The Champions League and criticism of Mesut Özil - As expected, we exited the Champions League after a 1-1 draw in Munich. Mesut Özil picked up a hamstring injury in the second minute and played on ineffectively until he was subbed off at half-time. Neil Ashton of the Daily Mail didn't let the fact that the playmaker was injured get in the way of his extremely nasty post-game hatchet job, just days after his man of the match performance against Everton. It was pitiful journalism of the lowest order.

New contracts - A two-year deal for Rosicky showed a new-found willingness to hang onto more experienced players and to offer them deals longer than one year. The new and improved deal for Aaron Ramsey just 15 months after he signed his last deal reflects his sensational development and extensions for Per Mertesacker and Santi Cazorla showed a desire to hang onto our top players. A first professsional contract was also handed to extremely promising youngster Gedion Zelalem.

On the flipside of the coin Bacary Sagna looks likely to leave as his contract winds down and the prospect of signing a three-year contract with Manchester City looks far too real. And despite Ivan Gazidis' confidence that Arsène will sign on, the clock is ticking...

Arsenal's away record against the top 3 - 6-3, 5-1 and now 6-0. Appalling and an area that must be properly evaluated in preparation for next season.

Andre Marriner sent off the wrong player - Kieran Gibbs was shown red for Oxlade-Chamberlain's moment of madness. Despite neither the referee or the linesman initially thinking a penalty should be awarded, Marriner somehow changed his mind and sent off the wrong player. Whilst an apology was issued, no explanation was given and none of the officials were taken off duty for the next round of Premier League fixtures. This lack of an explanation is clearly unacceptable.

Title Challenge Over - So our title challenge lies in tatters after a disappointing couple of months but I firmly believe improvements were made this season and we gave it our best shot in six years. Essentially, injuries to key players meant that success was extremely unlikely and now our attention turns to securing a Champions League spot. A situation that will become precarious if we to take no points away from Goodison Park this coming weekend.

Injuries - Injuries to key players such as Mesut Özil, Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere and Theo Walcott meant getting our title push over the line was extremely unlikely. That's not to say that these injuries in any way excuse the level of performance against Stoke or Chelsea but Arsenal do seem to have an uncommonly high amount of injuries season after season and Arsène Wenger has recently launched an internal inquiry into why this might be.

Tim Sherwood - He threw his gilet on the floor. He's a silly billy.