ARSENAL 4-0 WIGAN ATHLETIC: Noni Madueke, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus all got on the scoresheet as the Gunners eased past their League One opponents in the FA Cup
Arsenal reached the fifth round of the FA Cup for the first time in six seasons by thrashing Wigan. The relegation-threatened League One side were blown away by four goals in 16 first-half minutes as the Arsenal juggernaut kept rolling in all four competitions.
The complete mismatch was obvious right from the off and Arsenal were in a ruthless mood, with Noni Madueke putting them 1-0 up from the first of many Eberechi Eze through balls. It was 2-0 minutes later when Eze picked up a pocket of space and slid Gabriel Martinelli in down the opposite side and the Brazilian finished well into the corner.
A Jack Hunt own goal added insult to injury after Madueke and Bukayo Saka combined nicely down the right and Gabriel Jesus got in on the act by gathering Christian Norgaard’s ball over the top of a non-existent Wigan defence before chipping Sam Tickle for 4-0 in the 27th minute.
Kepa Arrizabalaga did have to be alert to save from Joe Taylor, but by then the game was already over as a contest. The second half passed by with little action as Mikel Arteta made substitutions to keep his players fresh. Here are the talking points from the Emirates Stadium.
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1. Eze confidence boost
If there was one Arsenal player in need of this kind of game, it was Eze. The playmaker has found it tough in recent months, struggling to fit into Mikel Arteta’s structure and therefore finding himself on the bench more often than not. His positional flexibility has perhaps worked against him, but it is his tendency to drift out of high-intensity clashes that needs to be addressed.
Against a struggling League One opposition, there was none of those concerns and Eze thrived, dropping into space, locating pockets and sending deadly balls in behind the Latics’ flat (in a bad way) back five. Eze’s vision and weight of pass with both feet is a delight in pressure-off situations and he showed it here.
2. Saka’s unfamiliar role
It wasn’t supposed to go like this. Arteta had to think fast after Riccardo Calafiori withdrew on the brink of kick-off. The Arsenal manager had wanted to experiment by playing Myles Lewis-Skelly in midfield, but Calafiori’s absence shunted the youngster back to left-back and instead meant an unusual role for Bukayo Saka, who came into the starting XI for Calafiori.
With Madueke in Saka’s normal position on the right wing, the England star was fielded in central midfield alongside Eze and in front of Norgaard. It was an intriguing prospect and, with rotation and fluidity the order of the day against a much inferior opposition, Saka seemed to relish it, sometimes dropping deep and sometimes switching with Jesus to run beyond. Against opponents who employ a low block, packing the midfield with creators could be a ploy for Arteta to repeat.
3. Madueke in good form
Having an alternative to Saka on the right wing was clearly something Arteta craved when they shelled out £48.5million to sign Madueke from Chelsea in the summer and he is beginning to find some consistency to go with his undoubted talent.
His towering header in the 1-1 draw at Brentford on Thursday was unexpected, but the pace and curling finish past the goalkeeper against Wigan was much more in the winger’s wheelhouse. It took a Premier League goals panel to award him a goal in the 4-0 win at Leeds last month – and maybe now the floodgates have opened.
4. Glimpse of the future
With the game sewn up, Arteta gave William Saliba a rest, taking the centre-back off for 16-year-old Marli Salmon. The young defender came on as a substitute for his third senior appearance for the club, having also featured in the win over Portsmouth in the previous round.
Salmon also featured in the Champions League against Club Brugge earlier in the season and is an exciting prospect. “He can play as a centre-back or as a full-back and I’m delighted,” Arteta said back in December. In truth, there wasn’t an awful lot of work for Salmon to do, with the game drifting by without much action in the second half.
5. Quadruple still on
Arsenal remain in all four competitions and in good shape, in theory, to win them all. There are those, including the Mirror’s own chief sports writer Andy Dunn, who have argued that being knocked out of the FA Cup might not be the worst thing for Arsenal as they chase a first Premier League title in 22 years.
But with squad depth like this, and a draw like this, there was no realistic chance of the Gunners waving the white flag on Sunday. The Premier League remains the priority. They have a Carabao Cup final against Manchester City on March 22. They have a perfect record in the Champions League. The FA Cup is likely the fourth priority right now. But that’s not a bad place to be.
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