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65 min: Joe Pearson gets in touch: “You want drama? I’d suggest switching to Rangers-Hearts. Just sayin’”
It’s 3-2 to the Gers. The ghost of Albert Kidd stirs…Kidd is actually alive and well and living in Australia.
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63 min: Salmon is 16, born in August 2009. That week, Sexy Chick“ by David Guetta featuring Akon was no 1, knocking the Black Eyed Peas off the top spot.
Joe Taylor’s afternoon is over, as he is subbed off.
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61 min: Eze sees his chance to make a trademark run through, skipping onwards and then hitting his shot, but into the net.
Arsenal make a sub: on comes Marlii Salmon, for Saliba. Madueke off, and Leandro Trossard on.
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59 min: Rusty Shpork gets in touch: “Re: Charles Antaki’s reference to a band who swapped instruments, the best example of a band who could all play everything like virtuosos, and swapped instruments from song to song, was the very wonderful A Certain Ratio. Their 80s and 90s live sets were funky as hell.”
Seen them live in recent years, and a few times. Donald Johnson a brilliant drummer. And bassist.
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58 min: Eze has a free-kick chance. Quite a lengthy buildup. But he hits the wall.
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56 min: Tim Smith gets in touch: “I hope for your sake, the unfortunate Mr. Tickle, he of the famously limp wrists, can make a save of note. Perhaps a telescopic arm to tip wide or a strong-wristed block. As a kid, I kind of always knew Mr. Tickle was suspect, and my least favorite of the group. Just me, maybe?”
Feels like he needed telescopic arms to make any saves of those Arsenal goals.
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55 min: Ben White’s ball is good, Gyokeres’ finish is off the post. Arsenal want another.
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54 min: Peter Oh gets in touch: “Wait, the same Matt Smith who was dismissed by the Arsenal fans’ derisive ‘Who?!’ chant? That is classic obviousness. Oh Arsenal supporters!”
Short memories in the world of b@nter.
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52 min: Jeremy Smith gets in touch: “Doesn’t this game being played in the prime Sunday afternoon slot expose a large part of what is wrong with football? It’s a game without any jeopardy that offers nothing as a spectacle to anyone except Arsenal fans but which is chosen for TV because of the audience – hence the money – that it will generate. I’m not watching, by the way.”
Yes, a blow to the broadcaster that Manchester United went out early. It meant they wouldn’t be selected for a TV slot every time.
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50 min: From the corner, Norgaard heads it back in, and Jesus attempts an acrobatic shot. Tickle saves but the flag is up.
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49 min: Charles Antaki gets in touch: “Arteta might well be thinking of giving Lewis- Skelly a go in midfield, maybe by swapping him with Saka, who after all used to play at left back in the mists of time. A bit like the drummer swapping with the lead guitarist halfway through the gig. Mind you the only time I saw that was in a support band at Newcastle University sometime in the last century, and the swap made them terrible to listen to. Mind you they were ghastly beforehand, so the analogy with Arsenal at the moment doesn’t really work.”
Lewis-Skelly moved infield and launches a long ball, and it almost, er trickles, past Tickle, and goes off for a corner.
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48 min: Graham Barrow has descended to the Wigan bench for the second half. He watched the first from the gantry. He and Glenn Whelan attempt to win the next 45 minutes.
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46 min: Half-time Arsenal sub. Off goes Saka, and on comes Gyokeres who must smell goals. Arsenal play Wolves in midweek, a game brought forward as they are in the Carabao Cup final.
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More quiz action: Matt Smith, who came on in the first half for Wigan, has an FA Cup winners’ medal from being at Arsenal in 2020, despite never playing for the first team.
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Another Premier League passage completed.
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From the WSL. Arsenal’s game at Brighton fell victim to the weather.
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Half-time: Arsenal 4-0 Wigan
Nice and easy for Arsenal, hard and heavy for Wigan. Arsenal cruising, and playing some lovely stuff. Those first 30 minutes are torture for Wigan.
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45 min: Wigan close out the half in possession. Two minutes added on for the half.
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44 min: Wigan have dropped deeper, gone to a back four and squeezed space. Arsenal’s young hearts no longer running so free. Martinelli, though, speeds onwards and tries to find Saka, in a central position. The final touch deserts the Gunners captain.
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43 min: Steven Black also in touch on David Weir: “That’s ’Hearts, Rangers and Everton stalwart …’, John. Hearts leading Rangers 2-1, by the way,
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42 min: David Lewis gets in touch: “I can’t answer your question about winning the Cup with different teams in consecutive seasons. However, I can offer you Allan Clarke losing the final with different teams in consecutive seasons: Leicester City in 1969 and Leeds in 1970. Will that do?”
It’s good. Sniffer, what a player.
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41 min: Saka gets space in the box before Moxon closes it down, Wigan have defended far better since, er, going 4-0 down,
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39 min: Gunners go close again, with Raphael asked to head behind as Mosquera looms. Tickle does well with the corner, and tries to set up a Wigan attack. Poor Joe Taylor is being swamped up there.
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37 min: Myles Lewis-Skelly hasn’t had much chance to show off his chops. Can he ask to play in midfield in the second half? Saka is enjoying being an inside-right; and is fouled by Wigan’s Aimson.
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35 min: Close! Joe Taylor, of Wigan, has a great chance. Kepa makes a fine save. That’s good concentration from the Gunners keeper.
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33 min: Jenson Weir, son of Rangers and Everton stalwart, starts a passing move that the Wigan fans celebrate with an “olé” chant. That’s the thing about the FA Cup: more hope than expectation, and you can have a good laugh if it doesn’t come off.
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31 min: A rare Wigan attack is broken up and Saka’s vision almost releases Jesus.
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30 min: The Arsenal fans do that “who?” thing when Wigan make that change. It always sounds a bit disrespectful, but now it borders on kicking a man when he’s down. Smith will beef up the midfield.
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29 min: The Wigan players conducting a post-mortem, even before the game is done, Hunt is coming off, and Gunners fan Matt Smith will replace him.
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28 min: Jack Hunt is down, the Wigan defender. Can hardly blame him for lying down, 4-0 down before 30 minutes is a grim old do.
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Goal! Arsenal 4-0 Wigan (Jesus, 27)
Another simple pass, this one from Norgaard, and Jesus finds it so easy. Two touches and dabs it beyond Tickle. Ouch.
Jesus celebrates scoring their fourth goal with teammates Action Images via Reuters/Peter Cziborra Photograph: Peter Cziborra/Action Images/ReutersShare
Updated at 17.01 GMT
25 min: It’s nearly four as Martinelli and then Jesus force Tickle into panicked measures and Hunt hacks away. This is almost cruel.
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Goal! Arsenal 3-0 Wigan (Hunt, 23 OG)
This is getting nasty. Madueke and Saka combine and Jack Hunt can only divert past Tickle. Hunt says a very rude word to himself.
Wigan’s Jack Hunt scores Arsenal’s third with an own goal. Photograph: Peter Cziborra/Action Images/ReutersHunt reacts. Photograph: James Fearn/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 17.29 GMT
21 min: Quiz question from Tony Mason: “In 1979 Brian Talbot won the cup with Arsenal a year after winning the cup with Ipswich. If Eze or Guehi win with their club will that be just the second time this happened?”
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20 min: Forget this being a holiday for Wigan, this is Arsenal looking full of fun and riffing off each other. Now, it’s a team down the bottom of League One but the Premier League rarely affords such freedom.
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Goal! Arsenal 2-0 Wigan (Martinelli, 19)
Another Eze assist, from deep and Martinelli speeds away.
Martinelli scores. Photograph: Peter Cziborra/Action Images/ReutersShare
Updated at 16.53 GMT
17 min: The stats show 79% possession to Arsenal. They have been unforgiving of their opponents and Eze in particular is enjoying himself.
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15 min: Arsenal go in hunt of another. There’s a loud aircraft over the stadium.
A note: Ceadach O’Neill was called up to replace Calafiori in the matchday 18. He’s a 17-year-old forward from Derry.
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Updated at 16.46 GMT
13 min: Adam Clark gets in touch: “I can neither confirm nor deny a familial relationship between Sam and Jon Tickle, but as well as Big Brother 3, Jon Tickle appeared in cult Sky 1 science show Braniac with Richard Hammond. My favourite experiment was when he walked across a swimming pool filled with custard…”
We don’t like standing in custard…Share
11 min: Just as I was writing that Wigan have met their first objective, they open the gate and Eze doesn’t pass up chances like that, and neither does Madueke.
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Goal! Arsenal 1-0 Wigan (Madueke, 10)
Wigan have lasted 10 minutes….oh. Eze releases Madueke, a fine pass, and Madueke slots under Tickle. Too easy,
Madueke scores for Arsenal. Photograph: Ian Walton/ReutersMadueke celebrates scoring his team’s first goal. Photograph: James Fearn/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 16.52 GMT
8 min: Lewis-Skelly, cutting into an inside-left position, zings a shot just over the bar after the corner comes back out to him.
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7 min: Jesus rwists and turns in the Wigan box but runs out of room. Eze, on the edge of the D, skids in a shot, and it comes off a defender for a corner. Activate: Jover.
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6 min: Sam Tickle grasps the ball from Madueke, and smashes a long goal-kick, old-style. Arsenal’s defenders deal with it just fine.
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4 min: Madueke and Saka together is a rare pleasure. It’s raining in London, as it has been for days. There’s a chap round here offering a guttering service. Feels like a few people will need it in this soggy winter. Villa v Newcastle, by the way, was dry, no rain, to go Blind Melon.
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2 min: Charles Antaki gets in touch: “Right. The Arsenal supporter really doesn’t ask for much. Here we are, at home against a very-much-lower-division side, and able to call on many multiples of millions of pounds’ worth of footballer. Top of the domestic league. In good financial fettle. All good. So: let us then please have an afternoon to cast aside recent wobbles and worries; let us sit back in a comfortable leather armchair with a vintage brandy in a balloon glass, cigar in hand, and snooze through a pleasantly easy win. Noblesse oblige.”
Paul McNally gets in touch: “I always feared the day we would have to face Mr Tickle as a goalkeeper.” No relation of Jon Tickle, from Big Brother 3?
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Away we go at the Emirates
1 min: Saka is lining up as a twin No 10 with Eze in front of Norgaard, with Lewis-Skelly back at left-back. That is a shame for him. Wigan start on the attack, and Lewis-Skelly is asked to do some defending.
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North London Forever rings out at the Emirates. It’s something of an acquired taste.
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Calafiori OUT with warmup injury
Breaking: Riccardo Calafiori got hurt in the warmup so Bukayo Saka is a starter, and captain. MLS in midfield looks like it will be an experiment for another day.
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Sunday’s FA Cup matches already.
Other scores:
Oxford 0-1 Sunderland
Stoke 1-2 Fulham
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Myles Lewis-Skelly in midfield is the move a few Gunners fans have been waiting for. He’s a left-back when in the first team but found it tough to win a place. He’s been bred as a midfielder. Touch of the Trent Alexander-Arnold there, perhaps.
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Kevin Archer gets in touch: “I may be over-tired and easily confused, but did you say in your opening preamble that the FA Cup was “a holiday for Ryan Lowe and his team”, and then go on to inform us that Ryan Lowe had been sacked last week? Not much of a holiday that. Reminds me of the time I went on holiday recently and both my kids came down with chicken pox. Super.”
Presume Ryan Lowe is on holiday somewhere. Hopefully his kids don’t come down with chicken pox.
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Graham Barrow, with fine Lancastrian accent, speaks to TNT: “The club is in a good place. I just told them to wave to their families and get on with it. It’s been hard work getting to this. The lads out there are the one who got us there. It is a relief from the league and the grind. The owners deserve more as they saved the club.”
He reminds that Wigan played Arsenal in the 2014 semi-final at Wembley.
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A blueprint for Messrs Barrow and Whelan?
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As Joe Meadway writes as he gets in touch: “Thankfully we sacked Ryan Lowe last week after a 6-1 defeat at Peterborough. So it’s now Graham Barrow and Glenn Whelan and their team, and much more confidence of staying up this season than before. The less said about Lowe the better.”
Graham Barrow is on his sixth turn as Wigan caretaker; he’s 71. Glenn Whelan, the former Ireland international and Pulis lieutenant, is on his second spell as caretaker. If that doesn’t tell you Wigan have been having a tough time, then I don’t know what does.
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The big news is that William Saliba starts, as Eberechi Eze, the star man of last season’s FA Cup, get his chance to shine. That Gunners front three has a fluid look about it. Still no Kai Havertz.
Glenn Whelan and Graham Barrow are in charge of Wigan after Ryan Lowe was sacked last week. Via their website, here’s their team news: “Owen Moxon replaces former Arsenal man Matt Smith in the engine room, while Raphael Borges Rodrigues and Joe Taylor come in for Harrison Bettoni and Christian Saydee in attack.”
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The teams
Arsenal: Arrizabalaga, White, Saliba, Mosquera, Calafiori, Lewis-Skelly, Norgaard, Eze, Madueke, Martinelli, Jesus. Subs: Setford, Hincapie, Gabriel, Zubimendi, Rice, Trossard, Saka, Salmon, Gyokeres
Wigan: Tickle, Fox, Aimson, Kerr (Capt), Hunt, Murray, Weir, Moxon, Raphael, Wright, Taylor. Subs: Savin, Sessegnon, M.Smith, Hungbo, McManaman, Bettoni, Costelloe, Saydee, Asamoah Jr.
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Preamble
Both these teams have been winners in the 21st century, with Wigan winners in 2013. Arsenal are an opponent who carry portents as it was at the Emirates, three days later, that a 4-1 defeat condemned them to relegation from the Premier League, where they have never returned. This season, the Latics, who have been through financial and ownership issues in recent years, are fighting a relegation battle, one that should they lose, will drop them down to League Two. They have not been a fourth-tier club since 1997, when they came into the Football League in 1978. So, the FA Cup is a holiday for Ryan Lowe and his team Wigan. Arsenal have one trophy in focus, the Premier League but surely they can’t slip up here? It would register as one of the greatest FA Cup shocks in history. Which is why we’re here.
Kick-off at 4.30pm, UK time. Join me.
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Updated at 16.06 GMT
