It was Groundhog day for Arsenal fans as they lost to another team that should have been swept aside with ease. Once again, a lowly team were under-estimated and after the first 10 minutes, Arsenal had given themselves a mountain to climb.

Neutrals would have been shocked by the result, but there can’t be many Arsenal fans who would have been completely surprised at another collapse against a team battling relegation.

Losing Mikel Arteta early on disrupted the teams flow but it was not helped by poor performances throughout the team, notably from Ramsey and Djourou.

Player ratings

Wojciech Szczezny – 6 - Could do nothing for the first goal and almost prevented it but badly at fault for the second goal, solid with everything else.

Bacary Sagna – 5 - Moses gave him the run around all day, booked early in the game which perhaps had an influence but not his usual self. Delivery was uncharacteristically poor from out wide.

Andre Santos –  5 - Got forward a lot but with very little end product. At fault for the first goal and you have to question his ability to track back. Also snatched at a great chance when Vermaelen was better placed.

Johann Djourou – 4 - It’s impossible to relax as an Arsenal fan with this man at central defence. Good instinctive defending with a couple of decent blocks but looks shakey in possession and his positioning was terrible. Lucky to get away with error when Moses wasted great chance early in the second half.

Thomas Vermaelen – 8 - Played as centre back, centre midfield and centre forward. Along with Rosicky, the only player genuinely driving the team forward. Never gave up and took his goal expertly.

Theo Walcott – 5 - Tidy enough in possession but completely anonymous. Suffered from central midfielders being too slow to feed him but not aggressive enough in taking on Figueroa. Along with others, couldn’t have looked less bothered at the result.

Tomas Rosicky – 7 - Continued his good form with a typically energetic display. Never stopped running and great delivery for Vermaelen’s goal. One of very few players to emerge with credit.

Aaron Ramsey – 4 - (on for Mikel Arteta after 8 minutes) – Slow in possession, consistently took too many touches and didn’t play an incisive pass all day. In awful form and did nothing to change the minds of his growing number of doubters.

Yossi Benayoun – 7 - Energetic as always and had a header brilliantly saved by Al-Habsi, but there wouldn’t have been too many disappointed Arsenal fans when he was taken off.

Robin van Persie – 6 - Starved of service but didn’t do too much with it when did get the ball. Unsurprisingly looking a little bit tired in the last few games and fell short of the high standards he’s set himself this season. Let himself down by not shaking Caldwells’ hand at full time.

Subs:

Gervinho – 3 - Looked completely lost, did not beat a man the whole time he was on the field.Made absolutely zero impact, and never looked likely to do so. Very poor.

Oxlade-Chamberlain – 6 - Baffling how it always takes so long for Wenger to bring him on. Always looking for the ball but given the minimal length of time he was on the pitch, he couldn’t affect the result.

As mentioned in the rating comments, Vermaelen was excellent tonight and Rosicky never gave up but games like this give credence to those who question Wenger’s ability to constantly motivate the players. However, should top class Footballers need motivating given the race for a Champions League place? If Arsenal end up wallowing in the Europa League next season, then they can look back embarrassed at results such as this, Fulham, QPR and Blackburn.

However it would be disrespectful to not give due credit to the performance that Wigan produced on the night. They did Roberto Martinez proud and, after being gifted two goals, defended exceptionally. There would have been few teams who have worked as hard at the Emirates, but it is a sign of the times that a team who did little but graft, can so easily pick up 3 points away at Arsenal.

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