Arsenal gears up for the club's first match at Wembley since Carling Cup Final disappointment against Birmingham City in 2011. The Gunners' FA Cup Semi Final opponent are the current cup holders, Wigan Athletic.
Last year was bittersweet for Wigan. Their FA Cup victory was dampened by their relegation from the Premier League. This specific combination of success and failure has presented Wigan with a interesting set of challenges this season.
The FA Cup holders qualify automatically for the Europa League and the 6 extra matches that come with that. The Championship also has 24 clubs, not 20, and there are 8 more matches per season in the Championship than in the Premier League. As a result, the Championship is a very difficult competition to win without a large squad. The season starts earlier in the summer, leaving less time to prepare in the pre-season. Combine that with midweek trips to Slovenia and Russia, and its clear Wigan wouldn't have as much time to train and prepare for matches as they were used to in the EPL.
The time on the training ground was always going to be important because Wigan's squad started a serious transition. Several Wigan players--such as Arouna Kone, Antolin Alcaraz, Maynor Figueroa, and James McCarthy--left the club. The Latics faced a daunting fixture list with 14 more fixtures than last season while losing a significant amount of depth. Getting back up to the Premier League was always going to be difficult.
On top of that, manager Roberto Martinez left the club to replace David Moyes at Everton. Wigan replaced him with Owen Coyle. Coyle struggled to juggle the additional fixtures with Wigan's lack of depth. After three consecutive home losses, Coyle was sacked on December 2nd.
Coyle had only won 6 Championship matches on December 2nd. The Latics had drawn 4, and lost 6. Coyle's team was distinctly average. They were 14th in the Championship, they were going out of the Europa League in the group stage, and they were killed 5-0 at Manchester City in the Capital One Cup. Coyle's team looked lost. The difficulties of the fixture list seemed to be too much for the Scot to handle. When Coyle's team conceded 3 easy goals at home against Derby County, that was his kiss of death.
In stepped Uwe Rosler. And Wigan's fortunes changed straight away.
Wigan has won 13 Championship matches since sacking Coyle. They have drawn 5 and lost only 7. Wigan has been much better under Rosler, taking 44 points of the 75 available (59%) after taking just 22 of 48 (46%) under Coyle. The results have showed this. They have risen from 14th to 5th in the Championship. Their EPL dream is back on.
But perhaps Rosler's Wigan has been most impressive in the FA Cup. After needing a replay in Milton Keynes to beat MK Dons in Round 3, Wigan has beaten 3 consecutive Premier League opponents to reach Wembley for the second straight year. Wigan beat Crystal Palace and Cardiff before going into a quarterfinal at the Etihad for a rematch of last year's final. The Latics beat City 2-nil.
Rosler has fixed the defensive problems that cost Coyle his job; problems that existed even under Martinez in the Premier League. Wigan now has the 4th best defense in the Championship.
Leon Barnett, Emmerson Boyce, and James Perch all bring Premiership experience to the Wigan back-line. James McArthur is a box-to-box midfielder with excellent stamina, and FA Cup hero Ben Watson adds defensive backbone to the Wigan midfield. Wigan can struggle to score goals, but Manchester United loanee Nick Powell is the team's leading scorer with 7 goals. Jordi Gomez, Marc-Antoine Fortune, James McClean, and Callum McManaman also bring attacking ability and Premier League experience.
Make no mistake, Wigan fields a team of Premier League cast-offs and misfits. There is a reason these players have Premier League experience. Perhaps the exceptions are Powell and McManaman, but these players cannot match the quality Arsenal has in their locker--even with so many players out injured.
However, Rosler seems to be getting the maximum in FA Cup matches. It would be a real mistake to take Wigan lightly. They have beaten 3 straight Premier League opponents, two of which away from home, to get back to Wembley. Rosler has stressed that the pressure is completely on Arsenal to win the game, and that his team has nothing to lose. If Wigan takes that mindset and plays as well as they did at the Etihad a month ago, they can beat anyone.
Arsenal will need to be much better than how they've played currently to beat Wigan on Saturday.
On a separate note, a few have asked why I haven't participated in the "Wenger: should he stay or go" discussion that has been flying around the Arsenal blogosphere the last few days.
Believe me, I was furious after the Everton defeat and I wanted to post my angry reactions. I understand completely why people chose to question Wenger's ability after yet another bitterly disappointing defeat in which Arsenal was (and I saw this on nearly every post I found) "out-fought and out-thought" by Martinez'z Everton. I planned on writing something similar.
But I knew I needed to calm down. I knew that as big a match last Sunday's match at Everton was, this week's match was bigger. I took some time and wrote about NCAA basketball instead, which helped my emotions cool off. I gained some needed perspective that only time could provide.
The bottom line is that major questions should be asked of Arsene Wenger. There is no doubt about that.
But not right now.
The season is not over yet.
For the first time in 5 years Arsenal still has a trophy to play for in April. I don't see any benefit in putting additional pressure on the manager and our players like many have all week. I'm not saying I disagree with the opinions being shared; in fact I agree with most of them. I just don't see any possible benefit in sharing them right now, because there is still so much left to play for. And this team obviously struggles to deal with additional pressure.
The best example is how poorly we played on Wenger's 1,000th career match after a week of media conversation about Wenger and his place in history. These players quite clearly can't handle the pressure of playing for their manager's legacy. There hasn't been a worse performance all season than at Stamford Bridge. Out of the match in 15 minutes. That's how we responded to this kind of pressure before.
I don't see any benefit in ramping up that pressure again by keeping the Wenger conversation going all week. The reactions on Sunday and Monday made sense, but after that, it all seems unnecessary and self-defeating. The players don't need to be reminded. I can't see them improving their efforts to make sure Wenger's legacy ends on a high note. I can only see a repeat of the recent massacres at Stamford Bridge and Goodison, when the pressure has been at its highest.
The fact is, this Saturday is the biggest game since the Cup Final in 2011. This cup (because of the lack of quality opposition remaining) presents a great chance of finally ending the trophy drought. We are the overwhelming favorites. We simply need to finish the job.
That trophy is all our players need to be focused on right now. Wigan is a tough opponent. They need to be focused on Wigan and not how each remaining match will write the ending to Arsene Wenger's book. When there are no more trophies left to play for, let the manager come under scrutiny.
But not right now.
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