{"id":12835,"date":"2026-02-14T16:09:58","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T16:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12835"},"modified":"2026-02-16T10:33:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T10:33:01","slug":"and-now-for-something-completely-different-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12835","title":{"rendered":"And Now for Something Completely Different"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One of the four trophies Arsenal can still win this season is the FA Cup, and Arsenal will progress to the Fifth Round if they vanquish Wigan Athletic this Sunday.  Undeniably, victory would mean that Arsenal will have to play additional matches, and the FA Cup may rank third among the priorities of most fans as to which trophy they would most like to win, but Mikel Arteta (not to mention yours truly), dearly wants to keep our positive momentum flowing, and beating Wigan would allow us to do just that, as well as keep our four trophied hopes alive, so in the spirit of positivity let\u2019s have at them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his pre-match presser on Friday, Mikel Arteta asserted that a change of competition (from League to Cup) could be a good thing for the team in light of dropping two points in our title chase: \u201cEvery three days we are playing different competitions (so) we will reflect on the (Brentford) game, take the positive\u2026 and go on Sunday again with the energy and the batteries fully charged to go and win the game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opposition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wigan Athletic spent eight years as a Premier League side between 2005 and 2013 and won the FA Cup 13 years ago when they defeated Manchester City in the final.  The Latics then lost the following season\u2019s semifinal to Arsenal, the eventual FA Cup winners, when they played our guys to a valiant draw after extra time but were sent out courtesy of penalties by Arteta, Kallstrom, Giroud and Santi Cazorla.  Since those glory years under Roberto Martinez, Wigan have mostly been a yo-yo club between the Championship and League One but they are now threatened by the prospect of relegation to the fourth tier for the first time in three decades.  Sunday\u2019s match is the first meeting between the two clubs since that 2014 FA Cup semi-final, when Arsenal went on to beat Hull in the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A week ago Wigan sacked manager Ryan Lowe just hours after their 6-1 defeat by Peterborough which left Wigan 22nd in the division after they were 11th at the start of December.  Lowe\u2019s Latics were without a league victory in their last seven games, and won only seven of their 29 matches played.  Former Stoke midfielder Glenn Whelan was placed in temporary charge, and he presided on Tuesday when the Latics suffered a home loss to Reading.  Whelan is the former international teammate of Brentford manager Keith Andrews, who most likely provided the perfect template for Whelan\u2019s game plan to face the Gunners after Brentford battled the Gunners to a draw on Thursday.  Since little has been going right for our opponents, and their \u201cnew manager bounce\u201d has yet to kick in, Arsenal had best be ready for Wigan\u2019s sudden revival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wigan advanced to the Fourth Round after drawing with Hemel Hampstead and Barrow in the first two rounds before dispatching both sides on penalty kicks, before they defeated Preston 1-0 in the Third Round.  It is safe to say that Arsenal is the biggest challenge the Latics will have faced in this year\u2019s competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal Team News<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kai Havertz faces another month on the sidelines after suffering a muscular injury.  The German had been in excellent form since returning to first-team action last month, providing the spark our attack had needed, while offering additional midfield cover.  But now our midfield looks light without him, loanee Ethan Nwaneri, and Mikel Merino, who is expected to miss the rest of the season after surgery. In more positive news, recent absentees Odegaard and Saka did return to the side at Brentford where both made second half appearances as substitutes without stamping an overwhelming impact on the course of play.

In addition to Martinelli\u2019s six goals in four Champions League matches this season, his hat-trick propelled Arsenal past Portsmouth in the Third Round, so he must be nearly nailed on to continue in Mikel\u2019s Cup side.  Despite certain inclinations of Arteta\u2019s to choose a senior side no matter the situation, I think he will want to take this chance to rotate his side in other areas, considering the need to keep players fresh for the midweek trip to Wolverhampton, not to forget our trip to Spurs next Sunday, so my predicted team is as follows: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kepa<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White  Saliba  Hincapie  Lewis-Skelly<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norgaard  Zubimendi  Eze <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka  Jesus  Martinelli<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Lastly, if there are any readers who plan to reuse the photo of Wigan\u2019s interim manager and his band of merry men above, I should caution you that the photo may not be completely authentic.  Just a word to the wise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy the game, \u2018holics, wherever you may be watching, and may our side put all the seriousness into their effort that this grand old competition deserves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the four trophies Arsenal can still win this season is the FA Cup, and Arsenal will progress to the Fifth Round if they vanquish Wigan Athletic this Sunday.  Undeniably, victory would mean that Arsenal will have to play additional matches, and the FA Cup may rank third among the priorities of most fans […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12835"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12835"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12844,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12835\/revisions\/12844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}