Arsenal Player Ratings vs Wigan Athletic

Deja vu hit Arsenal as yet another keeping error, this time to deputy Lukasz Fabianski, and complacency cost Arsenal as they gave up a 2-0 lead to somehow lose 3-2 to Wigan Athletic in the final 10 minutes.

Arsenal went 2-0 up early in the second half and from there on in the Gunners began to get complacent, especially Arsene Wenger. The Frenchman opted to leave the questionably fit Robin van Persie on the substitutes bench until the final minutes, rather than to bring him on mid-way through the second term.

Credit where credit is due. Wenger massive injury toll forced him to play arguably one of the weakest Arsenal sides in recent years, so to manage two goals against a doughty Wigan side can be considered as well earned. Causalities included captain Cesc Fabregas, William Gallas, Thomas Vermaelen, Alexandre Song, Denilson, and Andrei Arshavin.

A scrappy match that was at times entertaining but complacent Arsenal are now struggling to even finish third.

Player Ratings

Lukasz Fabianski: 4: Given a rare chance and once again the Polish shot stopper disappointed. The calamitous error ensured Wigan found the equalizer and enabled them to gather even more momentum to put forward their final charge. Quite frankly if the error failed to occur than it surely would of been an Arsenal win.  

Bacary Sagna: 6: Caught out on occasions especially late on but did contributed in credibly attack.

Sol Campbell: 7: An enthusiastic, solid effort from the veteran. A number of strong interceptions and challenges that bailed out his two left sided defenders. 

Mikael Silvestre: 4.5: What can you expect when you never receive proper game time and your ageing quickly. Once again the veteran Frenchman proved he is not capable of handling the pace of the English game with a number of sloppy efforts and poor positioning. A fine header however to put Arsenal two up.

Gael Clichy: 4: Gave the ball cheaply late on when Arsenal needed to conjure up a late goal and dreadful positioning allowed Wigan to clinch the encounter.

Craig Eastmond: 7: The youngster performed incredibly well seeing as it's only his second League start. Defended the midfield well and wasn't afraid to go forward in attack. One for the future.

Abou Diaby: 5.5: Mixed from the lanky Frenchman. At times he was strong and powerful, creating chances and providing scintillating balls through to the box. But then the Frenchman would discard possession to easily and fail to go in hard when necessary.

Samir Nasri: 5.5: The Gunners needed the French dynamo to step up and orchestrate the attack but Nasri only appeared in glimpses.

Tomas Rosicky: 6: His return has been the highlight of the poor Arsenal campaign. Danced and dazzled with his footwork and wasn't afraid to make a hard challenge. Sadly his efforts were not rewarded.

Theo Walcott: 6: Started with a bang causing mass havoc for the Wigan defenders. Took his goal neatly to open the scoring but the Englishman might as well not have been playing in the second half.

Nicklas Bendtner: 6: Another who worked tirelessly for no real reward. A stunning ball put Walcott through and contributed nicely in the air.

Substitutes

Fran Merida: N/A

Emmanuel Eboue: N/A

Robin van Persie: N/A: The Dutchman needed to be brought on early in the second half regardless of the scoreline, not with two minutes remaining.