Arsenal Drawing against Wigan Only Proves That Wenger Needs To Buy a Defender

It has become a sickening tradition to see the Red and White army draw against mediocre teams in the league, especially when the schedule is hectic and crammed with mid-week fixtures.

The draw is disappointing but understandable, it's not as if Wenger had much of a choice in the squad selection; he was forced to play the bench players, for it was near impossible to play the same players who took part in the Chelsea game only two days earlier.

To their credit, Wigan deserved the draw, playing with 10 and behind by a goal to Arsenal isn't easy, and to make matters worse, they were in the bottom three teams in the EPL before the game started. 

There was a lot to conclude from the game, but knowing Wenger, the chances of him doing much to fix things are slim to none, especially after stating that there is no room for new players in January. The Arsenal boss bought Koscielny and Squillaci to replace the departed Gallas and Campbell, and they have been anything but convincing at the back.

The attacking line up wasn't disappointing, Chamakh and Bendtner alongside each other sounded smart, especially when both are great headers, but as always, Arsenal didn't make enough crosses for the attackers. Behind Bendtner and Chamakh was Rosicky, and the inconsistent genius, Arshavin.

Bendtner and Chamakh linked well together, most notably during Arshavin's goal, where Chamakh chipped a lovely pass for the Dane, and he almost scored had it not been for Al Habsi's save. But, the Russian magician made sure the ball would end up in the back of the net.

Rosicky, too, was impressive, the Czech captain was creating chances for his team-mates, but Arsenal still didn't take full advantage of their chances, and the result was a typically disappointing draw from the Gunners.

Not to mention, it seems that the usual injuries are starting yet again—Diaby getting injured and replaced by Wilshere, who eventually got injured and replaced by Nasri. Things could've been worse for the Gunners though, had Wenger played some of the players that took part in the Chelsea game, chances are much more important and crucial names would've been injured instead.

The January transfer window will commence shortly, and Arsenal are in desperate need of at least one new defender to defend properly at the back. Koscielny has been far from impressive thus far this season, and the free penalty he gave to N"Zogbia (albeit the Frenchman took a dive) was silly on his behalf, but the worst defender in the current squad has to be Squillaci. The Arsenal defender had a weak game until the 80th minute, but in the 81st minute, he topped it all off with an own goal to give Wigan a well-deserved point—truly disappointing stuff.

Fabianski too can be partly blamed for the second goal; his positioning was awkward and credulous at best. It's evident that the Pole is still weak in set-pieces, and while the rest of his game was commendable, it's mistakes like these that cost the big guns the title, as has been proven before on many occasions.

That's not to say that Arsenal were terrible, apart from the centre-backs almost every one else had a decent game, Eboue was surprisingly good for someone being thrown in an uncomfortable left-back position, while Sagna wasn't disappointing himself. In midfield, Denilson and Diaby were supposedly covering for Rosicky and Arshavin, but this plan was hindered considerably by Diaby's injury, forcing the Arsenal manager to replace him with an attacking minded Wilshere (which ironically was replaced by Nasri due to injury).

Chamakh didn't do much in front of goal but was a decent target man and was reason for the freedom Rosicky and Arshavin had throughout the full 90. While Bentner is proving his point every time he participates in a game, Wenger would do well to consider Bendtner ahead of Chamakh at the moment and would do even better to be able to successfully rotate his attacking options.

Arsenal played without the majority of the first team, but even the substitutes should've been able to collect all three points against a weak Wigan side. Had it not been for the mentally weak Koscielny and Squillaci, chances are that Arsenal would've been on level terms with the teams from Manchester in the EPL.

It's still too early to reach a final conclusion regarding Arsenal and their title chances, but it isn't early to pass a verdict on their back line, and the answer regarding said back line is simple.

Without a quality defender, the Gunners won't go the distance.