Eurosport - Sun, 07 Dec 08:14:00 2008
Emmanuel Adebayor's first-half goal proved decisive as Arsenal held off Wigan 1-0 in their Premier League clash at the Emirates Stadium.
The Togo striker struck in the 16th minute, his first goal since late October, after the visitors failed to deal with a corner.
Cesc Fabregas helped the ball back into the penalty area where it evaded Titus Bramble and fell to Adebayor who calmly stroked home his tenth of the season.
The Gunners also struck the woodwork twice but held on for their second League win in six days, following their victory at Chelsea last Sunday.
The first-half was a tepid affair with Wilson Palacios's deflected shot the only worthy effort of note from the Latics and Chris Kirkland rarely troubled at the other end, apart from picking the ball out of his net.
Adebayor did blast over after good link-up play with Robin Van Persie and the Dutchman had a shot blocked by Bramble before Adebayor struck the post in first-half injury time.
Denilson teed up the African whose shot from 20 yards was pushed against the post by Kirkland.
That was a sign of things to come with the second-half action packed.
Van Persie dragged an effort wide from 18 yards after a great through ball from Fabregas and also curled a shot inches wide before dinking a free-kick over the angle of bar and post after being fouled on the edge of the penalty area.
And it was his corner that was met by the head of Bacary Sagna at the near post only for Kirkland to swoop to save low.
Denilson then saw a 25-yard drive beat Kirkland but strike the inside of the post and bounce to safety before Adebayor headed wide from five yards following a corner.
Wigan also had their chances. Emile Heskey's header into the ground bounced straight into the arms of Almunia before the Spanish custodian produced a superb save to deny Mario Melchiot whose shot on the turn from six yards looked goalbound.
Sagna again came close to his first goal of the season when he scuffed a shot into the ground from no more than six yards following a corner before Fabregas's corner beat everybody at the near post and was cleared off the line by the thigh of Maynor Figueroa.
Heskey put a header over the crossbar with a minute left and that meant that Arsenal stayed within eight points of leaders Liverpool.
Comment 7 - 26 of 26
well thats 4games on the bounce as fabs take over as captain thats a good start
YES WE HAVE WON, BUT THE GUNNERS ARE NOW UNPREDICTABLE, WHEN THE PARTY IS NOT YET OVER,YOU WILL HEAR OF ANOTHER SAD RESULTS. I HOPE THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN THIS MID-WEEK AS WE TAKE ON PORTO!!
i think Arsene Wenger and the board are taking us the fans for granted. Arsenal tickets and items are about some of the most expensive. If the board dont press it on Wenger to sign someone that would assist the boys to win something no matter wot. All those smart talk about balancing the books would turn round and slap them on the face. How much dent in one full season would it be to the balance to sign 3 players with sature, experience and consistency to help win trophies. Am so sad. Help cos i luv Arsenal so much. Emmnauel
HELLO...ARSENE SHULD SWITCH TO 4-3-3 FORMATION BY USING SAGNA,TOURE,JOUROU,CLICHY IN DEFENCE, WHILE IN MIDFIELD DENILSON AND SONG AS SITTING IN FRONT OF THE BACK FOUR, THEN ALLOWING CESC FABREGAS TO ROAM AS PLAYMAKER, WHILE IN ATTACK...ADEBAYOR ON THE LEFT, EDUARDO ON THE RIGHT AND VAN PERSIE UPFRONT. MR. WENGER CAN ALWAYS CONTACT ME FOR MATCH STRATEGIES
An all important three points but the abiding memory for me will be the utterly disgaceful behaviour of some of our so called fans. If they want to behave like that then they can **** off down the road to the scum because thats how they behaved. Any confidence the poor sod may have had must be well and truly eroded by now and I wonder if he'll ever put on the shirt again. We know his limitations but I could understand AW's reasoning of putting him on instead of Willshere at a time when Wigan had decided to kick anything that moved, but why on earth substitute him a minute or so from the end almost as a sacrificial lamb going to the wolves and at the mercy of a baying mob. It was in my opinion a massive misjudgement by our manager unless of course he has also finally decided that Eboue is not good enough to be an Arsenal player. Having watched from the terraces and more recently from the seats over the past sixty decades I think todays crowd reached an all time low and made me feel ashamed to be numbered among them. On a final not what effect will the crowd's behaviour have on the rest of the team. Who would want to play their hearts out for the club only to be treated like that when things go wrong? And the weather is better in Spain, Italy or Portugal! Let's hope it doesn't happen again!.
eboue's positions shifts are the problem he needs support . boooing him in a game is a total digrace
booing eboue off was a bloody disgrace
yes i'm a arsenal fan
im sorry but i'm s gooner, and eboue is no good for our team. the fans arent booing him because of one match... he is a terrible player, and the fans had every right to boo today, and I would of gladly booed too if i was there. its about time wenger drops eboue for good (mr pink boots too!) and he brings in two midfielders and a striker in January, or we are gonna find it extremely hard to win anything! gooner 4 life!
The heckling of Eboue today was disgraceful, how does one call themselves a true fan when they boo their own player off the field, probably wrecking him mentally, and he will now probably take time off for depression, similar to Gabor Kiraly a few years back, or Julian Speroni, one of the two lol.
quatt47, its funny how a team with an average age of 19 can beat ye by 3 goals maybe we should have played our carling cup team and really humiliated ye.. come on the arsenal :) :)
I'm happy for the win, but worried about the missed chances. And the abuse for Eboue was apalling! Can you imagine being booed off by your own fans!? Really dissapointing.
I'm an Arsenal fan and will always be proud to be counted as one, I'm however very sad tonight by the behaviour of the fans towards Eboue today. As human beings, we all have our bad days and moreso he was playing in an unusual position. The people we should boo are Mr Arsene Wenger and the Board who are exposing these young men to extreme conditions having failed to properly think out the players needed to beef up the team after the massive loss of experienced players in the summer. Mr Wenger has started his usual talk of not needing new players in January but I hope somebody high up there will tell him to shape up otherwise the possibility of empty Emirates is what he is rushing towards. A word is enough for the wise.
Arsenal will win the Champions League.
Hard luck Wigan. It's funny how so-called top teams, aparrt from Man U, only beat us by 1 goal
Not a classic display I saw it live on TV in Bulgaria (for free by the way,) A win is a win. We should have won by more but too much fancy play passing back and forewar like a hobby and many chances missed; How often have we heard that? Our defence is nervous, althou gh nice to have Toure back though, he stablised it a bit today. My opinion, but othe best player Arsenal have is Cliche, He is skilfull fast and has an attitude that is comesurate to a true Arsenal man. Bad luck again today on not being a more convincing win but these are trying times for Arsenal in the challenge for the Championship, which by the way is stiil alive - just!
@#$% am still not impressed,this team wont win a thing.am a suppoter but i know am wasting my time so i just watch cos i know theres not gooner be a silver ware
A message to all Arsenal 'fans':
HANG YOUR HEADS IN SHAME!
ps
What's with all the empty seats as well?
And you have the nerve to call Spurs fans (which, by the way, i am not one of)
good luck in securing 5th place ya gooners.
disgraceful how arsenal fans reacted to eboue substitution. the guy s been out for weeks and played in an unfamiliar position. like any professional he can make mistakes. with walcott out , who do they want to cover for him!!!!!
Arsenal won 1-0 Adebayor!
Please login to post a comment
Not already a Yahoo! user ? Sign up to get a free Yahoo! Account