All Eyes on The Emirates

Tonight, Champions League chasing Arsenal host relegation threatened Wigan Athletic at The Emirates Stadium. And with so much on the line for both clubs, this could well be considered as potentially the biggest game of the season so far.
The implications are simple. Wigan have to win to keep alive their hopes of survival, a draw will most likely not be enough as Sunderland in 17th have a +11 better goal difference than The Latics and it would take a massive goal swing for any miracle to occur. A loss will confirm relegation tonight after an 8 year spell in the top flight.
Arsenal will be looking to win the game so as to overtake rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the battle for a top four finish. A draw or a loss will still keep them in with a chance of making it, but Spurs will have the advantage going into the last game of the season this Sunday.
It has been 10 days since Arsenal last played, but that will have given Arsene Wenger plenty of time to come up with a plan for his team tonight and ensure that they are focussed on the task at hand. Olivier Giroud is the only absentee for The Gunners tonight as he serves the last game of his suspension. While Theo Walcott could be a frontrunner to take his place up front tonight, I believe Wenger will opt to play him on the right side again and have Lukas Podolski playing in the centre instead. Walcott has scored in each of his last two matches but his manager still seems to favour playing him out on the wing. Because of how much is at stake tonight, the manager will likely stick with what has got them results in recent matches even if not by a particularly large margin instead of taking a risk and trying something new that could potentially backfire on them big time.
While the home side have had plenty of time to prepare for this, the same can’t be said for the visitors who played as recently as 3 days ago when they stunned Manchester City and won the FA Cup at Wembley Stadium thanks to Ben Watson’s last-minute goal to win it 1-0. While Roberto Martinez might have a headache from all the celebrating, he could certainly have a selection headache too with regards to tonight’s game.
Tiredness might well play a factor in who he decides will start this match, plus he isn’t helped any further by the fact that defensive players such as Maynor Figueroa and Ronnie Stam are missing through injury. Regardless of all those setbacks, Wigan do have a slightly better away league record this season than their home one and while they may have suffered a costly defeat to Swansea City last week, Martinez will be hoping the success from Saturday along with the boost in morale and confidence will help see his side through to the right result tonight.
These sides met here roughly around this time last season when Wigan were still fighting to stay up and they managed to come away with a 2-1 victory. At this stage of the season given the reputation they’ve built for being able to pull off the unthinkable, rule them out of a result at your own peril. While this time around Arsenal do have a lot more at stake themselves, it will surely drive them on even more to avoid a potential upset.
With so much on the line, this tie will have so many people glued to television screens tonight for all sorts of different reasons just to see how this massive fixture unfolds and how it will set up the final day of what has been another thrilling Premier League season.
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