Wigan Athletic 0 - 4 Arsenal: Comfortable win with little exertion

It's been a while since we've won so comfortably away from home. You'll probaby have to go as far back as last season for the last away game we won so easily.

The only period where we were not in control of the game were the opening twenty minutes. Arsenal actually started pretty slowly and sloppily, failing to keep the ball and not defending particular well. Wigan had 69% posession during this period, and even should've taken the lead. Fortunately for Arsenal, Jordi Gomez missed a sitter.

Arsenal showed some signs of finally waking up, and with Wigan's defence being, to put it bluntly, horrible, we would get our chances eventually. It was Mikel Arteta who opened the scoring, when Wigan just backed off him and left him with so much room. The Spaniard took the opportunity to shoot at goal from distance and found the bottom corner. It was a decent hit, but had the Wigan keeper done better the shot probably wouldn't have gone in.

The next goal decided the game. Before Wigan even had a chance to build-up some pressure and find a way back into the game, Thomas Vermaelen converted van Persie's corner for his second in as many league games with an excellent header.

So it was 2-0 at half time. Arsenal hadn't played that well, but had still managed to find ways to score.

The second half was much better in terms of performance. Arsenal had to be weary of a Wigan comeback - even if it did look unlikely at the time - and so they used the ball much better. With Arsenal dominating posession, Wigan couldn't create any pressure on our goal.

We still needed to kill the game off and did so through Gervinho. Yes, the Ivorian finally found the back of the net again, albeit it was a tap-in and all the work was done by van Persie, who was unlucky not to have scored a fine goal himself. Still, a goal is a goal and hopefully that'll be a boost to his confidence.

From then on, Arsenal probably could've created chances at will. Van Persie wasn't having much luck in front of goal this evening, but eventually got his goal when Walcott unselfishly set-up the Dutchman to score his 14th league goal of the season.

Not much else to say, really. It was a pretty uneventful game bar the four goals.

Another win and still unbeaten
Wigan are a pretty bad side and are deservedly down the bottom. In this sense, the win wasn't any special or remarkable. If anything, it was professional; no messing about, just getting the job done without exerting much energy.

All the same, it's another win and it continues our good form. We're now up to 5th, level on points with Newcastle in 6th and two behind Chelsea in 4th.

Player Ratings
Wojciech Szczesny - 6. Another day of having no saves to make, but he'll welcome the clean sheet, I'm sure. Big props to him for starting up a chant with the fans after the game.

Per Mertesacker - 6. Apart from outstanding block he made, he had nothing to do.

Thomas Vermaelen - 7. Likewise, defensively he had very little to do. Scored the second with a good header.

Laurent Koscielny - 6. Good solid stuff as he continues to deputise at full back.

Andre Santos - 6. Another good showing.

Alex Song - 6. Not much to comment on.

Mikel Arteta - 7. Performed very well tonight, using the ball well and scoring a good goal.

Aaron Ramsey - 7. Showed some nice touches and kept things nice and tidy.

Theo Walcott - 6. Set-up a goal but was pretty quiet all game.

Gervinho - 6. Scored, but was otherwise quiet.

Robin van Persie - 7. Should've scored more. He pretty much toyed with the Wigan defenders all game.