Morning all.
Who doesn’t love the FA Cup? Not me that’s for sure and I really hope we can make it to Wembley. But do I hope to see Rice, Zubimendi, Gyokeres, Gabriel and Timber on the team sheet for today’s match? Absolutely not. Not because I think Wigan will be easy to beat without them but because I think they need a break.
Should we win later, we’ll be into the fifth round for only the second time under Mikel Arteta. Over the last five seasons we’ve been knocked out by Southampton 1-0, Nottingham Forest 1-0, Man City 1-0, Liverpool 2-0 and last season, despite being down to 10 men, Man Utd drew against us before winning the penalty shootout 6-4.
This is another one of those days when I’ve no idea what to expect from the opposition. What I do know though is that a week or so ago, my family watched Reading defeat Wigan 2-1 so I’m for a bit of stick if we don’t win this game.
Wigan don’t have any walking wounded apparently but they do have two new interim head coaches in Graham Barrow and Glenn Whelan. Barrow is a Wigan man who was part of the backroom staff when the Latics competed in two FA Cup semi-finals, a final and a Community Shield between April 2013 and April 2014.
> We were used to the big occasions. This club had four Wembley appearances in 12 months and I was involved in all of them. – Barrow.
Well, that was a long time ago and even though Wigan have beaten Arsenal in the Premier League, that was also a long time ago. Much has happened since then for both clubs. Wigan are now a League One club which is flirting with relegation having not won a league game this year.
Arsenal have no new injuries after Thursday’s draw at Brentford, in fact there’s a bit of good news as Max Dowman is back in training. Perhaps we’ll see him on the bench.
Adrian Clarke, writing in the [official matchday programme](https://www.arsenal.com/news/preview-arsenal-v-wigan-athletic):
_Former manager Ryan Lowe, who was dismissed from his post a week ago, used different formations in each of his last three matches in charge. After deploying a 3-1-4-2 for several months, he had recently experimented with 4-3-3 and 4-4-2, so it is hard to predict what shape the visitors will adopt today._
_Wigan are happy to be a little lopsided in the way they line up, with much of their play focused on utilising a dynamic right-hand side. Scottish wide man Fraser Murray is an influential figure down that flank, producing an impressive 113 crosses in open play, the second most of any player at League 1 level this season._
_Wigan have been a low-possession team for the bulk of this campaign, averaging just 44.6% of the ball in League 1. In a terrific 1-0 success against Preston North End in round three, that figure dropped sharply to 30.5%, so we are likely to see plenty of the ball in this cup tie._
_The Latics do have technical players who can pass very nicely though, like former Arsenal academy star Matt Smith, who picked up an FA Cup winners’ medal after being a substitute for Mikel Arteta’s side in the 2020 final success against Chelsea. However, in general they are content to sit behind the ball, before looking to catch teams on the break._
A few stats for you:
* Wigan have won their last six away matches in the FA Cup, conceding just one goal in this run. They’ve already had one run of seven away wins in the competition from January 2013 to March 2014 – should they win here, it would be just the fifth ever run of seven away wins in a row by a team in FA Cup history (first round onwards) and two would have been achieved by the Latics.
* All four of our goals in the FA Cup third round 4-1 win over Portsmouth came via set pieces (three corners, one free-kick) – despite only playing this one game in 2025-26, no side has more set piece goals in the FA Cup this season than us (first round onwards).
Tim Robinson is today’s referee and guess what, he from down South. Yep, born and bred in Bognor Regis. No VAR today so it’s all on him.
Catch up in the comments.