LONDON (AP) — Wigan backed up its shock victory over Manchester United by
beating another Premier League giant on Monday, winning 2-1 at third-place Arsenal to boost its hopes of staving off
relegation.
Arsenal was looking for a victory that
would have put the team eight points clear in third but never recovered from sloppily conceding goals to Franco di Santo and
Jordi Gomez in the first eight minutes.
Thomas Vermaelen halved the deficit in the 21st but the visitors held on quite
comfortably in the end to record yet another superb victory in their battle to stay up, moving them five points clear of the
relegation zone with four matches left.
“We’ve had a difficult time and have had to stick together and really stay
strong as a group and we’ve done that,” said Wigan captain Gary Caldwell, who kept league top scorer Robin van Persie quiet
at Emirates Stadium. “There’s still a long way to go and it’s still going to be a real battle at the
bottom.”
Roberto Martinez’s side stunned league leader Man United 1-0 on Wednesday and has also beaten Liverpool away
in the past month. Wigan’s only loss since the start of March came at Chelsea, which scored two goals that should have been
disallowed for offside, including an injury-time winner.
“We have always had a mental block against the top sides, but
we went to Liverpool and got rid of that,” Martinez said. “And against Manchester United and Arsenal, nobody can deny that we
deserved the points.”
Arsenal’s first loss at home since Jan. 22 will give renewed hope to its three rivals for the
remaining two Champions League qualification spots. Spurs and Newcastle are five points behind while Chelsea is a further two
adrift. All three have a game in hand over Arsenal, which has four more matches left.
“We were not sharp,” Arsenal
manager Arsene Wenger said. “It’s difficult to know why.” While Wigan relied on its slick passing game to defeat United,
drawing plaudits from opposing manager Alex Ferguson, Martinez’s men were helped out by some poor defending at Emirates
Stadium.
An untimely injury to Mikel Arteta left the hosts short at the back as Wigan raced clear on the counterattack
following an Arsenal corner. Gomez’s cross from the left was met by a shot by Di Santo that was blocked by goalkeeper
Wojciech Szczesny, but the ball looped up kindly for the Italian striker to volley in from close range.
Arteta was off
the field — to be soon replaced by Aaron Ramsey with what Wenger said was a “serious” ankle injury — when Wigan grabbed its
second. Szczesny saved from Di Santo following good work down the left by Victor Moses, only for Gomez to apply the
tap-in.
“We defendly horrendously on the first and second goals,” Wenger said. “After that we had a mountain to
climb.” There were only 94 seconds between the two goals and, having lost all six of their Premier League matches at Arsenal,
Wigan was in uncharted territory. The visitors were on the back foot for most of the remaining 82 minutes but were resolute
in defense and sprightly on the break.
Indeed, after twice denying Yossi Benayoun and then keeping out Van Persie’s
snapshot, Wigan goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi was hardly troubled except for Vermaelen’s bullet header that flew into the net from
Tomas Rosicky’s cross.
Arsenal had all the possession but Wigan could easily have restored its two-goal cushion in
the 59th when Moses, a danger throughout, went clean through after more defensive carelessness by Arsenal. However, the
forward bizarrely elected to shoot early instead of closing in on Szczesny and his weak shot was saved.
Arsenal huffed
and puffed in the final 30 minutes but was short of creativity when it really mattered, leaving Wigan to claim an unlikely
first win at Arsenal. “In the second half, we lost our team-play and cohesion and we tried too much individually,” Wenger
said. “There was no petrol left in the tank.”