The Gunners put the sport to mattress inside half-hour.
Arsenal cruised into the fifth spherical of the FA Cup with a 4-0 win over Wigan Athletic, making historical past with a crushing show of first-half dominance.
The Premier League leaders had been dealt a blow in the warm-up when left-back Riccardo Calafiori was injured, forcing Mikel Arteta right into a change as Bukayo Saka got here into the facet, with Myles Lewis-Skelly dropping again from midfield and into his extra pure place.
That setback by no means seemed like stopping the Gunners from claiming a dominant win over the struggling League One facet, Arsenal turning into the primary Premier League facet to attain 4 objectives within the first half-hour of an FA Cup tie as they put the Latics to the sword to maintain their hopes of a quadruple alive.
Noni Madueke opened the scoring within the eleventh minute earlier than Gabriel Martinelli doubled the lead seven minutes later.
Jack Hunt’s personal aim put any trace of a comeback to mattress, and it was 4-0 within the twenty seventh minute after Gabriel Jesus’ composed end.
Arsenal couldn’t add to their lead, and there was extra harm concern in defence when Ben White was pressured off late within the second half. Nonetheless, with two extra Premier League video games on the horizon in opposition to Wolves and North London rivals Tottenham within the coming seven days, the Gunners can have been very grateful for a routine victory for his or her rotated facet.
Arsenal cruise into fifth spherical
Madueke slotted confidently into the bottom-left nook to interrupt a impasse that by no means seemed like persisting very lengthy as he latched onto Eberechi Eze’s very good throughball.
Eze was the supplier once more with one other exact move as Martinelli scored his eleventh aim of the season, 10 of which have are available European and home cup competitions.
The Brazilian fired throughout goalkeeper Sam Tickle to turn out to be the primary Arsenal participant to attain 10 or extra objectives in home and European cup competitions in the identical season since Ian Wright within the 1994-95 marketing campaign.
Hunt had the misfortune of diverting into his personal internet from Saka’s right-wing pullback to place the sport past doubt, and Wigan’s insistence on enjoying a excessive line backfired as Jesus collected Christian Norgaard’s move and lofted past a helpless Tickle.
Arsenal had been in a position to take their foot off the fuel within the second half, although they nonetheless had a number of probabilities so as to add to their lead.
Viktor Gyokeres hit the submit and the influential Eze lashed into the side-netting, earlier than the extraordinarily busy Tickle produced positive saves to disclaim each Martinelli and Eze.
A lot larger exams lie in await Arsenal as they search a historic quadruple, however Arteta will probably be extraordinarily happy with the skilled job his facet did, with the accidents to Calafiori and White the one considerations.
Madueke heaps reward on Eze
In helping every of the opening two objectives, the previous Crystal Palace man grew to become the primary Arsenal participant to report a number of assists in a house FA Cup match since Hector Bellerin versus Sunderland in January 2016.
And Madueke had large reward for a team-mate who had been enduring a sluggish begin to 2026.
Talking to TNT Sports activities, Madueke stated: “He was unbelievable immediately. He pulled all of the strings from the center and had a hand in all of the objectives. I’m actually happy for him.”
Requested if Arsenal followers may afford to be excited concerning the finish of the season, he replied: “I believe they’ve each proper to be.
“We’re working onerous to attempt to ship the kind of season it should be with our performances proper now. That’s our foremost focus and I believe it’s thrilling – however we have to stick with it doing the appropriate issues each single day.”
