New Highbury looked very festive with the snow falling and swirling around in a slightly surreal manner in the floodlights, almost as if it wasn’t real snow. A bitterly cold night the biggest challenges of the evening were staying warm and getting home without slipping over. As for the football it was a poor game and Arsenal won it without playing particularly well.

To be fair Wigan were pretty solid for the first thirty minutes but once Alcaraz nodded in Theo’s corner by mistake just before half time the game was as good as over. Bendtner added another halfway through the second half after Vela put in a good cross from the left.

The margin of victory should have been much greater and, if we had Defoe, Malouda and Tevez instead of Bendtner, Vela and Walcott, it surely would have been. To me those three players are long past their sell by dates and even though Walcott took the corner that led to first goal, Bendtner scored and Vela created the second goal their overall performances were, yet again, unconvincing.

Indeed Vela should have scored a hat-trick and it is sad to think that a couple of years ago he was looking really good when playing in the League Cup games.

For the collectors of modern Arsenal rarities this game saw not one but two pitch invasions by what looked like young Gooners given the opportunity to see their heroes by the cheap tickets and the absence of many regulars. The first lad was a bit of an amateur and clearly quite polite as he didn’t actually run onto the pitch but instead ran down the touchline and towards a very grumpy looking Wenger. A few moments later two more lads came on and this time had the nerve to actually run onto the pitch. To add to Hollywood snow we now had several Keystone cop moments as our overweight and out of condition stewards attempted to catch the football terrorists.

Ultimately pitch invasions are either a bit rubbish (like this one), very depressing (when you see a steward enjoy flattening someone half their size) or plain ugly (hello Leeds and Millwall). Still the final word must go to Eboue who showed admirable peacekeeping skills in persuading one of the invaders to hand himself over to the men in orange. A role at the UN surely awaits our cult hero when he hangs up his boots.