{"id":429918,"date":"2026-02-17T05:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T05:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/429918\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T05:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T05:58:09","slug":"wigan-manager-players-praise-arsenal-after-cup-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/429918\/","title":{"rendered":"Wigan manager &#038; players praise Arsenal after cup defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> Wigan boss Graham Barrow has praised Arsenal\u2019s professionalism in Sunday\u2019s win, but striker Joe Taylor says playing the match wasn\u2019t as nice as you might think.<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"813\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/arsenal-v-wigan-athletic-emirates-fa-cup-fourth-round.jpg\" alt=\"LONDON, ENGLAND: Ben White of Arsenal and Callum Wright of Wigan Athletic during the Emirates FA Cup Fourth Round match between Arsenal and Wigan Athletic on February 15, 2026. (Photo by Richard Pelham\/Getty Images)\" class=\"wp-image-362135\" title=\"Wigan manager &amp; players praise Arsenal after cup defeat 2\" \/>Photo by Richard Pelham\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal overcame Wigan Athletic with a 4-0 win in the FA Cup fourth round on Sunday afternoon, racing into a convincing first-half lead before settling down and easing to victory after the break.<\/p>\n<p>Wigan interim head coach Graham Barrow praised his opposition after the match, telling reporters Arsenal had shown them complete respect.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey paid us the utmost respect,\u201d Barrow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymotion.com\/video\/xa03pjm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">said<\/a>. \u201cObviously they can put two good teams out. They weren\u2019t sloppy in any sense, which is something you maybe hope for, you think \u2018maybe they think as though it\u2019s going to be a breeze\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut no, they were very professional in everything they did, so to be honest they paid us the utmost respect, both the manager and the team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"565\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/arsenal-v-wigan-athletic-emirates-fa-cup-fourth-round-3.jpg\" alt=\"LONDON, ENGLAND: Bukayo Saka of Arsenal and Jensen Weir of Wigan Athletic during the Emirates FA Cup Fourth Round match between Arsenal and Wigan Athletic on February 15, 2026. (Photo by Richard Pelham\/Getty Images)\" class=\"wp-image-362142\" title=\"Wigan manager &amp; players praise Arsenal after cup defeat 3\" \/>Photo by Richard Pelham\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Wigan striker Joe Taylor also had praise for Arsenal in his own post-match interview, but he admitted it wasn\u2019t as nice to play in this kind of match as you might think.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s an FA Cup tie against arguably the best team in the world right now, and overall, we gave a good account of ourselves,\u201d Taylor <a href=\"https:\/\/wiganathletic.com\/news\/2026\/february\/15\/Graham-Barrow-Arsenal-A-Emirates-FA-Cup-Reaction\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s nice to be out there at such a good stadium against good players, and it\u2019s probably not as nice as you think, but the occasion was special, and it was nice to see so many Tics fans out there and supporting us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"648\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/arsenal-v-wigan-athletic-emirates-fa-cup-fourth-round-8.jpg\" alt=\"Noni Madueke of Arsenal celebrates scoring his team's first goal during the Emirates FA Cup Fourth Round match between Arsenal and Wigan Athletic on February 15, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by James Fearn\/Getty Images)\" class=\"wp-image-362162\" title=\"Wigan manager &amp; players praise Arsenal after cup defeat 4\" \/>Photo by James Fearn\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>A trip to the Emirates Stadium to face Arsenal is often cited among the dream ties for lower-league footballers, especially with the Gunners leading Europe as they have this season. Every player wants the chance to compete against and potentially dethrone the best the sport has to offer.<\/p>\n<p>Taylor\u2019s suggestion that the game was \u201cprobably not as nice as you think\u201d is likely due to Arsenal\u2019s first-half goal blitz, giving Wigan a lot of hard work to do with no real hope of a result at the end of it.<\/p>\n<p>In fairness, Wigan put that work in and ensured the scoreline didn\u2019t get any worse after the break. It\u2019s just not surprising they didn\u2019t have much fun doing it.<\/p>\n<p>Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wigan boss Graham Barrow has praised Arsenal\u2019s professionalism in Sunday\u2019s win, but striker Joe Taylor says playing the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[157467,59,157034,157468,101,56,54,55,39894],"class_list":["post-429918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-arsenal-vs-wigan","tag-gb","tag-graham-barrow","tag-joe-taylor","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wigan-athletic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}