Report by John Patrick Heeley

Wigan Athletic remained in second place despite losing out in this tense battle between the Premiership new boys and one of the best sides in Europe, if not the world.

Arsenal exude class and it was clearly on show at the JJB Stadium with Thierry Henry showing just why Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard wants to take him to the Nou Camp and why the powers at be at Highbury will probably need to spend big money to ensure that the brilliant Frenchman is still pulling on an Arsenal shirt next season as they began a new era at the Emirates Stadium.

Paul Jewell named an unchanged starting line up to the one that had beaten Portsmouth two weeks ago with his only change coming on the bench in the shape of David Connolly who had recovered from injury to replace Steve McMillan who had picked up a knock.

His Arsenal counterpart on the other hand had made a couple of changes, one tactical and one forced, with Freddie Ljungberg starting in place of Jose Reyes, who dropped to the bench, and Pascal Cygan stood in at left back with Ashley Cole and Gael Clichy both out with a broken foot.

The Wigan manager was well aware of the task ahead of his side before the game and would have been excused for thinking the worse after The Gunners strolled to a two goal lead with just 20 minutes on the clock.

It would have been easy to throw the towel in but the boys in blue and white dusted themselves off and showed the world the reason why they were sat in second spot on merit.

First up was Henri Camara who stole in between Sol Campbell and Ivory Coast international Kolo Toure to plant his header past a helpless Jens Lehman in the Arsenal net after Arjan De Zeeuw had nodded down a Leighton Baines free kick from the left.

Wigan started brightly and showed their mettle early on with Jason Roberts threatening to break clear on goal only to be impeded by Toure who received the first of the game's six yellow cards for his troubles.

Roberts was back in the thick of things almost immediately but had his effort halted en route to goal by fellow striker Camara who in turn laid the ball off for Lee McCulloch in plenty of space but the Scot fluffed his first time shot, sending it well wide of the post.

Arjan De Zeeuw became the second player to be cautioned by World Cup referee Graham Poll after he upended Henry with a poorly timed challenge in the sixth minute.

The resultant free kick, taken by Henry, almost caught John Filan out as he was forced to have two attempts at regathering the ball after he had spilled the Arsenal skipper's low drive.

The North Londoners took the lead after only 10 minutes but it took a bit of fortune, or should we say an error from the normally reliable Filan, to gift Dutch striker Robin van Persie his fifth league goal of the season.

Sol Campbell found van Persie with a clever through ball and the Holland international then turned fellow countryman De Zeeuw inside out before creating himself space to line up a shot on goal.

However as Filan got down to collect what seemed like a fairly innocuous attempt the ball squirmed past him and into the back of the net. The look on the Aussie's face said it all really.

The goal appeared to have changed the mood of the game with the visitors now playing with added confidence and van Persie went agonisingly close to double his and Arsenal's tally for the afternoon when his shot on the turn shaved the far post after he had pounced on a Robert Pires ball into the area.

However, it didn't take long for the second goal to arrive and it came as no surprise as to who the scorer would be. Good build up work involving Freddie Ljungberg, Gilberto Silva and 18-year-old Spaniard Cesc Fabregas allowed Thierry Henry to step up and stroke home comfortably past Filan.

Thoughts of bubbles bursting must have been on many a person's mind and I can bet more than a few sensed an avalanche from Arsenal but it wasn't to be and Wigan earned a great deal of respect for the way they didn't let their heads drop.

Damian Francis will know that he should have done far better when he froze in front of goal but that was all forgetten minutes later with Camara's diving header narrowing the deficit to a single goal.

The goal was marred slightly by an unnecessary incident which saw Jason Roberts pick up a yellow card for barging Fabregas into Camara as the Senegalese striker attempted to wrestle the ball from the Arsenal midfielder.

As the youngster lay prone in the goalmouth around a dozen players jostled each other with Arsenal keeper Lehmann seemingly wanted a piece of the offending Wigan striker but as other intervened Graham Poll brandished Roberts' first yellow card of the season.

Wigan pushed for an equaliser and were unfortunate not to have been back on level terms when Roberts powered his way past the Arsenal defence and slid the ball past Lehmann but, with Jimmy Bullard bearing down on goal, Toure cleared the danger as the ball rolled inches from the goal line.

Arsenal regained their two goal lead in the 41st minute following Bullard's foul on stand in left back Pascal Cygan thirty yards from goal. Poll appeared to be preventing Henry from taking a quick kick, something which he had controversially allowed him to do against Chelsea almost 12 months ago and 2 months earlier against Aston Villa - both of which he had scored from.

When allowed to by the Hertfordshire official Henry stepped up to coolly place the ball over the wall and inside of Filan's right hand post with the Wigan keeper's desperate dive at full stretch unable to get anywhere near as it ricocheted in off the woodwork.

With their two goal advantage restored Arsenal appeared to be back in control but again Wigan had other ideas and within minutes they had pulled a goal back courtesy of a superb strike from Jimmy Bullard who picked up a neat McCulloch pass out on the right before fooling Sol Campbell on the edge of the area to set himself up to fire home past the big German in goal.

The second half presented the record 25,004 crowd with no more goals, although the tempo of the game may have merited it.

A rare mistake by Pascal Chimbonda almost allowed van Persie his second goal of the afternoon when he hesitated for far too long with the ball, allowing the Arsenal frontman to dispossess him and attempt to chip Filan from a narrow angle, De Zeeuw forced to head behind for a corner at the far post.

Robert Pires' inswinging flag kick then caused Wigan problems with Campbell quickest to the ball but the powerful centre half's header bounced behind as Filan tried to punch clear.

Further chances fell to van Persie, who was thwarted by an excellent tackle from Stephane Henchoz after Henry had caught De Zeeuw napping and Fabregas, who blasted well over from Henry's showboat pass.

Roberts was denied by Lehmann's bravery as the Wigan strike raced in on goal and the Grenadan international almost turned provider for an equaliser as the game drew to a close but after his power, pace and determination had seen him get to the byeline, his final ball across goal flew just behind McCulloch who would have needed just the slightest of touches to see it home.