Harbinger Of Glory

As the two commentators went at it on the broadcast, McClean received the ball again on the left and tried to drive inside, but he was quickly cut off by Ben White.

McClean pushed forward anyway, but a second Arsenal player, Declan Rice, arrived.

Despite being outnumbered, McClean managed to keep the ball, but just as he turned, searching for an outlet, he found Leo sliding right into his passing lane.

This time he let it go, but Wigan weren’t done with the pressure yet.

Before the ball had even reached his feet, Leo had company.

Martin Odegaard railed behind him, looking to work the ball off Leo, but the moment he lunged, Leo subtly shifted the ball over his left leg, sending the ball right into the space that Odegaard had evacuated.

Leo was suddenly free, and he wasn’t going to wait to lose that slight freedom.

With room and space to spare, he glanced upwards, and a second later, Ezra had the ball at his feet.

”That’s a beautiful switch from Calderon, and now Ezra hangs on to it. He hasn’t had too much to do in this game, Ezra. Maybe this is his moment.”

Ezra, with the ball at his feet, angled himself to run right as Kiwior stepped across.

He gave a small feint, waiting for the Arsenal left back to give him something, anything, but Kiwior did not react.

Still, Ezra smiled faintly.

He feinted again, only this time, he transitioned the feint into knocking the ball beyond Kiwior before quickly accelerating.

This time, he knocked the ball beyond Kiwior and accelerated.

Kiwior turned immediately, keeping close after anticipating the move well.

His arm came across Ezra’s shoulder as he chased him, but just as it seemed like a footrace, Ezra shrugged the arm and then whipped the ball right towards the centre.

Reyes was there, and he shaped to receive it, but feeling the presence behind him, Reyes didn’t hold the ball and only tipped it around the form of Declan Rice before moving his form across Rice.

Then Reyes collected it and immediately fed Leo.

”That’s excellent progression from Wigan! Good show of individual talent from this sequence!”

The move had already opened space in the midfield, leaving Odegaard the only player closest to Leo, but the pass a lot of people were expecting never came.

Leo instead chose to slow the game down, and when the Arsenal players slowed with him, he accelerated the pass.

His right foot caught underneath the ball and it climbed.

It travelled perfectly, hovering right around the area Fletcher was moving into.

The striker, before getting the ball, glanced at Raya and found the

goalkeeper was several yards off his line.

He would have brought it down, but with Saliba on one side of him and then Gabriel on the other, Fletcher attacked the dropping ball.

He climbed and then redirected it toward goal.

”OH, RAYA’S CAUGHT OFF HERE,” the commentator said curiously as Raya backpedalled.

He had misjudged the danger, and now the ball was heading over him.

The goalkeeper reached the edge of his six-yard box and knew that another step would mean the ball would drop faster than he could lunge, and so he launched himself upward.

And luckily, his fingertips found the ball, sending it right over the ball as the Wigan end applauded loudly.

”What a ball from Calderon,” the co-commentator said. ”And what an idea from Fletcher. He saw Raya off his line and nearly punished him for it.”

”But Raya was quick enough. Just about.”

The Arsenal players helped their keeper off the ground and patted him on the back for the save.

While they did so, Leo was already jogging toward the corner flag.

”Calderon is going over to take this corner,” the main commentator said, and at that, a chuckle came from beside him.

”Remember what he did from a corner against Manchester United?”

”I do.”

”Can he do it again?”

”I doubt it,” the main commentator said with a little laugh, ”but we can’t rule anything out for this young man!”

Leo stood over the ball, and when he looked into the penalty area, he found that Wigan had crowded Raya.

Fletcher was there.

Whatmough stood near the six-yard box, and Tiehi had also joined the group.

Leo watched Raya, trying to see through the bodies.

Then he made his decision.

He had seen Arsenal use the same uncertainty against them.

So he tried to create it himself.

Leo took a short run-up, looking like he would send it near post, but his foot struck through the ball and sent it travelling hard and high toward the far post.

Raya stepped forward, looking to pluck the ball out of the sky but then realised the bodies around him.

He jumped, but it wasn’t convincing.

His hand reached, but then he missed the ball by the smallest margin and right behind his hand, Tiehi attacked it.

His head met the cross, sending the ball right towards where it was coming from.

By some luck, the ball struck the back of Raya’s hand, causing it to drop, and unlike Arsenal’s corner, their own player reacted first.

Kiwior lunged towards the dropping ball and the clearance came hard, but instead of escaping, the ball smashed into Reyes.

It struck his thigh, and the rebound changed direction completely.

It rolled away from Raya, who could only watch as the ball crossed the line and then found a spot right at the base of the net.

”GOAL!” the Wigan supporters exploded.

”IT’S IN!”

For a moment, nobody seemed entirely certain how it had happened.

The ball had simply found its way through, but a goal was a goal, and the Wigan fans didn’t care too much for what happened as long as the ball was in the back of the net.

”It’s level at the Emirates!”

”Wigan have found their equaliser in the scrappiest fashion imaginable, and it is 1-all in the thirty-eighth minute!”

Reyes, despite the goal and how he usually was, didn’t celebrate.

He simply looked toward the goal, then jogged back toward his own half while his teammates followed.

”Sometimes you don’t care how they go in,” the co-commentator said.

”You certainly don’t.”

”Wigan have had to work for that. Arsenal were in control for long periods after taking the lead, but Wigan have stayed in the game.”

”And that is the response we were talking about.”

The main commentator looked down at the pitch as the Wigan players took their positions.

”They’ve been behind for roughly twenty minutes.”

”And now they’re level.”