Stress free as Arsenal batter Wigan
Handbrake Off: The Athletic FC's Arsenal show
The Athletic
4.6 • 734 Ratings
🗓️ 16 February 2026
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Amy Lawrence and Adrian Clarke join Ian Stone to discuss Arsenal’s 4-0 win against Wigan at Emirates Stadium in the FA Cup on Sunday.
The panel reflect on the hunger of the squad after nine changes to the starting 11, Martinelli playing like he was on a mission, wanting to see more of Saka in midfield, Eze seizing his opportunity by pulling the strings, Kepa’s great response to Setford coming on for his debut, Norgaard setting a great example in the squad and hoping to see more of him after his performance.
Plus, they look ahead to the match away to Wolves in the league on Wednesday night and respond to some listeners emails.
If you like the panel’s song choices, check out the ‘Now that’s what I call Handbrake’ playlist on Spotify and listen to them all here:
Producer: Robby Williams
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic FC |
| 0:03.3 | The only way to score is of course to play with a handbreak-off. |
| 0:14.6 | Hello, I'm Ian Stone. This is Handbreak-off, the Arsenal podcast brought to you by The Athletic. |
| 0:19.3 | We're going to be chatting about Arsenal's 4-0 win against Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup yesterday. |
| 0:25.1 | And look ahead of the Wolves away on Wednesday night. |
| 0:28.4 | I'm joined by Adrian Clark and Amy Lawrence. |
| 0:30.1 | Good morning. |
| 0:30.8 | Hello. |
| 0:31.5 | Hi there. |
| 0:32.2 | Hi. |
| 0:33.0 | I was going to ask, as an opening question, something about pies, right? But I've got to be |
| 0:39.4 | honest with you. I wasn't at the game yesterday, so I wasn't totally sure what this was about. |
| 0:44.6 | But essentially, Gunasaurus and Wiggins mascot, Krusty Pie, had a penalty shootout yesterday, |
| 0:49.9 | right? Is that right? That is right. That is right. So we were wondering what pie you would give to one of our players? Any particular fillings? I mean, what sort of question is this? It's Amy's question. It's Amy's. Seriously. I mean, this is. I want it's something. I'm going to own it. I wanted something much more highbrow. Amy went, no, no, no. Not, no. The handbraith. I missed the penalty shootout, but when I came back out for the second half, after having a pie of my own at half time, Archie Wintuck, who's brilliant, works for ESPM, great guy. He was waxing lyrical about Gunasaurus being ruthless in this penalty shootout against crusty the pie. |
| 1:27.8 | So yeah, so I did hear about it. |
| 1:29.3 | It was the talk of the press box. Was it? And you had a pie, by the way. Did you? You had a pie at a lot of them? Yeah, it was like an apple pie with custard. That's pudding, mate. We're not talking about, are we talking about pudding, Amy? It's still a pie. Well, a pie's a pie. Anyway, what's all pie? |
| 1:43.4 | I mean, I don't really get the question. |
| 1:45.3 | I like custard pies, because it's funny, isn't it? |
| 1:47.9 | Just a shrew. Well, a pie's a pie. Anyway, what's all pie? I mean, I don't really get the question. |
| 1:45.3 | I like custard pies because it's funny, isn't it, just to shove a custard pie in someone's face. |
| 1:50.3 | But I don't want to be too mean. |
| 1:51.9 | I was going to say, which of our players do want to shove a custard pie? |
... |
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