Premier League preview: Wigan v Manchester United

Manchester United will aim for their 13th successive victory against Wigan when they travel to the DW Stadium on Saturday.

Since the Latics were promoted to the Premier League for the first time in 2005, the two sides have met on 12 occasions with Sir Alex Ferguson’s men victorious on every occasion.

They have won 11 league meetings and thumped Wigan in the 2006 Carling Cup Final 4-0, having scored 39 goals in the matches including two 5-0 victories last season.

Amazingly, last year’s Premier League runners-up have conceded just four goals to Wigan in those 12 matches and will be keen for another victory to open up a four-point lead on championship rivals Arsenal in the hunt for this season’s title.

With Arsenal not in league action this weekend due to their Carling Cup final meeting with Birmingham on Sunday, the match takes on extra significance and Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney admitted Saturday’s fixture is vital.

“There are three massive games for us coming up now, Wigan, Chelsea and Liverpool, and then maybe Arsenal after that in the (FA) Cup,” Rooney said.

“It’s a massive time for us in the season and we’ll have to keep going and trying to create chances in those games. If we can get through those games, with a good amount of points, I’m sure we’ll be up there.”

The visitors are likely to make several changes to their side that drew 0-0 with Marseille in a dull Champions League affair on Wednesday, with Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Rafael all in contention to return to the first-team.

Rio Ferdinand is still out with a calf injury which he suffered in a shock 2-1 defeat at Wolves, Manchester United’s only league defeat of the season.

Wigan defender Emmerson Boyce revealed that his side were taking inspiration from Wolves’ upset win at Molineux and hopes his side can do the same.

“Games like Manchester United are the games you want to play in and are great occasions to experience,” Boyce said.

“Wolves showed a couple of weeks ago that United can be beaten, and we fancy our chances of doing the same.”

“People probably won’t fancy us to get anything off United, but Wolves picked up a bonus three points and we need to take heart from that. Anything, even a point, would be a massive boost for our survival chances.”

Wigan, who sit 18th in the Premier League and inside the relegation zone, could drop to the bottom of the table if West Ham and Wolverhampton record victories on the weekend.

And with four of their next five fixtures against top-five sides in the Premier League, Roberto Martinez’s side will be desperate to break their losing record against Manchester United and gain at least a point on Saturday.

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Premier League preview: Birmingham v Manchester City

Manchester City will have to readjust to life without England international Adam Johnson when they travel to Birmingham City on Wednesday.

City’s push for a maiden top-flight trophy of the English Premier League era faltered on January 22 when they went down 1-0 at Aston Villa thanks to Darren Bent’s goal on debut for the hosts.

The shock defeat, just their second in the past 14 fixtures, saw City fall six points adrift of league leaders and city rivals Manchester United on the table.

And it was compounded by Johnson’s ankle injury in training following the game, with the winger set to miss up to three months with ligament damage.

City boss Roberto Mancini promptly attempted to raid Birmingham for Swedish midfielder Sebastian Larsson, though his transfer bid was blocked by the West Midlands club on Monday’s deadline day.

Nevertheless, Mancini will welcome a trip to St Andrew’s, with Birmingham are struggling to keep themselves above the relegation zone.

The Blues are 17th on the table with 23 points, a mere point away from Wigan Athletic in the drop zone.

Their last time out at league level was a disaster, with Alex McLeish’s men falling 5-0 at the hands of a rampant Manchester United led by goal-machine Dimitar Berbatov on January 22.

But since that game Birmingham have recorded a gutsy 3-1 win over West Ham United in the League Cup and a 3-2 victory over Coventry City in the FA Cup, and McLeish will be hoping to transfer that winning feeling back into their top-flight campaign.

Mancini’s side also kept alive their FA Cup campaign with a 1-1 draw at Notts County on Sunday, notable for Edin Dzeko’s first English goal and the absence of Carlos Tevez.

The prolific Argentine sat out the fourth-round clash with a back complaint and could also miss Wednesday’s trip to Birmingham, joining fellow striker Mario Balotelli (knee) on the sidelines.

The Blues have no fresh injury concerns, and may have some new faces on the pitch in the form of recently acquired Aston Villa defender Curtis Davies and Rubin Kazan attacker Obafemi Martins.

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Why Manchester City are not top of the table at Christmas

A spirit that Mancini would love to have at City

Against Everton on Monday evening Manchester City had two thirds of the possession, twenty-five attempts on goal to Everton’s four and eleven corners to their opponents none. They also had four penalty appeals of which two, on another day, might have been given.

Unlucky

Looking at those statistics you would have to say that City were very unlucky to lose the game 2-1. However, having watched the game, I didn’t really think that they were.

The atmosphere at Eastlands was a little strange. Two hours before kick-off it had been announced that the talismanic Carlos Tevez had withdrawn his transfer request and committed his future to City. The fans also discovered that Tevez was not only playing in the game but was also keeping the captaincy.

Reception

That would surely have been great news for City and their fans and indeed, Tevez was given a good reception by the fans and manager Roberto Mancini was saying how delighted he was that his main striker was staying at the club.

The only problem with all of the above is that people are realistic and to most of them, the remarkable about turn undertaken by Tevez was a little difficult to understand.

Missing

Over the past few days and weeks Tevez has publicly fallen out with his manager about being substituted, amongst other things, talked about his understandable homesickness and missing his children, talked of so many broken promises and said that his relationship with certain executives at the club had broken down beyond repair. Then, after a quick chat all of that is forgotten and Tevez is committing his future to City. That is difficult to understand isn’t it?

We will all have to wait and see just how peaceful this apparent peace between club and player actually is. Certainly, against Everton Tevez was largely anonymous apart from one decent effort near the end well saved by Tim Howard.

Blow

The defeat against Everton will certainly not be a devastating blow to their chances of the title or at least a top four finish but it will have been disheartening. They would have been top of the Premier League at Christmas if they had managed to pick up the points but now they find themselves two points behind city rivals United who have played two games less. They also have a home record to look at which shows just four home wins from nine games and just nine goals scored.

Only scoring once from twenty-five attempts on Monday might sound unlucky or a bit of a freak occurrence, but for City it isn’t.

Attempts

Against Bolton, a 1-0 win. Nineteen attempts, one goal. Against Birmingham, a 0-0 draw. Twenty-one attempts, no goals. Against Blackburn, a 1-1 draw. Twenty attempts, one goal. And so it goes on.

That suggests that it isn’t an issue of bad luck, but something far more fundamental than that.

The main problem for City however was made very evident by the Everton players and manager. The manager made some excellent substitutions and tactical adjustments during the game to ensure that his side picked up an unlikely win. The players really died for the cause as well, throwing their body in the way of shots.

Celebrated

At the final whistle every one of the Everton players celebrated like they had won the Champions League. They were jumping on top of each other, thrusting their fists into the air and celebrating in front of and with their fans. The manager was on the pitch as well, shaking hands and hugging each individual player.

The stats show that City are the better side. The league table shows that City are the better side. The money spent on the team shows that City are the better side. A simple look at the players shows that City are the better side.

A look at the team spirit within the Everton camp shows why they won the game. What would Roberto Mancini give for a little bit of that?

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