Latics Show City Too Much Respect

Wigan Athletic set their stall out to play a tight game against their mega rich neighbours but once Carlos Tevez had lobbed Al-Habsi in the 42nd minute to give Manchester City the lead they ended up playing like rabbits caught in the headlights.

Latics boss Roberto Martinez made two changes from the side that drew with Sunderland, Franco Di Santo started up front in place of his fellow countryman Mauro Boselli and Charles N`Zogbia was brought back into the team for the unfortunate Ronnie Stam.

Latics started the game playing a defensive 4-5-1 with Di Santo getting little to no support up front as the home side looked more set on stopping their opponents from scoring than going in search of goals themselves.

The playing surface was very slippery following a deluge of rain in the past 24 hours and players from both sides had trouble keeping their feet, to be honest that was the peak of the entertainment in the first 40 minutes as neither side created anything of note.

With half-time fast approaching City keeper Joe Hart took a goal kick and slipped onto his backside that had the home supporters laughing though the laughter soon died away, from the punt up field Tevez found himself running clear of the Latics back line, with Al-Habsi rushing out the little Argentine coolly lobbed the Latics keeper from 20 yards to give the away side a half-time lead that they didn`t really deserve.

The second half started with the Latics looking very nervous and creating all sorts of problems for themselves with wayward passing and comical defending, time and time again putting themselves under pressure with passing along the back line instead of simply clearing their lines in the atrocious conditions.

With 20 minutes left on the clock Figueroa made a hash of a clearance, Tevez pounced, squared the ball to Yaya Toure who side footed into an empty net at the far post.

Steve Gohouri had Latics best chance of the game with a header that flashed inches wide with 10 minutes of the game left, so the run of three without defeat comes to an end and it`s back to the drawing board.

Confusing moment of the game, Victor Moses stripped and ready on the touch line for a full 9 minutes before coming on to replace Charles N`Zogbia, what was all that about?

Wigan Athletic
Al Habsi; Boyce (Stam, 65), Gohouri, Alcaraz, Figueroa; Thomas, Diame (Watson, 86); N’Zogbia (Moses, 86), McCarthy, Rodallega; Di Santo

Subs: Kirkland, S. Caldwell, Gomez, Boselli

Manchester City
Hart; Richards, K. Toure, Kompany, Zabaleta; Silva (A. Johnson, 72), Barry, Y. Toure (Jo, 74), De Jong, Milner; Tevez (Wright-Phillips, 88)

Subs: Given, Boyata, Vieira, Santa Cruz