Wigan Athletic V Manchester United

English Premiership 2009/2010

Wigan Athletic V Manchester United

Kick-Off: Saturday 22nd August – 15:00 GMT

Venue: The JJB

Wigan will be hoping to put their midweek disappointments to bed this weekend as they head into a local derby with the current champions of England in Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United. The ‘Red Devils’ on the other hand will be craving revenge for their midweek humiliation at the hands of Burnley and will look towards their local rivals as a punch bag. It’s very rare that you see Man Utd lose back-to-back games in the league so unfortunately for Wigan, we don’t hold out much hope for the home side.

After getting off to the best possible start, Wigan were soon given the reality check the players obviously needed on Tuesday when Roberto Martinez’s men crashed to a 1-0 home defeat at the hands of newly promoted Wolves. A result very few had predicted after Wigan’s heroics at Villa Park last Saturday. The defeat on home soil was bad enough but their performance really did leave a lot to be desired and that’s an issue Martinez will need to resolve as soon as possible.

Wigan started their game with Wolves at The DW Stadium in dreadful fashion last Tuesday conceding within six minutes of the kick-off and that early strike for the away side really did set the tone for the whole game. Wolves had the vast majority of chances with Wigan often showing very little in terms of quality in the final third. After putting in a sublime team effort on Saturday in their 2-0 victory against Aston Villa, their defeat to Wolves did come as a surprise and will leave punters a tad confused on how take Wigan now. Will they reassure the punters and bounce back against the Premier league champions? As much as we would love to see it, we highly doubt it!

The term ‘Wounded Animal’ often gets thrown about in sporting clashes but there is no better way to describe United at this moment in time. No one, apart from the Burnley fans of course, predicted that Burnley would pull off the shock of the season and beat the current Premiership champions at Turf Moor. That makes the loss even more humiliating as no one could see it coming and it’s now down to Sir Alex to resurrect United title defense ahead of a local derby with Wigan Athletic.

In all honesty, there was signs of a few possible flaws in United’s 1-0 victory over Birmingham last weekend. The ‘Red Devils’ never really asserted themselves in that game either and they certainly did nothing of the sort on Wednesday. United simply weren’t at the races as Michael Owen and ‘Fergie’ would say. Ferguson claimed he was in charge of his best United squad last season but with Ronaldo and Tevez now gone, United now look a tad vulnerable in terms of quality in depth. Berbatov and Owen are their only strikers at current and that simply won’t cut it in the Premiership. Not only are both inadequate but a major injury to either, and that’s very likely knowing Michael Owen’s injury record, and Sir Alex will be left with no first-class strikers on the bench. That’s certainly food for thought for the United gaffer.

Head-to-Head: Wigan Athletic W: 0 Manchester United W: 8 Draws: 0

As you can see Man Utd have an immaculate record against Wigan in the Premiership. They’ve played each other eight times in the space of four season with the ‘Red Devils’ winning all eight. That’s a lean head-to-head record for United and one that probably won’t come to an end this weekend, unfortunately. However, Wigan did push Man Utd close last season eventually going down 2-1 at home with a late Michael Carrick strike sealing  Wigan’s fate. The ‘Latics’ made an impressive start that night and they will need something similar on Saturday if they’re to finally take points off Manchester United.

Match Verdict: Manchester United to WIN – 8/15 Bet365

Everyone will now be waiting for United to slip up twice in succession but they’ve enjoyed this fixture in recent years and it’s hard to see that changing at present despite their apprant issue with their squad. Wigan were extremely poor at home on Wednesday night and another poor performance like that and Wigan may as well not bother turning up. United weren’t really poor against Burnley but were dreadful in terms of finishing. However, they’ve never had any trouble finding the net in this fixture and we doubt that will come to an end at the weekend. United rarely lose twice in succession and although a draw isn’t completely out of the question, we fancy United to make a quick recovery and use local rivals Wigan as their springboard to bigger things.

Match Odds:

Wigan Athletic – 13/2 Totesport

Manchester United – 8/15 Bet365

Draw – 3/1 SportingBet

SoccerBetting Tip: Draw – Man Utd (HT/FT) – 10/3 VictorChandler