Wigan vs Man Utd – Preview

By: Wayne Farry | May 13th, 2009

Tonight we play Wigan Athletic at the JJB Stadium (or soon to be DW Stadium) safe in the knowledge that a win will leave us in need of just one point from our final two games of the season to clinch the title.

United come into this game in stunning form, having beaten Man City at home on Saturday and having won seventeen of their last nineteen games in total. Wigan, meanwhile, haven’t won in five games, and having looked good for a Europa League spot, are now suffering from Charlton syndrome (not relegation obviously, a poor end to the season). Their main problem has been their inability to score and if they want any chance of halting their slide down the table they’ll need their strikers to be firing on all cylinders. Not Zaki though, who’s out with ankle problems.

United have two main fitness worries in the form of Jonny Evans and Rio. Rio tweaked his calf in training during the week while Evans strained his hammie against City on Saturday. If both are injured, JOS will step in but Fergie is said to be hopeful that they’ll be alright.

Scholesy, Rooney and Carrick are set to return after being rested for the match on Saturday. What remains to be seen is whether Ronaldo or Tevez feature. Tevez ruffled a few feathers with his comments at the weekend but did score during a great performance against City, meanwhile, Ronaldo has also caused some controversy with the way he reacted to being subbed during the same game. Considering his reaction to simply being subbed, I don’t think he’d like being left out for a potentially huge game, so I expect him to start.

I’m feeling good about this match. Bruce’s side are in dire form and falling fast, and if United can take advantage of that it could be a walk in the park. Bruce, however, will be dying to get one up on his former manager and his players could be really pumped for this one. Still, with the form we’re in and with every player dying to claim a place in the CL Final we could see some great performances tonight. Also, we won the title here last season so I feel it’s a bit of a lucky charm.

My prediction has to 3-0 to United! Oh also, here’s a potential link to a live stream of the match.

Match Squads

Wigan: Kingson, Melchiot, Figueroa, Edman, Boyce, Bramble, Scharner, Valencia, Koumas, De Ridder, Cattermole, Brown, Watson, N’Zogbia, Kapo, Mido, Rodallega, Sibierski, Pollitt.

Man Utd: Van der Sar, Foster, Kuszczak, Rafael, O’Shea, Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evans, Evra, Ronaldo, Nani, Carrick, Scholes, Fletcher, Anderson, Park, Giggs, Rooney, Tevez, Berbatov, Macheda.

So there we have it, leave your comments, hopeful first XIs and predictions below. Cheers.