Spanish flu: Roberto will be breaking out the paella

Good day fellow Latic fanatics and esteemed guests. I report to you from a rainy Hindley on the day of Wigan’s first and only home friendly (well, that’s if you don’t count the game at the Robin Park Arena) in preparation for the 2010/2011 campaign, which is now but ten days away.

A report on the Real Zaragoza match, which I am looking forward to, shall appear in due course, providing I make it back from the DW in one piece.

Now, readers, I am faced with a dilemma. Due to having a job that involves working Saturday afternoons, I am unlikely to make each home game as I did the previous season. In fact, I’m not sure how many I will actually be able to attend. Thus, it would be a bit of a gamble to get a season ticket… yet I probably will end up doing.

Can’t resist the temptation, you see. Even though there were some incredible downers in 2009/2010, nothing ever seems to discourage you from coming back for more. Am I sucker for punishment? Well, I wouldn’t say so – the victories over Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea more than made up for the bad times, at least in my opinion.

Work commitments (boo) mean I’m still unsure at this stage exactly what level of coverage JWAW will provide, or even what kind of direction we may take for the new season. In some ways that’s quite exciting because you never really know what’s around the corner, a bit like our team under Martinez. It’s a mini adventure.

One thing’s for sure, though. I shall attempt to keep JWAW Towers up and running for as long as the budget cuts and internet censors will allow. You see, I need this place to vent my spleen on matchdays almost as much as Pompey need a spare tenner. Well, I suppose that comment was uncalled for but I’ve typed it now so I can’t take it back.

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Not-so-quietly confident: Carlo Ancelotti

Once again, it has come down to this. Just like in 2008, Little Wigan find themselves with an opportunity to have a big say in where the title goes on the final day of the season, embarking upon a 200-odd mile trip to London in a bid to usurp Chelsea’s dominant position at the head of the table.

This time, however, things are going to be far more difficult, because of injuries to important players but also, perhaps most tellingly, because Chelsea are such a formidable force when in full flow – just ask Stoke City. Not that Manchester United of a few years ago weren’t, even if they left it later than they would have liked to clinch the Premier League at the then-JJB Stadium.

As we have seen, though, no side is completely infallible. It may seem Chelsea have nine and a half fingers on the fabled trophy — which isn’t quite as historically significant as the FA Cup, but a recognisable item in the world of football nevertheless — but you need only cast your mind back to September 2009 for an example of a major upset in this contest. By which I mean tiny Wigan beating gigantic Chelsea.

Sure, that particular David vs. Goliath showdown was at the JJB and not a hostile Stamford Bridge as it will be tomorrow. And there was no title at stake. And you could say Latics had the rub of the green that day, which certainly helped our cause. All of which points to a more comfortable day for Chelsea as they cruise to 2010 Premier League victory.

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For longer than I can remember, Wigan Athletic have had a special relationship with Man City that even George Bush and Tony Blair might recognise as a ‘friendship’. You see, it may be slightly off the radar to newer Latics fans (such as I, in fact), but the Blues have always been there to lend a hand where it’s been needed.

The first competitive game between Man City and a Wigan side was in 1898, when newly-formed Wigan County — the earliest attempt at establishing a football club in the town — unluckily lost 1-0 in an FA Cup Round One match.

As far as Wigan Athletic goes, the on-again, off-again relationship between the two towns can be traced back as far as 1966 when City visited Wigan for the grand opening of newly-installed floodlights at Springfield Park. After a close-fought FA Cup tie at Maine Road in 1971, the Latics would face their Manchester neighbours once more during the Seventies: an illustrious friendly at Springfield Park just one year before Wigan’s inception to the Football League. The rest, as they say, is history, and Manchester City played a big part in making it so.

It wasn’t until the late Nineties that Wigan-City contests became something of a semi-regular occurrence. Perhaps the most memorable of these was a Division 2 playoff match – the final ever game to be played at Springfield Park, which ended in a creditable 1-1 draw. Though Wigan would ultimately lose out in the two-legged tie, they would gain a modicum of revenge by beating City 1-0 in a 2002 Worthington Cup match thanks to a 35th minute Neil Roberts volley.

And that pretty much brings us up-to-date in the potted history of notable Latics-City contests. Monday night’s game sees perhaps the strongest Man City side of recent times take on a club in transition as the Roberto Martinez-led Latics pass and bumble their way to (hopefully) Premier League safety. City’s own Roberto M is looking to push for a Champions League place in what looks to be a competitive end-of-season run-in.

Right, that’s the (shamelessly biased) Wigan perspective. What we need at this point is an expert. Not just an expert, but a Manchester City expert; a lifelong supporter and professional Man United hater. Well, his blog’s URL states that Man U ruined him, so he must be. Paul Doleman of Bert Trautmann’s Neck has very kindly agreed to be interviewed on topics including Monday’s match, his side’s prospects for the season and a few other things too.

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What's Bob gonna do? Is the Moses plan out the window?

You might still be getting over Saturday’s dismal day at the Reebok Stadium this afternoon, but it’s time to put that to the back of your mind because there’s the chance for Latics to erase that memory with a good show tomorrow evening. Precedent suggests the ‘one good game, one bad game’ pattern has returned and this one should fall in our favour.

Those who don’t subscribe to kooky numerologist pap (read: everyone but Derren Brown) will be more realistic. Of course, there is the opportunity to complete a rare double over a top-half team, and at the DW Stadium a result is eminently possible – one need simply look to last Monday evening for evidence of that.

Most, however, prefer to take a cautiously pessimistic approach into Tuesday’s showdown, which will no doubt be a far tougher test of the Latics’ mettle. Three points will obviously be the target, but after Saturday’s ‘performance’ not many will hold out hope.

Gary Caldwell in particular will be kicking himself as, in two moments of madness, he saw Wigan’s hopes of grabbing some points fritter away into the warm(ish) late winter air. Charles N’Zogbia might also be reminiscing upon what might have been had he managed to beat Jaaskelainen from close range late in the first half.

The players have go to try and forget those ‘what could have been’ moments, however, and put themselves in a positive frame of mind. Think back just one week to the Monday’s memorable scenes at the DW and almost forget Saturday ever happened. In fact I’m already in the process of wiping my memory of the weekend via (entirely legal) intoxicants. Perhaps.

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