Wigan v Manchester City, Venue: DW Stadium Kick-off: 8pm On TV: Sky Sports 1:MANCHESTER CITY assistant manager David Platt does not believe there will be a change of philosophy from Wigan even though the Latics have been dumped back to the foot of the Premier League.
After claiming an encouraging 10 points from an eight-game run that included fixtures against Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool, a woeful home defeat by Sunderland brought an air of gloom to Wigan once more.
Since then, Bolton and Blackburn have managed victories so Roberto Martinez’s men are rock bottom again as they prepare to entertain the league leaders tonight.
Yet Platt knows Martinez too well to believe he will be panicked into changing a free-flowing style that has served him so well throughout his managerial career.
“Wigan play football and they won’t go away from that,” he said. “They had a very bad run . . . but Roberto Martinez has his own style and he will stick to his philosophies.”
Wigan offer opponents the space to play instead of relying on an ability to scrap which, in theory, should play right into City’s hands.
However, it cannot be ignored that alongside heavy defeats to Arsenal and United came draws against Chelsea and Liverpool. And in the case of Chelsea, Martinez’s team were decidedly unlucky just to come away with a point.
Even in the middle of that run of eight successive defeats Wigan overcame the handicap of playing with 10 men to give Tottenham a run for their money.
“Wigan have picked up just recently in terms of the points they have taken,” said Platt. “We know it will be difficult.”
With skipper Vincent Kompany serving the second game of his four-match ban and Kolo Toure on African Nations Cup duty, 21-year-old Montenegro international Stefan Savic is set to continue at centre back.
Samir Nasri would hope to have more involvement too as City look to emerge from a run of just one win in their last five games, which has seen their prowess in front of goal drastically curtailed.
Not that Platt is fazed by that.Victory will take City three points clear of Manchester United and five ahead of Tottenham.
“It’s an obvious thing to say, but . . . in our position that means not getting less than two points fewer than the others . . . everything else is irrelevant.”
