Wigan Preview: Another San Siro Performance Please 8 March, 2008

After a massive night in the San Siro earlier in the week, we now have to travel up to cold and wet Wigan in the Premier League. It’s one hell of a scenery change, but that shouldn’t mean we change our game. We want another great performance to continue our title chase and put the pressure on Manchester United and Chelsea who both got knocked out the FA Cup today. Ha! Yes, Chelsea were playing Barnsley.

So we’ve got an opportunity to go 4 points clear tomorrow, Man United and Chelsea will have a game in hand but it will still put pressure on the to perform.

The squad’s a little thin for tomorrow’s game. Diaby, Denilson and Walcott are the latest casualties meaning Fabregas will probably have to play right wing. He’s not bad there, but we’ll miss him in the middle. He proved on Tuesday night that he is an important cog in our midfield machine so hopefully it wont be so bad if we shift him out to the right.

There are a few options for tomorrow’s first 11 but here’s my best guess:

We could maybe start Hoyte on the right wing; I don’t think that’s a bad shout. The Gilberto and Flamini pairing in the middle might be a little defensive. We’ll just have to wait and see what Wenger does, I’m sure he’ll sort it out.

It’s not going to be easy going up to the JJB tomorrow, the pitch is going to be shit so I think it’s going to be more of a battle than a skilful display. With Bendtner and Ade upfront we’ve got two targets to hoof long balls at so maybe we might get away without doing all the intricate passes we’re used to.

In recent times, it’s taken a late goal from us to take the points; I think we might need another one tomorrow. I see it being a one or two nil win with us dominating the game but Wigan keeping it 0-0 for most of the match. Hopefully though, we just completely outclass them and it’s a walk in the park.

Kick off tomorrow is at 4 and it’s on Sky Sports. I’m not going, wish I was though, might ask some people if there are any spares about. I’ll speak to you with the match report soon, until then.