[center]Manchester City v Wigan Athletic
Wednesday 17th March 2013
KO 7.45pm
Referee: Anthony Taylor
[/center]So in a fortnight where our supporters have visited Old Trafford (£49+), Wembley, Swansea tickets were announced (£45), the FA Cup final kick off time was announced as 5.15 City still have league fixtures at home to Wigan Athletic (cheapest ticket £37) and at Tottenham Hotspur (£52). It’s been an expensive, exhaustive and exciting couple of weeks to be a City supporter.
Sunday was a terrific day and I have to say I love being in London for the Semi Finals even if I’m not too keen about paying near enough £4 for a beer and leaving at 7am to get there. It was a beautiful sunny day when we arrived; we found a terrific beer garden full of blues and took the decision to walk through Wembley with all its sight and sounds. It was terrifically busy with the locals doing their shopping and blues everywhere searching looking for somewhere to drink. Around the ground Wembley is like no other stadium in its scale and I recommend it to anyone fortunate to get a ticket.
As for the game, we started where we left off against United and could have been clear and away by half time such was our domination. Sergio’s header was a good a header as your ever likely to see at Wembley and the game looked as a good as over.
Then all of a sudden, Yaya misplaced a pass into touch, Chelsea made a substitution, City switched off and they scored. Game on.
After that it was a completely different game and for the last half an hour I doubt City managed to string 4 passes together successfully. We still had chances and it was up to Pantillimon to make 3 or 4 terrific saves to keep us in it. He also came up big with a couple of excellent catches from crosses taking the pressure off where Hart would have been forced to punch.
It was quite incredible how rag legged we looked in the final minutes and anyone would have thought we’d have been the ones to have stepped off a plane fresh from Moscow. However we hung on and we know have a date in May to enjoy whilst our spoiler neighbours convince themselves they sell out every week.
Wigan Athletic
It was hilarious to hear the faux-outrage last week about how Wigan Athletic, who were only formed in 1932 and joined the football league in 1978, were crucified for ‘only’ selling 21,000 tickets for their semi final. In a town with a population of just 81,000 and contains huge support for City, United, Everton, Liverpool and Wigan Warriors as well as Wigan the suggestion was a ludicrous as a certain clubs suggestion that we have ‘no history’.
This will be advertised as a dress rehearsal for the FA Cup final but both sides will still have plenty to play for as we look to secure second place, and silence the sniping of the pretenders behind us, whilst Wigan, currently 18th and 3 points (with 2 games in hand) from safety, look to close the gap between themselves Wigan, Stoke and Sunderland. Team selection could be interesting as Wigan also travel to West Ham at the weekend and the question will be will Roberto Martinez (or Mancini for that matter?) want to give anything away for the final?
My belief is that Martinez will genuinely believe he has a chance of upsetting the odds and collecting at least a point if he plays his full strength side based on how tired we looked at the end at Wembley and the fact that his side will have had an extra day to recover.
They have a quality goalkeeper in Ali Al-Habsi but there back line can be exposed as they play a three man defence of Alcaraz, Boyce and Figueroa. The movement of our strikers could cause them real issues.
Wigan have a very technically gifted midfield of James McCarthy and the sometimes awful, sometimes brilliant but never breaks into a sweat Jordi Gomez who are protected by the returning Paul Scharner. On the wings is where they could really hurt us with the nimble Jean Beausejour and Callum McManaman.
I saw Callum McManaman in September against Fulham where he came on as a substitute and really changed the game. Everyone has to be put into the class of world class talent or failure these days but he could be an exciting Premier League player for Wigan.
Up front they have the option of Shaun Maloney, who should get a standing ovation for that goal against United last season, in the hole behind the striker and is a tricky little player with a deadly free kick. Up top they have the non-Michu bargain of the season in Arouna Kone who will be a good player for a long time if they can hang on to him and the ever improving Franco Di Santo as back up.
City
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[/center]It would be tempting for ourselves to heavily rotate the side ahead of the game so as not to give anything away but we can strike a real psychological blow ahead of the final. We are told that David Silva is unlikely to be fit and that Sergio Aguero will not face retrospective action for that ‘challenge’ against David Luiz.
I cannot imagine the need to change the team unless there are injuries we are not aware of. Phyisioroom suggest that Maicon and Micah Richards will be fit for selection for tomorrow’s game but I wouldn’t rush either side back to the first team this season. Perhaps Dzeko will get a rare start.
Prediction
As always if we play with some purpose and tempo we’ll win the game comfortably. Wigan are a good footballing side but they can be hopelessly exposed at the back.
3-0 City without ever really getting out of first gear
