Wigan Athletic vs Manchester City Preview: Can the Latics cause a monumental upset?

Manchester City will be looking to continue their hunt for an unprecedented quadruple on Monday evening as they travel to the DW Stadium to take on Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup fifth round.

Wigan Athletic vs Manchester City Preview: Can the Latics cause a monumental upset?
samstraw
By Sam Straw

Manchester City will be looking to continue their hunt for an unprecedented quadruple on Monday evening as they travel to the DW Stadium to take on Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup fifth round.

Pep Guardiola's side picked up another impressive victory in midweek as they demolished FC Basel 4-0 in the first leg of their last 16 tie in the Champions League in Switzerland. 

As for Wigan, they were defeated in their last outing as they lost to Blackpool 2-0 at the DW Stadium which has slightly dented their aspirations of automatic promotion to the Championship this season. 

How they've fared so far 

Since they managed to lure manager Paul Cook away from Portsmouth in the summer, the Latics have enjoyed a huge amount of success. It normally takes time for teams relegated from the Championship to adapt to League One but Wigan have performed very impressively so far this season and look set for an immediate return to the second tier, potentially as champions. 

They do have a couple of players who are arguably too good for League One and have helped them significantly this season. The likes of Will Grigg and Nick Powell have scored 15 and 12 goals respectively this season and have really given the Latics that extra bit of quality in the final third when they have needed it. 

23-year-old midfielder Powell, formerly of Manchester United, did receive quite a lot of interest from other teams in the January transfer window but ultimately remained at the DW Stadium. Premier League side Brighton & Hove Albion were one side who were reportedly interested in the midfielder which shows how much he has impressed so far this season. 

As for City, it has been an almost faultless season so far and they are still well on-track in the Premier League, Champions League, Carabao Cup and the FA Cup. Due to the depth of their squad and the number of quality players at Guardiola's disposal, you would not put it past City breaking further records this season. 

Since Liverpool managed to end their unbeaten run in January with a 4-3 win at Anfield, City have won six out of their seven games in all competitions. The only team to prevent them from making that seven out of seven is Burnley as they held them to a 1-1 draw at Turf Moor a couple of weeks ago. 

They are huge favourites to progress to the quarter-finals against the Latics and should have enough quality to see off the League One outfit, even if they do make a number of changes to the starting line-up.

Last time they met 

The Latics have managed to beat City in their last two meetings in the FA Cup. A late Ben Watson goal ensured they beat City 1-0 in the 2013 Final. This was then followed a year later by another shock victory as goals from Jordi Gómez and James Perch ensured the Latics won 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium in the quarter-finals of the competition. 

Team news 

Wigan captain Sam Morsy is unavailable for this fixture as he begins his two-match suspension after picking up his 10th yellow card of the season in midweek. The likes of Devante Cole, James Vaughan and Donervon Daniels are all cup-tied and therefore also unavailable for selection. 

As for City, Gabriel Jesus has recently returned to training but he is unlikely to be risked in this fixture. The likes of Leroy Sane, David Silva and Fabian Delph all featured in midweek in Switzerland and it will be interesting to see if they play a part again in this one.

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About the author
Sam Straw
VAVEL Championship Editor. Journalism Student at The University of Sheffield. Nottingham Forest Season-Ticket Holder. Contributing to VAVEL UK since October 2016.