Lee Dixon: City to return to winning ways against Wigan

Dzeko may well be back on the scoresheet

Wigan have a knack of upsetting the Premier League's top teams but Lee Dixon can't see anything other than a Manchester City win at the DW Stadium on Wednesday night. 

 

Manchester City have slipped back to second place in the table but they remain undefeated. I'm afraid I can't really build a case for that changing at the DW Stadium on Wednesday night.

Wigan have produced amazing results against the big teams over the last few years. In fact, they turned the tide of last season's title race when they beat Manchester United here in May. However, although the Latics did pull off an excellent win over Tottenham this term, they tend to save their best form for the run-in. 

Roberto Martinez's team have been inconsistent this season and, after battling to beat Reading here on Saturday, City represent an entirely different level of opposition. They drew a rare blank in Sunday's 0-0 against Chelsea and I think they will be back to scoring ways here.

City kept Chelsea out and, although it was a consecutive clean sheet in the league, they've had problems in defence. Wigan aren't bad up front, Martinez's team always play attractive football when possible and they've notched a healthy 11 goals at home so far. I can definitely see both teams scoring at the DW, so back that.

We could be in for an entertaining game as all but one of Wigan's league matches here this season have produced three goals or more. Arouane Kone is their biggest threat, although Jordi Gomez will be fired up after his hat-trick against Reading. City's failure to score at Stamford Bridge was anomalous so I think Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko in particular will have more joy this time out. 

City are a far outfit superior to their north west rivals. They only won this one by a single goal last season but I expect them to prevail by a more emphatic margin on Wednesday. I like the look of the 1-3 at 14.013/1 with Dzeko to get at least one.

Recommended Bets
Back 1-3 @ 14.013/1
Back both teams to score 
Back over 3.5 goals @ 2.6813/8
Back Dzeko to score>   

The Tactical View: Michael Cox

It’s been difficult to predict City’s results recently, as Roberto Mancini has frequently switched between a back four and a back three. Here, he travels to the only side in the Premier League that play with a back three as their default formation – but I don’t think Mancini will want to play three-against-three in defence, so expect a standard back four.

City have been very impressive at winning games in the second half this season, and Wigan have conceded 15 of their 23 league goals after the break. Therefore, going Draw/Man City in the Half Time/Full Time at [5.0] seems good value.

The Betfair Trader's View: Alan Thompson

Wigan have only failed to score in one home game this season but that was against Chelsea. Against the top three sides over the last two seasons, Wigan have won one, drawn none and lost five. They've scored only one goal (in a 1-0 victory over Manchester United) but conceded 17, an average of 2.83 goals per game.

I don't think Manchester City will lose their unbeaten record here, so it's just a question of how to back them. For me that will be in the correct score market, backing 0-2, 1-2, 0-2 and 1-3, then looking to use the "cash out" button during the game.