The Blues have had a relatively brief time to reflect on the defeat to Everton and build up for the visit of Steve Bruce’s side, with Sven keen to record the Blues’ first Premier League win over the Latics.
He says, “Saturday is a new game and nothing to do with history. We lost to Arsenal and Everton, so it’s time to win at home again. We have 11 games to go, it’s important to win as many as we can for our position in the table but also to see that we have a team that will not give up this season.
“It’s important that we start winning at home again, starting with Wigan, to get as many points as possible and lift ourselves back up the table.”
Monday’s defeat saw City come back down to earth after the euphoria of the win at Old Trafford, so Sven knows that’s been important to lift spirits at training ahead of today’s game.
“We’ve talked about it,” he continues, “which was important because we conceded two goals far too easily against Everton. But we didn’t play much bad football, if you had asked me after 25 minutes I would have said to carry on playing as we were doing.
“I don’t know if it will be that much different against Wigan. They will sit back, defend and try to hit on the counter-attack. They will try to mark our strikers out onto the wings, and of course mark Elano wherever he plays, deep or high up. That’s normal, Wigan are fighting for their lives and they are coming to us with nothing to lose.”
