Manchester United 3 Wigan Athletic 1

For the visit to Old Trafford and Wigan were hoping that after learning of Chelsea’s draw against Reading, then maybe we could catch United being a bit smug. The resounding answer was a big fat ‘NO’. If anything this result just fired them up even more.

Man United must have wondered how they weren’t 4 or 5 nil up by the break. They had exacted 10 shots at the Wigan goal, with Rooney having four of those. The Latics on the other hand, couldn’t even boast one shot for their troubles. Both teams had made huge changes to their starting lines ups and the Latics were very happy to for the half to end 0-0.

The second half saw Cristiano Ronaldo take to the field instead of Darren Fletcher. Within a minute of being on the pitch he had a shot saved that went for a corner and from that corner he headed the opening goal.

Three minutes later Teale bundled over Park in the box and Ronaldo stepped up to take the penalty. Kirkland saved the original kick, but was helpless to do anything as the ball bounced straight back to him for an easy tap in. Four minutes gone, 2-0.

Wigan then resorted back to a more familiar 4-4-2 formation, which at least saw us compete against a no messing Manchester United team. We even had a couple of efforts at goal, with Matt Jackson and David Wright making Edwin Van der Sar work.

From one of these attacks though, the ball was cleared long from the Manchester half, Boyce lost out to Rooney who headed the ball to the impressive Solskjaer and he slotted the ball calmly past the Wigan Keeper to make it 3-0 on the hour.

Wigan battled on and did have the final say though, with Silvestre uplifting Wright in the box, another penalty was awarded from which the Captain Leighton Baines confidently put away the consolation goal.

We now have to look forward to the Watford game on Saturday, closely followed by the Blackburn game on New Years Day. Two games in which I am sure Paul Jewell will be looking to get maximum points out of.