Season Preview - Wigan Athletic

Quick Reminder, Real Life

Wigan avoided relegation last season, just barely, finishing in 16th thanks to some late season heroics by Charles N’Zogbia (now an Aston Villa player) in a dramatic come from behind victory against relegated West Ham. Aside from N'Zogbia and goalkeeper Ali Al-Habsi, who had a breakout season and has proven to be a very reliable Premier League goalkeeper with a nice arsenal of quite acrobatic highlight reel saves to his name, there wasn't much joy around Wigan. Hugo Rodallega took a step back and didn’t improve on his breakout 2009-2010 season and the likes of Gomez and Moses didn't step up. All things considered, however, Wigan did just what they set out to do - survive. A small budget club where television viewers can often witness empty seats at the DW Stadium, Wigan were able to do just enough.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

N’Zogbia was one of the best value plays in Premier League history last season (along with Blackpool’s Charlie Adam) but is now gone. Hugo Rodallega chipped in with just 9 goals but did manage 18 bonus points - a nice return. Ben Watson scored a few goals and picked up a few assists on set-piece duty proving to be a ‘poor man’s N’Zogbia’ from his midfield role, and Al-Habsi kept a few 7 clean sheets and managed the position well after Kirkland's disasterous start to the season.

Summer Changes

Season Preview - Aston Villa

Quick Reminder, Real Life

Last season started out with an odd choice for manager (Houlier) who didn’t make it through the year due to health reasons. The team that had been excellent the year before regressed terribly despite a lot of the same talent and they hovered just above the relegation zone for a good part of the first half. In January they added Darren Bent as a front line of John Carew/Emile Heskey and Gabby Agbonlahor just wasn’t getting it done. The new acquisition helped them climb from the depths of the table to 9th. Still, a disappointing finish given the talent on hand and the expectations created in 2009-10 when they flirted with a Top 4 spot until well into the season.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

BFAY (that’s Blog Favorite Ashley Young to the newly initiated), Downing, and DBent were exactly what you’d expect (very good) but also fairly expensive at this point. Albrighton and Clark were excellent values when they played. Friedel was a bit of a disaster in the first half but as tends to happen, his numbers improved along with the team’s fortunes in the second half. The forwards who started the season - Gabby, Carew, and Heskey - didn’t show much. Kyle Walker, a loan signing from Spurs, came on in the second half of the season and provided some good value when he was in the line-up. Left back Stephen Warnock disappeared after a very good 2009-10.

Summer Changes

Season Preview: Wigan Athletic

Overall Outlook - It's hard to know what to expect from Wigan's roster shuffling thus far.  More importantly, the question is whether that shuffling - specifically the "headed out the door" part is yet complete for the summer.  There have been persistent rumors that either N'Zogbia or Rodallega will be departing for clubs farther up the table.  If either of those players departs, the outlook at Wigan will be dramatically different than it would be with them.  There seems to be a growing base of solid talent but N'Zog and Yayga are the only two who have proven themselves to be potential match-winners.  While neither are so exceptional that they are going to push Wigan firmly into the top half, the lack of a couple proven match winners is going to make it very difficult for them to stay out of a relegation battle.  If both players stay, I predict something in the 13th to 16th place finish area.  If one goes then they'll probably survive but only just barely.  If both go, then we'll be seeing Roberto Martinez back in the Championship next season.

Figueroa out with injury

via Yahoo!UK/Eurosport:

Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa is facing several weeks on the sidelines after damaging knee ligaments during the 3-1 win at Burnley on Saturday.

Figueroa had to leave the field after only 28 minutes at Turf Moor having sustained the injury, while team-mate Paul Scharner required 10 stitches stitches in a facial wound he picked up creating the Latics' third goal for Emmerson Boyce.

The damage to Scharner is only superficial, but Figueroa's condition is more concerning for manager Roberto Martinez, who told the Wigan Evening Post: "Maynor has a grade two medial ligament problem in his left knee. We will assess it further to see how bad he is, but it doesn't look too good."

He added: "Normally with this sort of injury, you are talking about weeks rather than months - but the signs are not nice.

A few thoughts as Wigan travel to Pompey so are perhaps more fantasy-relevant than usual...

If as happened on Saturday, N'Zogbia drops back into defence then his value will be reduced.  The winner there would be Gomez who came on in the more attacking role.  However, the other option is that we might see Erik Edman (6.04) get a run at left back.

UPDATE: N'Zog set for defensive role as Edman is concussed. He'll be back in a month; Figueroa in three to four. So, could it be "Go time" for Gomez?