Today the news emerged that Stoke striker Ricardo Fuller was arrested on suspicion of assault after an incident took place in a Stoke-on-Trent nightclub on Saturday night, while the Jamaican was out celebrating the day’s excellent Premier League victory over Blackburn. While this is just the latest in a long line of misdemeanours from Fuller, it will no doubt have had a negative effect on Tony Pulis’s side’s preparations for tomorrow’s trip to the DW Stadium to face Wigan in another league match.

Form is on the side of the Potters though, as they remain unbeaten in 2010, having won four and drawn two of six matches so far this year, scoring three goals in all of those wins and producing some of their best football of the season so far. Wigan, however, have been struggling recently. The decade started brightly enough for Roberto Martinez and his players, as they brushed past Hull in the FA Cup and won away at Wolves in the league, but the last three weeks have been far less enjoyable for Latics fans as they saw their side crash out of the cup at the hands of League Two Notts County and then take just one point out of available nine from their last three top flight matches, losing to Everton and Blackburn and drawing at Sunderland on Saturday.

In short, they are as unpredictable as Pulis’s centre midfield selections. They have had some excellent results this season, including a superb home triumph over league leaders Chelsea, as well as some absolutely dreadful ones; who could forget their humiliating 9-1 mauling at the hands of Spurs in November. Former Swansea boss Martinez, in his debut season as manager of the club where he spent six years as player, has them playing some attractive, expansive football at times, but at others their soft centre has been very clear to see, all adding up to a rather underwhelming campaign to date as they currently sit sixteenth with 23 points on the board, five places and six points worse off that the Potters.

The last meeting of the two clubs, a 2-2 draw at the Britannia Stadium in December, illustrates well the duality that exists in the Wigan squad. That day they showed they are able to get results the ugly way, taking the lead through a brave Emmerson Boyce header after a scrappy set piece and on occasion produce the magnificent, with left back Maynor Figueroa beating Stoke goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen with a perfectly struck, opportunistic free-kick from inside his own half. They lacked the stability at the back to hold onto their leads though, conceding two equalisers, to Tuncay and Ryan Shawcross after some non-existent marking, while they were also without the real clinical edge that would soon see them climb the table, with Hugo Rodallega, a reported target for Stoke during the January transfer window, fluffing his lines when presented with the chance to claim his side all three points at the death with a penalty, striking it tamely at Sorensen.

Pulis will be hopeful that it is the weaker of Wigan’s two facets that is on show tomorrow night, but will still be confident of getting a positive result however the Latics play. He will have a fully fit squad as his disposal as he looks to do so, as skipper Abdoulaye Faye has recovered from the back injury that ruled him out of the game against Blackburn. He should return at the heart of defence. Right back Andy Wilkinson is fit to play despite sustaining a nasty gash on his head making a superbly committed clearance on Saturday, but is the most likely player to drop to the bench to accommodate the Senegalese international, which would signal Robert Huth moving from the middle to the right side of defence. Pulis has hinted that he could make changes to his midfield, so Salif Diao and Glenn Whelan could well return to the side at the expense of Rory Delap and Liam Lawrence, while Tuncay, whose strike against Wigan was his first in a Stoke shirt, could well return to partner Mamady Sidibe up front, particularly in the wake of Fuller’s weekend debacle. Goalkeeper Asmir Begović could make his Stoke debut if he is preferred to Sorensen after joining the club for £3.25 million from Portsmouth.

Wigan’s Ivorian international left back Steve Gohouri, who joined the club three weeks ago, is ruled out with a hamstring problem but will be Martinez’s only absentee. The Spaniard’s other two mid-season additions, forwards Victor Moses and Marcelo Moreno, are in line to make their full debuts, will ‘keeper Chris Kirkland has recovered from the latest in a long line of injuries and should keep the on loan Serb Vladimir Stojković out of the side.

Key Battles:

Hugo Rodallega v Abdoulaye Faye
Last season, the burly Colombian forward Rodallega was one of a select few who gave Faye a hard time physically. The Lancashire side’s top scorer is central to a lot of their attacking aspirations, so if he is able to get the better of Faye on his return from injury it would do Wigan’s chances of breaking through the Stoke defence no end of good.

Paul Scharner v Dean Whitehead
In December, Scharner was arguably Wigan’s most effective player. The Austrian international is capable of operating at centre back or anywhere in the midfield and his clash with Stoke centre midfielder Dean Whitehead, who has been outstanding in recent months despite an inauspicious start to his career at the Britannia Stadium, should be an interesting one.

Emmerson Boyce v  Matthew Etherington
Stoke left winger Etherington has been so good this season he has been strongly linked with a call up to Fabio Capello’s England squad. He has five goals and eight assists to his name already this campaign and will be confident of adding more to that list when he comes up against Boyce, who has been playing out of position at right back recently. The former Crystal Palace and Luton man is better known as a centre back and the pacy Etherington will look to exploit his lack of experience as a full back, although he did play mostly in the position at the start of his career.

Wigan’s Star Man: Charles N’Zogbia

 Like Stoke with Etherington, Wigan’s biggest threat comes down their left flank, with their wing protagonist being 23 year-old Frenchman Charles N’Zogbia. Born in Normandy, N’Zogbia, who is the second cousin of top tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, was brought up in Paris and was signed to the Le Havre youth team in 2002. He never signed for the club on professional terms though, instead agreeing to make the move across theChannel and sign for Newcastle as a seventeen year-old in 2004. He was the last player to be signed by the later Sir Bobby Robson at St. James’ Park, with Robson describing him as one of the most “naturally gifted” players he had ever seen. He made fourteen Premier League appearances during his first season on Tyneside and quickly became a regular and favourite at Newcastle. His time at the club went sour just over a year ago though, when then interim manager Joe Kinnear’s pronunciation of his name as “insomnia” prompted him to declare that he would never play for the club again. Although he may have realised he was lucky not to be called something far stronger by the expletive-loving Kinnear, N’Zogbia was true to his word, joining Wigan last January for a fee of £6 million plus defender Ryan Taylor. He has settled in very well at the DW Stadium, playing 36 Premier League games for the Latics to date, scoring five goals. Though he won thirteencaps for France at Under 21 level, he has never represented his country as a full international and recently became eligible to play for England, having resided in the country for five years. A call up from Capello looks unlikely, but if he continues to impress in a Wigan shirt, who knows what the future holds for N’Zogbia.

My Prediction:

Wigan Athletic 0-0 Stoke City – I foresee the Potters extending their unbeaten run to seven, albeit unspectacularly after another goalless draw on the road.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!