Wigan Athletic have secured yet another season in the top flight in spite of flirting with relegation for most of
the campaign. The Latics dwelled in the bottom three from mid October till Easter when they started a fabulous run of results to exit the drop zone ending up in 15th place on 43 points. Roberto Martinez turned down Aston Villa's offers at the start of the season and remained at the helm, with the firm intention to bring Wigan some much needed consistency in their results. The Spaniard had lost important players such as Charles N'Zogbia and Tom Cleverley but made sure keeper Ali Al Habsi remained at the club. Otherwise, there was little reinforcement to the squad apart from the addition of former Wolves midfielder Dave Jones. With only three wins in the first phase of the season, the Latics nosedived straight away and hit rock bottom after nine games. Their home form was particularly poor, with only one win at the DW stadium until the end of March. Hugo Rodallega, who had been the providential man many times before, strugggled with his form and injury throughout the season, which left the front roles to Franco Di Santo and Victor Moses. Both strikers failed to hit the mark with any consistency until the late stages of the season, which meant Wigan were the lowest scoring side in the football league at Easter. Defensively, the Latics, in spite of Ali Al Habsi's best efforts, remained porous at best until late in the season. Roberto Martinez brought in Shaun Maloney and Jean Beausejour in the January transfer window, which didn't improve results initially. After a time of adaption, however, Maloney settled in the side in the playmaker role with Beausejour occupying the left flank and Di Santo and Moses in the attack. Mohammed Diame struggled to get back in the side after the Africa Cup of Nations round the turn of the year as James McCarthy and James McArthur imposed themselves in central midfield. The defence remained mostly unchanged as it slowly improved throughout the season, with Gary Caldwell and Antolin Alcaraz in the middle and Emerson Boyce and Maynor Figueroa at full backs. Wigan were still staring at relegation in mid-March when a rather lucky away win at Anfield kickstarted a great run of results. In all, they won seven out of the last nine games of the season, with wins over Arsenal away and at home against Man Utd and Newcastle, which propelled them out of the drop zone. They even had the luxury, unlike last season, of securing safety with one game to spare and were able to celebrate in front of their fans on the final day with a win over Wolves.
