West Ham Must Take Note Of Wigan's Dangerous Trio

Like everyone else, I watched the Wigan-Arsenal match and thought that this was the perfect game for the Gunners to capitalise and moved back to within three points of Chelsea. In the first half and three minutes of the second half, everything was going according to script for Arsene Wenger's team.

Perhaps it was confidence, perhaps arrogance, perhaps inexperience and indisciplined but what transpired was Arsenal allowed Wigan to take over and dominate the match at two goals down. Wigan duly obliged and smashed Arsenal's title hopes to pieces. The outstanding performers in the Wigan side were Ben Watson, Victor Moses and Charles N'Zogbia. It has to be THE comeback story of the 2009/2010 Barclays Premier League season!

All three will need extra attention this Saturday from the West Ham defence.

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First Goal for Michael Owen as Manchester United routs Wigan 5-0

Finally in his third game in Manchester United's colours, Michael Owen has scored his first goal for the club. And it will be the first of at least 15 goals this season. After missing several gilt edged chances against Burnley and Birmingham, Nani spotted a trademark run from Owen along the line of defence, and Owen promptly obliged with a precise finish past Chris Kirkland. The gloves are now off! Watch Owen score a sackload from now on.

Owen scores first goal against Wigan - Image from Sunday Express

As far as goalscorers go, Michael Owen is up there with the best. His scoring rate of one goal in every two games is not something to laugh at and he remains a dangerous player in and around the six-yard box. The one flaw that one can point to Owen is his poor goal-to-chances conversion rate. In his previous seasons with Newcastle United, his goals to chances conversion rate was 21%, world class strikers typically have a conversion rate of 40%.

Since Ferguson clearly sees Owen as an impact substitute, he will definitely need more chances to attempt to score from. This United team unlike Newcastle, have the quality and creativity to provide Owen with the chances he needs. An even better formation for United, in my opinion, is 4-3-1-2, with Berbatov as the midfield link man. Owen and Rooney up front is a guarantee for goals and lots of it.

Against Wigan, United looked menacing upfront but were made to work very hard for their goals because of some determined defending by Wigan. However this win could not hide the Red Devils previous dependence on Cristiano Ronaldo. Without his direct penetrating runs and pace, United looked blunt down the attacking centre, causing Wigan problems through industrious wing play. Admittedly, Berbatov had a super game, with his intelligent link play and excellent distribution. If he can add goalscoring to creativity and vision, then maybe Ronaldo won't be missed as much. 15-20 goals each from Rooney, Berbatov and Owen should compensate Ronaldo's 68 goals (in two seasons).

Until then, the loss of the "winking one" will cost Manchester United this season's Premiership title.

Parking the Bus - Wigan's and Steve Bruce's Game Plan?

Parking the bus? How is that relevant to football?

The first time I heard and read about this word was from former Soccernet columnist, Phil Ball. He is, in my opinion, a brilliant columnist who wrote primarily on Spanish football and yes, you have guessed it. "Parking the bus" is a Spanish concept of a team who go to an away match in search of a draw, meaning that they also take with them the team bus out onto the pitch and park it in the goal area.

Javier Clemente - The father of the "Parking the Bus" game plan

Javier Clemente, a former Spain national coach, also known as an ultra-defensive coach, was responsible for the birth of that metaphor, says Phil Ball. While at Murcia, for an away crunch match against Real Madrid, Javi Clemente left out two of his strikers and took a collective bunch of defenders and midfielders (the "bus"). Hence the term, park the bus.

More recently, Chelsea "parked the bus" in an away Champions League semifinal match against Barcelona which riled up the Barca players, coaches and fans alike. So a Spanish concept put into practice on a Spanish team....how beautifully ironic.

Coming back to the point, there is a small matter of a long overdue Greater Manchester derby match tonight. Small matter but high in significance as the destination of the trophy hinges on the result of this match. So if Wigan "parks the bus" to deny Manchester United victory, then Steve Bruce will have ensured that we will be in store for a most interesting remaining two matches of this season's Premier League challenge.

I hope that they do so, but....it's still a tall order. Wigan have neither beaten nor forced a draw against the Red Devils since the Latics got promoted. Wigan cannot score goals at the moment. Worse still, they are leaking goals and the Mancs are just well capable of capitalizing on any defensive error. With United possessing a 100% win record against Wigan, I am not sure if this could be the "mistake" that Rafa spoke of.

Wishful Thinking? Yeah....think so

Stranger things have happened this season so we shall just wait and experience what this match has in store for us.