City out to save season

Two Premier League clubs will fight it out for the FA Cup this evening at Wembley Stadium.

Manchester City, second in the standings behind champions Manchester United, are backed to beat relegation troubled Wigan who struggled all season at the wrong end of the standings.

However, no favourites exist in the FA Cup showdown and, today, the form book will be thrown out of the window.

When Wigan reached the quarter-finals this season they equalled their best attainment ever in the competition set in 1987. That year they bowed out to Leeds United 0-2.

Some critics have written that even if City emerge winners today, the club owners would still not be satisfied with how the season panned out.

Their second successive poor showing in the Champions League did not go down well with the oil-rich supremos at the Etihad Stadium. Since City were the defending champions in England more was expected from them as their arch-rivals United claimed the title with relative ease.

Today’s final will be a duel between two non-English managers − City’s Italian Roberto Mancini and Spaniard Roberto Martinez, of Wigan.

The last time the FA Cup was fought out between foreign coaches was in 2010, when Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea), from Italy, outwitted Israel’s Avram Grant (Portsmouth).

In the semi-finals, Martinez let club chairman David Whelan take the honours and lead out the Latics at Wembley before a 2-0 win over Millwall.

After beating the Championship side, Martinez confirmed Whelan will be front and centre at Wembley in today’s final having received the go-ahead once more.

Some critics are also linking Wigan to the ‘Wimbledon’ fame as the Latics will be playing in Europe next season.

Wigan face an arduous task but they are keen to follow the last FA Cup winners from outside England’s Champions League clubs, Everton in 1994.

Wigan are in their first FA Cup final, 35 years after they were elected into the Football League.

Yet, Martinez must correct his defensive lines since no side has conceded the first goal in Premier League games more than the Latics this season − more than 20 times.

City withstood a valiant fightback from Chelsea to win a gripping semi-final 2-1 and knock the holders out of the competition.

The Citizens, who won the FA Cup in 2011, will most likely have Romanian Costel Pantilimon in goal as he played for the Blues in the competition this season.

Head to head

Mancini’s men have a favourable record against Wigan. In fact, they won the last seven meetings without conceding a goal.

This season, they did a double over the Latics − away 2-0 (Balo-telli, Milner), home 1-0 (Tevez).

In the FA Cup, the two sides met on two occasions:

January 2006 (fourth round Man. City-Wigan 1-0.

January 1971 (third round Man. City-Wigan 1-0.

There is no comparison between the two sides where FA Cup records are concerned as City won the silverware on five occasions:

1904: vs Bolton Wanderers 1-0

1934: vs Portsmouth 2-1

1956: vs Birmingham City 3-1

1969: vs Leicester City 1-0

2011: vs Stoke City 1-0

On four other occasions Manchester City finished on the losing end in the final showdown.

In the all-time winners’ list, the Blues are placed sixth along with Everton, the Wanderers and West Bromwich Albion with five successes.

The way to Wembley...

Third round: Manchester City-Watford 3-0 (Tevez, Barry, Lopes). Wigan-Bournemouth 1-1 (Gomez). Replay: 1-0 (Boselli).

Fourth round: Stoke-Manchester City 0-1 (Zabaleta). Macclesfield-Wigan 0-1 (Gomez pen).

Fifth round: Manchester City-Leeds 4-0 (Y. Toure, Aguero 2, Tevez). Huddersfield-Wigan 1-4 (McManaman, Kone 2, McArthur).

Quarter-finals: Manchester City-Barnsley 5-0 (Tevez 3, Kolarov, Da Silva). Everton-Wigan 0-3 (Figueroa, McManaman, Gomez).

Semi-finals (Wembley Manchester City-Chelsea 2-1 (Nasri, Aguero). Wigan-Millwall 2-0 (Maloney, McManaman).

Fixtures and forecast

Fa Cup Final

Man. City-Wigan (18.15)1

Premier League

Aston Villa-Chelsea (13:45) 2

Scottish Premier League

Celtic-St Johnstone (12:15) 1
Dundee-Kilmarnock 2
Inverness-Dundee United 1
St Mirren-Aberdeen X
Scottish Division One

Play-Offs Sfs 2nd Legs

Alloa-Brechin City X
Dunfermline-Forfar1

Scottish Division Two

Play-Offs Sfs 2nd Legs

East Fife-Berwick Rangers X
Peterhead-Queen’S Park X

Tomorrow

Premier League
(Kick-Offs: 16.00 Unless Stated)

Everton-West Ham 1
Fulham-Liverpool X
Manchester Utd-Swansea 1

(Kick-Off: 17.00)
Norwich-West Bromwichx

Qpr-Newcastle X
Stoke-Tottenham X

(Kick-Off: 14.30)
Sunderland-Southampton X

The Championship

Play-Offs Sf 2nd Leg

Watford-Leicester City 1

Scottish Premier League

Hearts-Hibernian (13:00) X
Motherwell-Ross (17:05) 1