Barclays Premier League

Wigan Athletic 0, Stoke City 0

by Martin Spinks

SO if Stoke can beat Arsenal one week, then Arsenal can beat Manchester United the next, surely that means Stoke will go to Old Trafford on Saturday and...

Ah, if only football was that logical, but Stoke will head north in reasonable shape defensively after Wigan provided a willing and able sparring partner ahead of the jabs, hooks and haymakers awaiting them at United.

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The Premier League has thrown up plenty of shocks already this season, but City's defending will surely have to exceed the noble shut-outs at Liverpool and now Wigan if they are to add to their collection of just the two away points when they take to the M6 for a second successive week.

The top tier has rarely been so volatile as Bolton, to pick just one extreme example, have rocketed from the bottom three to the top 10 within the space of two fixtures.

Stoke, too, have seen their fortunes raised so greatly by three wins and a draw from their last five fixtures that they were as high as ninth for a few hours on Saturday, just six points behind Hull's European-bound gravy train.

Goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen wasn't the only one to experience a touch of deja vu as Wigan's second-half domination painfully resembled The Alamo rearguard Stoke erected so heroically at Anfield back in September.

And while they beat a hasty retreat towards their own 18-yard line against Wigan – and even deeper on occasions – there was no white flag fluttering in the wind as not one, but quite often two, bodies were thrown in the way of potentially goalbound shots.

The back four was immense, their goalkeeper outstanding when required on three or four notable occasions in that second period, and the rest of Stoke's industrious line-up also mucked in with the best of them.

No-one is expecting a second successive performance-of-the-week award, but there can be no faulting the downright cussedness with which Stoke plucked another point towards something like the 40 they will require to be certain of Premier League safety.

If only they could have welded together something more substantial on the few occasions they threatened at the other end during a 90 minutes of precious little goalmouth activity to excite another worthy away following.

A following whose behaviour appeared impeccable ahead of this week's abandonment – temporary or otherwise – of those away-day ID cards worn with such reluctance over the past five-and-a-half years.

True, there was little to truly excite the passions between one team lumbered with the Premier League's worst home record and one burdened by the worst away record, but still several talking points even in the absence of any attempts this week to try and decapitate any of the opposition.

There was an early booking for Ryan Shawcross to threaten him with more unsavoury headlines, there was Ricardo Fuller's alleged gesture somewhere in the direction of the home crowd and a little on-field spat between Abdoulaye Faye and Dave Kitson.

Shawcross was booked early on for an unnecessary foul on Emile Heskey on the touchline to leave you wondering whether he was destined later in the day to receive the red card at least one man would have happily waved his way seven days earlier.

But the young defender – he still only has 54 senior games to his name – was a credit to himself and his club thereafter by defending stoutly, but also cleanly and sensibly, in a terrific exhibition of mental and physical discipline.

You can pay no greater compliment these days than to say he not only matched his three more experienced back-four colleagues, but arguably surpassed their own stubborn contribution towards Saturday's stalemate.

And his form since returning to the side four games ago has been such that his odds of lining up at old club United on Saturday have been slashed from around 100/1 to odds-on favourite during that period. Only a dodgy dish of snails or frogs' legs can surely stop him now.

And before you ask, his challenge on Heskey was impetuous rather than crude, its effects not seemingly connected with the reported hamstring injury later afflicting the England striker.

"Perhaps Ryan's booking was a little harsh because it was a genuine effort to get the ball," Andy Griffin argued afterwards. "It was not malicious, just a little bit late.

"Nowadays, yellow cards seem to come more freely and easily. You cannot take tackling out of the game. What will it be next? Take shooting out of the game? We are men, not boys."

The statisticians tell us that Stoke committed 13 fouls on Saturday – five less than Arsenal inflicted upon Manchester United at The Emirates. How United will relish next weekend's fixture against cleaner opponents.

Fuller's tendency to scratch his forehead, with one finger more prominently raised than the rest, will be interpreted by some fans as a none-too-subtle gesture in their direction, while at least one Premier League manager would doubtless regard it as a blatant signal of some vicious attack about to follow upon his treasured players.

Fuller's manager will probably have a quiet word in his star striker's ear and implore him to gesture towards opposing fans in future with all fingers raised, or not at all, to ensure a quiet life.

Faye and Kitson traded a few words late in the game when the latter misplaced a pass so wretchedly and so dangerously as to provide a pretty accurate measure of his low confidence.

Faye shouted something that didn't look too much like 'jolly better luck next time David' after the ball had eventually gone dead, whereupon Kitson turned towards his colleague for what might have been an unseemly toe-to-toe confrontation had a couple of colleagues not intervened as peacemakers.

Some might conclude unrest in the camp, but this onlooker would rather recommend Kitson for a VC after showing courage beyond the call of duty for so much as looking at his truculent colleague in the eye.

And Griffin said: "When players argue against each other it's perhaps not nice to see, but it's not harmful because what goes on out on the pitch stays on the pitch. You can have a big bust-up on the pitch, then make it up off the pitch."

Saturday's triumph was a particular victory for their Wigan-born skipper, even if he looked justifiably aggrieved at shouts of ''you fat b******' from his old brethren.

Anyway, thank goodness there was one of his meaty thighs in the way of Mario Melchiot's late header with what was the last of some dozen or so attempts on the Stoke goal during that fraught second half.

"Fat? There's only 9.2 per cent body fat in there," he grumbled. "Perhaps they were just having a go because I'm a Wigan lad."

No insult could possibly detract from the quiet satisfaction he and his team-mates had gleaned from another dogged defence of their goal, however, to leave them in decent shape going into the lion's den this weekend.

"It was important we didn't get too carried away with the Arsenal result," he said, "because we could have come here to Wigan and fallen flat on our face.

"But we were professional and showed the right attitude and character.

"They had the majority of the ball and have thrown a lot of crosses in, but we put our bodies on the line.

"We are all in it together and if everyone digs in like that, then you'll get results like that.

"The Premiership is obviously tough and ferocious at times, but we are playing like we belong here at this moment... though we know things can change."