Season Preview: The Key Fixtures

Well it is always the cliche to focus on one game at a time, and just try your best from August to May. Yet we the fans have to look wider to see the times when we can expect all the defeats and when we can expect all those fabulous victories. One of the problems with football is that you really can't predict anything like what will happened. Whenever you do, someone will always surprise you.

Yet you can ear mark important matches and see which months are going to be difficult to win any matches or even any points! Yet for once the matches seemed to have fallen 'kindly' for Wigan. I know that now I say all this it will work differently to what i say, yet the fact that we don't meet more that two of the top six teams in more than a month, it looks to good to be true.

You have to ask what would you like all the teams together or all spread out. And we got the latter, which I believe could work well picking up points through out the season.

A good start to the season is going to be important this season more than anything. Yet playing Chelsea first won't be a big help (more on the difficulties of that later on in the week). Yet our second game against Southampton is a must win game to stake our claim as a team that will not be fighting relegation. And that sees the end of August and the end of the transfer window. So with our team we would march on for four months.

The next big match is in October for me. West Ham United will be an important match for us, as both teams are about the same set up this season (West Ham paying through the nose though!). Yet it is likely to be one of the many important table matches that we will play this season.

The real disappointing thing this season. Is that Wigan have to call ourselves the only Lancashire club in the Premier League, so no derbies. It is kind of sad really, I may not particularly like Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers but then more the reason to play them.

December only sees us play to games over the festive period and an important home match against QPR early on in the month again is likely to be a must win match. The other game is against an Arsenal side that has had mixed fortunes at the DW Stadium and the games between the two sides always prove to be good open occasions.

If we are to need a good run in again at the end of the season, or least three months see a good mix of winnable games, with six home games left to play. That could set us up brilliantly for a great finish to the season, games include Tottenham Hotspur, Newcatsle United (aren't we looking forward to the rematch!) and a finally day show down against Aston Villa.

Currently everyone seems to be on a level keel and anyone who thinks differently. It was hard to call who would go down last season, and who is the teams to beat. Yet this year our aim has to be going to beat everybody.