Match Preview: Southampton vs Wigan Athletic

So one game gone, yet there is another a week later. How good is it when the season starts back up! Yet it wasn't the best of starts for Wigan last Sunday as we crashed out 2-0 to Chelsea. Yet Southampton came close to beating the champions Manchester City. The saints taking the lead 2-1 before losing 3-2 as Manchester City turned on the style. So does that mean that Southampton are a very strong team, or that Manchester City had a slow start?

Read into it what you will, but personally I feel that Wigan could have had an easier second game. Southampton will go into the game looking to get off to the start they nearly did against Manchester City. Could you imagine an easier game against the team tipped to go down?

A lot of teams and pundits are likely to look at Wigan this season as the team to go down, and with Victor Moses all but out the door, then we look 'weaker'. That is if your not a Wigan fan.

However I am a Wigan fan, as I imagine most of you are reading this. And I guess that you know exactly how strong we will go into this game. With possibly no injury worries (crosses fingers, touches wood and throws salt over my right shoulder), Wigan will go into the game at 100% with everyone ready and geared to go out and get the first win.

Your first they say is always your hardest, and that is how it will be till Wigan get the first win. But this weekend we have a good chance to go against what everyone is expecting and pick up three points.

Now the exact team line up for Wigan could really mix and change all day long. It all depends who will slip into the second striker position, for me that has to be Mauro Boselli. The Argentinian striker has never been given a proper chance to play, and playing behind Franco Di Santo who can take away the physical edge of the game. Be show the best of Boselli.

He could be the player to score the goals we need. With Maloney and Di Santo to play around, Boselli could possibly be the one to find the space that the other players around him are createing. So far none in the Wigan team has been fully able to expose the gaps that Maloney and Di Santo work. The one thing for me that Moses as always lacked.

Now to Southampton, like I say they did really well against Manchester City, Nigel Adkins has worked wonders to get them back into the Premier League. Now they are here, I can't imagine they will give up easily. Adkins likes to play attacking football, with that high level of possession that Martinez loves. So it could be an even game.

One player who Wigan will have to watch is Rickie Lambert. The striker has been one of the key players for Southampton since his transfer from Bristol Rovers in 2009, he has scored 79 goals in 129 games that is a record that doesn't like stopping.

Scoring his first goal in the Premier League after coming off the bench at Manchester City. His usual ability to get into space and find the gap scoring to make it 2-1 as the player changed the game for his side. This is where Wigan could come a cropper. In seasons gone by, we have often found it hard to out mark strikers who love to get into those small spaces to score.

Yet under the new system where Gary Caldwell can man mark any striker who tries to pose a major threat. It had towards the last few games of last season, stopped teams playing through their lone striker. Hopefully such tactics will be affective again and stop Rickie Lambert playing well. Giving Wigan he chance to pick up three points.

Come on you Blues!