Wigan are the perennial overachievers of the Premier League. The plucky underdogs with a passing trade in upsets against top four opposition. Their stay in the top flight now stretches back seven seasons and it has been characterised by both a consistent inconsistency on the pitch and an almost continual battle against relegation. However, with Roberto Martinez’s side suffering such a dreadful start to the current campaign, is Wigan’s time as a top flight force coming to an abrupt end?

David Whelan’s club are currently rooted to the bottom of the league with just five points from their opening ten games. They are on a run of eight successive defeats, seven of which came in the league and have scored just seven goals all season – a pitiful return for a side with an apparent emphasis on attacking football.

The departure of Charles N’Zogbia to Aston Villa in the summer could turn out to be a pivotal juncture in the club’s recent history, with the Frenchman a talismanic figure last term, winning games single-handedly and forcing his way into the France squad in the process.

Wigan have a well-worn tradition of plucking players from obscurity and giving them the platform to display their talents in the best league in the world, before selling them on at a great profit. The production line has included Antonio Valencia, Wilson Palacios and Leighton Baines – all of whom have gone onto bigger and better things at their current clubs. The theory that because the club managed to survive those departures that they’ll inevitably be able to weather the storm of N’Zogbia’s departure has failed to carry any weight as yet.

Cast your eye around the Wigan squad and it is littered with a few decent players here and there, but there appears to be both a lack of quality, depth and crucially, experience. James McCarthy is without doubt one of the best young players currently operating in the Premier League. Ali AL-Habsi is a fine shot stopper and Hugo Rodallega has performed admirably in a tough lone striker role for most of his time at the club, but beyond that, it’s slim pickings.

It’s been well documented that Wigan’s main failings come at the back, though. The team has changed personnel, yet individual errors mare a team trying to play passing football. Far too often the likes of Antolin Alcaraz, Emmerson Boyce and Steve Gohouri are caught either out of position, in possession or for a rudimentary failure to communicate. The overall standard of their defending that past two seasons has bordered on the comical at times and there’s only so many times you can play the same record and expect to escape relatively unscathed.

Roberto Martinez was correctly lauded for the job he did in keeping Wigan up last term under difficult circumstances, with a budget a fraction of even their relegation battling counterparts. However, while he is often praised for his unwavering belief in extolling the virtues of passing football, it is tantamount to suicide to practice such a style of play without the necessary players at your disposal to do it justice.

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