Any player considering a move would be wise to consider that the Latics have pickedu p 31 points up since Bruce's arrival in December, a feat that would leave the club eigth in the Premier League if stretched out for hte whole season.
Anyway, a fantastic three points at Villa Park leaves the Latics with the magical 40 points and a guaranteed place in the Premier League next season. Here is the reacton of the respective managers.
Congratulations Lads.
Steve Bruce
Arguably we have left our best performance to a big stage like this and after we played like we did today, we deserve to be in the Premier League next year. We have put on a really good performance.
But we have done that at Chelsea and at Liverpool, and this is a wonderful result for us. He [Valencia] is always a threat because he is one of those players who can go and dribble past somebody and he has great pace.
Defensively we have been difficult to beat again and the mentality has been fantastic. We were averaging two goals a game in December and that had to change because we could not win every game by three goals.
Paul Scharner has been terrific since we moved him to centre half and Emmerson Boyce has had a really good second half of the season But to have picked up 31 points since December is tremendous and all the lads deserve a pat on the back.
I think this is arguably the best thing I have ever done because when I arrived we were down there with Derby with only nine points. I am glad I have repaid the faith the chairman placed in me.
Martin O'Neill
This was a low point today and I'm obviously very disappointed, for the players, for myself and particularly for the supporters. They came here with high expectation today having supported the team all year. Today was a day when we just didn't perform.
We've done that to great effect in recent weeks but it just never materialised. Even then, at half time, I felt that if the goal came that would get us going. But they got the goal which put us on the back foot, then the second goal which deflated us. Even then I thought we still had time. If we could have got that elusive first goal the surge of the crowd might have roared us on.
But it was not to be and it's disappointing that we couldn't create the sort of pressure that we should have done - the sort of pressure that we've created consistently in recent weeks. We have to accept that we should have created more. If you'd asked me before the game I would have said we were certs to score today.
The TableLatest match Saturday,
3rd May 2008Pld Home Away Overall Pts GD W D L F A W D L F A W D L F A 1 Manchester United 37 17 1 1 47 7 9 5 4 31 15 26 6 5 78 22 84 +56 2 Chelsea 36 12 6 0 35 12 12 3 3 27 13 24 9 3 62 25 81 +37 3 Arsenal 36 13 5 0 36 11 9 6 3 36 20 22 11 3 72 31 77 +41 4 Liverpool 36 11 6 1 42 13 8 7 3 22 15 19 13 4 64 28 70 +36 5 Everton 36 10 4 4 31 16 8 4 6 21 15 18 8 10 52 31 62 +21 6 Aston Villa 37 10 3 6 34 22 6 8 4 35 27 16 11 10 69 49 59 +20 7 Blackburn Rovers 37 8 7 4 26 19 7 6 5 23 25 15 13 9 49 44 58 +5 8 Portsmouth 37 7 8 3 24 13 9 1 9 24 26 16 9 12 48 39 57 +9 9 Manchester City 36 11 4 4 28 20 4 6 7 16 24 15 10 11 44 44 55 0 10 West Ham United 37 7 6 5 22 22 6 3 10 18 26 13 9 15 40 48 48 -8 11 Tottenham Hotspur 37 8 5 5 46 32 3 8 8 20 27 11 13 13 66 59 46 +7 12 Newcastle United 36 8 5 5 25 24 3 5 10 19 36 11 10 15 44 60 43 -16 13 Wigan Athletic 37 8 5 5 21 15 2 5 12 13 34 10 10 17 34 49 40 -15 14 Middlesbrough 37 6 5 7 19 22 3 7 9 16 30 9 12 16 35 52 39 -17 15 Sunderland 36 9 3 6 23 20 2 3 13 13 36 11 6 19 36 56 39 -20 16 Bolton Wanderers 36 6 5 7 21 18 2 4 12 12 35 8 9 19 33 53 33 -20 17 Fulham 37 5 5 9 22 31 2 7 9 15 29 7 12 18 37 60 33 -23 18 Reading 37 8 2 9 19 25 1 4 13 18 41 9 6 22 37 66 33 -29 19 Birmingham City 37 5 8 5 26 22 2 3 14 16 39 7 11 19 42 61 32 -19 20 [R] Derby County 37 1 5 12 12 39 0 3 16 8 46 1 8 28 20 85 11 -65
Next Up
Next up for the Latics is the visit of Manchester United to the JJB Stadium. Certainly Latics fans will be wanting to mess up United's title challenge after Ferguson's men rolled over for West Ham on the final day of the season last term. A result that meant Wigan had to beat Sheffield United in the survival fight.
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