Manchester City, club with a recent windfall that is expected to blast into the top four of the Premiership, today lost 2-1 to Wigan Athletic at JJB Stadium with one of the two goals being a controversial penalty.
In spite of fielding Kompany, Jo, Phillips and Robinho, City failed to impress against a side that was on the verge of relegation last season.
Wigan manager Steve Bruce made two changes in the squad that won against Ipswich 4-1 in the Carling Cup with Maynor Figueora and Mario Melchoit coming in for Kevin Kilbane and Paul Scharner.
Wigan’s Ecuadorian International Antonia Valencia provided the first breakthrough of the game in the 16th minute. He turned against Stephen Ireland and had a shot past City keeper Joe Hart from outside the box into the top right corner of the goal.
After Shawn Wright Philips had been fouled in the 21st minute by Figueora, the free kick resulted in the only City goal during the match. Vincent Kompany whipped the ball into the net from Blumer Elano’s free kick.
The controversial moment of the game came in the 34th minute when referee Steve Bennett gave a penalty to Wigan, after Javier Garrido deemed to have fouled Wilson Palacios. Amr Zaki came to the spot and sent Hart in the wrong way giving Wigan a 2-1 lead.
Given the debatable nature of the decision for minimal contact and excessive appealing by Robinho, the Brazilian earned his first booking in England.
The rest of the match went rather eventless and the score ended 2-1 much to the disappointment of Manchester City.
In another match, Portsmouth defeated Tottenham 2-0 at Fratton Park with Defoe and Crouch being Pompey scorers. Spurs with this loss has remained at the bottom of the table still to register a win in the season.
