I don’t know what to make of Wigan Athletic, they’re something of a Jekyll and Hyde team. I’ve all the time in the world for Roberto Martinez, he definitely knows his potatoes, but results and performances frequently betray the fact that he’s the youngest manager in the league.

Watching Wigan at home this season, the first thing that will strike the casual observer is the number of empty seats in the DW Stadium; they’re the worst supported team in the league. Even Blackpool are averaging bigger gates, but Bloomfield Road only holds 16k, Wigan are averaging 9.5k empty seats every game.

I hate to say it, but if a club can’t fill more than 62% of its stadium week in and week out, it’s hard to justify it being in the Premier League.

And it’s not getting any better either, in the stands or on the pitch. They’ve got the same number of points after 17 games as they had last year, but that was good enough for 14th place, now they’re in 18th and it’s difficult not to see them as one of the three to be relegated this season.

Wigan Team News

Martinez has several selection headaches. Maynor Figueroa is suspended so Ronnie Stam, usually a right back, will likely fill in. Good news for Marc Albrighton who will have a field day on the outside against a defender on his wrong foot.

Wigan will also be without Hendry Thomas through suspension which is probably a much bigger blow as he’s been the defensive rock – so much as Wigan have had a defensive rock – at the base of their central midfield.

They’re holding out for good news on Tom Cleverley, the young Man Utd loanee, who’s been a doubt with a rib injury. A decent young player for sure, but it’s never good when you need to rely on young loan players. Expect a midfield trio of Gomez, Diame and Watson, flanked by Cleverley and N’Zogbia with Rodallega up top alone.

In short, Wigan are low hanging fruit and we absolutely must fill our boots tomorrow.

Villa Team News

The bad news for us is that Ashley Young has an ankle injury and will miss the game, although there’s talk about him being available for Tottenham. As I first heard about it, he’s been carrying some discomfort and it was a question of managing things with injections or resting up for a month or so. We’ll see how that develops.

The good news is that Gabby‘s back and will likely play up front with Heskey, one of the few times we’ve been able to field two recognised strikers in the starting line-ups this season. If Marc and Stewart Downing are doing the business on the outside, it’s useful to have someone like Heskey to aim for.

With Reo-Coker surprisingly getting close to 20 minutes under his belt against West Brom last weekend, he’d presumably be in with a good shout of starting tomorrow.

As big a fan as we all are of Barry Bannan, if Reo-Coker does start (and we probably do need someone to wear the armband), I’d be hoping to see him alongside Hogg in the middle, Bannan is much stronger in a more advanced position.

I think this is a game that Houllier needs to really, really play it safe, keep it simple, and beefing up the centre of the park will help enormously. The creative stuff can come later in the game when legs are tired, but this is another game where the result is ultra important.

At the back, well there’s no need to make any changes, Luke Young is still out and Eric Lichaj did a fine job against West Brom. Carlos Cuellar showed us what we’ve been missing and James Collins looked far more alert alongside him.

Stephen Warnock hasn’t been enjoying his best season, but he was much improved in the second half last weekend and there really isn’t any alternative. If I were him though, I’d want to show the manager that he has bigger concerns elsewhere on the pitch as we head toward January.

Speaking of elsewhere on the pitch, a little nugget of good news; Fabian Delph – along with Stiliyan Petrov and Steve Sidwell – has returned to light training this week. That should keep him on course for a return next month, but what we can reasonably expect from him for the remainder of the season is anyone’s guess. An ACL in no minor injury, I’d be looking to next season myself, but it’s still good to hear that he’s on the road to recovery.

And finally, the manager has spoken at length in the pre-match press conference and issued denials about the nature of any reported bust ups and also defended the reasons for playing senior players in a behind-closed-doors game against a Leicester this week.

Personally, I think such things have been blown out of all proportion, much like the Anfield incident(s), I take Houllier at his word – worth reading detailed quotes here at BBC – and I just wish this tedious crap would disappear so we can concentrate on football.

Three points tomorrow, probably lifting us into the middle of the table, will be just the antidote.

UPDATED: Stephen Ireland and Richard Dunne did not travel with the squad to Wigan. Stephen Ireland has apparently expressed his desire to leave the club and will surely be out the door one way or another in January, but it remains to be seen whether Richard Dunne is likely to follow.