Birmingham City V Wigan Athletic
Football : England : Premier League
Saturday 27th February 2010 - Kickoff 3pm

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Birmingham City (10th) Home : 6-5-2 12:8

Sitting at midtable are a highly improved Birmingham City who have only recorded 1 win in the last five. So why are they improved? Take a look at their home form. They are unbeaten in 9 home fixtures, a run that stretches back to late September last year. That's 5 months.

And now Birmingham take on a Wigan team that can't buy a win away from home, tanking in confidence and form, a team that couldn't even avoid the loss when playing this fixture at their own ground. Birmingham must fancy their chances here and are understandably favourites to take this.

In addition to this fantastic home run, I will point out again that this Birmingham side went unbeaten through the first 15 games of the season, which is almost half the season. Last week, they travelled to Fulham and can count themselves unlucky as they were actually leading at halftime before Fulham equalised. A very very late Zamora freekick broke Brummie hearts to give the Cottagers the predicted win.

This team dominates at home, as can be seen by the fact that 6 of their ten league wins have come when playing the role of hosts. They even avoided defeat to Arsenal and leaders Chelsea. Despite only getting one win in the last 5 league fixtures, Birmingham have played well, and managed creditworthy draws against Tottenham, Manchester United, and of course Chelsea.

I really rate Alex McLeish. He's a solid manager and has done well with this team. I think he'll have them approaching this game with the right mindset, knowing they need to capitalise on games like these and pick up the 3 points.

Wigan Athletic (15th) Away : 3-2-8 15:34

Wigan away from home = Ugly mess. This team just cannot seem to buy one these days when travelling. As predicted, they got turned over by Tottenham in the last match 3-0, and before that they got spanked by 2nd division side Notts County. Not pretty at all, so it's no wonder they're not worth backing here when travelling to a side that makes sure they don't disappoint their fans. Did I mention they got beaten at home in the reverse fixture?

Wigan are now winless over 6 games. They are slowly being sucked into the relegation battle, and will be desperate to get something here. With a spanish manager in charge, they tend to play a good slick passing game, which sadly cannot be done on their home pitch, which is torn up due to all the rugby action it sees when the Latics aren't entertaining guests.

At Birmingham, with a better pitch, I think we'll see Wigan put in a better performance, perhaps even pinch a goal. But as close as this might be, I reckon they just get pipped in the end.

The Betting verdict :

I reckon this might just be a close game, what with Wigan playing some decent football on a better pitch and working hard to turn things around.

Birmingham City, while good at home, do not tear apart other teams when winning, so perhaps this one stays close and they win 1-0 or 2-1.

The Statistics :

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take Birmingham City to win at 2.00 (Pinnacle)