Source: Telegraph
Everton 2 Wigan Athletic 1: match report
Everton finally got their season up and running by teaching Wigan that abandoning your principles in search of points does not always win prizes. [LNB]Roberto Martinez arrived in Lancashire defiant in his ambition to imbue Wigan with the spirit of Barcelona, his plan to sprinkle the Premier League's least glamorous outpost with a little of that Camp Nou magic. [LNB]He adopted the 4-3-3 formation the Catalan giants have perfected, hoping to turn a pragmatic side into a passing one. Even Wigan's lurid orange away strip pays accidental homage to a succession of doubtful change strips inflicted on Europe's grandest football institution over the years. [LNB]Now, though, a timescale can be given to how long principles last in the cut-throat world of English football's top flight. After three games, and three defeats, Martinez abandoned fantasy for fight, the bright orange strip looking more like a lucky charm worn in the hope of imitating Blackpool - who humiliated Wigan in the Carling Cup - than an aspiration to Catalan high art. [LNB]This was a Wigan side sent out to spoil, lined up in the 4-5-1 system which represents acquiescence that a team's players are not good enough to match skill for skill. [LNB]Four players were booked in the first half as Wigan tackled ferociously, Hendry Thomas even scything down David Moyes as he stood on the touchline. [LNB]Depressingly, it almost worked. Wigan, at the price of their own beliefs, suffocated Everton out of the game in the opening period, restricting the hosts to just one opportunity of note when Louis Saha fired straight at the diving Mike Pollitt and then watched, helplessly, as the rebound hit his knee and squirmed over the bar. [LNB]At the other end, debutant Sylvain Distin, used to the desperation of defending for Portsmouth, Newcastle and erstwhile comedy club Manchester City, will have found himself at a loss as to how to occupy himself. [LNB]Perhaps that was Wigan's plan all along. As Everton poured forward after the break, going close through Saha and Tim Cahill, Wigan struck, Charles N'Zogbia's cross travelling past the hosts' static back line and on to the head of the grateful Scharner. Wigan even went close to adding a second, Jordi Gomez diverting Mario Melchiot's cross on to Tim Howard's post. [LNB]That would have been harsh, such had been Everton's primacy, but the sense of injustice among those in Goodison Park's stands did not last long. [LNB]Just minutes later, Saha nodded home Baines's corner, prompting an Everton onslaught. [LNB]Goodison had to wait, though, until Emmerson Boyce tripped Jo in the area deep into injury time and Baines converted the resultant penalty for vindication. [LNB]Everton [LNB]Wigan Athletic [LNB]
