City a shoo-in to grind past Wigan en route to Mancini’s second FA Cup

The weekend’s FA Cup semi finals saw Wigan fail to shoot themselves in the foot against a limited Millwall, whilst Man City reminded Chelsea that the squad of recent their FA Cup glory years is breaking up like the polar ice caps. City are now 4/9 to lift the pot next month, but whilst they may be expected to outclass the Latics it’s unlikely they’ll dish out a hammering.

The Citizens showed they lacked nothing in terms of knock out sharpness for having been fed a steady diet of Championship clubs en route to the semi final stage, controlling their match with Chelsea from the off until well into the second half. In doing so they continued a trend for early dominance which has seen them at least two goals to the good by the fiftieth minute of all but one of their ties in this year’s competition – Mancini’s men are 11/10 to be winning at half time and full time on cup final day.

Received wisdom would suggest that City will hold no fears for archetypal big-boy-beaters Wigan, but whereas Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal aren’t averse to puffing up the Latics’ folklore, City have are resolutely stingy to Roberto Martinez’s men. Wigan have been defeated without scoring in the sides’ last six meetings.

City are in fine form, having won seven of their last eight games, disposing of Manchester United and Chelsea during that run and given their strong record against Wigan a big score may be expected, however that would ignore the cup final’s long-term record as a low-scoring contest.

More than three goals have been hailed in just two finals across the past two decades, with 13 of those 20 show pieces failing to show more than two net-bulgers for their participants’ collective endeavour. 1-0, 2-0 and 3-0 Manchester City correct scores – the scores of their last three wins over Wigan – can be backed at 6/1, 5-1 and 9/1 respectively with Coral.