Wigan won’t give Chelsea easy title ride vows boss

Wigan manager Roberto Martinez has promised Manchester United that this team will make sure Chelsea don’t have an easy ride to the Premier League title.

United need Wigan to deny Chelsea three points at Stamford Bridge on Sunday if they to overhaul the leaders and retain the title with a win over Stoke.

Wigan have little to play for after securing their Premier League survival, but Martinez has no intention of letting Carlo Ancelotti’s team cruise to victory.

Chelsea, who lead United by one point going into the final round of fixtures, were beaten 3-1 at Wigan earlier this season and Martinez believes a repeat is possible.

“A strong performance at Stamford Bridge is an important way to finish the season,” Martinez said.

“We are not going to just turn up and be another team at Stamford Bridge.

“We will approach it in a manner where we want to hurt Chelsea on the day.

“It is going to be difficult but the players have huge belief that we can go to Stamford Bridge and make things very, very difficult.

“Mentally we are prepared to go there and do as well as we can.”

Wigan’s win over Chelsea earier this season was their first ever against one of the ‘big-four’ and they followed that success with surprise home wins over Liverpool and Arsenal.

Martinez is convinced those results have given his team enough belief to cause Chelsea problems again this weekend.

“The Chelsea performance was really, really pleasing the way we stopped them from being Chelsea. We were the better side,” he added.

“We had a few chances in the first half and we got a goal from a set play.

“In the second half when Chelsea scored the equaliser I just felt it was a real test how we would react to that.

“To finish the game and win we got rid of that mental block that Wigan Athletic would never be able to beat the top four. We are going to approach it on Sunday in the same manner.”