When people look back at this game, it won't be for the football. Rather, the talk was all about Liverpool's pre-match warmups, which saw the players come out in support of Luis Suarez following his (not yet begun) eight-match ban for the racial abuse of Patrice Evra in October. But there was football to be had at the DW Stadium between Wigan Athletic and Liverpool, and it was quite good too.
Wigan Athletic Vs. Liverpool, 2011 Premier League: Latics Impress In Scoreless Draw
As they proved against Chelsea last weekend, Wigan are no longer a team that can be expected to roll over at the easiest opportunity, and they proved a very difficult nut to crack for the visitors, who found themselves struggling to break down the Latics' defence whenever the were able to press forward. Meanwhile, Wigan were doing very well in the centre of the pitch and causing their guests a number of problems - Jordi Gomez in particular was brilliant, if slightly wasteful with a series of long-range shots.
Wigan's final ball was almost always lacking, however, and that meant that neither team looked like much of a real threat to score for most of the match. The most clear-cut opportunity for Liverpool came in the second half, when centre back Gary Caldwell handled a Suarez bicycle kick in the box, only for Adam to send the resultant penalty kick almost right at Ali Al-Habsi, who cemented his reputation as one of the Premier League's top shot-stoppers with a fine save.
Wigan were able to hold out for a 0-0 draw, and almost looked like winning on a few occasions. Based on the events of the past few days, it would be silly to write them off as Championship fodder just yet.
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