'THAT WASN'T US' EXPLAINS BLACK

By Paul Chialton

A harsh lesson was taught to Latics at Goodison on Sunday with Everton gliding to a 4-0 victory, but Eric Black insists the team will be ready come the arrival of Arsenal on Saturday.

The assistant was understandably upset following the result but as well as highlighting the team's inadequacies he was also able to see the positives to come out of the game:

"It's not our best performance by a long shot. We were slightly slow out of the blocks and at times didn't keep possession very well.

"The second goal killed us really and it was a poor goal to concede. Their man had far too much time and we didn't organise ourselves quickly enough which led to a simple goal.

"In the Premier League we shouldn't be allowing that to happen, teams should be working harder to score goals past us.

"The players deserve credit because they continue to work hard and stick at it. We have to find out the reasons for today's defeat and keep on going onto the next game, because that definitely wasn't us out there.

"I think the one positive to come out of it all was (Hugo) Rodallega's performance. He came on and looked the part, causing them problems, holding the ball up well, getting in behind the defence at times and that was definitely a positive."

Whilst Everton may have momentarily knocked Wigan off course a little, Black is confident that the players will be more than ready for their next big test this weekend:

"The manager has said that he won't allow players to get complacent before the end of the season because it's not over yet.

"We need a reaction now. We've got a hard game next week against Arsenal and we need a Wigan performance against them because it was far from being that today.

"I certainly don't think we'll have to motivate anybody and I'm confident we'll be ready for it.

"Arsenal are starting to look like the top team we know they are, so it's a big challenge for us and players will have to pick themselves up, get organised and get ready to go."