It's a testament to Tottenham's marvellous season so far that a return of 15 points from their last nine games is a slight disappointment. Of those dropped points, the pair that went astray at home to Wolves would be the most frustrating for Harry Redknapp's men. Wigan will hope that Spurs are similarly wasteful against them - but they are unlikely to be so lucky.

Having put nine goals past Wigan at the Lane in November 2010, Spurs then failed to breach their defence at all in two games last season, actually losing at home to a Hugo Rodallega goal and being held 0-0 at the DW Stadium (where they made amends somewhat with a 2-1 win back in the autumn).

Looking at the sides thrashing about at the wrong end of the Premier League there is one quality that they all seem to possess, with the exception - so far - of Wigan: the ability to pull off a real shock.

Blackburn and Bolton, in particular, have suddenly bared some surprisingly pointy teeth just when you thought they were about to roll over and have their tummies tickled all the way to the Championship. Those two are putting up a real fight now, and you just know Wolves will scrap all the way - but Wigan? Wins at a pre-Martin O'Neill Sunderland, at West Brom, and points at home to Chelsea and Liverpool are about as close as they've got the raising anyone's eyebrows this season.

If Hugo Rodallega can stay fit and continue his recent upturn in goalscoring form, if signing Jean Beausejour is a master-stroke, if Victor Moses can find some end product for his undoubted talent, if Ben Watson can stop missing penalties (three this season) almost as regularly as Gary Caldwell concedes them (seven in two years), then who knows... Wigan may yet surprise us all by staying up again.

But, that's a lot of ifs.

Head-to-head




• Wigan stunned Spurs by winning 1-0 at White Hart Lane last season.



• It was only the Latics' second win over Tottenham in their history and came less than a year after they were on the end of a 9-1 thrashing at White Hart Lane.



• Wigan have scored just 12 goals in the 13 league meetings between the sides.



• Against Manchester City, Ledley King conceded Tottenham's first penalty of the season - Wigan have conceded eight, four of which have been missed



Tottenham
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• Jermain Defoe has scored a league goal every 113 minutes of playing time this season, compared with one goal per 189 minutes by Emmanuel Adebayor.



• Rafael van der Vaart has scored just once in his last 12 games.



• Three of Tottenham's four defeats in the league this season have come against north-west teams.



Wigan


• Victor Moses has been fouled 55 times this season, more than any other player in the top flight.



• Gary Caldwell has given away more than twice as many penalties (seven) as any other Premier League player since January 2010.



• Wigan have scored (42%) of their goals from outside the penalty area, the highest percentage in the top division.



• The Latics have scored only 19 goals from 297 shots this season, a rate of one goal per 15.6 shots.