WITH Thaksin Shinawatra, the Manchester City owner and former prime minister of Thailand, back in Bangkok to answer corruption charges and to try to secure £800m of frozen assets, the club he bought last summer is facing its own moment of truth. Sven-Göran Eriksson, the manager, remains confident that his team will qualify for Europe, insisting that they are “better than Everton in so many ways”. On the evidence of Monday’s defeat to the fourth-placed side in the Premier League they are not, and this was another lacklustre, indeed ominous performance. After a brilliant start to the season, City are stuttering badly.

Resilient and well-organised, Wigan deserved a point. If Wilson Palacios had taken one of the two chances Emile Heskey’s pass created for him in the dying moments, they might even have won the game. The striker’s square ball on the edge of the penalty area was met positively by the Honduras midfielder, whose low shot produced a fine save from Joe Hart, the City goalkeeper. The ball rebounded to Palacios but he had to react quickly and his volley went over the crossbar.

His assertiveness epitomised Wigan’s battling effort and was only sporadically matched by City, who lacked imagination and penetration for large parts of the game. Elano was ineffectual and he limped off with an injury four minutes into the second half and Benjani Mwaruwari spurned the best chance City generated when he failed to hit the target with a volley inside the final 20 minutes. “The longer the game went on only one team looked like winning it,” Steve Bruce, the Wigan manager, insisted. “Unfortunately, we missed the chances when they came but Palacios and Antonio Valencia, too, were exceptional. I have to thank Arsène Wenger for recommending [Palacios], he told me about him and he’s proved to be a very good player.”

He made a strong run through midfield early in the game and laid off a short pass to Jason Koumas, whose shot from the edge of the penalty area was weak and straight at Hart, who had gathered a similar effort from Marlon King.

Sadly, the poor quality of both shots rather than the dynamism of Palacios’s run would typify the game. Palacios and Michael Brown tackled hard from the outset, giving City’s midfield little time on the ball. City lacked a creative influence and it was left to Michael Ball to surge forward and fire over a cross from the left to the back post which Darius Vassell’s firm header forced a fine save from Chris Kirkland.

Wigan continued to counter and Valencia made a strong run from the right into the City box, held up the ball and played it back to Palacios. A better first touch would have yielded a shot but Richard Dunne was allowed to intercept and Nedum Onuoha cleared.

Clever moves by City were scarce but a short corner and a perceptive pass to the unmarked Stephen Ireland outside the penalty area presented him with an opportunity to shoot but his effort cleared the crossbar. Michael Johnson then seized the initiative, beating Palacios and Brown but shooting over again from 20 yards. Finally, Ireland placed a through ball into the path of Mwaruwari, but Kirkland raced off his line to block the shot. Wigan threatened again just before the interval but Heskey headed narrowly wide from Koumas’s cross from the right.

The quality of the spectacle left much to be desired but Vassell raised City hopes when he threaded the ball through from the right to Mwaruwari at the near post but he could only produce a backheel that was deflected to safety. Substitute Felipe Caicedo supplied Mwaruwari again and the City striker’s sharp turn created space and time to shoot, but Kirkland made another good save. The Wigan goalkeeper repelled a shot by Nery Castillo before Mwaruwari missed his volley after approach play by Caicedo and Vassell. “It’s not the case that we didn’t try, didn’t fight, didn’t work or the spirit was not good. It was,” Eriksson declared. “We just needed to score and then it would have been a different game.”

Match stats

Player ratings: Man City: Hart 6, Corluka 6, Dunne 7, Onuoha 6, Ball 6, Fernandes 6, Johnson 7, Ireland 6 (Castillo 63min), Elano 6 (Caicedo 49min, 6), Vassell 6, Mwaruwari 6
Wigan: Kirkland 7, Melchiot 6, Boyce 7, Scharner 6, Edman 6, Valencia 7, Palacios 7, Brown 6, Koumas 6, Heskey 6, King 6 (Sibierski 66min)
Star man: Wilson Palacios (Wigan)
Yellow card: Wigan: Brown
Referee: S Bennett Attendance: 38,261