It will come as no surprise to Sir Alex Ferguson that Stoke City have little respect for reputations, yet the Manchester United manager may still be unsettled by the sentiments of Andy Griffin before the teams meet at Old Trafford next weekend. Stoke have already ruffled Arsenal’s feathers this month, in the process upsetting Arsène Wenger, whose subsequent criticisms appear to have made them even more determined to get up the noses of opponents, keep their unbeaten run going and continue climbing the table.

Wigan tried but failed on Saturday to break down Stoke’s workmanlike defence, in which Thomas Sorensen, the goalkeeper, and Ryan Shawcross, the centre back, were excellent and had to settle for a point that did little to improve the worst home record in the Barclays Premier League.

The loss of Emile Heskey to a hamstring injury that is expected to rule the forward out of England’s friendly with Germany in nine days’ time did little to improve the mood of Steve Bruce, the Wigan manager.

“I think after the Arsenal game it would have been easy to get carried away,” Griffin said. “But we’ve come to a tricky place, it was a tough, physical game and it’s a point that overall we deserved. Now we move on to Manchester United. So we’re going to have to be on top of our game, hope they have a bit of an off day and show a lot of resilience and character.

“As a club and players we can’t stop people from speaking out, we can’t control what goes in the media. A lot of people don’t appreciate the way we play, they don’t appreciate Rory Delap’s throw-ins, but it gets us goals. As a club, you have to be selfish. We want to survive in the Premier League — it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks.”

Wigan play Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in the Carling Cup tomorrow and Titus Bramble, the defender, accepts that it could be a thankless task. “You know what you are going to get with Stoke — a lot of high balls and a physical approach,” he said. “Stoke tend to bully teams, but I thought we coped well. Now we will have to go to Arsenal and do what we can. We’ll have to get amongst them and see what happens.”

Wigan Athletic (4-4-2): C Kirkland 7 — M Melchiot 7, E Boyce 7, T Bramble 7, M Figueroa 7 — A Valencia 7, W Palacios 7, L Cattermole 7, J Koumas 7 — E Heskey 7 (sub: M Camara, 57min, 6), A Zaki 7. Substitutes not used: M Pollitt, R Kingson, P Scharner, K Kilbane, M Brown, D De Ridder. Booked: Bramble. Next: Newcastle United (a).

Stoke City (4-4-2): T Sorensen 8 — A Griffin 7, Abdoulaye Faye 7, R Shawcross 8, D Higginbotham 7 — S Diao 7, S Olofinjana 7 (sub: G Whelan, 86), Amdy Faye 7 (sub: R Cresswell, 84), R Delap 7 — R Fuller 7, M Sidibe 7 (sub: D Kitson, 47, 6). Substitutes not used: S Simonsen, L Cort, M Tonge, A Wilkinson. Booked: Shawcross, Fuller, Cresswell. Next: Manchester United (a).

Referee: M Riley Attendance: 15,881.