Wigan Athletic manager Roberto Martinez has said that fans should not be reading too much into the 5-0 defeat his club suffered at the hands of Manchester United on Boxing Day.

Wigan Athletic were heading into the match on a good run of form having drawn against both Chelsea and Liverpool in the past two matches. However, facing second placed Manchester United was always going to be a difficult proposition. Still, they were expecting to take at least something out of the match, although they have not done so in the Premier League since coming up from the Championship.

As expected, Manchester United ripped apart Wigan Athletic, which also helped them move level on points with leaders Manchester City. Manchester City could only draw with West Brom and this helped Manchester United is a great opportunity to go ahead in the table on New Year's Day.

Wigan Athletic were extremely poor throughout the match and Dimitar Berbatov helped himself to a hat-trick. Dimitar Berbatov has rarely featured for Manchester United this season, with Sir Alex Ferguson preferring to use either Hernandez or Wayne Rooney as the main strikers. Even youngster Danny Welbeck has been able to get a number of appearances.

Wigan Athletic manager Roberto Martinez has dismissed the speculation that this 5-0 defeat would be the start of another bad run for Wigan.

"It has been a really good period for us. The performance against Liverpool was outstanding, and against Chelsea, we were better than them in every department apart from the scoreline. I am not going to take the United game into consideration, other than the fact we have shown great character," said the Spaniard. As a result of their recent good form, Wigan stay extremely close to safety, with only two points separating them from 17th placed Wolverhampton Wanderers.