LONDON - Struggling Wigan breathed life into the English Premier League title race with a stunning 1-0 upset of Manchester United yesterday as Manchester City romped to a 4-0 win over West Bromwich Albion.
Just days after United looked to have wrapped up a 20th league crown by opening up an eight-point lead over City, Shaun Maloney's 50th-minute winner for Wigan suggested the title race might yet have more twists in store.
City's emphatic win over West Brom at Eastlands reduced United's lead at the top to five points with five games remaining, meaning Sir Alex Ferguson's side have little margin for error in their remaining fixtures.
Wigan claimed a precious three points to lift them out of the relegation zone at the expense of Bolton.
"It was a disappointing night for us. We were second to every ball in the first half and we were completely dominated by Wigan," Ferguson said.
"It was one of those off nights that you sometimes get in football."
The United manager was also critical of referee Phil Dowd but added: "That doesn't take away from the fact that Wigan were the better team and deserved to win."
Wigan boss Roberto Martinez hailed a "historic" result after Wigan's first EPL win over United.
"In our history, we've never taken a point from United and we restricted them to one shot on target," Martinez said.
Meanwhile City thrashed West Brom 4-0 which included a goal for returning bad boy Carlos Tevez.
Sergio Aguero opened the scoring for City after only six minutes, sweeping in past Ben Foster after evading the attentions of Keith Andrews.
Aguero then grabbed his second shortly after halftime, applying the finishing touch after neat inter-play between David Silva and Samir Nasri.
Tevez then made it 3-0 from Aguero's cut back on 61 minutes and City then piled on the misery for the Baggies as Silva added a fourth three minutes later.