There is a famous song here about the man who has just scorched Manchester City’s hopes of a quadruple. And in the closing moments here it is doubtful if “Will Grigg’s on fire” has ever reverberated around this stadium with greater noise. City were on their way out of the FA Cup and, once again, it was Wigan – little, patronised Wigan – who had left the most expensively assembled group of players in English football history in a state of disrepair.

Grigg is now the leading scorer in the competition this season, with seven goals, and the League One side can look forward to a quarter-final at home to Southampton while Pep Guardiola’s return to fighting on three fronts.

City have a 16-point lead at the top of the Premier League and are virtually guaranteed a place in the Champions League quarter-finals, with the Carabao Cup final against Arsenal to follow on Sunday. Yet this was a wretched night for City, who paid a heavy price for Fabian Delph’s red card late in the first half, and by the end Guardiola was looking almost as frazzled as Roberto Mancini had at Wembley five years ago.

Yet their task here became considerably more difficult after that moment, shortly before the interval, when Delph flew into a challenge on Max Power and was subsequently informed that was going to be his last contribution of the evening. City’s players were incensed by the decision and could conceivably have landed the club with a disciplinary charge because of the way they crowded around Anthony Taylor to remonstrate. The referee had not helped matters, however, by pulling out a yellow card and even appeared to start writing down Delph’s name before apparently changing his mind and brandishing a red.

By that stage Wigan had already lost their most creative player, Nick Powell, to a hamstring injury but even when the teams had equal numbers City had found it difficult at times inside a ground where the advertising boards promote Uncle Joe’s mint balls and Ribble Farm fruit and vegetables.

Wigan, in short, still had to defend for their lives but the chance arrived for Grigg with a ball that caught out the City defence. Grigg still had a lot of work to do but he took his shot early and Bravo was beaten.

Source: The GuardianUK

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