Aston Villa out for back-to-back wins at Wigan

Aston Villa's win over high-flying Manchester City saw them put some clear air between themselves and the bottom three and now they will be looking to take that momentum into their clash with Wigan on Tuesday night.

New £24 million signing Darren Bent showed the Villa fans exactly what he can offer the club only 18 minutes into his debut and he is 5/1 to open the scoring at the DW Stadium.

He was in the right place at the right time to convert when Joe Hart could only parry Ashley Young's shot and that kind of goalscoring is something Villa had really suffered without so far this season. The signing of Bent could provide the spark to help catapult Villa up the table and he will pose a big threat to a Wigan side that have only one win in ten games.

The win over City was a bright spark but fans should not get too carried away as it was only their second win in eleven games – with their away record being particularly poor as Villa have taken only six points on their travels all season. The bookmakers have them at 6/4 to record back-to-back wins and further lift the pressure of their boss.

Gerard Houllier is able to welcome Emile Heskey back to face his former club after the big striker concluded a ban, while Kyle Walker could return after a back injury forced him to miss the City win. New January signing Jean Makoun will be in the Villa squad but the side are definitely without long-term injury victim Fabian Delph and Steven Ireland.

Wigan boss Roberto Martinez has to replace Gary Caldwell as he is suspended after being red-carded in the defeat to Arsenal last time out, but forward Victor Moses is back from injury and could feature.

Against City, Houllier went for an attacking shape with Gabriel Agbonlahor playing out wide to accommodate Bent and Ashley Young playing through the centre and offering a larger attacking threat than Nigel Reo-Coker.

It will be interesting to see if the French boss goes for the same tactics against a Wigan side that are sitting in the relegation zone (bookmakers' have the Latics at 8/13 to go down) but could draw level with Villa if they win on Tuesday night.

With the arrival of Bent seemingly filling a goalscoring void that had been missing so far this season, Houllier and the Villa fans would also have welcomed the solid performance that centre-back duo James Collins and Richard Dunne showed last time out.

The partnership contained a multi-million pound City attacking threat to help Villa keep their first clean sheet since October and just that one game could have boosted confidence throughout the squad and give the club a real platform to improve over the second half of the season.

Recent results between the two teams show Villa have won their last three games at Wigan, but they need to keep up the levels of optimism around the club when they face a Latics side which has the least potent attack in the top flight and is 9/4 to get the win.

Villa could climb up to 13th in the Premier League if they can win all three points at the DW Stadium and that would see them open up a six point gap between themselves and Wigan in the final relegation place.