Wigan Athletic finding their feet at the right time as Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal await "It's about time," admitted McCarthy. We have been through sticky patches - myself included. We just need to concentrate now. We have got some massive games and we cannot get carried away. It is likely that the players will stay level-headed. The talk in the Wigan camp is that manager Roberto Martinez has not been showing any signs of stress in front of the players - and that is filtering down to them. Martinez is a man with a healthy sense of perspective, having grafted his way up from being a lower-league player. So he relishes the chance to face the big teams, rather than recoiling at the prospect. "When I arrived here, in 1995, the dream was to play in the Premier League," said former Wigan midfielder Martinez. Playing in the Premier League means to play against the top teams. The Spaniard says he is not writing off those games, explaining: "With the position we are in, we cannot look at games as easy or impossible to get points from. We are playing Chelsea, United and Arsenal the same way as we are playing Fulham, Newcastle, Blackburn and Wolves. Strangely, in relegation run-ins, his team seems to play like they are equals to the top teams, looking unfazed. It's a far cry from how they perform for most of the season. But why is that? "If I could answer that question, I would not be a football manager, I would be a magician," says Martinez. But the truth is we clicked in February. We could have got five wins in that period, which would have put us in mid-table. That is where Stoke sit after yet another impressive campaign, but this display had an end-of-season feel to it. Goalkeeper Asmir Begovic kept Wigan's score down. Begovic said: "I am sure there is some fatigue and it is difficult having played so many games. But we cannot use that as an excuse. We are a proud group of guys who don't like losing. We want to finish in the highest position we ever have.