From The Daily Mirror: The road to Wigan Pier may be well known - but not the road to Wigan's JJB Stadium.
Arsenal's team bus arrived late on Saturday after taking a wrong turn and ending up lost on a housing estate on their first trip to the town.
And Gunners were less impressed by the state of the pitch in rugby league heartland.
Martin Jol and Edgar Davids will meet a fellow countryman when the two sides meet on Saturday - Arjan de Zeeuw.
From The Observer:
Wigan's Dutch centre-half and captain has a degree in medical science.At the moment De Zeeuw is sticking to his intention of becoming a doctor when he retires, though he admits he is wavering. He never expected his football career to be so successful or so long and certainly did not foresee the best being saved until the age of 35. Extra years of medical training are beginning to look daunting.
'I was only supposed to be taking a little break to play football,' he explains. 'I've had to stop making plans because they keep being interrupted by clubs and moves. I'm going to hang up my boots first, then decide. I've got a minimum of two years in houseships to do and anything up to six years if I specialise in orthopaedics. I might go into sports medicine instead. That's a bit more undefined, but it sounds logical. I have to be honest, though. The longer I stay in football, the more I think I might have a go at coaching.'
De Zeeuw has a Dutch wife and three children, who were born in England, and is similarly uncertain about whether to stay on in Britain or move back to Holland. The indecision is not really his fault, it is Wigan's. Second in the Premiership? How could anyone plan their life around such an unlikely circumstance?
'I didn't expect this when I signed here, I don't think Paul Jewell did,' he says. 'I thought we would be fighting against relegation with a good chance of staying up. There's a strong winning mentality at this club. But just in case, the gaffer's got a chart he can pull out to prove a good start is no guarantee against a losing run.'
De Zeeuw approaches football as merely an interlude to a real career. 'My studies delayed my football progress to a certain extent, but I was a bit of a late starter anyway,' he says. 'I wasn't discovered in my teens. When I started it was only as a semi-professional with a very small club and I knocked Telstar back twice before I signed. My dad wasn't too keen on me throwing away my medical studies for what was only going to be a little bit of glory.'