Jamie McDonald/Getty ImagesNorwich's Bradley Johnson warned against complacency this week

Chris Hughton's biggest task this weekend is to convince his Norwich City players to approach Wigan with the zeal of a challenger not a champion.

Survey the current Premier League table, look at the relative form guides and there can only be one conclusion drawn. City will have too much for Roberto Martinez's men on home soil - where they have previously swept aside both Arsenal and Manchester United on an unbeaten nine-match league run which has put them onto the coat tails of Catalan royalty. Only the great Barcelona is on a better current run across the big five European club leagues; a statistic to impress even the most studious of number crunchers. But therein lies a potential pitfall.

City's rise from the wreckage of heavy early season defeats has been forged in adversity. The cult of the underdog carried sway against the aristocratic prowess of clubs like United or Arsenal. Even Stoke at home or Everton away could be portrayed as efforts against-the-odds in the face of superior established Premier League opponents. And few inside Norfolk, let alone the wider world, would have predicted a win against Swansea at the Liberty Stadium last weekend.

Hughton skilfully crafted a siege mentality to trigger a revival. A group of players largely written off before a ball was kicked in the summer had been consigned to the Championship by the time Liverpool and then Chelsea put nine goals past them in two Premier League games. City midfielder Elliott Bennett captured the essence of this burgeoning defiance prior to that momentum-shifting Premier League win over Arsenal when he warned you push this Norwich collective into a corner and they come out fighting. Words backed up by deeds since, but with Wigan in town this weekend the psychology shifts again.

Both Hughton and Bradley Johnson spoke on Thursday about the need to guard against complacency - and just like Bennett before them, actions will speak louder than those sound bites at Carrow Road.

Norwich can not play the victim card when they are seven points and six places above the Latics. The disappointment of a midweek Capital One Cup quarter-final exit to Aston Villa will inevitably linger, but Norwich can also seek solace in the travails of those far below them in the table. A cup run was but a mere distraction to the real business of retaining their Premier League status.

In that regard, Hughton has been a roaring success approaching the festive period and the turn for home. But to remain in clear blue water means edging key games like Wigan at home - when all the expectation is on the Canaries to sweep aside a squad with only one win in the last six and struggling for air below the familiar waterline Wigan usually inhabit.

The highly-rated Martinez is rapidly acquiring a reputation as an escapologist of some repute given his ability to retain the Latics' Premier League status. Hughton spoke in glowing terms of both the Spaniard's skill and of a well-run club that is maximising meagre resources set against heavyweight neighbours in the north-west.

Norwich's manager also insisted Wigan's current lowly status belies the quality within their ranks. It is up to his players to prove him wrong this weekend.

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