Wigan Athletic thrash poor Aston Villa

Aston Villa's dreadful Christmas form has continued with a 3-0 home defeat to fellow strugglers Wigan Athletic this afternoon.

The result means that Villa have conceded 15 goals and scored none in their three matches over the festive period.

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The visitors made the best possible start by taking the lead after just five minutes, Ivan Ramis finding himself unmarked to head home a corner.

Shaun Maloney almost doubled Wigan's lead in the 20th minute when he was found by Jean Beausejour's pass, only to fire over from the edge of the box.

Villa came within inches of breaking their scoring duck moments before the break as Christian Benteke's knock down found Brett Holman, but his left-footed effort came back off the crossbar.

Villa had the first chance of the second half when Eric Lichaj cut in from the right before crossing towards Benteke, but the striker's header sailed over.

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Wigan struck again to make it 2-0 just five minutes later as Emmerson Boyce held off three Villa players before exchanging passes with Arouna Kone and slotting the ball into the far corner.

Kone got his own name on the scoresheet just before the hour mark when the ball fell to him in the box. The Ivorian rounded Brad Guzan before rolling the ball into the empty net from an acute angle.

Wigan comfortably saw the rest of the game out to move out of the bottom three and above Villa.