Carlos Tevez struck late on to give Manchester City a 1-0 win against unlucky Wigan in their FA Cup final dress rehearsal at Eastlands on Wednesday.

Argentina striker Tevez netted his 11th league goal of the season seven minutes from full time to narrow the gap to 13 points between City and Premier League leaders Manchester United, who only drew at West Ham.

City’s win could delay United’s title celebrations as their bitter rivals will only clinch the trophy in the next round of fixtures if Roberto Mancini’s men lose at Tottenham on Sunday while United beat Aston Villa on Monday.

Wigan boss Roberto Martinez was keen to get across the message about the importance of staying in the Premier League and there were only muted celebrations from the Latics on Saturday when they beat Millwall to reach their first FA Cup final.

Martinez made two changes with forward Franco Di Santo and keeper Joel Robles replacing Callum McManaman and Ali Al Habsi respectively.

City had Micah Richards making his first appearance since the England defender suffered a knee injury in October.

Aleksandar Kolarov, Joleon Lescott and Javi Garcia also came in for Gael Clichy, Matija Nastasic and James Milner.

Mancini threw the towel in on the title weeks ago and the FA Cup may represent their only realistic hope of silverware this season, but five wins from six games is at least delaying United’s coronation.