WIGAN Athletic chairman, Dave Whelan, has set his sights on following Wanderers into Europe.

The owner and chairman of the Premiership's surprise guys has seen what has been achieved at the Reebok over the past four seasons and sees no reason why the Latics cannot follow suit.

They have already taken the Premiership by storm - far more impressively than Wanderers did when they were first promoted - and are showing no signs of slowing up.

Manager Paul Jewell insists survival is still the target but the Latics, second in the table after six successive wins, believe they can maintain the pressure on Chelsea when they take on Arsenal at the JJB Stadium on Saturday.

Whelan is certainly thinking big and sees Wanderers - now established as a Premiership force and making a name for themselves in the UEFA Cup - as a standard bearer for the less fashionable clubs.

"I'm immensely proud to see Wigan second in the Premiership and two or three years down the line, maybe we can find a route into Europe," said the JJB chief.

"We want to take a leaf out of Bolton's book and that would be a wonderful achievement for us.

"Nobody could have imagined when Wigan were playing non-league football in the 1970s that we'd be competing against Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea, but it has proved a wonderful adventure.

"But survival is everything for us this season, and we've made a good start, conceding only five goals in 11 games."

Wigan's incredible start to the season has earned Jewell the Premiership manager of the month award for the second time in a row, and their haul of 25 points from 11 matches is the best start to a Premiership campaign by a promoted club since Nottingham Forest in 1994.

But they now face a daunting run of fixtures, against Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United - all before the middle of December.

Jewell said: "It's fantastic to be going into this run of games with a decent points tally and we can play with a little less fear and trepidation, say if we only had six or seven points on the board."