The off-season saw the club sign a number of players, including Middlesbrough's highly rated young midfielder Lee Cattermole, Birmingham City pair Daniël de Ridder and Olivier Kapo, both of whom played under Bruce at Birmingham, and little-known Egyptian striker Amr Zaki, ranked as the world's best striker in FIFA rankings.
Players to depart from the club included Julius Aghahowa, Salomon Olembé, Josip Skoko, Andreas Granqvist, Marlon King and Marcus Bent.
The Wigan club thrashed the Yorkshire outfit 6–0 with goals from Marlon King, Emile Heskey, Luis Antonio Valencia, Michael Brown and a brace for new boy Daniël de Ridder.
Wigan later travelled to Scotland to face Scottish Premier League team Hibernian on 5 August, winning 1–0 before finishing off their pre-season with a 1–0 victory over Dutch side Utrecht.
Wigan's first Premiership game was away to West Ham United on 16 August, with the home side victorious thanks to a Dean Ashton brace.
The game began badly for Wigan who, already without first-choice goalkeeper Chris Kirkland, gave away a free kick after just 4 minutes of play just outside the box, which was scored by Deco.
Despite going down early the Latics rallied and performed valiantly against one of the superior Premier League sides and pressed for an equalising goal, which, in the end, was in vain as Chelsea ran out 1–0 victors.
[4] On 26 August Wigan played against Notts County at the JJB Stadium in the second round of the League Cup, which led to a comprehensive 4–0 victory for the hosts.
Antonio Valencia added a second on the counterattack and, despite some decent resolve from Hull, they were finished after an Amr Zaki strike just after the hour mark made sure of the result.
[7] On 16 September, Wigan announced the signing for former Birmingham and Ghanaian international goalkeeper Richard Kingson, released by the Midlands club at the end of the 2007–08 season, on a three-year contract after a successful trial period.
Wigan had looked confident and the most threatening during the opening half but were unable to take their chances when given them and were eventually undone in the 89th minute with a strike from Middlesbrough forward Jérémie Aliadière.
Wigan dominated the majority of the second half before a reckless challenge from Antonio Valencia led to him being given a second yellow card and leaving the field.
The game took a while to come to life, but a goal by Jay Simpson just before half-time broke the deadlock and spurred Arsenal onto an emphatic win against a toothless Wigan side.
Wigan still looked in control of the game for large periods despite missing key men such as Emile Heskey and Amr Zaki, but were undone with the arrival of Michael Owen.
However, poor defending from Newcastle allowed Titus Bramble to power a header home with a minute of normal time remaining to earn Wigan a point.
In a game that West Brom had fought hard in they initially took the lead through Ishmael Miller after a Titus Bramble blunder gifted the striker an opportunity on goal.
Newcastle, despite good form coming into the game, were out of sorts and were behind on the scoreboard after 29 minutes with a 30-yard free kick from Ryan Taylor beating Shay Given.
Due to the significance of the game, being both a derby and a potential six-point fixture, tempers were heated and a lot of heavy tackles were used with several yellow cards being shown.
Roman Pavlyuchenko opened the scoring for Spurs just inside the second half from the penalty spot after Wigan goalkeeper Richard Kingson fouled Fraizer Campbell.
A long range shot from Jamie O'Hara bounced back off the woodwork at straight to Luka Modrić, who doubled Spurs' advantage midway through the second half.
Their hard work and endeavour paid off when Maynor Figueroa popped up with a header in the final minute to give Wigan a well-deserved 1–0 victory.
Wigan were caught cold in the opening minute of the game when Cristiano Ronaldo broke away down the right flank and crossed for Wayne Rooney to score.
[28] Wigan had also announced that they had rejected a bid for midfielder Wilson Palacios from Tottenham Hotspur worth £10,000,000 and have asked Spurs to increase their offer.
City's good position was rocked only a few minutes later after the dismissal of Richard Dunne for a kick on grounded Wigan striker Amr Zaki.