Norwich City's return to the Championship could barely have started worse as they were beaten by a fairly underwhelming Cardiff City side in the Welsh capital and saw Grant Hanley sent off.

Romaine Sawyer's outside-the-box strike snuck just inside Tim Krul's post for the decisive goal in a 1-0 defeat that will have caused concern amongst the Carrow Road crowd.

Dean Smith's side now travel up to the DW Stadium for the Saturday lunchtime kick-off with 2021/22 League One champions Wigan Athletic waiting for them.

The Latics earned a point against Preston North End last weekend and will be eyeing a scalp on Saturday.

With that in mind, here's the XI we expect Smith to name for the game against the Latics...

Tim Krul must surely be considered amongst the division's top goalkeepers so it would be a surprise to see him lose his place.

There will have to be a change to the backline ahead of him, however, as Hanley is suspended following his red card against the Bluebirds.

The good news for Norwich is that Smith has confirmed that Ben Gibson is fit to play after training all week, which means he should partner Andrew Omobamidele with Max Aarons on the right and Dimitris Giannoulis on the left.

Kieran Dowell has also been deemed fit enough to feature and may well return to the midfield alongside Kenny McLean as the Canaries look to regain some of the control they lacked last weekend.

Todd Cantwell was one of few Norwich players to impress against Cardiff so Smith could look to keep him through the middle with new signing Gabriel Sara on the left and Josh Sargent on the right.

Given his record at this level, you have to feel it's only a matter of time before Teemu Pukki opens his goalscoring account in 2022/23 and the travelling Canaries fans will hope that it happens on Saturday.