Paul Cook, the Wigan Athletic manager, has joked that the club will ask the Football Association for special dispensation to play 14 players against Manchester City in next week’s FA Cup fifth round tie.

Cook believes his Wigan side will be facing “possibly the best team in the world at the minute” when the runaway Premier League leaders visit the DW Stadium next Monday in a repeat of the 2013 Cup final.

Wigan pulled off one of the great Cup upsets by defeating City 1-0 at Wembley that day but Cook is under no illusions about the scale of the challenge the League One club face against Pep Guardiola’s quadruple chasers, who crushed Basel 4-0 in the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie on Tuesday and are 16 points clear at the top of the Premier League.

Wigan have already defeated two Premier League outfits, Bournemouth and West Ham United, en route to reaching the fifth round but Cook – whose side have been beaten in their past two league games to relinquish top spot in League One - believes City represent the toughest challenge his team could have encountered.

“We’re asking the FA for special dispensation to play 14 players,” Cook said, smiling.

Wigan pulled off one of the great FA Cup shocks in the 2013 final when they beat City credit: Getty images

"It’s hard, isn’t it? How can you say it’s just a normal game when you’re going to play possibly the best team in the world at the minute?

“It’s going to be such a challenge for us all, for everybody connected with the club, but if you can’t believe when you go into a tie that you can win it, then there’s no point.

“The reality for us is we’ve got to try and beat them. With the best will in the world, everything that they do, every side that comes before them, they seem to put away quite comfortably.”