A pitch battle at Cardiff, Wigan’s Taylor emerges as a “Bridge solution” and time could be up for Milner. My thoughts on Terry’s bloody Sunday…

First of all, lets sieve through the carnage of the Carling Cup Final. The lineups themselves held few surprises. Wenger kept faith with the likes of Denilson, Walcott and Baptista. Eboue’s return as a second-half sub is of interest, particularly as Hoyte picked up an injury. Eboue now seems likely to seize the right-back berth in a gameweek in which Arsenal have 2 matches.

For Chelsea, Ballack returned but hardly covered himself in glory, with another disappointing performance so you can expect Robben to threaten for a starting spot at Portsmouth next weekend. Diarra played at right-back and Bridge on the left, despite Cole looming ominously on the bench. It remains to be seen if Bridge can hold the spot at Portsmouth. For me, the uncertainty is enough to warrant selling.

The flurry of cards will have serious impact in the weeks ahead. Both Arsenal and Chelsea have two fixtures in the gameweek. Toure and Adebayor will now miss the Blackburn Cup replay and Premiership matches against Reading and Villa. Mikel will also miss 3 games for Chelsea but his absence is likely to have less impact on Fantasy Managers.

Injury wise, Terry miraculously appeared back at the stadium after suffering an x-certificate injury [source]. Given Chelsea’s lack of central defenders, he seems likely to appear next Saturday. Diaby also picked up a knock for Arsenal.

Over in the Premiership, Mark Hughes showed once again, that he’s not afraid to rotate and rest players. However, now the UEFA run is over, we should see more stability in the lineup so Fantasy Managers can consider his players without concern. For Sunday’s game against Portsmouth, Hughes brought in Henchoz for defensive rock Nelson, while McCarthy was benched with Derbyshire and Nonda partnered up front. The performance of Nonda will mean Hughes has a tough decision to make on Wednesday but I expect McCarthy to come back in at the expense of Derbyshire against Arsenal. Mokoena’s return meant that Dunn dropped to the bench and it does appear that he’ll now only play out cameo roles for the rest of the season. The Bentley, Tugay, Mokoena and Pedersen midfield linenup is established and Dunn seems only likely appear when Tugay’s legs need a rest.

Redknapp meanwhile, had the luxury of Primus and Cole being declared fit. He preferred Pamarot to Traore at left-back and as expected, rested Kanu. Davis picked up his fifth booking and will play against Chelsea on Saturday but miss the following game at Reading.

Paul Jewell brought Valencia in on the right side of midfield and pushed Taylor back to full-back in place of the suspended Hall. This doesn’t make Taylor any less attractive to Fantasy Managers though. Taylor was taking corners and free-kicks and of course, struck the winning goal. He’s now emerged as a very decent solution for managers selling Stubbs or Bridge in the next week or so. Elsewhere Jewell kept Camara on the bench although with Heskey going off after 37 minutes, Camara could well make the lineup next time round. Baines and McCulloch picked up their fifth bookings of the season and will play next weekend but miss the Fulham game the week after.

Newcastle welcomed the return of Given, Parker and Nzogbia back from injury and Sibierski overcame a knock to partner Martins. Huntingdon came in for the injured Babayaro. Dyer was apparently “under the weather” while Milner seems unlucky to have been benched after his recent performances. He may face a real battle to get back in the starting lineup now that Dyer, Duff and Nzogbia are all available. He’s a cheap midfield option in most games, so this uncertainty could be enough to consider selling.

Spurs lined up agasint Bolton as expected, with Lee continuing at left-back and Rocha in for the injured Gardner. Malbranque continues to contribute Fantasy points, but clearly faces a battle for a starting place. Jenas is on fire – that’s 3 goals in 3 consecutive Premiership matches. Keane now sits out 3 games so Defoe will get another run alongside Berbatov. Mido was on the bench so he’s also an option again for Jol fancies resting the Bulgarian.

Bolton lined up as I expected, with Campo moving into midfield in place of Andranik and Hunt returning at right back. Faye partnered Meite in the centre of defence. Ben Heim is back next week so they’re could be rotation with either Meite, Faye or Gardner missing out.

That’s about it for the weekend’s games. There were a few significant players who suffered knocks, so I’ll try to round these up for you in my next major post.