Ryan Shawcross remains a doubt for the trip to the Emirates this weekend after suffering a groin injury in the stalemate at Ewood Park on Saturday.

The big centre-back limped off before the hour-mark (much to the frustration of his fantasy owners) after sustaining the injury and was replaced by club skipper Abdoulaye Faye. Given that Huth started the draw with Rovers at centre-back, with the impressive Wilkinson claiming the right-back berth, Stoke boss Pulis clearly has options and is unlikely to rush Shawcross back to action against the Gunners…

Shawcross himself sounds slightly sceptical about is chances of making the weekend…

“I had some treatment at half-time, but straight afterwards I pulled up when kicking the ball. I could run all right, but I couldn’t kick without feeling the groin…I’m hoping I’ll be okay and back for the next game at Arsenal, but we’ll have to see….It’s always up to me whether I play with an injury or not, but you don’t want to make the injury worse and so you’ll always consult those who know better first.”

Stoke have kept three clean sheets in their last five games but are likley to be severely tested at the Emirates. Arsenal have failed to score in their last two but Wenger’s side will surely be looking to the weekend to dish out some backlash following the Chelsea defeat.

Even if fit then, many fantasy managers will be considering benching or selling on Shawcross, particularly as he is a approaching a missing fixture in gameweek 17, with two tricky away games to follow (mcy avl). Things pick up considerably from that point however, with a double fixture in gameweek 20 bringing two decent home games against Birmingham and Fulham. Indeed, those two fixtures give Stoke a run of four home games in five.

We seem likely to see a trend that will have Shawcross and his fellow Stoke defenders sold on over the next couple of weeks then and then brought back with likely price rises in late December, going into the New Year.