The Gunners slip up in Ukraine as Arsene Wenger paid the price for his rotation policy at the hands of a lively Shakhtar Donetsk display. Carlo Ancelotti’s own tinkerings brought no such repercussions, as Chelsea overpowered Spartak at the Bridge. Here’s the noteworthy points from last night’s Champions League distractions…
Arsene Wenger’s lineup will be cited as the cause of Arsenal’s first Champions League defeat of the season, a setback that could now leave them relying on goal difference to help them avoid a top seed draw.
The Gunners left the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Alex Song and Andrei Arshavin at home with injuries and illness to blame. Wenger also chose to rest Bacary Sagna, Laurent Koscielny and Maroune Chamakh here – drafting in Johan Djourou for another start at the back, whilst Nicklas Bendtner was given the opportunity to lead the attack.
The midfield boasted the experience of Tomas Rosicky, with Samir Nasri lending his presence, but with Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott and Craig Eastmond completing matters, Wenger had clearly taken a gamble with Premier League ambitions seen as the priority.
While the defeat will sting, the performance of Theo Walcott, capped with another smartly taken goal in the first-half, will have confirmed to Wenger that he is back producing the kind of form displayed prior to his injury. With a brace against Newcastle in the Carling Cup, Walcott has already matched his best goal tally of the season with last night’s strike and continued to drift into central areas to lend a significant threat to Arsenal’s play.
With Wenger recently suggesting that Walcott could well be fully converted to a strikers role, Walcott provided more evidence last night that he could seamlessly adjust to that conversion.
Fantasy Managers should take notice. Walcott’s statistics in terms of “Goal Threat” were exceptionally strong before his injury setback and as a Midfield option priced at 7.2 in the Fantasy Premier League game, Walcott has to be Watchlist material at a time when both Nani and Florent Malouda have suffered injury setback s for the coming Gameweek.
Walcott is not guaranteed a start this weekend however. Indeed, last night’s lineup suggests that he and Samir Nasri could well be under threat if the likes of Fabregas, Arshavin and Song return to contention in midfield. Wenger likes the Song/Denilson combination in the engine room and may need them against a combative Newcastle midfield that also carries a goal threat in the form of Kevin Nolan. That would mean that Nasri and Walcott could be competing for a single starting role in a midfield five come the weekend – and that’s also discounting Wilshere. Diaby and Rosicky.
Back in London, and Chelsea had no such trouble in their Stamford Bridge return tie with Spartak, running out 4-1 winners with a brace from Branislav Ivanovic and strikes from Nicklas Anelka and Didier Drogba.
Carlo Ancelotti’s also had one eye on Premier League commitments with a trip to Anfield beckoning. John Terry was the big name culled – rested to the bench with Ivanovic and Alex providing the central defensive pairing. In midfield injuries to Michael Essien and the continued absence of Frank Lampard, saw Ramires return from his own injury setback to start alongside Yuri Zhirkov and Mikel. Salomon Kalou replaced ankle injury victim Florent Malouda on the left flank. As stated in our earlier article, Malouda was later confirmed as sidelined for the Anfield visit in Ancelotti’s post-match comments.
The Chelsea starting XI against Liverpool will lack his significant cutting edge then and Kalou will be expected to hold onto his role to provide a short-term midfield solution at 7.3 in the FPL. With Malouda presumably in the frame to return against Fulham on Wednesday, with another home encounter with Sunderland to come four days later, Kalou would surely only be a one-week consideration.
There’s also the chance that Ancelotti could shift Zhirkov to a more advanced left-wing role, with Frank Lampard threatening a return from injury at Anfield. Essien is also set to return to boost the Chelsea midfield.
Ancelotti also has options at the back with Terry to return to restore his expected partnership with Alex. Ivanovic and Jose Bosingwa – out through illness currently, will surely compete for the right-back spot. With three goals in two games and a real set-piece threat to an often fragile deadball Liverpool defence, it appears that Ivanovic has the edge in this battle.
