The Manchester sides share top spot after Roberto Mancini’s City dismantled an ailing Aston Villa at Eastlands, while United failed to kill off a determined Birmingham at St Andrews. Elsewhere, it was Gareth Bale’s turn to blink on our Fantasy Radars with a superb strike to keep Spurs buzzing against the Toon, while Blackpool defied the odds again, earning a first win for an away side at the Stadium of Light as Steve Bruce’s strikers took the day off. Here’s the notes from Tuesday’s games…
The absence of Carlos Tevez from the Man City starting line-up will no doubt have caused many a concern for Fantasy Managers – he was rested to the bench with a tight hamstring causing some mild concern. The absence of Tevez handed a more central role for Mario Balotelli and allowed the Italian to grab a hat-trick (and the 3 Bonus Points) in the Argentine’s absence. Roberto Mancini rotated his squad to great effect, making five changes -also resting the likes of Aleksander Kolarov and handing rare starts to Adam Johnson and Patrick Viera- in the 4-0 home romp, which briefly took City to the Premier League summit. Competition for places remains stiff then – particularly in the full-back areas where Pablo Zabaleta is being used to cover on both sides of the field and threaten the likes of Kolarov, Jerome Boateng and Micah Richards.
Villa recalled Stilyan Petrov to the starting XI but, despite their woeful form, Richard Dunne and Stephen Ireland both failed to even make the squad. Defensively, Villa are struggling badly, and have conceded more than 1 goal in 7 of their last 8 games. With five defeats in six, Gerard Houllier looks to have a huge job on his hands to guide the team to top-flight safety.
With Charlie Adam suspended and their problematic home pitch depriving them of match-action, Blackpool went into the game at the Stadium of Light as heavy underdogs, but a 2-0 win upset all the odds yet again. The victory is, incredibly, their fifth clean sheet on the road this season. Only City and Arsenal have a better away record.
A brace from DJ Campbell brace (giving him 5 for the season) brought the Seasider’s unbeaten run to five games and, with just one defeat in their last eight games, Ian Holloway’s side will undoubtedly see heavy Fantasy investment, with three double Gameweeks to come between GW 22 and GW 27. Next up, it’s a trip to Eastlands to test City’s title credentials.
Sunderland’s first home defeat of the season was something of a smash and grab performance by Blackpool. Steve Bruce welcomed back Lee Cattermole and Danny Welbeck as the home side had 26 shots to their visitor’s 9, but could not manage to find a way past opposing keeper Richard Kingson, with poor finishing from the Black Cats’ front men costing them dearly. Nedum Onouha, arguably the club’s most impressive defender this season, limped off with a hamstring problem on the half-hour mark to be replaced by fit-again Titus Bramble. Bruce later revealed that Asamoah Gyan also picked up a hamstring knock which will need tracking, and Danny Welbeck also has a strain as a result of the frantic festive schedule.
Stoke suffered their second home defeat in succession as Fulham chalked up a surprising 2-0 win at The Britannia. Matt Etherington passed a late fitness test, which allowed Tony Pulis to field the same starting XI that won at Blackburn last weekend, but the home side failed to spark against the battling Cottagers.
Fulham picked up their first away victory of the season in defeating Stoke. Mark Hughes made two changes to the side, surprisingly dropping Carlos Salcido and Zoltan Gera and replacing the pair with Chris Baird and Damien Duff. Baird rewarded his manager’s faith in some style, grabbing both goals (and plundering a FPL Gameweek total of 20 points) as Fulham halted a run of eight games without a win by lifting themselves out of the relegation zone.
Tottenham continued their assault at the top of the table and once again got a result with only ten men; this time it was Younes Kaboul dismissed for a “coming together” with Cheikh Tiote. Roman Pavluychenko came in for the suspended Jermain Defoe but failed to take his opportunity as goals from wingers Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon afforded Spurs the win. Luka Modric once again stood out and earned 3 Bonus Points compliment an assist for Bale’s goal. The Croatian playmaker has now picked up Bonus Points in 5 of Spurs’ last 6 home games and has gathered 10 Bonus in the last 5 starts.
Newcastle meanwhile made a couple of enforced changes with Alan Smith coming in to provide cover for suspended Kevin Nolan, while James Perch played at left-back as Jose Enrique sat out with a hamstring injury. For the first time since Gameweek 6, Andy Carroll failed to earn more than the obligatory 2 FPL points – a yellow card accompanied his third solo Bonus Point in a row.
Blackburn inflicted another defeat on West Brom at the Hawthorns – a third successive setback for Roberto Di Matteo’s men. Nikola Kalinic was the hero and villain for Rovers, bagging a brace before seeing red. The visitors were once again without Chris Samba at the back – he failed a fitness test on his ankle injury. His absence saw Steve Kean shuffle his lineup, with Gael Givet dropping to the bench and Martin Olsson shifting to left-back; Grant Hanley started alongside Ryan Nelsen once again.
Paul Robinson sustained a calf injury during the warm-up and started the game regardless; he was however forced off and was replaced by Mark Bunn at half-time. He remains a doubt for the New Year’s Day trip to Sunderland with scans expected this week.
West Brom’s current plight will not be helped by the dismissal of Gabriel Tamas who will now begin a three-match ban. He will miss the home clash with United and the trip to Fulham, in addition to the Baggies FA Cup tie with Reading. Di Matteo has problems at the back with Jonas Olsson still sidelined, and Gonzalo Jara also missing against United after picking up his fifth booking yesterday. Man United and Dimitar Berbatov in particular, will be looking to capitalise against a defence that has conceded 12 goals in the last 6 matches.
It was United closed a long day of football, making the first of two trips to Birmingham this week (they head back to The Hawthorns on New Years Day) to face City at St Andrews. Once again Nani failed to make the teamsheet, he failed to recover from his hip injury, while Park Ji-Sung has also now departed for the Asia Cup, allowing Darron Gibson to come into the side. Darren Fletcher made a partial recovery from illness but was only fit enough for the bench.
Alex Ferguson set his side up in a 4-2-3-1 with Wayne Rooney wide left and Ryan Giggs on the right. Significantly, it was Anderson who was pushed furthest forward of the midfield three to support Dimitar Berbatov up front. The more attacking role for the Brazilian in an interesting development, with team-mate Michael Carrick recently backing him for more goals. Rooney’s role is also interesting; it would suggest that he could find playing a wider role in away matches, with Nani likely to return to the opposite flank.
Typically it was left to Berbatov to earn United’s classy opener, continuing his goalscoring run that has seen 8 goals arrive in his last 3 starts, he bagged another 2 Bonus Points in the process. That strike wasn’t enough to give United the 3 points as they picked up their seventh draw of the season away from home. [Andy]
The Birmingham lineup saw Liam Ridgewell return from illness, as Craig Gardner and Jean Beausejour also made starts for a reshuffled City. Alexander Hleb returned from injury to show his face from the bench. Alex McCleish’s men put up a typically disciplined defensive performance and left it until very late on to score a rather contentious equaliser. Nikola Zigic came off the bench to rise high and deflect the ball into the path of Lee Bowyer to power home from six yards. Despite the precious point, Birmingham have scored just 4 goals in their last 6 games and have failed to keep clean sheets in the last 4.
Yesterday was the penultimate day of football before the [5] yellow card amnesty kicks in, and three players walking the suspension tightrope with 4 bookings fell foul of bans. We’ve already mentioned Gonzalo Jara of West Brom; he is joined by Robert Huth of Stoke and Michel Salgado of Blackburn who will all be welcoming the New Year from the sidelines.
