Messrs Hodgson, Houllier, Grant and Ancelotti suffered restless nights as Wednesday defeats left all four teetering on the brink. In contrast, Alex Ferguson surely slept like a baby, as City and the woodwork denied a fluid Arsenal at the Emirates…
Arsenal played some sparkling football, struck the woodwork twice and drew some superb stops from Joe Hart in the City goal. Their heavyweight Fantasy talent – Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri and Robin Van Persie were all prominent on the night. Arsenal’s forthcoming fixtures are now very strong and include a double Gameweek with two home matches against Wolves and Stoke in Gameweek 27. Heavy investment in their attacking talent looks likely.
Johan Djourou was once again selected ahead of Sebastien Schillaci and subsequently earned a second consecutive clean sheet and second 2 point Bonus haul. Djourou looks to have nudged ahead of Schillaci in the pecking order and at just 4.2 in the FPL, he is offering a value route to Arsenal defensive returns. As long as Thomas Vermaelen remains sidelined and Arsene Wenger stays out of the transfer market, he looks a decent prospect.
Bacary Sagna’s straight red card for violent conduct will see him serve a three-match ban but he will only miss one league match. Sagna will sit out the FA Cup tie against Leeds, the Carling Cup semi-final with Ipswich and the league trip to West Ham.
Pablo Zabaleta’s rather unfortunate dismissal in the “incident” with Sagna will earn him a three-match ban, subject to a possible appeal from City. The full-back will miss the FA Cup tie with Leicester this weekend and league matches with Wolves and Villa. His absence could well allow Aleksandar Kolarov to earn a recall at left-back.
Roy Hodgson made an array of changes to his Liverpool starting lineup, perhaps surprisingly recalling both Paul Konchesky and Sotirios Kyrgiakos. The latter was badly at fault for Benjani’s opener and Blackburn’s second and was replaced on 51 minutes with the benched Dan Agger introduce. His arrival failed to settle a Liverpool defence that looked simply woeful and was exposed on several occasions by the Rovers attack.
In attacking terms Liverpool were similarly disappointing. Hodgson set his side out to carry more threat but they failed to turn possession into clean cut chances. Steven Gerrard’s typically did his best to drag the visitors back into the game but his spooned penalty summed up another awful night for Hodgson.
Despite the fine win, few Fantasy Managers are likely to be considering Blackburn’s assets with Morten Gamst-Pedersen now simmering. The Norwegian – a popular target a few Gameweek’s back, has now gone 7 starts without a goal and, despite the assist last night, his remaining owners will surely be shifting him out in favour of a double Gameweek alternative.
Chelsea’s dredful decline continued with defeat at Molineux. They managed just 3 attempts on target on all night and were unable to break down peg back the early goal from George Elokobi. It’s now just 1 clean sheet in the last 7 league games. In attacking terms the stats are just as damming – Carlo Ancelotti’s side have scored just 9 goals in their last 11, and 3 of those came in Sunday’s 3-3 with Villa. Their returns continue to look limited at both ends of the field.
Rafael Van der Vaart again confirmed his status as a Fantasy heavyweight with another goal, his ninth of the season, in Tottenham’s 2-1 defeat at Goodison. The Dutchman fired in multiple efforts and was a instrumental in the visitors’ set-piece routines – emphasising his importance and value for Fantasy Managers.
Gareth Bale was withdrawn by Harry Redknapp on 59 minutes of the match – the official line is that the Welshman had suffered “a number of knocks” and was generally fatigued after the hectic Christmas programme. Bale will surely earn a rest in the FA Cup tie with Charlton.
Seamus Coleman once more stood out as an “out of position” asset with a third goal of the season, his second in his last 3 starts. Coleman enjoyed a superb evening and fetched the maximum 3 Bonus Points as a result. He looks to have cemented the role on the right-flank right now and, despite not having a double Gameweek to come, he could earn further investment over the next few weeks.
Emile Heskey’s red for violent conduct in Villa’s 1-0 defeat to Sunderland will put him out of league matches with Birmingham and Man City. His absence could see Gabby Agbonlahor shifted to a lone striker role which in turn could re-introduce Marc Albrighton to the starting lineup. The winger was on the bench again last night, only seeing action late on.
Sunderland’s Phil Bardsley is another defensive option that raised his profile last night. He claimed his first goal of the season – a belting 25-yard effort, coupled with yet another clean sheet – Sunderland’s twelfth of the season. The win came at a cost for Steve Bruce’s side – David Meyler, having just returned from a long-term knee injury, sustained a blow to the same joint and faces another layoff; there are fears that he has damaged his cruciate knee ligament once again. More significantly for Fantasy Managers, Danny Welbeck sustained a hamstring injury. Bruce fears the worst on both counts…
“Meyler is a bad one…It is his cruciate ligament on the same knee as he did before and that is him out for six months at the very least…We will have to wait and see with Danny. He is going for a scan and I would not like to guess before we have the results, but that does not look like a good one either.”
Sunderland face Newcastle next and nobody could have foreseen Leon Best’s impact for them against West Ham last night. Best came in for Shola Ameobi who suffered a knock in training and duly grabbed a hat-trick in the 5-0 win. Best had not previously scored for Newcastle in a competitive match. He will look to keep his starting role at Stevenage in the FA Cup but did get withdrawn with a slight injury having sealed his hat-trick.
Kevin Nolan was a more familiar name on the scoresheet for the Magpies – his goal and assist saw him blink on the Fantasy radar once again. That was Nolan’s ninth of the season as he continues to consistently provide returns from midfield for an FPL fee of 6.1. He will surely come into consideration in the coming weeks with Newcastle’s double to come in Gameweek 27.
Cheick Tiote and Steven Taylor also picked up knocks in last night’s game – the latter was forced off just after half-time, missing out on the Newcastle clean sheet. Both are immediate doubts for the weekend Cup tie.
Wigan earned a point at the Reebok with Ronnie Stam notching his first goal for the Latics. The result came at a cost with Chris Kirkland suffering concussion and, more significantly, Tom Cleverley sustaining a hamstring injury with Roberto Martinez already concerned…
“Tom [Cleverley] felt his hamstring straight away and that’s bad news. We have to see what the degree of the soft tissue injury is. He is a young man so I hope it shouldn’t be too long.”
