Arsenal’s stunning victory over Barcelona saw Robin Van Persie continue his unstoppable scoring streak, while Samir Nasri sparkled on his return from injury but was still overshadowed by the emerging Jack Wilshere – if only he could start fetching Fantasy points to match his performances.
Elsewhere, just over 7000 unfortunates witnessed Wigan’s reserves get dumped out of the FA Cup by Bolton’s second string striker on a battlefield of a pitch. The glamour of the FA Cup put nicely into perspective.
Here’s the notes from last night’s football…
While Arsenal’s 2-1 win reaffirmed their current form, in Fantasy terms it carried little significance other than alerting us to the fact that Arsenal will now go into an extremely competitive second-leg in Spain.
That tie follows the Gameweek 29 fixture with Sunderland and we must now be aware of the rotation implications around that match. Wenger has shown to this point that the league has remained a major priority, even over ambitions in Europe but, having gained a foothold against Barcelona, there will surely be the temptation to preserve key individuals for the return leg.
Samir Nasri’s return from a hamstring injury immediately puts him back on our radars as an option in midfield. Nasri lined up on the Gunners left-flank with Andrey Arshavin relegated to the bench. The Frenchman immediately demonstrated flashes of his pre-injury form, providing a smart assist as Arshavin came off the bench to fire the winner. Nasri will be backed to start returning points once league action resumes.
Nasri’s return is timely given the rather muted form of Cesc Fabregas and considering that Arsenal’s assets, including Fabregas, are likely to be sold in big numbers as we approach their blank fixture in Gameweek 28. Nasri could well benefit from heavy investment following this, if the midfield step down from Fabregas to the Frenchman becomes a popular strategy for Gameweek 29 onwards.
Arsenal now go into their second fixture of Gameweek 27 against Stoke next Wednesday, once they have made the trip to Orient in the FA Cup on Sunday. Rotation at the weekend looks inevitable but it will be interesting to see if any of this carries over to Wednesday’s league fixture – it seems unlikely. Sunday’s lineup will give us better indication as to Wenger’s starting XI for the visit of Stoke.
Over in the FA Cup, Ivan Klasnic did his best to offer a reminder of his existence to Owen Coyle by scoring the winner in the fourth round replay at Wigan. The Croatian has slipped further down the pecking order at the Reebok following the arrival of Daniel Sturridge, but may at least have given himself further opportunities for starts by steering Bolton into the fifth round – Bolton now go to Fulham on Sunday.
Klasnic was part of a shuffled Bolton lineup that saw the likes of Adam Bogdan, Fabrice Muamba, Martin Petrov also earn starts. Chung-Yong Lee made a return to the starting lineup having been left on the bench against Everton.
Bolton’s victory was marred by a setback for full-back Sam Ricketts who sustained an Achilles injury and was stretchered from the field. The early prognosis indicates that his season could be over. Owen Coyle certainly sounded pessimistic in his post-match comments…
“Sam’s damaged his Achilles and it doesn’t look great. It could be quite severe and we hope that’s not the scenario but it looks like it will be a lengthy period of time.”
This latest setback for Bolton arrives off the back of Zat Knight’s knee injury which leaves him sidelined for around six weeks. Bolton’s defensive resources now looked stretched then. Nonetheless, David Wheater looked accomplished in the Bolton back four last night and Coyle’s side earned their third clean sheet in the last four matches.
Wigan boss Roberto Martinez made no less than nine changes to the lineup that came away with a point from Anfield at the weekend. Wigan is an unreliable source of Fantasy talent at the best of times but, with some many changes on show, there really was little of any significance for Fantasy Managers here.
The DW Stadium surface was perhaps the only factor of note. A major problem on the night, Martinez complained that his side could not put “three or four passes together” as a result of the uneven pitch. Significantly perhaps, Man United are next to visit Wigan on February 26 and the club are due to relay the pitch in time for that match. The playing surface could well be a factor in Gameweek 28 then.
