Aston Villa arrived at Eastlands with match winning talent on the bench, granting City’s star-studded lineup an easy passage to an FA Cup Quarter-Final. Down at the Emirates meanwhile, Leyton Orient are left dreaming of Vegas as Arsenal’s Nicklas Bentdner hits the jackpot with a hat-trick to cement his place in Van Persie’s non-pink boots and maybe even the minds of Fantasy Managers…
Inexplicably Gerard Houllier chose to make no less than eight changes to the lineup that destroyed Blackburn at the weekend. Significantly both Ashley Young and Stewart Downing were rested to the bench – good news for their Fantasy owners, but surely baffling for the Villa fans who made a hopeful trip to Eastlands.
Houlier handed a first start to new signing Michael Bradley in midfield. He lined up alongside Barry Bannan, with Fabian Delph also given a midfield role and Stiiyan Petrov recalled. Nathan Delfouneso started in attack, with Gabby Agbonlahor and Emile Heskey up with him. There was little to take from the Villa performance here – very few involved boosted their first team credentials and Houllier will surely recall the likes of Young, Downing and Albrighton for the trip to Bolton this weekend.
City, in contrast, fielded a strong starting XI, although it must be said that Roberto Mancini did take the opportunity to rest Carlos Tevez. He emerged from the bench on 60 minutes but it was Mario Balotelli who was handed the start up front in a 4-5-1. Micah Richards made a return from injury at the back, with Jerome Boateng and Joleon Lescott in central defensive roles and Pablo Zabaleta at left-back.
Aleksandar Kolarov was in the left midfield role once again then. As usual he fired in a few ambitious efforts on goal, but it was his corners that were the real feature of his game. His deadball delivery continues to offer City a threat and could yet bring him assists this season.
Yaya Toure was back in an attacking midfield role and offered a reminder as to his Fantasy potential, scoring the opening goal and then providing the assist for Balotelli’s strike and City’s second.
David Silva sparkled throughout and his 20-yard effort for the third goal announced his return to the City lineup after missing the 1-1 with Fulham with an ankle knock. He will surely lineup against Wigan at the weekend and offer a decent midfield prospect as a result.
Baltotelli has now scored 10 goals in 18 appearances for City, gathering 9 bookings in the process. He also added to that tally last night, picking up a yellow from Mark Clatternburg for a stray elbow sent in the direction of Villa’s Chris Herd. He could well find himself on the bench for the Wigan clash this weekend with Tevez certain to be recalled. Edin Dzeko could also earn a chance to impress. Mancini gave us this brief insight into his thinking going into the weekend…
“I hope to have Vincent Kompany and Nigel de Jong back for the weekend and it was good that Edin Dzeko had a rest and Carlos only played for 30 minutes. It was a good night for us.”
Arsenal’s routine 5-0 win over Orient was notable for one thing – Nicklas Bendtner’s hat-trick – a feat that surely puts him in the box seat for the striker role in a 4-2-3-1 against Barcelona and, at the same time, offers a reminder to Fantasy Managers as to his frustrating talent.
With Robin Van Persie sidelined, Arsene Wenger “auditioned” both his understudies for the role. Marouane Chamakh started up front last night, Bendtner began life out on the right flank. Elsewhere Tomas Rosicky was the only survivor from Sunday’s Carling Cup misery as Wenger blooded several youngsters and handed recalls to the likes of Abou Diaby, Denilson and Emmanuel Eboue.
Chamakh’s opening goal (his first since November 27) from a Rosicky assist got the ball rolling and duly sparked Bendtner into goalscoring action. The Dane looped a header from a Kieran Gibbs cross for his opener, before blasting a fine cross-shot home for the Gunners third. His hat-trick was claimed from the spot after the lively Gibbs was hauled down.
While Bendtner presented his credentials as Van Persie’s stand-in, the Arsenal boss took the opportunity to enlighten us further on the injury status of the Dutch striker in his post-match analysis. The verdict is that Van Persie will be out for four weeks – and that is Wenger’s optimistic view…
“It is a ligament at the back of the knee, a tear in the ligament. It is three to four weeks, I take the short delay because I am an optimist but it could be four. As well it is the international break during that period so is it three or four, for us it is the same.”
That would appear to pencil in a return for the league fixture with Blackpool on April 10, although Wenger admitted that, with such an injury, a setback is always a possibility.
“Let’s hope he can play after the international break. I listen to what the medical people say to me and you never know, he can have a setback. You can never guarantee.”
Fantasy Managers certainly seem unlikely to hold on to Van Persie as an asset given his history of injuries and complications. There are numerous alternatives available, our current poll on the frontpage is currently canvassing opinion on the most likely. It will be interesting to see if Bendtner fares better in that particular vote after last night’s events. He currently has just 2% of your vote.
