Stoke try a back-five in Europe, while Harry’s Redknapp’s inexperienced Spurs side snatch a draw in Greece. Fulham dominate in their home match with FC Twente but are left frustrated with yet another draw. Connor Wickham may start for Sunderland on Sunday, while Davide Santon looks set for a spell on the sidelines at Newcastle. Neil Warnock warns Adel Taarabt it’s time to produce the goods and a now-recovered Darren Fletcher admits his mystery virus remains unsolved. Here’s some Scribbles ahead of a busy Friday, folks:
Fulham remain unbeaten in Europe but were left frustrated after a home draw with FC Twente. With Bryan Ruiz cup-tied and unable to face his former side, Martin Jol went with a front two of Andrew Johnson and Moussa Dembele and the former fired the Cottagers ahead on nineteen minutes. Chris Baird partnered Brede Hangeland at centre half while Zdenek Grygera started at right-back on his debut.
Harry Redknapp rang the changes for Spurs trip to Greece as they faced PAOK. Only Kyle Walker survived from the starting XI that faced Wolves last weekend, with Vedran Corluka returning from injury to take his place in the starting lineup. Seb Bassong and Roman Pavlyuchenko also featured, though it was the heroics of Carlo Cudicini –given a very rare start by Redknapp- that ensured the visitors left with a point after a goalless stalemate.
Stoke’s trip to Dynamo Kiev also saw the Potters pick up a point, as Cameron Jerome grabbed his first goal since moving from Birmingham. In a game their hosts dominated, Tony Pulis’ tactics were the most noteworthy of talking points, as he rolled out a back-five for the tricky away tie.
Reports today suggest Steve Bruce is considering giving Connor Wickham his first start for Sunderland at home to Stoke City this weekend. The Black Cats boss is desperate to freshen things up after losing both games at the Stadium of Light so far this season and the youngster may provide the necessary spark.
The arrival of the likes of Joey Barton and Shaun Wright-Phillips seems to have upset Adel Taarabt, purely from a financial perspective. The Moroccan is on a far inferior pay packet compared to the new boys but Neil Warnock showed little sign of pandering to Taarabt’s needs:
The only way to answer things is to play on the field of play. That’s what I told him to do. He’s got no excuse now. He’s got a team that are capable of giving him the ball in dangerous areas and he’s got to perform.
Roy Hodgson has confirmed Graham Dorrans and Chris Brunt are West Brom’s first and second choice penalty takers. The Baggies were awarded a spot kick at Norwich last weekend and with both off the pitch, it was left to Peter Odemwingie to step up- the Nigerian’s miss only confirmed why he’s not the number-one. Hodgson explained:
Dorrans is the one we assigned the penalty-taking to. But Dorrans wasn’t on, Brunt was on the bench, and that’s how we got down to Peter.
Darren Fletcher looks like being back to full fitness after being sidelined for almost six months with a mystery virus. Despite his recovery, the mystery remains and the player admitted he is still perplexed as to what kept him out of first-team action for so long a period:
It has all been resolved now but I never got to the bottom of it. I felt drained and weak and was bed-bound for a bit. But the biggest thing was losing the weight. The virus was bad but for someone like me to lose the weight I did, it was really difficult to put back on.
Newcastle new boy Davide Santon is set to be sidelined for at least a month. The full-back injured a knee in training and is set to have his third operation in just two years on the problem. Alan Pardew admitted:
It’s a worry. It looks like it could be a cartilage and it’s not something you want when he’s just come into the building.
Maybe we’re looking at a month out. He’s going to have to get it cleaned out, it’s keyhole surgery nowadays which is a quicker operation but it will certainly mean at least four weeks out.
