The morning stroll around the training complex finds us taking in the tittle-tattle from the press, soaking up the breaking news and digesting the predicted lineups to be found across the various “reliable” sources…
First up, and following breaking stories overnight, Chris Samba may now be considered a doubt to figure for Rovers against Fulham today.
The towering centre-back apparently cried off from Friday’s training session, with reports of a crisis meeting with Steve Kean scheduled. With huge speculation surrounding his future, Samba could now miss out in the crucial home clash with Martin Jol’s side? Kean would be forced to start with Gael Givet and Grant Hanley at centre-back and Samba’s absence would surely boost the potential of the visitor’s attacking potential – Bobby Zamora and Clint Dempsey in particular. All our sources start with Samba in their starting lineups and Kean surely needs his skipper to be on his teamsheet – we can only wonder what is unfolding behind the scenes though; we shouldn’t be shocked if Samba misses out and Fulham profit as a result.
A lot of the press immediately give debuts to Darron Gibson for Everton and Gylfi Sigurdsson for Swansea. Gibson’s arrival in particular, crowds the Everton midfield and appears to give Royston Drenthe an even bigger task to establish himself as as regular – particularly while Landon Donovan is at the club. We couldn’t find one source this morning that handed a start to Drenthe in their predicted lineups.
Sigurdsson meanwhile, is tipped for his debut in four of our sources this morning, forming a midfield partnership with Leon Britton with Joe Allen pushed up in support of Danny Graham. Not one source hands a start to Thierry Henry in the Arsenal lineup.
The Daily Mail is our most troubling source of team news this morning. They fail find a place for James McClean in their predicted lineup for Sunderland’s trip to Chelsea and, to be fair, they’re not alone. The Independent also starts with Craig Gardner and Seb Larsson on either flank for the Black Cats – presuming Martin O’Neill will look for that little extra security to counter Chelsea’s raiding full-backs.
The Mail are also one of several papers who have elected to omit Phil Jones from the United lineup. Jones emerged as a doubt yesterday and, with a tough schedule to come, the Mail clearly feel he’ll be preserved from today’s clash with Bolton; the Telegraph and the Times both agree. Jermain Defoe is in the Mail’s Tottenham lineup, with no start for Rafael Van der Vaart at home to Wolves – another alarming punt. No other source agrees with this theory, although The Times also start with Defoe up front, omitting Aaron Lennon, shifting Van der Vaart to the right-wing. That seems unlikely.
Finallly, it seems that Hatem Ben Arfa has split the press. We have a handful of sources who leave the Frenchman out of their lineups – including The Times, The Independent and the Sun. Ryan Taylor is backed for another start in two of those papers, with Gabriel Obertan getting the nod in the other. Clearly there’s some doubt as to whether Alan Pardew will give Ben Arfa a stage against QPR on Sunday, with plenty of press coverage on the Fantasy hopeful this week, raising our expectations.
