Chelsea are optimistic on a short-term injury absence for John Terry. City’s injury worries continue to ease off, Steve Clarke is happy to rotate, Chris Hughton looks for a consistency of selection, while Ki Sung-Yeung is ruled out for Swansea as Michael Laudrup acknowledges a selection headache…
Chelsea released an update on John Terry’s injury situation yesterday, with a statement on the club’s official website revealing:
“Today’s MRI scans on John Terry’s right knee thankfully show no significant damage to the cruciate ligaments. Chelsea Football Club’s medical team will conduct further tests over the next two or three days once the swelling has subsided to determine how long John will be out, but it will be a matter of weeks not months.”
With two clean sheets, a goal and two FPL bonus points over his six appearances, the Blues skipper has been far from convincing this term. Last season, he grabbed six goals and 18 bonus points but so far has averaged just 3.9 points per game – the fourth best amongst Roberto Di Matteo’s backline. While Branislav Ivanovic has picked up plenty interest, Gary Cahill has proven to be an able deputy for Terry; with two goals, an assist and eight bonus points accrued over six starts by comparison, he has returned 5.2 points per game, just behind the Serbian’s 5.3. If Cahill can cement a role in his skipper’s absence, the 6.4 priced defender’s attacking threat could prove an intriguing alternative, though with a tricky set of fixtures on the horizon, he may well have to maintain his offensive threat to prove a viable acquisition. There are clear question marks over Di Matteo’s first choice back four, with or without Terry. With David Luiz ruled out by tonsillitis on Sunday, we saw Ivanovic partner Terry in the centre with Cesar Azpilicueta remaining at right-back against Liverpool.
Swansea rolled out an injury update yesterday afternoon, with the club’s official website confirming Ki Sung-Yeung will miss the next seven to 10 days with a hamstring injury sustained towards the end of last Saturday’s draw with Southampton. The former Celtic man has started the last seven for Michael Laudrup’s side, with his absence set to hand Kemy Agustien or Mark Gower a chance in central midfield. Bearing in mind neither of the pair have started a league game this term, Laudrup may choose to move Jonathan de Guzman deeper, which could see Michu drop back into “the hole”, with Danny Graham returning to lead the line against Newcastle on Saturday. Laudrup is hoping to have Graham fit after he missed out at St Mary’s with a back problem:
“Danny should be fine in a couple of days, but instead of bringing him to Southampton when he was doubtful I told him to stay home. We will start again from Monday with him, he is working hard and wants to come back. He is a goalscorer but he has paid the price because we have played three midfielders and Michu because it has worked well. I know it’s not easy because he wants to play but I have no complaints about how he is training.”
Laudrup does have the option of including Nathan Dyer in his lineup, with both Wayne Routledge and Pablo Hernandez retaining their starts. The Dane is yet to play all three of his dimunitive wide men but has acknowledged that Dyer is pushing for a recall having come off the bench to notch the Swans’ eqauliser at Southampton…
“I’ve talked to Nathan and he is disappointed (about his lack of recent opportunities), but I would have been worried if he said he was happy…Playing all three is a possibility, Pablo, and definitely Wayne, can play as a second striker.”
Elsewhere at the Liberty, Laudrup’s number one stopper, Michel Vorm also revealed he hopes to be back in action before the New Year after sustaining a groin injury in the 1-0 Gameweek 9 loss at City.
“I had been having a slight problem with my groin for a few weeks before the Man City game. It was only a small problem which I was having treatment for…My rehabilitation is going well. I couldn’t walk normally last week, but now I’m ok and the bruise is slowly going. I’m determined to heal quickly and strongly. I’m desperate to come back, but I know I can’t rush it. I’d rather be one week later than a week too early and it goes again…Hopefully I won’t be out for much longer. The busy Christmas period is my immediate target.”
The Dutchman has been sold on by over 140,000 FPL managers since being ruled out but with another bout of matches on the sidelines looking likely, the cut-price appeal of Gerhard Tremmel, at 4.0 in FPL, looks safe for another month at least based on Vorm’s statement.
Arsene Wenger spoke of the frustration caused by the current raft of midweek internationals. With two breaks having already interrupted the season, this week’s friendlies have not been well received by the Gunners boss – though he did admit he is unlikely to make many changes ahead of Saturday lunchtime’s north London derby with Spurs:
“It’s bad for us. I would prefer that the team stays here and prepares [for] our next game. There’s a risk, as well, with the players who have played the last three games, they play another one, and another one, and after that they play against Montpellier, and at the moment we cannot rotate too much, so it’s not ideal.”
Chris Hughton has hinted that he’s unlikely to tinker with his team selection quite so much as the season unfolds. The new Norwich boss made plenty of alterations to his first XI over the first few gameweeks but is starting to narrow down his regulars and has resultantly seen his side begin to pick up results; they are now unbeaten in the last four, in a run which has also produced three clean sheets…
“We have had a fair amount of consistency to our (team) selection of late and that breeds confidence. It also gives us real competition for places…. We are certainly more solid at the moment. I suppose something has to give and although we have become more solid we haven’t got the goals we would like.”
Steve Clarke took time out to thank the West Brom medical staff yesterday, admitting that Shane Long’s hamstring problem is having to be managed on a weekly basis. With on-loan Romelu Lukaku unavailable for Saturday’s clash against parent club Chelsea, the Baggies boss will be sweating on Long’s availability this weekend as he looks to engineer a sixth home win of the season. Clarke also spoke on rotation – last weekend’s win at Wigan saw the West Brom boss change all three of the attacking midfielders that started the previous game against Southampton, and he also revealed he is more than happy with the forward selection headache at the club right now…
“It’s part of the job and if I didn’t want to try and juggle five strikers, I wouldn’t have them. You can’t have enough good strikers.”
Man City assistant boss David Platt spoke on the club’s ever-decreasing injury list yesterday, after the return of David Silva helped the hosts overcome Spurs at the Etihad on Sunday afternoon…
“Slowly but surely, people are coming back. It was great to see David Silva getting 90 minutes in. Joleon has only had a couple of days’ training sessions. Samir was ill and he had a couple of days in bed so he hasn’t trained either. Hopefully by next week you would think that certainly Joleon will be back in contention, Jack Rodwell will be a lot closer and Samir obviously [will be back]. Gael Clichy has a problem with his back and is going to have an injection so hopefully we can recuperate him. To all intents and purposes, we have got a good chance of having a full complement next week.”
If the above-mentioned are fit and available for next weekend’s match with Villa, it would leave City with just two players – James Milner and Micah Richards – on the sidelines. While such a luxury is good news for the champions, Roberto Mancini’s penchant for rotation, allied with his decision to revert to a 3-5-2 midway through the Spurs game, is likely to make his team selection further frustrating from a Fantasy perspective.
