Nigel Adkins refuses to be drawn on the extent of Adam Lallana’s knee injury. Juan Mata reckons he doesn’t require a rest over the busy festive period. Roberto Mancini hints at changes up front for City, Olivier Giroud is back in the Arsenal squad, while Michu and Luis Suarez are hoping to recover from ankle injuries in time for the weekend schedule:

Nigel Adkins is still refusing to reveal the extent of Adam Lallana’s knee injury. The Saints’ skipper has missed the last two outings with ligament damage and, although Adkins revealed that Lallana would not be in line to return at Stoke, he, again, offered no prognosis on the injury….

“He’s not going to play against Stoke and that is all we’re going to talk about”

The absence of Lallana has led to a midfield shuffle by Adkins, with Steven Davis drafted in at Craven Cottage to play up behind Rickie Lambert although, as Adkins explained, Gaston Ramirez’s role was tweaked throughout the match as the Uruguayan remains the key creative figure on show…

“Gaston can play behind Rickie, he can play on the left wing, he can play on the right. At stages in the game you want to effect the game and get players in the game. Defensively, Riether getting forward in the first half hour gave us a little bit of an issue and probably led to the goal where Gaston wasn’t able to track him as he got down the wing. I changed him and Jason Puncheon over from a defensive point of view and that’s nullified the attacking threat of Riether and got us in the game a bit more. We wanted to play Steven Davis in off of Rickie to utilise the football and in the end I put Gaston in behind Rickie as well.”

Southampton are desperately searching for a formula which will unlock a greater attacking threat – they have scored just three goals in their last five league outings, perhaps a symptom of improved defensive resolve. While Adkins’ side have conceded four goals in that same spell, they will to have to up their game in attacking areas at the weekend as they travel to face the meanest defence in the league at Stoke. The Potters will be without both Ryan Shawcross and Geoff Cameron but will still be widely fancied to keep Southampton at bay given their current scoring form.

Juan Mata has featured in 16 of Chelsea’s 18 league matches this season and played in 34 of 38 last season – more than any other Chelsea player in the same spell. However, Mata has stressed that he’s feeling on top of his game, offering assurances to Rafa Benitez and his Fantasy owners that he does not need a rest to maintain his current level of performance…

“I want to play more, I want to keep playing, keep training, keep enjoying this club and this Premier League. I’m very happy with how it’s going – the season – for me and for the team and I just have to keep working.”

Mata has started the last four league outings, having been an early casualty of Benitez’s rotation policy: he has scored three goals in that spell and has continued to overshadow Eden Hazard as a Fantasy acquisition in the Chelsea midfield. Hazard was benched at Norwich and will be expected to return to the starting lineup for Chelsea’s trip to Goodison this weekend.

Elsewhere in the Chelsea camp, Petr Cech has spoken out on Chelsea’s new defensive solidity under Rafa Benitez…

“We were conceding too many goals, playing really open. Suddenly, we are defending as a team much better – that is the key. Now we are back to our ways when we are difficult to score against. I think we need the whole team to defend. We have really attacking-minded players. Sometimes we were not making the right choices in terms of defensive transitions and that is what has improved. We are passing more and organising.”

Chelsea have kept four clean sheets in their last six league outings and Fantasy managers are beginning to take notice. Branislav Ivanovic and David Luiz are amongst the top ten transferred in defenders going into the weekend, with the latter earning particular interest as a result of his new role in central midfield. Luiz’s Fantasy Premier League (FPL) value has risen to 6.6 this week, while Ivanovic is also recovering owners having slipped back to 7.0 having peaked at 7.2 earlier in the season. Chelsea face Everton, Stoke and QPR in the next three Gameweeks.

Roberto Mancini has been talking further on the problems his side are facing up front, indicating again that changes will have to take place if his side are to compete for the title as United opened up a seven point gap following City’s defeat at Sunderland. City have scored just a single goal in their last two games, despite dominating both, with Sergio Aguero and Carlos Tevez misfiring…

“Maybe we need to play without a striker, or with just one striker. We need to do something. If we want to win this championship we need to score like we did last year. 
We have top strikers, but maybe we are too soft when we get a chance because we think we have good players and maybe we feel we will score the next chance that comes along.
When you have a chance to score you need to score. We can’t keep recovering games, as we did against Reading, in the last five minutes.
Again, we deserved to win the game, and again we lost.

“We have four top strikers, and it is time that those top strikers started to score. That is what they are there for, to score goals.”

Reports suggest that Mario Balotelli will again be out of the reckoning for the trip to Norwich at the weekend, having missed the encounters with Reading and Sunderland through illness. This presumably means that Mancini will be forced to pair Tevez and Aguero again, or hand Edin Dzeko a belated start. Mancini’s comment on playing with one striker is an interesting point, however, and could perhaps see Yaya Toure given a more attacking role prior to his departure for the African Cup of Nations.

Arsenal were, as usual, early with their team news going into the weekend, with Arsene Wenger confirming that both Olivier Giroud and Tomas Rosicky were due to return to the reckoning for the home encounter with Newcastle having missed the win at Wigan through illness. Giroud’s return will be of particular interest for Fantasy managers who will be banking on Theo Walcott being retained in the central striker’s role for the visit of the Magpies. Walcott has started the last two matches in that position, with the Gunners winning both games and Walcott profiting from goal and assist returns.

Both Michu and Luis Suarez go into the weekend matches as doubts with details remaining scarce on their chances of making their respective fixtures. A report in the Guardian yesterday indicated that Michu would need to be assessed today with his ankle injury still too swollen to allow for an earlier prognosis. As for Suarez, a local news report stated that he remains likely to shake off an ongoing problem, aggravated in Wednesday’s defeat at Stoke, to take his place in Liverpool’s lineup for the trip to basement club QPR. We’d expect further details on both of these key players to surface later today.