With most of the press conferences taking place yesterday, only a handful of managers faced the media today. Sir Alex Ferguson rolled out a handy injury update, though, with news that Nani, Paul Scholes and Phil Jones have all returned to training – just in time to boost his squad options ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Sunderland and Monday’s FA Cup clash with Chelsea:
Indeed, Ferguson made a point of praising Van Persie’s performances over the past fortnight. The Dutchman had failed to notch in his last seven in all competition for United but returned to scoring ways for his country, much to the delight of his manager:
“[Van Persie scoring] was the most pleasing thing about the break for me actually. He got the three goals for Holland. It’s the same with all strikers. When they hit that little dry spell, they’re hoping to get out of it as quickly as they can. Hopefully, those goals for Holland will help him to do that. His form has not changed, that’s the most important thing, but the goals will certainly help and there’s no question about that.”
The newspapers are starting to roll out their predicted line-ups for the weekend and the Chelsea FA Cup game is clearly having an effect. According to the Guardian, for example, Van Persie won’t be in United’s starting XI for the Sunderland match. They also have omitted Wayne Rooney and went with a front three of Nani, Javier Hernandez and Antonio Valencia – that’s despite Ferguson specifically mentioning late flights back for the latter two in the press conference.
Elsewhere, David Moyes has revealed he could be set to welcome back a couple of key defensive options as Everton prepare for a physical battle with Stoke at Goodison. Phil Jagielka and Tim Howard are both progressing from respective ankle and back injuries and may feature in tomorrow evening’s home encounter; potentially damaging news for Jonny Heitinga and Jan Mucha’s first-team chances.
On the other side of Merseyside, Brendan Rodgers has also been briefing the media. The Liverpool boss welcomes back Jamie Carragher, who missed the previous clash with Southampton due to a shin problem – Rodgers spoke of the defender’s imminent retirement and certainly, given the comments below, it’s fair to say there’s every chance Carragher will be ousting Martin Skrtel at Villa on Sunday as the Reds looks to avenge the 3-1 Gameweek 17 defeat at the hands of Paul Lambert’s side:
“You see his experience and how he leads the line, and when you’re playing as a defender you need someone who is vocal in there who can organise the line. He does that remarkably well. He’s got eight games left and let’s not write him off yet. He’s still fit and strong. We missed his leadership qualities at Southampton and he’ll come back into the squad for the weekend.”
Liverpool have just posted images from the training ground to feed those who support the “bib theory”. They show Jonjo Shelvey sharing the same yellow bib colour as Luis Suarez, Glen Johnson, Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard and Dan Agger: both Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho are in white, however. Make of that what you will.
Over at the Emirates, Arsenal have released pictures from this morning’s training session. There’s more “bib theory” fun to be had here. Gervinho and Nacho Monreal were both pictured in the same side as Santi Cazorla – while Monreal’s inclusion in the first XI would be no surprise, given Kieran Gibbs’ illness, the Ivorian’s potential inclusion would perhaps raise eyebrows, particularly as he has failed to start a league match since Gameweek 18. Intriguingly, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain also appeared to line up with Cazorla, though Lukas Podolski was on the opposite side – granted, it may just be coincidental, but it’s given us something to mull over ahead of tomorrow’s match with Reading, as Arsene Wenger looks to replace the injured Theo Walcott.
Finally, an article published on the West Ham website earlier today suggest Kevin Nolan “could also be back in contention with his broken toe recovering sufficiently for him to return to training”. While Sam Allardyce failed to mention his skipper’s potential comeback during yesterday’s press conference, Nolan’s availability would be a huge boost for the Hammers’ home clash with West Brom tomorrow – with a double Gameweek 33 on the horizon, his popularity could be set for an upturn should be manage to recover for the Baggies clash.
As always, this has all been collected for you in our team news section, where you’ll find our current predicted lineups for the weekend matches.
Rate My Team has been updated to reflect the very latest with the Projections due their update in a short while.
Keep an eye on our Twitter stream as always, for any late breaking news.
