Darren Bent’s return from injury today saw Dimitar Berbatov “rested” to the bench at Derby. That didn’t stop the Bulgarian handing his fantasy bosses at least a slice of the much-anticipated points return by coming on to slot home an 81st minute penalty. However, today’s move by Ramos clearly indicates that Bent’s return will give owners of Berbatov and maybe Keane, something to think about over the next few weeks.

Bent has been sidelined with a knee injury, his last appearance was at Portsmouth on December 15. There was news in the week that he was nearing fitness but nobody had anticipated that he’d be fit enough to thrown in from the start at Derby. He was understandably short of the pace – anonymous for most of the game and finally replaced by Berbatov after 57-minutes. Despite the lack of impact today, his selection indicates that Bent will play a part in the month’s ahead, allowing Ramos to rest at least one of his front pairing on a regular basis.

Indeed, as European games get added to the fixture list, Ramos appears to be looking beyond his strongest eleven. Certainly, from his comments after the game, it’s clear that Berbatov won’t be the only player likely to be rested to the bench in the coming weeks.

“We have got lots of big games coming up in the next few weeks and the idea is not to rotate the squad, but to give some players a bit of rest, and it was Berbatov’s turn,” remarked Ramos in his post match interview.

Few fantasy managers will sweat over the prospect of Malbranqe or Lennon being rested, but the front two are hugely popular signings. With Spurs facing a double fixture in March, their popularity is due to increase. In the Fantasy Premier League game they’ll be many managers looking at Keane and Berbatov with the two fixtures, against City away and Chelsea at home, in gameweek 30 in mind. With Bent now available and clearly in thoughts of Ramos, there’s a clear threat that Keane or Berbatov will not get to start both those games. Certainly you can easily see Ramos starting with Bent at Eastlands in order to save Berbatov for the Chelsea game four days later.

Beyond that, much will depend on Tottenham’s progress in the UEFA Cup. The rest for Berbatov today was undoubtedly influenced by the trip to Slavia Prague on Thursday. If Ramos can steer his side past the Czech opponents over two legs, owners of Berbatov and Keane will need to be very wary of fixtures that proceed future UEFA Cup ties. I’ll be keeping a watchful eye on this situation in the weeks to come.