fantasy premier league news catch up Friday 27 January

Fantasy Premier League, News

Here’s another quick fantasy premier league news catch up Friday 27 January.  As usual we give a brief overview of the story and then a link to the news article so it’s a quick to read catch up.  We look at the latest injuries, transfers, AFCON and Blank gameweeks

fantasy premier league news catch up Friday 27 January

KEY INJURIES

Middlesborough, Callum Chambers, Barragan and Ramirez

Injured with a fractured foot and no return date.  Has been a popular choice for the performing cheap Middlesborough defence.  £4.3m Bernado will hold his place at CB and with RB Barragan also injured with no return date I imagine £4.4m Fabio to switch to RB.  How strong the defence will be with these injuries though is questionable especially with 2 recent poor defensive performances.  Player maker Ramirez also has a knee injury with no return date and looking like he wants a move away.  Here’s a link to the Clubcall article for more info

Southampton, Van Dijk and Rodriguez

The £5.8m Southampton CB has an ankle injury with no return date.  Even the GW26 EFL final seems in doubt according to manager Puel.  £4.0m defender Stephens was the replacement in the EFL semi and was fantastic so he is the likely replacement.  However with Fonte sold that means the original first choice CB partnership is no more so how strong the defence will be is questionable. I would be surprised if there’s no last minute signing.   It certainly performed well against Liverpool though as a starter.  The team sheet in the FA Cup against Arsenal will give some clarity too.  Rodriguez also has an injury with no confirmed return date and will miss the FA Cup match.  Long will be the replacement I imagine.  Here’s the IBT article for more

Spurs, Alderweireld, Rose and Kane




All 3 will miss the FA Cup but the manager is hopeful they will be ok for GW23.  Here’s a link to 2 articles from the Mirror and 90 minutes

A few others

You’ll see that I retweet tweets from ww.physioroom.com which is a great site for keeping up to date with injuries.  Here’s a copy and paste of a few tweets to keep you up to date

Klopp says Liverpool picked up a few knocks on Wednesday but he will NOT make wholesale changes. Lallana needed stitches.
Lallana may not be risked. Nathaniel Clyne [ribs] faces a late fitness test.

Kompany was on the bench [last week] “he’s fit and ready” while Gabriel Jesus has been training for 3 weeks “we will see tomorrow.”
Caballero starts in goal. Pep will make a late decision on Kompany and Gabriel Jesus. Academy players will be involved.

France international Steve Mandanda is back in training.
Scott Dann “has a slight injury” [suspect it could his ongoing hamstring issue]. Late fitness test. #CPFC
Speroni has “tweaked his knee” but Fraizer Campbell is.
Zaha won’t be involved in tomorrows FA Cup match: “We’d rather protect him and see what his [fitness] levels are like [for Tuesday].”

Riyad Mahrez will be involved tomorrow. (fa cup 4th RD) “Today he make a training session with us.” 
Ranieri confirms Slimani is NOT for sale amid speculation of interest from China. Won’t feature this weekend due to a groin strain. #LCFC
Leonardo Ulloa [thigh] is still injured but he is “slowly, slowly” on the road to recovery. “I want him back, he is a good player.”

Theo Walcott will be back in the FACup squad but Granit Xhaha misses out through suspension and Mo Elneny is on AFCoN duties.

TRANSFERS

Snodgrass

Now confirmed he will be going to West Ham, presumably as a Payet replacement.  Been fantastic this year for Hull as the main man with Pens, all set pieces and playing latterly as a support striker practically.  What role he will have for West Ham remains to be seen.  Lanzini was looking like he will step up for Payet with Set pieces.  Noble will keep pens.   West Ham have City first up in GW23 which will be the first wait and see time.  I imagine recent addition to the first team Feghouli will be sacrificed and Antonio will stay ad the RAM. .  Here’s a link to the guardian article confirming the transfer

Zarate and M’Baye Niang

Not a particularly exciting transfer from Fiorentina on the face of it for Zarate.  The Argentinian support striker made 11 starts plus 4 as sub in the premier league for West Ham in 2015/16 with 3 goals at a goal or assist every 263 minutes.  Not exactly fantastic and would give a consistency rate of around 35%.   I suspect we’ll see him as a sub to start with to assess his ability.  Okaka is probably most at risk of his place with Ighalo behind him as Deeney despite his probales is secure I would have thought.   Not shown in FPL yet.  Here’s a link to the guardian article announcing the transfer.

Watford have also signed on loan M’Baye Niang from AC Milan who is a French 22 year old CF who has scored 3 goals and 3 assists in 18 games in Serie A at a goal or assist every 187 minutes so again not that impressive.  He would probably play in front of Deeney if he starts.  For both away at Arsenal will be a good time to assess.  Again here’s a link to the Guardian article.

AFCON

Key players returning:

A very good Sky Sports article is the reference

Leicester’s Mahrez and Slimani.  Mahrez has come on as a sub in the Friday FA Cup game.  Gray and Albrighton will be at risk for the already tinkerman place. Slimani is injured

Bailly Manchester United.  CB Jones and Rojo will be at risk of losing their place.

Kone Sunderland.  He will replace the 4 match suspended Djilobodji

Zaha C Palace.  Hard to know what the effect will be  with Schlupp and Van Aanholt confusing matters if either play as an LAM but he should play in GW23 and is a definite long term starter.  May also help Benteke.

Here’s the list of returnees from AFCON copied from the article:

Bournemouth: Max Gradel (Ivory Coast)
Crystal Palace: Bakary Sako (Mali), Wilfried Zaha (Ivory Coast)
Leicester City: Riyad Mahrez and Islam Slimani (Algeria)
Manchester United: Eric Bailly (Ivory Coast)
Stoke: Wilfried Bony (Ivory Coast)
Sunderland: Lamine Kone (Ivory Coast), Didier Ndong (Gabon)
Watford: Adlene Guedioura (Algeria)

Players still at AFCON

The quarters are on Saturday and Sunday so there should be some chance of players dropping out from those games starting in GW24:

Arsenal: Mohamed Elneny (Egypt)
Everton: Idrissa Gueye (Senegal)
Hull City: Ahmed Elmohamady (Egypt), Dieumerci Mbokani (DR Congo)
Leicester City: Daniel Amartey (Ghana)
Liverpool: Sadio Mane (Senegal)
Stoke: Mame Biram Diouf (Senegal), Ramadan Sobhi (Egypt)
Sunderland: Wahbi Khazri (Tunisia)
West Ham: Andre Ayew (Ghana), Cheikou Kouyate (Senegal)

Mane is the key one for Liverpool

BLANK GAMEWEEKS




With Southampton and Man Utd through to the EFL Final it is highly likely that their matches will be postponed in GW26.  The games involving them have been removed from GW26 and it looks like this now.  It means that Man Utd, Man City, Southampton and Arsenal have blank gameweeks in GW26.

Here’s the link to our FPL calendar which I will update after the FA Cup 4th round games.  You’ll see that I expect the double gameweeks will be after the 4th round of the FA Cup

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