Here’s a fantasy premier league news catch up Saturday 18 February. We look at any new injuries, The Europa League and FA Cup games plus the blank week situation after Saturdays FA Cup games.
fantasy premier league news catch up Saturday 18 February
INJURIES
Here we’ve taken the latest info from the excellent site physioroom
Pep confirms skipper injury: “Vincent Kompany was not able to play today (fa cup) but it is not a big issue.”
No shock here. Stones is the best value in the City defence and probably the number 1 CB over Otamendi and Kolarov at the moment so Kompany coming back is more likely to replace the 2nd CB if Kompany is ever fit.
Ranieri confirms Molla Wague dislocated his shoulder at Millwall this afternoon. Player will be assessed over the coming days
The 1 potential replacement for either struggling CBs Huth or Morgan now looks like he will be out for sometime
Jones [foot] could return against his former club. But Rooney and Carrick [both muscular] and Mkhitaryan will be assessed tomorrow.
Jones is the value defender for Man Utd at £4.8m. Whether he will get back into the team or not remains to be seen. If he can he is a valuable FPL asset post GW28 forward.
Pochettino will make a decision on Vertonghen and Kane after training tomorrow but Danny Rose [knee] and Erik Lamela [hip] remain out.
Vertonghen will not only solidify the defence but will also be the first step back towards a 3 man defence and the advanced position of Rose and Walker as wing backs. Dier should make the 3 man defence. I suspect HM Son will be the casualty which could help Alli as Son seems to push Alli back somewhat
Tests confirm Wilshere did not suffer any serious damage to his ankle vs MCFC. The AFC loanee should be available to face WBA in GW26.
For a CAM Wilshere’s returns are pretty poor. I’m not sure if this is the Modric factor and he’s become the assister of the assist but certainly Howe seems to think he’s important. Although when you see for some reason that Howe doesn’t think the man who’s probably provide more attacking output than any other player can’t get on as a sub you question whether he knows what he’s doing.
George Friend comes back into contention following his recovery from the calf injury he picked up vs Accrington last month. Barragan will miss the fifth round tie vs Oxford after suffering a recurrence of the hamstring injury which has plagued him this year.
Neither of these guys can guarantee a place at the moment but with Chambers seemingly a certain starter at £4.4m I don’t believe it’s an issue
Ranieri insists Slimani will not go under the knife: “He doesn’t need surgery. We must make the right treatment and he will improve.”
Personally I think Slimani has played quite well and his ability in the air gives them another dimension. Keepign him fit will be essential for me with Vardy out of form.
EUROPA LEAGUE
Gent 1 Spurs 0
Lloris (C), Walker, Alderweireld, Dier, Davies, Wanyama, Dembele, Winks, Sissoko, Dele, Kane.
A pretty first choice team with only Eriksen and Son missing from the current first choice. However it was a pretty dismal performance with only Dembele coming out with any credit.
Man Utd 3 St Ettiene 0 (Ibrahimovic 3)
Romero Valencia Bailly Smalling Blind Fellaini (Lingard 45′) Herrera Pogba Mata (Rashfordat 70′) Ibrahimovic Martial (Young 85′)
It may not have been the prettiest hat trick from Ibra but maybe the law of averages on previous bad luck has caught up with him.
FA CUP
Burnley 0 Lincoln 1
Here’s the team from football-lineups
Only 6 players who are not first team. There were some pretty damning words from Dyche. Andre Gray can’t have helped himself having 4 shots without scoring
“Defensively, all day, we were pretty solid but our detail in our finishing wasn’t good enough. We created enough good chances, but didn’t take them and in the final third we didn’t have the moments of quality to open up the game.
“You need things to go for you in a cup run, but you also need to be resolute and I thought they were today.
“They stuck to their format, didn’t try and change it and the one chance at the end of the game kills the reality of the game – and the fact is we didn’t have the cutting edge at key times to go and open them up and score the goal that could have opened up the game.
Huddersfield 0 Man City 0
Bravo Zabaleta Stones Otamendi Kolarov (Sagna 78′) Fernandinho Fernando Delph (De Bruyneat 69′) Jesús Navas Agüero
Nolito (Sanéat 69′)
A fairly mixed side put out by City which dominated the game but didn’t make enough clear cut chances to win
Middlesborough 3 ( Leadbitter Gestede Stuani) Oxford 2
Guzan Chambers Ayala Bernardo Fabio Leadbitter Clayton Downing Traoré (Stuani 72′) Gestede (Negredo 86′) Fischer (Ramírez 72)
A side mixed with first team and reserve players with the key player of Negredo on the bench. Gestede, Leadbitter and Downing did themselves no harm in pushing into the first team though. Defensively again though it was a shaky performance with 3 of the 5 first teamers in there.
Milwall 1 Leicester 0
Zieler Amartey Wagué (Wasilewskiat 70′) Benalouane Chilwell King Mendy Musa Kapustka (Albrighton 64′) Gray (Vardy 73′) Okazaki
Dear me. The 2nd teamers get the chance to push for a first team place and fail miserably against 10 men for 40 minutes. Andy King probably was the only play to come out with anything positive. Musa at least had a number of chances.
Wolves 0 Chelsea 2 (Pedro, Costa)
Begovic Zouma Terry Aké Moses Fàbregas Chalobah Pedro (Azpilicueta 73′) Willian (Kanté 80′) Diego Costa Hazard (Loftus-Cheek 86′)
Chelsea played a strong team with Hazard and Costa starting avoided the drama that other teams got into.
GW28 FIXTURES
GW28 is the weekend of the FA CUP quarter finals. FA Cup quarter final games involving premier league teams will most likely be removed from the gameweek
Firstly here’s the link to my original FPL calendar which shows how the potential blank weeks and double weeks are made up.
Definitely staying as both teams out of FA Cup
Bournemouth v West Ham
Everton v West Brom
Hull v Swansea
Liverpool v Burnley
Subject to a replay
Man City v Stoke (Man City v Huddersfield replay is 28 Feb) – Stoke are out of the FA Cup. Man City need to lose the replay for the fixture to stand
Subject to further 5th round games
Crystal Palace v Spurs – Palace are out of the FA Cup. Spurs need to lose away to Fulham on Sunday for the fixture to stand
Arsenal v Leicester – Leicester are out of the FA Cup. Arsenal need to lose to Sutton on Monday for the fixture to stand
Southampton v Man Utd – Southampton are out of the FA CUP. Man Utd need to lose away to Blackburn on Sunday for the fixture to stand.
Should be removed from the gameweek as teams have progressed to the quarters
Middlesbrough v Sunderland – Middlesborough are through to the quarters
Chelsea v Watford – Chelsea are through to the quarters
Although I didn’t hear the words directly, apparently there were some interesting words from Pep to the effect that had they won the FA Cup game Man City v Stoke would have been played midweek between GW26 and GW27 and therefore part of GW26. The reasoning against this not being possible is often around the amount of time notice needs to be given for postponments to the police etc. I’m taking that at face value at the moment but apart from that week there are no free midweeks due to the European games which as a basic principle can’t conflict with PL games. This was relaxed last year though for 1 game. The premier league do have the ability to surprise so nothing is cast in absolute stone but we can only work with the best info available
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