It’s bad enough that he won’t play on Saturday,” said Platt. “It’s difficult to assess an injury like that for how long it’s going to be. On Saturday, he will be out. He’ll be doubtful for Arsenal. It’s a hamstring. There are different degrees of hamstring, that’s why you need the 48 hours. We’ll just have to see.”

Platt added: “There will be swelling and bleeding so you need to give it time to settle down. It’s a blow but when you have so many games in a short space of time you run the risk of this.”

Hmm so a couple of days before we will see how bad.  I’ve always been suspicious of hamstring injuries although that suspicion caused me to sell Bale and he came back earlier than expected and I missed out on the hat trick.  However its hard to see him being back for the Arsenal game and the effect is that any fantasy premier league managers who holding Tevez or Dzeko should definitely not sell now especially as after Arsenal is Fulham at home and QPR away.

Shorey

Harte is starting as Shorey has a virus apparently as opposed to his back injury when piggy backing Gareth Barry to head the winner over Reading the other week.  there’s some amazing value in the Reading defence is you don’t mind conceding bucket loads of goals.  I would hold on to Shorey if you’re thinking only of selling for injury purposes.  I think he should come back for Jan 12.   However if you’re desperate go for Pearce who has some goal threat although we’ll be doing an article on the new Sporting Lisbon signing soon to assess his effect.  Here’s a quote from some bizarre fans forum from McDermott
Brian said, “Nick had a little virus. I put Ian Harte in for the game against Manchester City and he’s had a virus since then, he hasn’t been involved because of that. I think he had a little check-up at hospital so hopefully he’s coming through that.

“Jason will hopefully start training soon.”

Torres

With Suarez and Jelavic the only striker that can be guaranteed a start in the top 4/5 teams had a warning from Benitez.  Here’s Benitez’s quotes in the Reuters news feed

“We are trying to manage the team so as soon as I can change Fernando I have to do it,” Benitez told the club’s website (www.chelseafc.com). “He is the centre forward but we will try to manage him and do things properly.

“He wants the team winning games so he will understand that is the way and he will accept this. All the players want to play every game but I think they understand now that if we want to achieve something important we have to use the squad.”

With Ba seemingly joining this seems inevitable.  If your glass is half full then you would say that this quote means Ba is there to ensure Torres stays fresh ie 2nd fiddle.  My view though is that Torres is half the striker Ba is and I cant see him being a poor second.  4-2-3-1 means only 1 upfront.  Well be doing an article on the Ba effect assuming he joins.

Ruiz/Berba

Seems that when you don’t play up top and the clubs leading chance creator isn’t playing it affects your game.  No huge surprise there but Berba is back up top and getting service not to mention some better fixtures.  Back as a realistic cheaper striker option at £7.1m

Here’s Jol who’s quote prompted the story plus positive news on Duff which will be a worry for Dejagh, Frei and Kacaniklic fantasy premier league owners

Jol insisted Ruiz was “influential” in the 2-1 win at West Brom on New Year’s Day which saw the Cottagers pull six points clear of the Premier League relegation zone.

“We need five or six wins as soon as possible because all the managers of all these teams around us will worry because it is not a great position to be in,” said Jol.

“But you saw at West Brom how influential Bryan Ruiz can be and he wasn’t there for seven or eight games.”

Jol also had positive reports on injured duo Damien Duff and Mladen Petric as he looks to guide Fulham into the top half of the table.

“Damien hopefully will come back next week and Mladen will come back,” he added. “If we’ve got everybody on board, I think we are a good team, but, if not, then we struggle.”

Ruiz is £5.4m by the way.  Not really a shooting option but an assist proviedr which makes me a little nervous.

Wisdom

Starts tonight with Enrique injured.  He’s hopefully in the Liverpool defence for the next few games at £4.3m.  Unfortunately the fixtures aren’t great to say the least but something to think about for your Wildcard if you’re a gambler

ManU  A
Norw  H
Arsn  A
ManC  A
WBA  H
Swan  H

Shorts

• NZonzi wins appeal against ban
• Sturridge signed by Liverpool.  Article coming
• Westwood injury looks serious – Bannan/Delph will be beneficiarys

Price rises and falls

6 players rise in value £0.1m so far.  Few surprises including Walcott and Mata.  Mignolet at £5.2m though?

10 players lose £0.1m.  Tevez sellers may regret it