Injuries and Suspensions

photo courtesy of the Vladimir Weiss Facebook page

Premier League team news - Barclays Premier League - ESPN Soccernet

It applies to neither an injury or a suspension but the Bolton team news indicates that Weiss might be given a start so if you need a cheap midfielder with a great match-up then he might be your guy...

Why is this particularly interesting? Well, because Pompey will be without Belhadj, O'Hara, and Ben Haim.  Throw in whatever adjustments they make because they don't want to risk anyone getting hurt before the FA Cup final and you have to figure Bolton is going to win this one.

Apparently my good feeling about David Ngog and his match-up with Burnley might have been a bit premature.  Word is that he has a back complaint after Thursday's Europa Cup match and will face the dreaded Late Fitness Test.  Nando is clearly the big name along with Insua, Aurelio, Skertl, and Kelly (not a bad defence sitting in the training room really).

As I mentioned in The Week Ahead, I'm staying away from ManYoo/Spurs but it seems likely that Wes Brown and Aaron Lennon don't agree with me and both are going to show up and potentially be involved for the first time in a while.  My sense is that neither will start so really nothing important in this one.  Kranj and Corluka are the only two really important injuries here with Ledley King facing his typical Late Fitness Test that we really should just re-name as "A Ledley" for all players.

At Hull, Altidore is likely to get a start with JVoH injured and Anthony Gardner is returning and likely to replace Mouyokolo who drew some attention from fantasy managers while he was in the line-up...

Scott Parker is back from suspension for WHU and Gary Caldwell does the same for their opponents Wigan.

Karl Henry is still suspended for Wolves while Rovers will be without Samba (groin) and Emerton (hammy) and everyone's favorite bundle of joy El Hadji Diouf is doubtful (tonsils). 

Arsenal has their usual laundry list of absentees - Almunia, Cesc, Arsh, Verm, Gallas, Gibbs, Djourou, and Ramsey but there is a good chance that Song and EdS will be back but it shouldn't matter too much to you.  Still have a bad feeling about this one for Arsenal.  Too much speed and attacking skill at Citeh for the Arsenal second team defence to contain. 

Early season favorite Johnny Heitinga looks like he may miss out on the rest of the season for Everton and he's definitely out this weekend while Fulham will be missing Zamora (good for EVE defenders and Howard's value) with Dempsey likely to replace Zamora.  Hero of Mike Langlais' late season run up the charts in our private group Chris Baird is likely to make way for old blog favorite John Pantsil.  In his debut away to Everton is probably not when you want to pick him up but definitely worth thinking about on the BD or for next week if the BD isn't necessary.

Finally, Chelsea are relatively healthy but will be missing John Terry due to his really stupid suspension last weekend.  I'm still sort of chuckling to myself that he was arguing with the officials as he left the field because he clearly seemed to believe that he shouldn't have seen red when it was pretty clear to everyone else on the planet not wearing really thick blue-tinted glasses that they were both legitimate cards.  Hmm, sense of entitlement, no sense of the likelihood of being punished for stupid behavior, any wonder this whole "being faithful" thing isn't working out so well for he or his wife?