Dilemmas of the Week - GW18 (25/26)

With the only midweek game this week being the last of the League Cup quarter-finals between Arsenal and Crystal Palace this Tuesday, most clubs have gone through nearly a full week of no football (and probably not much training!), so there are not many newly emerging injury worries for this gameweek - apart from the few players who got crocked in last weekend's batch of games. However, December is invariably the most unpredictable month of the season (well, except insofar as it's predictably disappointing for FPL managers every year!), and the 'holiday weekend' is typically the most random gameweek of the entire year. Most teams have had briefer or more irregular training this week, as they try to allow their players a little bit of time with their families. Some players may have indulged ever so slightly in over-eating or eating less healthy foods than usual, and perhaps even having a naughty glass or two of alcohol; and even the ones who have been super-disciplined about that are.... probably not quite 100% focused on their football just at the moment. (For one thing, many players have young children, who probably woke them up ridiculously early yesterday morning!)

So, absolutely anything could happen in this next set of games; and it's almost certainly again not going to be a good week to risk playing any of the bonus chips (although many FPL managers may have to, because they haven't yet found any especially propitious moment to use all the extra chips we were given this year, and have now run out of time to do so). Moreover, it's a particularly unpromising set of fixtures to be risking a chip in, even if it had come at a less difficult time of the year: almost all of this weekend's fixtures are uncannily evenly matched: only Liverpool v Wolves and Forest v City look like having an obvious outcome.

I'm trying to streamline these weekly round-ups a bit from last year, restricting myself for the most part to just the injuries etc. affecting players that are likely to have a major significance in FPL; and also, of course, only to new injuries - I figure everyone should be aware of players who've already been ruled out for some time!  

[For some years, I have found the 'Injuries & Bans' summary on Fantasy Football Scout the most reliable resource for this kind of information; although this site, Premier League Injuries, is a very good alternative (often a little quicker to update, I think - though it did go through a bit of a glitchy period for a while last year).  Go check these out for more comprehensive coverage. 

I see the Fantasy Premier League site has added an improved 'Player Availability' page this year (though hidden under 'The Scout' tab?!). That also seems to be reasonably comprehensive and up-to-date, but god knows how it's supposed to be 'organised' - maybe by 'date of injury'? Obviously, arranging it by club and alphabetical order would be more sensible; but the denizens of FPL Towers seem to have a deep aversion to the sensible.]

So, what are the conundrums we face ahead of Gameweek 18?

Does anybody need to be moved out because of injury?

Piero Hincapie picked up a knock in the Everton game last weekend, and was unable to take part in the midweek Cup game against Palace; he seems likely to be out for a little while. At least Saliba seems to be fit to make a regular return, so Arsenal's crisis in central defence isn't yet acute - but it does seem likely that Calafiori or Timber will have to be moved into central defence (and the other of the two assigned to the right-back role), creating the prospect for Myles Lewis-Skelly to get a few starts on the left at last.

Jan-Paul van Hecke missed the game against Sunderland last week with illness, but was expected to be back in training at the end of this week. (There has been a lot of transfer talk around him lately, though; so, there is a danger that a move to another club next month, or the possibility of such, may soon rule him out.)

Burnley defender Maxime Esteve missed last week with a training knock; supposedly back with the team now, but still doubtful for this weekend. (He was actually a very popular FPL pick early in the season because of his low starting price, and still features in nearly 11% of squads.)

Palace's Eddie Nketiah and Chris Richards both suffered knocks in the Tuesday night Cup defeat to Arsenal. Nketiah's seems minor, and he might be available for the Spurs game, at least off the bench. But a painful blow on the foot for Richards needed him to be taken off on a stretcher, and although not as serious as first feared, it does seem likely to keep him out for a week or two. That leaves Palace rather short in defence, and it's probable that someone like Jefferson Lerma will have to deputise on the right side of the back-three.

Harry Wilson, a recently very popular FPL pick, had to come off in Monday night's game against Forest with a knock to his knee, but Marco Silva sounds modestly confident that he'll be OK this weekend.

Conor Bradley again had to come off with an injury against Spurs last week; no news on the nature of that problem, but he was not expected to be able to train at all this week. Fortunately, it looks like Frimpong may finally be ready for regular minutes again - although he's not the strongest defensively, and that could be a problem with Liverpool are still struggling to steady the ship after an horrendous couple of months. Alexander Isak looked likely to be out for the season after a heavy collision with Micky Van de Ven, in the act of scoring his goal last week, visibly twisted his leg and surely inflicted massive stress on both his left ankle and knee. Fortunately, the knee ligaments seem to have come through somehow intact, and although he needed surgery on the ankle (including setting a cracked bone just above the joint), Slot is optimistic that he could return to action by the end of the season.

The biggest injury news ot the week is surely that Bruno Fernandes (the 5th most-owned midfielder in the game) had to come off at half-time in Sunday night's game at Villa, after suffering a hamstring strain; it seems not too serious, but may keep him out for at least a couple of weeks. Curiously, it looks as though returning centre-back Lisandro Martinez might replace him in the middle alongside Casemiro rather than the struggling Manuel Ugarte (Mason Mount could also do a job there, but they probably need him up-front at the moment) - although, given Amorim's relentless penchant for varying his selections every week, perhaps they'll just randomly cycle through each of their defenders in turn as a makeshift holding midfielder (I can see Luke Shaw being quite a decent fit for the role)...

Tino Livramento had to come off with a knee injury in the League Cup against Fulham just over a week ago; Eddie Howe is hopeful that it's not too serious after all, but it still needs further assessment. Lewis Miley seems likely to continue to deputise at right-back, since the club doesn't have any other fit defenders now.

Forest winger Dan Ndoye had to miss Monday's game against Fulham with a training injury; not too serious, but going to keep him out this weekend.

Wolves defenders Toti and Hugo Bueno missed the Brentford game last week with training injuries; Bueno's seems not too bad, and he's already rejoined training, but Toti apparently has quite a bad hamstring strain and could be out for several weeks.

Do we have any players who are dropped, or not looking likely to get the starts we hoped for?

Double trouble for poor Spurs as Xavi Simons picked up a three-match 'violent conduct' ban last week for clumsily raking his studs down the back of Virgil Van Dijk's calf, while Cristian Romero earned a one-match ban for two yellow cards in the same game (and was really very lucky it wasn't more, as his petulant jerking of his shin into Konate's chest when they were sitting on the ground beside each other could easily have also been construed as 'violent conduct').

And Sunderland's Luke O'Nien is serving the last part of his three-game ban this week.

At least Dominik Szoboszlai is the only new player to pick up a suspension for amassing 5 yellow cards. But we still have two gameweeks to go before the mid-season amnesty on 'totting up'; these are the players still at risk of an imminent suspension.

Did anyone give other cause to consider dropping them?

Spurs and Forest players are starting to look like poison at the moment...

Did anyone play so well, you have to consider bringing them in immediately?

There are some interesting new possibilities opening up in defence, with Keane Lewis-Potter at Brentford (a 'defender' now starting as part of the attacking trident, and looking very confident in front of goal) and Antonee Robinson (back at last from a long injury absence, and likely to get as many minutes as he can stand, now that his positional rival Ryan Sessegnon is out of the picture for a little while), who is immediately reminding us that he's probably the best crosser of a ball among all the league's full-backs, Lewis Hall finally back for Newcastle, and Tyrick Mitchell suddenly enjoying a lot more prominence in games now that his more illustrious partner Munoz is off the scene for a few weeks. Although Bournemouth overall have been in a worrying slump, Antoine Semenyo has continued to look outstanding, and seems to have now recovered his goal magic once more. And Dominic Calvert-Lewin has found a nice vein of goalscoring form lately; but he's never historically managed to keep those going for very long, and although Leeds are enjoying quite a resurgence in their last few outings, they still don't have any truly 'easy' games - and at least 3 or 4 of their next 6 matches are likely to be really hard.

BEST OF LUCK, EVERYONE!