Wellington Silva was left out by CD Alcoyano, as was Samuel Galindo by Gimnastic de Tarragona and Sead Hajrovic by Barnet. Nico Yennaris also missed out for Notts County while Benik Afobe watched on from the bench as Reading secured promotion to the Premier League, before being confirmed as Championship winners when Southampton lost.
Henri Lansbury: After impressing against Brighton, the midfielder held on to his starting place as West Ham drew at lowly Bristol City. Playing on the right of a four man midfield, the England under21 international nearly gave the Hammers the early in the second half, clipping the bar with his shot from the edge of the area while running at speed. He then came on for the final five minutes of West Ham’s 2-1 win at Leicester, showing plenty of endeavour without making much influence on the game. Lansbury has been in and out of the West Ham side this season but has often looked good when he plays and a good run of starts next season could see him come on remarkably, maybe even reach the fringes of the England squad, although it seems very unlikely he would do this at Arsenal.
Nicklas Bendtner: The Dane was denied what would have been the only goal of Sunderland’s game at Aston Villa by the assistant referee, being ruled offside when he headed home Larsson’s cross late in the second half. It was a dubious decision, with Match of The Day graphics suggesting he was just onside. Nevertheless the striker should have no complaints having missed an excellent chance to score earlier in the game.
Carlos Vela: The Mexican scored his second overhead kick of the season to equalise late on for Real Sociedad as they drew 1-1 against Villarreal. The spectacular effort continues his good run of form of late, and shows the real quality that the striker has. It will only serve to increase interest in Vela and with Arsenal seemingly looking to sell in the the summer there will be plenty of suitors interested in the forward, especially in Spain where he has really improved his reputation this season.
Vela celebrates his 11th of the season - credit to laparada.mx
Pedro Botelho: The winger played most of Levante’s 1-1 draw at Sevilla in a game that was marked by a rather strange protest. Angered that their match had been moved to allow the Barcelona-Real Madrid match to dominate primetime, Sevilla fans threw hundreds of tennis balls onto the pitch shortly after the game kicked off. Once the game was underway Botelho had an uneventful time, having little involvement in the goals for either team.
Joel Campbell: Campbell played the final 25 minutes as Lorient threw away a 2-0 load to lose at Lyon. Coming on with the score at 2-1, manager Gourcuff likely made this attacking change to try and kill off the game. However, it backfired as Lyon took advantage of just some of their numerous chances to eventually complete the comeback, with Gomis scrambling in the winner.
Kyle Bartley: The defender came as close to scoring as he did conceding as Rangers beat a distracted Hearts 3-0. His volley was blocked on the line while the closest Hearts came to a goal was Craig Beattie’s penalty which smashed against the bar. The penalty, given away by midfielder Aluko, was the only worrying moment for Rangers in an otherwise simple encounter.
Sanchez Watt: The striker played 5 minutes at the end of Crawley’s 3-1 victory over Northampton, having little impact as the away side attempted to put Crawley under pressure and possibly pull back for a draw. He was then left on the bench as Crawley drew at Dagenham and Redbridge.
Chuks Aneke: The midfielder played the final 15 minutes of Preston’s draw at Oldham, helping them to equalise late on. Rhys Murphy was left as an unused substitute.
Vito Mannone: The ‘keeper starred in both of Hull’s home wins, making a number of important saves in both their 3-1 win against Barnsley and the 2-1 victory against Nottingham Forest.
Ryo Miyaichi: Miyaichi struggled to get into the game in Bolton’s 1-1 draw against Swansea. Up against Taylor, who has impressed this season for Swansea, Miyaichi was unable to beat the fullback and struggled to put in the crosses that have threatened defences in previous games. Bolton are currently struggling to stay up and are four points from safety, although they have two games in hand.
Andrey Arshavin: Despite going to Russia to regain form before the Euro’s, Arshavin has had a quiet time of it in Russia. However, he may now have more reason to be optimistic having scored in Zenit’s 2-2 draw at Kuban Krasnodar. With 13 minutes left Zenit were 2-0 down but Arshavin sparked the comeback by poking home from the corner of the six yard box. Just two minutes later he slid the ball down the right, from where it was crossed and eventually scrambled into the net by Shirokov.
Denilson: The midfielder played 90 minutes as Sao Paulo beat Bragantino 4-1 but he has had more troubling times off the pitch. His talks with Sao Paulo appear to have broken down meaning he may now return to Arsenal in the summer, albeit briefly, before moving on to another club, with teams in Spain reportedly interested in securing the Brazilian’s services.
