Spain have had their winter break from league football, meaning Samuel Galindo and his Gimnastic de Tarragona side received a rest while Carlos Vela, Wellington Silva and Pedro Botelho were all left out from their respective side’s cup ties. Joel Campbell was also left out completely by FC Lorient in their last game before the French winter break; their 0-0 draw with Caen was enough to bore even the most obsessed of football fans. Sanchez Watt watched from the dugout while his Sheffield Wednesday side lost by two goals to one at Walsall. Meanwhile Denilson, who has been enjoying the break between seasons in Brazil, was named in one website’s “Worst 20 signings of Brazilian football this year”.
Henri Lansbury: The midfielder came on for the final half hour in West Ham’s 1-1 draw at Birmingham. At the time, the Hammers were a goal up after Carlton Cole gave them an early lead but when Lansbury took to the field the Blues were already in the ascendency meaning the Englishman spent most of his time defending and was unable to make an impact going forward. After piling on the pressure, Birmingham equalised through Murphy with a little under ten minutes left and they may well have won the game if not for a number of excellent saves by Robert Green.
Nicklas Bendtner: The Dane has started two games in the last week and scored the opener in Sunderland’s 3-2 victory at QPR. After missing a header from six yards out he made amends by nodding in a Richardson corner from a similar distance. However in both this game and the Black Cats’ 1-1 draw with Everton Bendtner’s link-up play was poor and as of yet he has failed to show that he is worthy of joining a Champion’s League, as he stated he wants to do at the end of the season.
credit to the Hartlepool Mail
Chuks Aneke and Luke Freeman: Both were named on the bench in Stevenage’s 6-1 thrashing of Colchester. Freeman came on when the scoreline was just 2-1 and in half an hour helped his side to score four more, including getting one himself from close range. Both players have been a relative success so far in their short loan spells in Hertfordshire and although they are both due to return to Arsenal in January, they may well see their loans extended as Stevenage look for consecutive promotions.
Kyle Bartley: The centre back started on the bench for Rangers in their 2-1 defeat at St Mirren, but he was brought on with just under a quarter of an hour left as his side was reduced to nine men. He had very little to do as the Gers looked to pull level, but this was not the case on Wednesday night when he started in their huge clash at Celtic. Up against a strong Georgios Samaras and clever Gary Hooper, Bartley was busy all night as Celtic dominated much of the game. Whilst he himself did reasonably well, he was let down by his other defenders as they allowed Joe Ledley to head home from a corner and score the only goal of the game. The extremely blustery conditions meant that goalkeepers were unwilling to come for most crosses, making life more difficult for Bartley – under the circumstances, including a vociferous Celtic crowd, the young defender coped admirably.
