The Week Ahead - Quick Turnaround Edition

As we've been doing, here's a recap of the week that is just about to wrap up once Sunderland and Manchester City run out for their New Year's Day match-up. I'll keep it brief:

• Whither DDG? - De Gea's high profile gaffe that contributed to the shocking United loss to Rovers on Saturday wasn't his first of the season. With Lindegaard having gotten progressively more playing time over the holiday period the biggest question for those holding DDG on a big discount is whether this will signal a change in philosophy for United or SAF will keep the faith with the young keeper who he invested in so heavily over the summer. My intuition is that he almost HAS to stick with DDG because failing to do so would potentially crush the youngster's spirit and that would be one expensive spirit to crush this early into his tenure.
• What's Next for Suarez? - If I were Kenny Dalglish I'd get Suarez's suspension started immediately. They're not likely to beat City with our without their talisman so why would you risk losing the match AND having his suspension extended. The report (widely available on the FA's web site) doesn't seem to offer much hope of a reduced penalty. The only reason to delay would be if Liverpool are going to take a little time to try to get an alternative in the transfer market and they need time to do so. My overall advice is to keep hold of Bellamy at a big discount if you have him.
• Vermaelen Injury Impact - The "Curse of Ashley Cole" (not to be confused with Ashley Cole cursing) seems to be continuing into 2012. Since the not-even-remotely-lovable Chelsea man left Arsenal they've had a really hard time keeping a left back healthy for more than 10 minutes at a time and that appears to have extended to the fill-in left back Thomas Vermaelen. Reports today have him out for 2 to 3 weeks. I assume many of you have him at a deep, deep discount. The good news is that after tomorrow, Arsenal don't play a Premier League match until January 15th. With Verm likely back by the 22nd at the latest, you're really only risking 2 pointless matches to keep one of the most effective defenders in the game for about 6. I'd keep him unless you start hearing those worrying rumbles from the Arsenal training staff about the injury extending.

With Spurs and Everton playing two matches, we're going to pay almost exclusive attention to the value on those two teams.

Tottenham

• The obvious "must-haves" are Bale, van der Vaart, and Adebayor (in that order for my money)
• Next up for me would be Friedel if you have the money and a spot open at GK (two home matches against mediocre attacking teams makes for good stuff from your keeper even at that price).
• If you want to dip into the Spurs defense then you will want to look to the wings with the expensive Kyle Walker and Benoit Assou-Ekoto rather than the muddled picture at Center Back which sees Michael Dawson available again along with Kaboul, Gallas and the always questionable Ledley King. That uncertainty makes the wing backs the only way to go.
• If you're looking for an enabler then I think you're likely to do better with Everton players (or keeping players on one match that you have for cheap) but Sandro would be your only real choice from the Spurs team.
• Modric has been regressing a bit in terms of his fantasy output over the past few matches so I'd be a little wary of him vs. similarly priced alternatives in the Spurs back line.