Blackburn Backline, Stoppin' Goals.

While Blackburn may be struggling to score goals at the other end of the field, they continue to compensate for this by remaining tight across the back line. Blackburn have kept four clean sheets in their last five games and Sam Allardyce has emphasised the need for this to continue in order to achieve a climb up the table.

Blackburn's fixture list isn't horrible and could be a lot worse over Christmas and New Year:

Birmigham (away)
Tottenham (home)
Wigan (away)
Sunderland (home)
Manchester City (away)
Fulham (home)
Wigan (home)
West Ham (away)
Stoke (away)
Hull (home)

These factors make us suspect we will continue to see defensive returns; so lets look at the Blackburn defensive options.

Emerton has been playing an attacking midfield position wide on right, and positionally looks the best option amongst their defence, although Samba and Nelson, with set-piece goal threat, are the other worthy targets. Both Emerton and Samba are priced at £4.9m, while Nelsen is £4.4m and that price difference may make your decision much easier. Nelsen is the club captain and also has more bonus points than the other two (5 points earned versus 3 points for Samba and Emerton), however given Emerton's attacking formation he may be more likely to score.

Ultimately there is little to choose between these players; any of these three players should do well in the forthcoming weeks, particularly if Blackburn continue to keep a tidy defence.