Monthly Archives: November 2012

GW12 – NOTHING BUT THE BONUS POINTS #FPL

Nothing but the bonus points from the #FPL game from http://www.premierleague.com

17 Nov 12:45 Arsenal Arsenal 5 – 2 Tottenham Tottenham
17 Nov 15:00 Liverpool Liverpool 3 – 0 Wigan Wigan
17 Nov 15:00 Man City Man City 5 – 0 Aston Villa Aston Villa
17 Nov 15:00 Newcastle Newcastle 1 – 2 Swansea Swansea
17 Nov 15:00 QPR QPR 1 – 3 Southampton Southampton
Bonus
Hoilett
Bonus
Puncheon (2)
Lambert (3)
17 Nov 15:00 Reading Reading 2 – 1 Everton Everton
Bonus
Shorey
Le Fondre (3)
Bonus
Naismith (2)
17 Nov 15:00 West Brom West Brom 2 – 1 Chelsea Chelsea
17 Nov 17:30 Norwich Norwich 1 – 0 Man Utd Man Utd
18 Nov 16:00 Fulham Fulham 1 – 3 Sunderland Sunderland
19 Nov 20:00 West Ham West Ham 1 – 1 Stoke City Stoke City
Bonus
O’Brien (3)
Bonus
Huth
Walters (2)

THE GW12 REVIEW by @shots_on_target

Thanks as always to @shots_on_target for his great GW Review. You can read more of his quality work at http://www.shotsontarget.co.uk

I’ve included indicators to the team match stats for each team, the little arrows.  This is calculated by taking the attacking stat for a team and comparing it against the opposition’s average corresponding defensive stat.  If the value is above 1 standard deviation above the mean then it’s a green arrow, 1 SD below it’s red, in between it’s yellow.

For example, in the first game Arsenal’s 7 SOT exceeds Tottenham’s average SOT conceded away from home of 3.8 by quite a bit, so it’s a green arrow (you’ll have to account for the red card yourself I’m afraid).  Arsenal’s total shots of 13 is not too far from Tottenham’s away shots conceded average of 11.9 so that’s a yellow arrow.

This adds some context to the stats I believe and tells you how a team performed to the league average.  Again using the first game, you can see Tottenham achieved close close to average shot totals against Arsenal despite being down to 10 men for much of the game.


As discussed already in the intro, difficult to judge this game with Adebayor sent off after just 18 minutes.  The chances were spread out for Arsenal with the exception of Giroud who is definetly becoming the focal point for the Gunner’s attack.

Have to say Everton’s dominance here, especially in the first half,  deservered at least a draw, and Moyes was indeed quite vocal about his team failing to finish off opponents.  Perhaps need to try and fire up Jelavic in this respect.  Le Fondre for Reading was very busy as was Nicky Shorey creating 6 of the home team’s chances.

As expected by many of us, Liverpool were in fine fettle here, both offensively and in defence racking up a tonne of chances and conceding very little indeed.  Sterling was amongst the FPL points once again and Enrique‘s position in midfield needs close attention.  You no longer need me to tell you that Suarez was Liverpool’s main goal threat though.

West Brom need to be given great credit for the way they are playing this year and are doing the important things right.  Shane Long is doing superbly this season and when you take a closer look at his stats from last season they compare well.  This was a confusing line-up for Chelsea with them missing a large number of first team regulars in Terry, Cole, Lampard, Mata and Ivanovic.  Sturridge‘s continued role and performance in the side will need watching.


Total dominance from City here, who really excelled with Tevez stealing the show statistically although it should be noted Aguero played less of the match.  Nasri had a much better game than he’s managed of late and Silva looked like he took up a more attacking role than the creative one.  For Villa, well, they can feel hard done by from the penalty decision but would never really have been expected to do much here.

Southampton dominated the stats here in all areas.  There defensive performance has been on the up recently although midfielder Puncheon stole the show with a very impressive number of shots.  If he can keep his place, even a little, then he becomes a great player to own.  What’s wrong with QPR though?  Why can’t they score.  Some of the players stats here looked good, perhaps lacking accuracy when in the box (Cisse).


A stunning number of shots overall in this game, almost 50 shots in total, averaging 1 every 2 minutes.  I’m well impressed!  Swansea’s Michu and Newcastle’s Ba, as their teams central strikers not suprisingly had the most of their teams chances, with Hernandez and Ben Arfa chief amongst creativity.  Ba’s totals in particular would usually easily be enough for a brace.

Norwich’s defence is much improved and that can be seen in United’s shot totals not exceeding Norwich’s home averages despite some relatively low looking numbers. In contrast Norwich did not put in a display of great attacking verve but got the all important goal and clean sheet.  Pilkington‘s winner just reward for his attacking performance.  For United it’s still all about Van Persie in the shots department although Ashley Young matching his efforts deserves a mention.  Hernandez managing just 1 shot and from outside the box probably tells you about this game.


Another early red card prevents this results from telling the true strory of this match-up but again, as for the ARS-TOT game, we can see Fulham had a good go at Sunderland despite their 10 men with lots of threat from Berbatov, Sidwell and Petric.  For Sunderland Fletcher got back amongst the goals and Adam Johnson picked up 2 assists but I wouldn’t read too much into this result for the Black Cats.


This match finished exactly as many people had called it with neither team impressing in a pure attacking sense.  A few Hammers had chances to score and Nolan could have added a goal to his collection.  Instead it was a rival for his place in the midpriced midfielder’s category, Jon Walters, who picked up attacking points.

Gameweek 12 preview: Big points for the Little Pea?

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Did you all enjoy that international break as much as Zlatan Ibrahimovic did? Thought not. Do you want us to get on with the real stuff again then? Thought so.

When we left the Premier League it had just been lit up by a second half showing from Javier Hernandez (£7.6m) at Villa Park, where his two goals and well angled volley off Ron Vlaar’s backside turned Manchester United’s 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 win in the manner which seems to be in United’s DNA.

Sir Alex Ferguson responded to the goals by promising Hernandez a start in Saturday evening’s clash with Norwich City at Carrow Road, and then almost immediately withdrew both Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie from their international squads with the kind of injuries that only midweek national service can bring out.

Key to Ferguson’s thinking may have been that of his four recognised forwards only Hernandez wasn’t scheduled to play in an international this week, and so with the ‘Little Pea’ not shooting off to Mexico he’s had a full week of training and setting his sights on Norwich’s less than convincing defence.

One or both of Rooney (£11.8m) and Van Persie (£13.7m and still rising) are almost certain to play on Saturday, but perhaps not from the start as Ferguson entrusts his frequent super-sub with what would be only a second Premier League start of the season. Hernandez might not be a long term option for your team but if you need a forward for this weekend alone then there aren’t many better choices, although there is Luis Suarez (£10.0m).

Now elevated to the status of one of only five players in Fantasy Premier League who’ll cost you a double-figured amount of millions to purchase – Rooney, Van Persie, Sergio Aguero and Eden Hazard before you ask – there is a compelling argument for Suarez being the most watchable player in the English game right now.

Another goal at Chelsea last weekend made it three in his last three and eight league strikes this season for the Uruguayan, who shares top spot the Premier League’s scorers’ chart alongside Van Persie but will be looking to go out on his own when Wigan come to Anfield on Saturday.

You’ll have read elsewhere and witnessed for yourselves just how much Suarez carries the Liverpool attack – although Raheem Sterling (£5.3m) continues to prove popular after our early nod in his direction – but the forward does come with a cautionary tale, with his four bookings so far this season leaving him just one yellow card away from a one-match suspension. He’ll be fit and available for Wigan though and looks a good bet to find the net.

He’s wanted in Manchester if you believe certain stories, but for now Roberto Mancini will have to make do with just selecting from Aguero (£11.0m), Carlos Tevez (£9.5m), Edin Dzeko (£7.5m) and Mario Balotelli (£8.6m) – it’s a tough life – and once again internationals are likely to play their part for the visit of Aston Villa to the Etihad Stadium.

Aguero played for Argentina in Riyadh on Wednesday whilst Tevez didn’t, and with Dzeko and Balotelli also in midweek action then it could pay to bank on Tevez to be the hero against the Villains.

Elsewhere on a Gameweek which could generate a lot of points, the North London derby promises goals and a battle between Santi Cazorla (£9.4m) and Gareth Bale (£9.7m). Spurs defender Steven Caulker (£4.8m) has also shown that he’s got an eye for the net in the past week and could be a good long-term option.

Chelsea’s trip to West Brom is far from simple and with Hazard (£10.2m), Juan Mata (£9.5m) and Oscar (£7.8m) all looking somewhat sluggish against Liverpool last week they could struggle, whilst Everton’s Marouane Fellaini (£7.6m) and Nikica Jelavic (£8.5m) will hope to team up again at Reading.

The meeting of the division’s bottom two at Loftus Road might not look to have many points on offer, but QPR’s Junior Hoilett (£5.8m) is likely to be central to everything the home side do against leaky Southampton, and the presence of our third key player to watch this Gameweek could benefit both Rangers and you.

@Mark_Jones86

Sweden 4-2 England – Zlatan Ibrahimovic… say no more…

I realise that historically I may have frowned upon mid-week International Friendlies….
But then Zlatan Ibrahimovic went and did this….

@fantasyyirma

 

West Bromwich Albion: Some forward thinking

 

Have you heard the one about the Irishman, the Belgian and the Nigerian? Premier League defences have and they’re growing increasingly sick of it.

It’s no joke that West Bromwich Albion are performing so well in this campaign though, and with early season optimism now giving way to mid-season reality there appears to be a real belief that Shane Long, Romelu Lukaku, Peter Odemwingie and an increasingly impressive supporting cast can fire the Baggies to new heights.

Just how high those highs can get depends on what happens over the next few months of course, but with pre-season hopes of successfully fighting relegation now morphing into desires of a top half finish (even Europe?) then The Hawthorns is fast becoming a good place to be.

Roberto di Matteo will be back there on Saturday 21 months after losing his job as Baggies boss, and whilst his sacking seemed more than a little harsh at the time it is yet further evidence that this is a club who are not afraid to make brave and bold decisions both on and off the pitch.

Behind the scenes, sporting and technical director Dan Ashworth undertakes a role the like of which isn’t all too common in the Premier League, and would become less so at the end of the current season were he not involved in appointing his successor before his heads off to take up a similar role with England.

A former player, Ashworth is a savvy operator who has gone about improving West Brom’s fortunes since being appointed to the role in late 2007. When things looked in danger of unravelling under Di Matteo, Ashworth stepped in and appointed Roy Hodgson to steer the side to mid-table. Eyebrows might have been raised when he chose Steve Clarke as Hodgson’s replacement following his departure for England, but so far so very, very good.

And why shouldn’t it be? Clarke was an experienced player at the top level and has learned his coaching trade under the likes of Jose Mourinho and Kenny Dalglish. That Ashworth and West Brom had the bravery to give him his step up to become a No. 1 is a decision that has so far been richly rewarded.

The likes of Ben Foster, Gareth McAuley, James Morrison, Claudio Yacob and Youssouf Mulumbu have all impressed as the Baggies have picked up six wins in their opening 11 games to sit fifth in the table above fancied teams such as Tottenham and Arsenal, but it is those three attackers mentioned earlier who appear to epitomise everything about this forward thinking club.

Long, Lukaku and Odemwingie have each scored three goals in the league this season, and although when combined that only just puts the three of them ahead of the division’s top scorers Luis Suarez and Robin van Persie – who each have eight apiece – they have been invaluable contributors to a team who appear to fear no-one.

There will of course be tough challenges ahead – not least Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United before the turn of the year – but there is nothing to suggest that West Brom should go into any of those games with an inferiority complex. Everton, a club who West Brom are currently on the same points as and beat at The Hawthorns in early September, are often lauded for the workaholic way that they tackle every game, so why not the Baggies too?

As well as hard work, Clarke’s rotation of his three forwards has been key to their success, and there wasn’t a hint of dissent when Odemwingie was dropped to the bench for last weekend’s visit to Wigan just a few days after he’d scored twice against Southampton.

The options will be limited against Chelsea at the weekend due to Lukaku being unable to face his parent club, but Long, Odemwingie and their team-mates will be working as hard as ever to deliver against the European champions.

Clarke will demand nothing less, and’s that’s no joke.

@Mark_Jones86

GW11 THE REVIEW!! by @shots_on_target

Many Thanks to @shots_on_target for this weeks GW round up. For more great articles from our very own “Statto”  check out his website at http://www.shotsontarget.co.uk !!

Special mention this week to new guest poster Super Grover  who has provided Match reports to supplement the tables

Very accurate and clinical shooting by both teams. The game wasn’t quite as open as the score dictates as 15 shots in the box is pretty standard. Just one of those games where everything goes in, except Arteta’s penalty that is!

As for individuals, Giroud is the obvious star here. Superb game all around. Berbatov continues to be superb and appears almost fixture proof at this point. Ruiz would be interesting if listed as a MID.

Cazorla’s numbers weren’t bad, but at his price range he needs to produce more in this kind of fixture. Suspect a number of owners will be rethinking their elite MID options with Mata on fire and Silva back from the injury list.

Sunderland managed to find the back of the net again although Everton were clearly the better side in this one. Everton continue to press forward and are susceptible to counters. All the Blues offensive players were involved (Fellaini, Pienaar, Baines, Jelavic, Mirallas) and any of them could have brought home the points. This team remains a gold mine for attacking fantasy purposes.

Wouldn’t look too much at Heitenga’s shot opportunities. Yes he kicked/headed the ball towards the goal, but if Saturday is any indication he’s going to struggle to ever put one on the goal. With any skill he could have easily netted a brace.

While Sessegnon was a handful and showed some of the form he demonstrated last season they still managed just 3 shots on goal. It is still difficult to consider this team from an offensive perspective other than perhaps Fletcher.

My model predicted about 1.5 goals for Man U this weekend. They scored 3 from onlu 5 shots on target. They continue to confound any statistical forecaster with their absurd conversion rate (now at 46% for the year). Van Persie was the most provocative player, but had 4 shots to Rooney’s 4 in 17 fewer minutes and Hernandez’ 3 in 47 fewer minutes. RVP remains a fantasy monster but at soon to be 13.7 million you certainly are paying for it.

Villa didn’t do a whole lot but everything they did was funneled through Benteke and Weimann. While Benteke is a legit fantasy option, Weimann seems like a non-entity to me. This was his first game of any real contribution and Bent remains an ever present option on the bench. I personally see no value in Villa’s offense.

Even game in which Stoke were probably somewhat fortunate to get a clean sheet. Crouch and Walters were involved, but neither are elite options as Stoke isn’t going to put up many crooked numbers this year. For QPR, Taarabt was a menace to both sides as usual, being more than a bit free with his shots. Granero was also heavily involved and Hoillet was solid as well. This is the third game in a row the trio has started together. Any of the three are legit fantasy options if QPR can click into some sort of form. All are on my radar.

Terrible game to watch. From Adebayor’s diving to Mancini’s sideline histrionics. City dominated the game throughout and probably should have scored 3. Aguero and Silva were excellent as expected while I thought Tevez was a bit subdued. Dzeko really was only involved in his goal and a corner, but his presence remains troublesome to Tevez owners. Interestingly Balotelli and Nasri weren’t even included on the bench.

To me, Aguero and Silva are the key options here, with Tevez there if you want to try and read Mancini’s mind. The defense remains stout as Totenham barely threatened and the goal was very soft. Probably should have been a clean sheet for City.

For the Spurs, there wasn’t much to talk about. Adebayor was a flopping menace but didn’t really threaten much. Bale was starved of many real opportunities for him. One thing to note is that Huddlestone took nearly every free kick and 1 of the 2 corners. If that continues that is a bit of a knock on Bale’s value. It did not occur last game though so I wouldn’t look too much into it. Besides Bale, the rest of the Spurs look like non-options right now.

Don’t look now, but Southampton’s defense is improving. It’s still not good mind you, but improvement is improvement. Swansea really didn’t generate much offense and widely-held Michu and Routledge were invisible. For Routledge, this is the 3rd straight fixture that he has been a non-factor. De Guzman was better this week and has been better recently, but probably not strong enough to warrant investment.

For Southampton, Lambert remains a well-rounded asset, especially at home. He now has 21 chances created on the season, third behind Suarez and RVP among all forwards. If he plays he is almost certainly worth the money at 6.1. Ramirez continues to rack up solid numbers in his playing time. He is now averaging 3 shots and 2.2 chances created per 90 minutes, solid numbers for a 6.0 million MID. Lallana remains a solid 6.0 option as well.

Even game. Both teams were somewhat threatening but only generated 4 chances on target. For WBA, Morrison remains the key figure although Lukaku remains a constant goal threat when he is given time on the pitch. Brunt started instead of Gera this week so that probably removes Gera as a budget option. On the other side it was more of a mixed bag. Kone scored but had only 2 shots all day and no key passes. Di Santo didn’t do much either. Watson did manage 3 shots for the second week in a row. Could he become an option with regular playing time?

Shots on target was right, Reading’s defense was the way to go this week! A pretty non-eventful game, with both teams struggling to generate anything with only 13 total chances created. Hoolahan, Snoddgrass and Holt remain interesting options on Norwich presuming rotations issues can be weeded out. For Reading, only Shorey did anything useful by racking up 3 key passes from his very advanced left-back position. Not sure he is worth investment though as they won’t be playing Norwich’s offense at home every week.

Newcastle probably deserved at least a draw here. West Ham continued their run of allowing a ton of shots and not a ton of goals. Currently, the opposition is converting just 17.7% of their shots on target against the Hammers. Don’t expect that to continue. On offense, WHM has been very aggressive getting shots close in and the pattern continued this week. Nolan remains the primary contributor here although Noble is very cheap and remains on all kicks (including penalties).

On the other side it was pretty much status quo. Cabaye outperformed HBA, but Ben Arfa did enough to keep him as a viable, albeit pricey, midfield option. Ba was Ba, with the only difference being that he didn’t score on one of his 2 shots on target. Cisse remains a non option at this time.

Entertaining game to watch. Liverpool came out in a 3-5-2 formation with Enrique and Johnson as wing backs. Seemed to confuse the Reds more than Chelsea and the home team really dominated the first half. The second half saw a switch to a more traditional back four with Enrique playing left-mid and Gerrard dropping deeper to orchestrate the offense instead of Joe Allen (who was putrid in the opening 45). Liverpool were the better team in the second half and deserved the single point.

On Liverpool, Suarez continued his excellent recent form and seemed more restrained than usual (a 5th yellow on his mind perhaps). His shot and key pass numbers were down a bit but that was more of a reflection of the dominance by Chelsea in the first half. Sterling again created a couple opportunities with his pace. I purchased Sterling at 4.7 and am thrilled with his production. At his current price, I am not sure I wouldn’t be happier trying my luck with Taarabt. On the backline, both Johnson and Enrique were involved offensively, although Enrique’s clumsiness was apparent to my eye. Gerrard was a non-factor as he spent most of the second half directing things as a holding mid. He also gave up corner duties to Suso.

For Chelsea, Mata, Hazard and Torres were all heavily involved. Oscar was excellent but he remains a bit deeper than the other two #10s and thus doesn’t have the same fantasy potential in my opinion. Torres was Torres, getting a hold of a good number of solid chances but failing to put any in the back of the net. Hazard and Mata both remain solid fantasy assets.

 

 

Big thanks again to @shots_on_target for the Stats and new guest poster SuperGrover for his match reports!! Visit http://www.shotsontarget.com for more great articles!!

Fantasy Football Selection -Madness behind the method?? by @ryano83

We had a great email come through from @pojokmonas which spoke of the personal dilemma suffered by his mini-league opponent  who, as a hardened Arsenal supporter simply cannot bring himself to pick Robin Van Persie in his Fantasy Football 11.

“A friend of mine, who loves Arsenal, was very disappointed that Robin van Persie moved to United. Last season, he put Robin van Persie as a captain, whenever he was available to play. This season however, he swore that he will never EVER play RVP, or like he calls the striker… (Editor: careful this is a family site! ha)
 
So far this season, he is still maintaining decent form in our fantasy mini-league. Regardless, when RvP plays well, you can be sure he always get mocked for his stand.

It doesn’t end here, there are plenty other people who have installed self-imposed rules on themselves.
 
There’s one team that always selects De Gea as a goalkeeper even through periods of rotation by Sir Alex. One manager never selects players when they are against Liverpool. Another always has to have three Tottenham players no matter what.
 
This subjectivity can cost a manager as I mentioned earlier. When a player is in form, valuable points can be lost by these rules. On the other hand, does it push managers to be more creative to find alternatives?
 
Are there any restrictions that you put personally on your team?”

We talk about the method behind the madness in many scenarios – but in this case it is clearly the other way around if we took a logical approach??

So what other self-imposed rules do people live by when it comes to fantasy football selection??  Certainly we’ve all heard of a similar dilemma to the Arsenal Fan-RVP selection issue. It’s not always a bad thing though… I know a good few Liverpool fans who swore blind they wouldn’t select Torres following his move to Chelsea – and in fairness that worked out for them ok last season!

My personal favourite are the die hard fans…  We have in our mini-league a Derby County fan so devoted to his club he has Tom Huddlestone in his #FPL team week in –week out in some strange form of ritualistic homage to the man. While this is clearly questionable (Especially when he was on the long term injury table) I respect his dedication!

 And it’s not just club rivalry or devotion!

From a personal point of view I have a self-imposed rule that I don’t believe in having more than one player, per club, per position. There have already been a few weeks this season where I could have done with both Hazard and Mata in my team! I know I am not alone in this rule, but it did get me thinking… what other rules do #FPL managers inflict on themselves??

A quick twitter poll threw up the following results – but there are more! Drop us a comment underneath and we will post them all on twitter.

                                                               Fantasy Football – How do you select yours??

Thanks again to  @pojokmonas for getting us all thinking!

By @ryano83 for @fantasyyirma

 ‏@shots_on_target

Yes- if a midfielder or forward doesn’t have a shot in an easy home game he’s sold…

(@shots_on_target is a friend of the FY site and this rule comes as no surprise to us!)

 ‏@ko2w

I don’t. Keep it as objective as you can.

 ‏@evertoniandy

Yep. I can’t have any Liverpool players. Just can’t do it.

 @damon_randall

Do not waste points on transfers.

 ‏@vest_mullet_guy

3 arsenal players. No RVP or Nasri. Never use more than free subs.1 mid and def cheapest option in game.

@BionicToy

I won’t pick suarez because of what he stands for #nastyplayer

‏@amzitai

No Hazard, no matter what

GW11 NOTHING BUT BONUS POINTS!!! #FPL

Gameweek 11
10 Nov 15:00 Arsenal Arsenal 3 – 3 Fulham Fulham
Bonus
Giroud (2)
Bonus
Kacaniklic (2)
Berbatov (3)
10 Nov 15:00 Everton Everton 2 – 1 Sunderland Sunderland
10 Nov 15:00 Reading Reading 0 – 0 Norwich Norwich
Bonus
Morrison
McCleary (2)
Bonus
Garrido (3)
10 Nov 15:00 Southampton Southampton 1 – 1 Swansea Swansea
Bonus
Schneiderlin (2)
Bonus
Monk (2)
Dyer (3)
10 Nov 15:00 Stoke City Stoke City 1 – 0 QPR QPR
Bonus
Shawcross (3)
Adam (2)
Bonus
Ferdinand
10 Nov 15:00 Wigan Wigan 1 – 2 West Brom West Brom
10 Nov 17:30 Aston Villa Aston Villa 2 – 3 Man Utd Man Utd
Bonus
Weimann (2)
Bonus
Carrick
Hernandez (3)
11 Nov 13:30 Man City Man City 2 – 1 Tottenham Tottenham
Bonus
Silva (2)
Aguero (3)
Bonus
Caulker
11 Nov 15:00 Newcastle Newcastle 0 – 1 West Ham West Ham
11 Nov 16:00 Chelsea Chelsea 1 – 1 Liverpool Liverpool
Bonus
Terry (2)
Bonus
Jose Enrique
Suarez (3)

Gameweek 11 preview: Rebel without a clause

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Theo Walcott still hasn’t signed a new Arsenal contract.

He hasn’t signed it at the time of writing, he’s not likely to have signed it by the time you’re reading this, and he probably still won’t have signed it when you come back to these pages ahead of Gameweek 12.

If Walcott (£8.7m) wasn’t so bland as to make a legion of football fans yearn for the post-match interviews of Michael Owen then his dispute with Arsenal could almost be portrayed as a dramatic stand-off, with the nippy winger-but-wants-to-be-thought-of-as-a-forward and Arsene Wenger drawing pistols at dawn and seeing which one backs down first.

In reality it’s just a stare-off, which will only end one day when one of the parties gets bored and decides that their time will be spent better elsewhere, be it Walcott wandering off to pastures new or Wenger realising that one of the most dynamic players in the Premier League really is worth hanging on to after all.

What it has created is a situation in which Walcott is determined to perform well to simultaneously try and prove that he’s worth keeping hold of and to impress potential future employers at the same time.

Recent goals in the Capital One Cup and the Champions League have staked Walcott’s claim for a starting berth in Wenger’s league team, and with Gervinho injured and Jack Wilshere suspended for Saturday’s home game against Fulham, the Frenchman could do worse than to hand a starting place to a player who will be desperate to impress.

Of course it would be a gamble to transfer Walcott into your team given the uncertainty over his position at Arsenal, but ahead of a Gameweek which could go one of several different ways given the fixtures it might just be a gamble worth taking, especially when you consider his differential potential (he’s owned by 1.3% of teams), the possibility that he could be played upfront and the idea that he’ll be playing for another team in January. Liverpool have been linked, and he’d start every week there.

For now he’s still at Arsenal though, where Olivier Giroud (£8.4m) and Santi Cazorla (£9.4m) will be other players worth considering if you think that the Gunners can beat Fulham at home on Saturday. Bacary Sagna (£5.4m) is a defender worth keeping an eye on now that he’s returned to the team and dislodged previous Fantasy favourite Carl Jenkinson (£5.0m).

Elsewhere, this intriguing Gameweek offers up very few strong defensive options given the close nature on paper of many of the matches, but one of the strongest surely comes at Goodison Park where Everton take on a Sunderland side who have scored just once in their last five in league and cup – and that goal came from Newcastle’s Demba Ba.

Leighton Baines (£7.6m) could be a wise move as Everton bid to end a run of four straight draws, with Nikica Jelavic (£8.5m) and last weekend’s top points scorer Marouane Fellaini (£7.2m) sure to be popular picks.

Manchester City haven’t convinced recently and their match with Tottenham on Sunday looks to be one which will include goals, whilst Chelsea will be backed to beat Liverpool especially given that Juan Mata (£9.4m) will return after missing the Swansea game and Oscar (£7.8m) will look to repeat the goal he scored in the Champions League in midweek.

Cheap striking options over the weekend can be found in Reading’s Jason Roberts (£4.5m) and Arouna Kone (£6.5m) of Wigan but for our final forward we look towards Manchester United, and not towards the player you think.

Whilst Robin van Persie (£13.5m) now features in over a third of teams, Wayne Rooney (£11.8m) can only be found in 8%, and as United click ominously into gear you have to assume that that number will only go up.

He may have missed a penalty against Arsenal last weekend but Rooney made up for that with an assist, and as @shots_on_target suggested last weekend he could be the way to go ahead of a welcoming set of fixtures for Sir Alex Ferguson’s men, starting with Aston Villa on Saturday.

@Mark_Jones86

Wigan: Sticking up for the little guy

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Here in Britain we love a good sporting underdog, someone we can get behind and support even in the face of tremendous adversity.

Examples include Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards, a quite spectacularly bad ski jumper who competed at the 1988 Winter Olympics, as well as any number of British tennis players who have tried and failed to win Wimbledon over the years. If you’re lucky and you’ve plied them with just the right amount of alcohol, you can even get a supporter of one of Liverpool’s fierce rivals to admit that a hint of a smile crossed their face when Djimi Traore, Igor Biscan and the like were parading the European Cup around Istanbul after the Reds came back from the dead to beat AC Milan in 2005. They’ll later deny it of course.

All of those were one off, sometimes once in a lifetime moments though, but it seems as though we are a little less welcoming of our more regular underdogs.

Take Wigan Athletic, a club who have only been part of the league system in England for 34 years and come May will have spent the last eight of those years in the top flight. Theirs should be a heart-warming tale of the success of a locally-backed club from a town whose population could fit inside Wembley Stadium, but for many it isn’t.

Wigan ‘don’t deserve’ to be in the Premier League apparently, with their place supposedly blocking the path of other, ‘bigger’ clubs who haven’t produced the results, consistency or quality of football that the Latics have over their stay in the top flight.

Attendances at both home and away matches are often flagged up as one of the key reasons for this belief, with the latest example of it coming last Saturday when a low amount of Wigan fans made the trip to North London for what turned out to be a terrific 1-0 victory over Tottenham.

The same jokes were wheeled out as photographs of the away end at White Hart Lane did the rounds over social media, as fans of other clubs pointed out that they would of course have taken far more fans to such a big game, thereby proving that they were more deserving of a top flight place than Wigan. Jealousy could be detected in the words.

The fact that this was occurring just a couple of weeks after a survey into the price of football which led to many proposing a potential fan boycott of matches due to astronomical ticket prices was an irony apparently lost on many, but as Wigan received the same criticisms they always do off the pitch, on it Roberto Martinez and his team pulled off another spectacular result.

Last season it appeared certain that many football fans would get their wish to see Wigan return to ‘where they belong’ – perhaps to be replaced by the yo-yoing Birmingham or West Ham – but wins at Anfield, the Emirates Stadium and at home to Manchester United and Newcastle spectacularly turned that around, with this latest win at Tottenham coming off the back of a home victory over West Ham and really invigorating the campaign for Roberto Martinez and his men.

Since Wigan’s promotion to the Premier League in 2005 only the seven ever-presents in the 20 year history of the revamped league – namely Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham – as well as Fulham and Manchester City have managed to stick around in the top flight with them, with plenty of other clubs falling away, yo-yoing between the leagues or never coming back up.

The Latics have had their moments when they’ve looked like joining them of course, but the fact that they haven’t is a curiously uncelebrated underdog story which still continues; a diverse story which includes characters such as Paul Jewell, David Unsworth, Emile Heskey, Charles N’Zogbia, Hugo Rodallega and of course Martinez himself.

There might be other heroes this season – Ben Watson, Franco di Santo or Arouna Kone perhaps – but even if there isn’t then surely it is high time to acknowledge this story, and pay tribute to an underdog who can produce a pretty fierce bite.

Every dog has its day, and Wigan have had eight years’ worth of them.

Isn’t that achievement worth celebrating, no matter how many people are watching?

@Mark_Jones86