GW10 Match Review

Man United’s goal threat overall is almost entirely through Rooney and Van Persie.  Asa you’d expect of course.  Rooney’s missed penalty would have cost those who showed the faith in him but there should be know reason to panic with him getting as many opportunities to score as his Dutch colleague.  Van Persie just has that extra cutting edge which is what the extra £2m buys you.   Once again for Arsenal it’s all about Cazorla and Giroud.  I own both these and really, really am hoping they can do something at home against Fulham.

Fellaini overshadows everyone here on a team full of goal chances, and therefore goals.  Everton should have had 4 or 5 here, and Fuylham were very luck to get draw level.  On another day Jelavic should have scored at least one and Baines or Pienaar an assist.  If Everton can keep the Fellaini fit then everyone in this team will profit.  Fulham were outclassed but Berbatov is still their main man.  They will live to fight another day,

A game of limited chances as you would expect, with Norwich having the most chances overall but Stoke getting into the penalty box more.  Pilkington had the stand out game from Norwich reminding us of his brief flurry of goals last season, although it was Johnson who grabbed the goal from one of two efforts.  Stoke are never going to create many chances away from home so this is as expected really.

Swansea did a really good job here of limiting the number of good chances from Chelsea whilst almost matching them for threat going forward.   Hazard had a good game in Mata’s absence with the lion’s share of the visitor’s shooting opportunities but with 3 out fo 4 of these coming from outside the box it’s not really a great surprise he did not score.  Michu’s advanced role for Swansea has allowed De Guzman to get forward more he is a good alternative to the Spaniard.

No doubt many FPL managers, myself included, would have captained Gareth Bale in this game in what looked a “plum fixture” for the London outfit.  Wigan are starting to recapture the kind of performance that kept them in this league at the end of last season.  This is the second game in a row in which Spurs have failed to create the league average number of SoT and Sin and that does not bode well.  Bale was, as usual, the number one attacking threat for Tottenham but it is starting to look like AVB’s tactical approach struggles without key players in the Spurs engine room, such as Dembele and Sandro.  Wigan did not create a great deal of chances with Kone and Maloney and goalscorer Watson their top fantasy performers.

Zero shots on target here from West Ham is my highlight here, and only 6 shots in total, 4 in the box.   This from a team who very much like to get the ball in the box under Sam Alladaryce.  This really shows that the Manchester City defence is good.  I hesitate to say improving as their early season defensive form has been great, it was just the all important clean sheet that was missing.  It’s obviously worth a mention that Kevin Nolan had a legit goal ruled out for offside.  Hardly any attacking threat from the City fullbacks is perhaps a sign of an increased defensive focus from Mancini. Going forward for City, Balotelli and Dzeko were wasteful, with their opportunities with Tevez playing a deeper, more creative role in comparison.  Nasri, given the attacking role he should play in this team, has been very quiet all season.

I’d love to have the time to study Sunderland in more detail this season, and watch videos of all their matches.  Just why it is they can’t hit the target I do not know, despite 10 attempts in the box against Villa here, with the whole team guilty of wayward shooting, except for Fletcher, who didn’t really get a sniff.  Benteke and Agbonlahor are a decent enough pairing and if Weimann and Bannan can keep their place they look a real prospect for FPL managers at £5.2m and £4.9m respectively..  No sign of Darren Bent.

My selection of Junior Hoilett in my GW10 Select XI didn’t bear fruit here, although he was fairly well involved.  Tarrabt and Cisse clearly hogged the shooting chances for Rangers though, with the Moroccan having an hugely impressive 8 shots in total but a really not so impressive 2 in the box.  Someone (perhaps the manager) should tell him how well correlated goals are to shots in the box and how badly they are with shots from outside.    Reading create plenty of chances but not so many on target.

Liverpool, as a team, are struggling a bit, mainly due to the fact they aren’t really a team.  They are Luis Suarez. The Uruguayan pretty much single handed creates and takes all of everything Liverpool do up front.  Gerrard looked busy but shooting from range so much.  Shelvey was an early season tip from me, until his red card in the United game and 3 match ban.  If he gets his place back ahead of Sahin he could be worth a look.   Demba Ba did not do much before limping off with just one long range effort that was never going in.  Newcastle’s main fantasy interest came from Ben Arfa and Cabaye, but overall their wasn’t much threat from the visitors who really rely on goals from their centre forward to win the games.

Apologies to anyone who took a punt on Lukaku here.  Didn’t start. Sorry!  Odemwingie served a reminder of his ability with a very prominent display and two goals.  In the absence of much favoured James Morrison who had a knock Mulumbu dominated the midfield.  Adkin’s inclusion of Lambert provided the chief threat for the visitors but the Baggies defence is deserving of this clean sheet.

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