Guest Post for FantasyYIRMA.com Another weekend passes by and once again Andre Villas-Boas found himself under huge pressure after watching his Tottenham side go down 5-0 to Liverpool. Unfortunately for the Spurs boss, this proved to be the last straw, and the football betting markets were proved right when he was sacked on Monday morning. […]
Manchester City vs Arsenal LINEUPS : Walcott Starts
Dec 14
Manchester City Vs Arsenal 12:45pm Saturday, 14 December Etihad Stadium TEAM NEWS: Pantilimon, Zabaleta, Kompany (c), Demichelis, Clichy, Fernandinho, Yaya Toure, Nasri, Silva, Aguero, Negredo #cityvarsenal #mcfc — Manchester City (@ManCity) December 14, 2013 #Arsenal team to play Man City: Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Flamini, Wilshere, Ramsey, Ozil, Walcott, Giroud #MCFCvAFC — Arsenal (@Arsenal) […]
Aston Villa 8-0 Manchester United: Premier League Predictions Game (Not a typo)
Dec 14
Gameweek 16 : FantasyYIRMA vs FitbaThatba ! Its that age old story, blog meets blog at the Football Blogging awards, a few beers and before you know it FitbaThatba are having a go at #ChallengeYIRMA Click below to vote for your winner on twitter. We believe that FitbaThatba may not be Manchester United fans. #ChallengeYIRMA GW16! […]
FPL Captain Dilemma: Suarez vs Lukaku vs Aguero vs Hooper??
Dec 14
No surprises, Luis Suarez leads FPL captain options Many Thanks to @RotoZdroik from RotoExperts for this Guest Post Click Here for the official FantasyYIRMA Preview for GW16 It’s funny how so much of Fantasy Premier League success relies on one player. If you captain the wrong guy each week, you’ll surely be near the bottom of […]
GW16 Preview: Everton’s Romelu Lukaku to fire against Fulham
Dec 12
Whilst one team in west London continues to misfire, another one could well be on the end of the latest battering administered by their rivals’ best forward. Yes, it remains a curious fact in this Premier League season that Chelsea’s most effective frontman is currently being seen in the blue of another club, not that […]
Off the Mark: Manchester United fear factor proving too much for David Moyes
Dec 11
The sight of a forlorn, almost apologetic David Moyes taking part in a post-match interview has been seen far too often for Manchester United fans’ liking already this season. There was, however, something which stood out about the Scot’s thoughts following the 1-0 defeat at home to Newcastle last weekend, something which made this particular […]
UEFA Champions League is Back: Fantasy Football
Dec 9
We did toy with the idea of running an individual Champions League game… But realistically we already struggle to keep up to speed with the Hollyoaks omnibus as it is! That’s why FantasyYIRMA recommends Fantasy iTeam if you are looking for Champions League Fantasy Action. Check out their free app and start building your UCL […]
GW15 Preview: Liverpool’s Luis Suarez simply has to be backed to nail Hammers
We’ll make no apologies for failing to be very original, but after urging you all to make Luis Suarez (£12.4m) your main man for Gameweek 14, we’re going to do so again.
Suarez’s stunning display and four goals – three of which will surely be contenders for Goal of the Month – in Liverpool’s 5-1 victory over Norwich City on Wednesday will live long in the memories of all who were fortunate enough to witness it, and ahead of the visit of West Ham United to Anfield on Saturday there simply isn’t a better captain choice than the Uruguayan.
There were plenty of astonishing statistics doing the rounds on Wednesday night – Suarez has now scored 11 goals in his last four games against Norwich, something that could only bring a rueful smile and a shake of the head from John Ruddy when he embraced him at full-time – but there are others to consider ahead of the weekend too.
After missing Liverpool’s first three home league games of the season through suspension, Suarez has now scored an incredible 10 goals in his four Anfield appearances during this campaign.
Having only scored twice as a team in those three home games their star forward was absent for at the start of the campaign, Liverpool have now hit 16 goals in their last four games on their own turf, something that is sure to worry a West Ham side who lost at Crystal Palace last time out and have only won once away all season.
Another huge blow to the Hammers will be the absence of midfielder Ravel Morrison (£5.1m) through suspension.
The former Manchester United man would have been looking forward to taking on the Reds, but without him and with Suarez in this kind of other-worldly form, there only looks to be one result on the horizon at the weekend. And one man whose goals will provide it.
Elsewhere, there is a former Liverpool player who might just help to fill the Morrison-sized hole in your team.
Swansea’s Jonjo Shelvey (£5.3m) was terrific in racking up 14 points in the 3-0 win over Newcastle on Wednesday, and with three goals and three assists this season he is certainly a player to be keeping an eye on.
The Swans face a home game with Hull on Monday night and then go to a Norwich side who will potentially still be dazed from the Suarez show, and Shelvey can take advantage as his team try and break into the top half.
That Swansea-Hull game at the Liberty Stadium is the last of the weekend, but you could argue that the most important will be the first.
Manchester United have slipped to ninth following three winless games, and after the defeat to Everton the bad news keeps coming for David Moyes, who’ll be without the suspended Wayne Rooney (£11.2m) for the home clash with Newcastle.
The Scot will be desperate for Robin van Persie (£13.8m) to return to fitness for that game, which could see Danny Welbeck (£7.0m) make a third start in a row.
There will be plenty of people who fancy Everton to get a result at Arsenal following their win at United, and unlikely Old Trafford hero Bryan Oviedo (£4.3m) will surely keep his place for the trip to the Emirates.
However, the final say there is more likely to come from Mesut Ozil (£10.3m), who scored his first goal in six in the Hull win. Nicklas Bendtner (£6.5m and selected by a huge 0.0% of teams) will drop back to the bench.
Chelsea and Manchester City will be seeking to keep pace with the Gunners at the top as they face two more tricky away games having come through Wednesday night unscathed.
City go to a Southampton side who are suddenly falling away a little, and Alvaro Negredo (£9.3m) will surely return to the visitors’ team in place of Edin Dzeko (£6.8m), whilst Yaya Toure (£9.6m) will be as crucial as ever.
Chelsea are at Stoke, and although that will bring familiar challenges they are likely to be overcome if Eden Hazard (£9.6m) demonstrates the brilliant form he showed in the win at Sunderland.
He didn’t quite reach the levels set by Suarez on Wednesday, but frankly who can?
Off the Mark: Why Manchester City could be four days away from becoming champions
Even the most one-sided Premier League title races were never won in December, but each and every winning team will always be able to point to the month as a key one.
Fixtures come thick and fast and there is no international break or FA Cup weekend to get in the way, and as such the momentum that you pick up now can prove to be crucial later on in the season.
But for Manchester City – who are 13/8 to win the title with Coral – it isn’t so much the next month that will be important, but more the next four days.
A real Jekyll and Hyde team, City’s home league record of played seven, won seven, scored 29 is in stark contrast to form on the road which features four defeats and just four points.
Losses at Cardiff, Aston Villa, Chelsea and Sunderland are what leaves Manuel Pellegrini’s side six points off the top of the table going into these midweek round of fixtures, but the next four days would appear to offer City the perfect chance to get their away hoodoo over with.
The 3-0 weekend win over Swansea was a fifth success in the last six games in all competitions for Pellegrini’s side, with all of those wins coming at home and featuring a grand total of 25 City goals. Now though, they head for the relative discomfort of The Hawthorns and St Mary’s.
Tonight’s fixture at West Bromwich Albion would appear to be the perfect test of City’s resolve, so much so that it might not be too over the top to bill it as one of the most important matches of the season so far.
Win it, and the Blues will have a spring in their step heading into Saturday’s meeting with Southampton, another huge test and one that passing will create elevated levels of confidence that Pellegrini’s men might not ever come down from.
If they can pick up six points out of six over these next four days then it is not difficult to imagine City never looking back, and springing into their next fixtures with the swagger of potential champions. And following hot on the heels of those West Brom and Southampton games is the small matter of the visit of table-topping Arsenal to the Etihad Stadium.
The prospect of shooting down the Gunners will already have excited Pellegrini’s players, but if those players can come through this week with a couple of wins then they’ll enter that game in even higher spirits.
For Arsenal – who face home matches with Hull and Everton over this period that City will be on the road – the sight of a revved up and fully-charged Manchester City in their rear view mirror is sure to see the nerves kick in, and they more than anybody will have one eye on events at The Hawthorns and St Mary’s over the next few days.
Neither are easy fixtures of course – West Brom drew at home to Arsenal and won at Old Trafford this season, whilst Southampton’s quality has been there for all to see throughout the campaign, and they stuck a knife into City’s title ambitions with a 3-1 home win over them last February – but there is little doubt that a team with the quality Pellegrini has at his disposal can collect maximum points.
With Sergio Aguero as dangerous as ever, Alvaro Negredo looking as though he was born to score goals in England, Jesus Navas having got over a difficult opening few months, Samir Nasri repeating the form that made him such a hit at Arsenal and Yaya Toure still a dominant force, City have plenty to be proud of this season.
But the fact remains that all of their best moments have come in Manchester.
If that can change over the next four days, then we could be looking at the 2013/14 Premier League champions.
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City 1 Tigers 0
A month isn’t allowed to pass by without someone in a position of power at a football club doing something which makes the rest of us wonder if they actually understand the game at all.
Assem Allam, the Hull CITY owner, is the latest to take the prize after he slammed the club’s fans for their protest over Hull CITY’s potential rebranding.
Those Hull CITY fans were as terrific as their team Hull CITY were in their deserved 3-1 victory over Liverpool, and seeing as those Hull CITY supporters will still be there whatever happens to the club in the future – whether they are beating Liverpool or Lincoln – then they should be the ones consulted on any potential name change, not that there’s anything wrong with Hull CITY in the first place.
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Backing the Mackems
Sunderland have only picked up one point and haven’t even scored a goal on the road under Gus Poyet, but at home it’s been a different matter.
A win in the derby against Newcastle and against Manchester City set them up nicely for a tough home double header against Chelsea and then Tottenham, and although the Blues might prove to be too strong they could heap the pressure on Andre Villas-Boas with a win on Saturday.
GW14 Preview: Liverpool’s Luis Suarez to torture Canaries again
Don’t be alarmed by the headline, this isn’t the story of the latest misdemeanour from a player who has had a chequered history in England, but rather about what he’s going to do to his favourite opponents.
Liverpool’s Luis Suarez (£12.3m) might have struggled along with the rest of his teammates in Sunday’s defeat at Hull City, but that will be meaningless when Norwich City come to Anfield on Wednesday night.
The forward has scored seven goals in his last three matches against the Canaries, and as Chris Hughton’s side come to Merseyside the Uruguayan has scored six goals in the three home league matches he’s played this season.
That kind of form is impossible to ignore ahead of a match which Liverpool will need to win following their weekend setback in Yorkshire, where the absence of Daniel Sturridge was keenly felt.
But with five wins from six Anfield assignments this season, 13 goals in their last three matches against Norwich, 11 strikes in their three most recent home games and Suarez in such form against these opponents, Brendan Rodgers will expect to see his team return to winning ways in the quickest possible time.
The Reds boss might well decide to change things around for the contest, but one constant in his team this season remains Jordan Henderson (£5.9m). The midfielder scored in the 5-0 win over Norwich last season, and has played in every minute of every one of Liverpool’s league games during this one.
https://twitter.com/ZOO/statuses/407525115463602176
Elsewhere during this midweek programme of fixtures, two of the weekend’s happiest teams will meet at the Emirates Stadium.
With the spectres of Chelsea and Manchester City lurking behind them, Arsenal will expect nothing less than a win as Hull come to North London.
When they’ve got a player such as Aaron Ramsey (£7.4m) in their team though, that victory could well be assured.
It is highly likely that the Welshman will have gone up in price by the time the match at the Emirates kicks off on Wednesday, ensuring that he will have risen by a staggering £2m since the opening weekend of the season. Six in every 10 Fantasy Premier League teams include him, and with his two goals in the victory over former club Cardiff last Saturday it is easy to see why.
Tuesday’s only match is a London derby between Crystal Palace and West Ham at Selhurst Park, where Mohamed Diame (£4.7m) will be seeking to build on his weekend performance and goal against the league’s bottom club.
Further up the table, Manchester City go to West Brom fresh from a 3-0 victory over Swansea that was inspired by two goals from Samir Nasri (£8.1m).
Having been regarded as merely a squad player for much of his time at City, the Frenchman is blossoming under the tutelage of Manuel Pellegrini and the continued absence through injury of David Silva.
It might surprise many to find out that Nasri has figured in every one of City’s league games this season, starting nine of the last 10 after coming off the bench in the first three. After his two strikes against Swansea and a goal in the Champions League last week, he can punish a West Brom side who’ve conceded 10 goals in their last five games.
The game of the week probably comes at Old Trafford, where Manchester United boss David Moyes faces up to Everton for the first time since leaving the club in the summer.
Plenty will dub the contest as a battle between Wayne Rooney (£11.1m) and Romelu Lukaku (£8.0m), but United winger Antonio Valencia (£7.1m) has started the last four in the league and could enjoy himself down the right flank in the absence of the injured Leighton Baines from the Everton side.
Injuries have also affected Swansea recently, and as they welcome an in-form Newcastle to the Liberty Stadium their lack of firepower could be punished against a side who’ll include the in-form Loic Remy (£8.1m) and Yoan Gouffran (£6.3m).
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