Blog Archives
GW18 – NOTHING BUT BONUS POINTS!!! #FPL
| 22 Dec 12:45 | Wigan | ![]() |
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Arsenal |
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| 22 Dec 15:00 | Man City | ![]() |
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Reading |
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| 22 Dec 15:00 | Newcastle | ![]() |
1 – 0 | ![]() |
QPR |
| 22 Dec 15:00 | Southampton | ![]() |
0 – 1 | ![]() |
Sunderland |
| 22 Dec 15:00 | Tottenham | ![]() |
0 – 0 | ![]() |
Stoke City |
| 22 Dec 15:00 | West Brom | ![]() |
2 – 1 | ![]() |
Norwich |
| 22 Dec 15:00 | West Ham | ![]() |
1 – 2 | ![]() |
Everton |
| 22 Dec 17:30 | Liverpool | ![]() |
4 – 0 | ![]() |
Fulham |
| 23 Dec 13:30 | Swansea | ![]() |
1 – 1 | ![]() |
Man Utd |
| 23 Dec 16:00 | Chelsea | ![]() |
8 – 0 | ![]() |
Aston Villa |
GW17 – The Review.. by @shots_on_target
As per usual another great roundup from our Stat-tastic regular @Shots_on_target . Check out his site at http://www.shotsontarget.co.uk
No real surprises here. Rooney and Van Persie continue to dominate chances for the most attacking team in the league. Sunderland did very well actually, beating the league average in the shot categories (green arrows). Sessegnon looks back in the kind of form which saw him attract such attention last season.

Stoke are a tricky team to play against and took a large hammer to Everton’s recent form, limiting them to just one shot on target from Jelavic (not including Shawcross’s own goal). Everton did manage to get shots off in the box but this often suits Stoke’s physical defence.

Newcastle have really picked up through the season in an attacking sense, and have started generating lots of chances. This of course is good news for Demba Ba who was doing well before hand anyway and got a goal here this week. City are moving up the gears too and deserved their win, Aguero and Tevez forming the focal point of the attack with Silva back pulling the strings.

Liverpool were tactically outdone here. Villa defended deep and in numbers and in Benteke and Weimann they have the power, pace and skill to do well on the counter-attack. Suarez continues to be the beating heart of Liverpool’s attack but it’s not an attack which can simply walk over a team like Villa who are playing well for Lambert now.

No shots on target for Swansea, and only 3 all day, compared to a quite massive 29 for Spurs. I’m going to hazard a guess that Villas-Boas’s hugely successful tactical nous from his Porto’s days was not actually a fluke and all those nights playing Football Manager must have rubbed off. There are a lot of great options in this side – Defoe and Adebayor and of course the returning Gareth Bale. Vertonghen has been promising a good game (pointswise) for a while now too.
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Contrary to popular belief QPR’s home form defensively is not too dissimilar to most team’s in the division and Redknapp’s switch to playing Taarabt higher up the pitch has perhaps released the shackles from the Moroccan. He still chose to hit all 7 of his shots from outside the penalty area and perhaps could be tagged as the the poor man’s Luis Suarez in this respect. If so represents quite a FPL asset as a midfielder. For Fulham, ‘Shots on Target’ favourite Bulgarian failed again to register a single shot, and despite QPR’s buoyancy under Redknapp this was a pretty woeful display for Martin Jol’s men.

Norwich’s fine form continues in a game in which they showed some guile to go with their grit. Pilkington and Hoolahan, two players frequently flirted with in FPL last season, scored and assisted the goals. The all round performance of Snodgrass stands out too. Wigan’s chief hope of something was with Kone this week but nothing to get excited about.

Another resilient display can be chalked up on Sam Allardyce’s record as he grabbed a point for his team after a game devoid of a lot of creativity. Carlton Cole is doing his best to lead the line for the Hammers in support of Nolan and the absence of Andy Carroll. James Morrison’s return to the lineup for West Brom saw him back amongst the think of the action.

Monday night’s final match of the gameweek brought perhaps the most thrill and excitement and Arsenal, led by Santi Cazorla hat-trick put the sword into Reading. Walcott’s inclusion ahead of Giroud will raise plenty of eyebrows and he had plenty of chances to score, as did Podolski. Is this a case for Theo’s inclusion in the team as the main striker from now on, does he create space and openings for the other players to flourish that Giroud does not? Or are Reading just warming up from the Championship?
Aston Villa: A light at the end of the tunnel?
Optimism has been in pretty short supply at Aston Villa over the past couple of years.
It seems so long ago now, but Villa actually finished sixth three seasons in a row between 2007/08 and 2009/10. Champions League football was even mentioned in dispatches back then but ultimately the club had to settle for ‘just’ Europa League qualification. The dates and times that these finishes took place do sound vaguely recent, but to Villa fans they must seem like decades ago – perhaps even alongside the club’s European Cup win in 1982. So, so much has changed.
Largely they have changed for the worse, as a season of mediocrity under Gerard Houllier was then followed by a campaign under the disliked Alex McLeish which made Houllier’s look good.
In the summer, Paul Lambert entered a club who had just finished two points and two places above the relegation zone. Had the bounce of a ball here or a shot off the post there been slightly different then the Premier League might now have only six clubs who have been ever-present during its 20 year history and not seven. Villa could have easily gone down.
They could easily go down this season if you believed what many pundits and observers were saying both back in the summer and when Lambert got off to a poor start with only one win in his first nine league games, but things were slowly starting to take a turn for the better before Saturday’s trip to Anfield where they suddenly hit fast forward.
Villa’s young side were excellent at the weekend.
It is no great achievement to soak up the pressure that Liverpool’s frequently toothless side put on you on their home ground, but to combine that with the attacking prowess that Villa showed in scoring three goals showed that things are beginning to come together for Lambert’s men.
Whilst a young back four of Matthew Lowton, Ciaran Clark, Eric Lichaj and Nathan Baker did excellently at one end to shackle Luis Suarez and company, it was left to Andreas Weimann and the brute force of Christian Benteke to flatten Liverpool at the other. This wasn’t a smash and grab, it was far more perfectly executed than that.
And the key thing about it was that it was achieved with such a young team. Take out the goalkeeper Brad Guzan and the average age of Villa’s outfield players was under 23. In a season when we have heard much about Liverpool’s youngsters here were Villa’s flattening the Reds on their own ground.
As with all young teams there will be the bad days as well as the good – with Sunday’s visit to Chelsea hardly one to look forward to – but Villa will take confidence and belief there following a run of five league matches unbeaten since they were hammered 5-0 by Manchester City last month. Throw in a 4-1 Capital One Cup win over an in-form Norwich and suddenly Lambert might be targeting a positive result at Stamford Bridge.
Wins like that can wait though, especially with such a young side, and whilst caution should be urged given that Villa are still just three points off the bottom three and facing Tottenham after they play Chelsea those first flickers of optimism should be returning to supporters’ faces.
This will still be a slow process no matter how many times they can pull off wins like Saturday’s, how many goals Benteke scores or how many blocks their fearless back four can make, but at least Villa fans can acknowledge that it is finally a process. After a couple of years of stagnation things appear to be moving again.
Whether Villa will get to the heights they used to reach remains to be seen, but it promises to be fun watching them try.
GW17 NOTHING BUT BONUS POINTS!!! #FPL
| 15 Dec 12:45 | Newcastle | ![]() |
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Man City |
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| 15 Dec 15:00 | Liverpool | ![]() |
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Aston Villa |
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| 15 Dec 15:00 | Man Utd | ![]() |
3 – 1 | ![]() |
Sunderland |
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| 15 Dec 15:00 | Norwich | ![]() |
2 – 1 | ![]() |
Wigan |
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| 15 Dec 15:00 | QPR | ![]() |
2 – 1 | ![]() |
Fulham |
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| 15 Dec 15:00 | Stoke City | ![]() |
1 – 1 | ![]() |
Everton |
| 16 Dec 13:30 | Tottenham | ![]() |
1 – 0 | ![]() |
Swansea |
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| 16 Dec 16:00 | West Brom | ![]() |
0 – 0 | ![]() |
West Ham |
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| 17 Dec 20:00 | Reading | ![]() |
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Arsenal |
Walcott
Santi Cazorla (3)
Podolski (2)
#FPL GW16: NOTHING BUT BONUS POINTS !!
| 08 Dec 15:00 | Arsenal | ![]() |
2 – 0 | ![]() |
West Brom |
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| 08 Dec 15:00 | Aston Villa | ![]() |
0 – 0 | ![]() |
Stoke City |
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| 08 Dec 15:00 | Southampton | ![]() |
1 – 0 | ![]() |
Reading |
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| 08 Dec 15:00 | Sunderland | ![]() |
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Chelsea |
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| 08 Dec 15:00 | Swansea | ![]() |
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Norwich |
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| 08 Dec 15:00 | Wigan | ![]() |
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QPR |
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| 09 Dec 13:30 | Man City | ![]() |
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Man Utd |
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| 09 Dec 15:00 | Everton | ![]() |
2 – 1 | ![]() |
Tottenham |
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| 09 Dec 16:00 | West Ham | ![]() |
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| 10 Dec 20:00 | Fulham | ![]() |
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Guest Post: #FPL Reflection by @RotoZdroik from RotoExperts
This guest post was submitted by Adam @RotoZdroik from US Fantasy Sports site www.RotoExperts.com. RotoExperts feature award-winning experts and analysis across various major sports platforms.
Many thanks to Adam for his contribution and if you would like to guest post for Fantasy Yirma – Contact us at fantasyyirma@hotmail.com
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Wait, Manchester United lost to who? One of the richest and most popular clubs in the World fell to the hands (or feet) of Norwich on Saturday.
That’s right, a team scoring almost three goals per game lost to a team that was scoring less than one goal per game with a goal differential of negative 10. About zero people predicted the Canaries to come away with a win. Don’t forget, they also beat Arsenal and Tottenham (Capital One cup) in the past month, as well.
What does this mean for your Fantasy squad? Norwich is by far the best-valued squad when looking at defenses. John Ruddy only costs 4.6m (at the official game at premierleague.com) and has four clean sheets in his last five matches. He has more points than any other keeper does in the Premier League. Joe Hart has 14 less points yet currently costs 2.3m more. That’s the difference between having Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney on your team.
As for the Canary defenders, none of them cost more than 4.5m. Javier Garrido had the assist against Man United and now has bonus points in two straight games. He has five more Fantasy points than Patrice Evra, costs a lot less and is owned by about five percent less of contestants. Sebastien Bassong and Michael Turner also deserve a mention on the back line, as they have been key in Norwich’s current run.
In the other matches, red cards took the headline. Emmanuel Adebayor scored and then was sent off shortly after against his former club. Arsenal went on to score five goals after Adebayor was given the boot. The same story can be said about Brede Hangeland for Fulham. He got a red and offensively challenged Sunderland proceeded to put three in the back of the net. Marouane Fellaini picked up only a yellow card in their road loss at Reading, but that still lead to a two-game suspension for him since it was his fifth of the campaign.
Liverpool and Manchester City were favorites of most Fantasy owners as they combined for an 8-0 score line. In form striker, Luis Suarez, scored twice while defender Jose Enrique scored, assisted and got full bonus points. He was my No. 1 defender in last week’s rankings.
As for City, it took some time but they got back to scoring big against Aston Villa. Carlos Tevez had two goals and two assists while David Silva once again showed life with a goal and two assists. Sergio Aguero made an appearance as well, scoring twice.
Swansea continues to defy odds with their always-productive midfield. Pablo Hernandez, Johnathan de Guzman and Michu all found the score sheet in a road win. QPR lost yet another disappointing game, but this one came at home against the club that is directly above them in the table. Never a good thing.
In somewhat of an upset, West Brom took out Chelsea on the legs of their usually consistent forwards. Peter Odemwingie and Shane Long both grabbed goals while Chelsea looked largely unimpressive for most of the game. West Brom continues to impress every week.
WEEKLY TIP
Instead of going defensive, it’s time to focus on some attacking options.
Man United vs. QPR
United is not happy coming off a loss and QPR gets them at the most unfortunate time.
Everyone knows about Robin van Persie so he shouldn’t come as a surprise. Rooney will be back from illness and couldn’t pick a better time to break his scoring streak. Each of them was rested for their midweek Champions League match. My top defender choice, Patrice Evra, will also have full strength for this one.
The hardest part to decide on United is their midfield. Shinji Kagawa is out for another month which means both Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia will continue to get starts. Each of them presents a risk, especially for their price, but each has plenty of upside in this match.
Stoke City vs. Fulham
This may be a surprise choice, but hear me out. No one else will be looking at Stoke City players for good reason; they only have 10 goals through 12 matches. However, on the other end of this, Hangeland will not start for the first time all campaign for Fulham. Not to mention, Fulham has allowed eight goals in their last three road matches and 11 goals in their last four matches overall.
Peter Crouch is basically their only true forward that needs to be looked at. He hasn’t scored in six straight gameweeks, but that is about to change. Charlie Adam is easily their most popular midfielder and he should grab at least an assist in this one. Jonathan Walters is another option to check out, but make sure he’s playing first as he’s dealing with a knee injury. Defensively, Ryan Shawcross and Robert Huth are always good options. Geoff Cameron deserves a look as well since he’s the cheapest of the bunch.
WEEKLY RANKINGS
Goalkeepers
- Anders Lindegaard, Manchester United, 5.4m, vs. QPR
- Tim Howard, Everton, 5.6m, vs. Norwich
- Ali Al-Habsi, Wigan, 5.0m, vs. Reading
- Asmir Begovic, Stoke City, 5.1m, vs. Fulham
- Boaz Myhill, West Brom, 4.4m, at Sunderland
Defenders
- Patrice Evra, Man United, 6.8m, vs. QPR
- Rafael, Man United, 6.4m, vs. QPR
- Leighton Baines, Everton, 7.6m, vs. Norwich
- Jose Enrique, Liverpool, 5.7m, at Swansea
- Ryan Shawcross, Stoke City, 5.2m, vs. Fulham
- John Arne Riise, Fulham, 5.7m, at Stoke City
- Liam Ridgewell, West Brom, 5.0m, at Sunderland
- Ivan Ramis, Wigan, 4.5m, vs. Reading
- William Gallas, Tottenham, 5.0m, vs. West Ham
- Kaspars Gorkss, Reading, 4.0m, at Wigan
Midfielders
- Santi Cazorla, Arsenal, 9.4m, at Aston Villa
- Gareth Bale, Tottenham, 9.7m, vs. West Ham
- Juan Mata, Chelsea, 9.6m, vs. Man City
- David Silva, Man City, 9.3m, at Chelsea
- Eden Hazard, Chelsea, 10.1m, vs. Man City
- Hatem Ben Arfa, Newcastle, 7.8m, at Southampton
- Antonio Valencia, Man United, 8.6m, vs. QPR
- Pablo Hernandez, Swansea, 6.1m, vs. Liverpool
- Kevin Nolan, West Ham, 6.9m, at Tottenham
- Charlie Adam, Stoke City, 6.6m, vs. Fulham
Forwards
- Robin van Persie, Man United, 13.7m, vs. QPR
- Luis Suarez, Liverpool, 10.2m, at Swansea
- Demba Ba, Newcastle, 8.3m, at Southampton
- Olivier Giroud, Arsenal, 8.4m, at Aston Villa
- Carlos Tevez, Man City, 9.4m, at Chelsea
- Sergio Aguero, Man City, 11.0m, at Chelsea
- Lukas Podolski, Arsenal, 8.2m, at Aston Villa
- Wayne Rooney, Manchester United, 11.8m, vs. QPR
- Rickie Lambert, Southampton, 6.0m, vs. Newcastle
- Peter Crouch, Stoke City, 6.8m, vs. Fulham
YOU’RE THE CAPTAIN
- Robin van Persie, Man United
- Luis Suarez, Liverpool
- Olivier Giroud, Fulham
- Carlos Tevez, Man City
- Demba Ba, Newcastle
The Red Devils were just shutout on the road. They aren’t very happy and go against the last-place club in the league. United averages three goals per game at Old Trafford and RVP will be around all of them.
There may not be anyone else more in form at the moment than Suarez. He has scored in four straight matches. While he’s on the road, Swansea’s defense isn’t impossible to get by.
All of a sudden, Arsenal’s attacking prowess was back against Tottenham. Ten guys or not, they still scored five goals. Giroud is the man of the moment with three goals in his last two matches.
While he probably won’t have another two-goal, two-assist performance at Chelsea, Tevez is still the likeliest of candidates to score in this match. Chelsea hasn’t had a clean sheet in seven straight games.
Newcastle isn’t playing great, but that doesn’t matter to Ba. He will find the back of the net no matter the situation and this situation is friendly for him even on the road.
*Stats up-to-date as of Nov. 19
About the author: Adam Zdroik, Staff Writer View all posts by Adam Zdroik, Staff Writer
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 | ![]() |
5 – 2 | ![]() |
Tottenham |
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| 17 Nov 15:00 | Liverpool | ![]() |
3 – 0 | ![]() |
Wigan |
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| 17 Nov 15:00 | Man City | ![]() |
5 – 0 | ![]() |
Aston Villa |
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| 17 Nov 15:00 | Newcastle | ![]() |
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Swansea |
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| 17 Nov 15:00 | QPR | ![]() |
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Southampton |
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| 17 Nov 15:00 | Reading | ![]() |
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Everton |
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| 17 Nov 15:00 | West Brom | ![]() |
2 – 1 | ![]() |
Chelsea |
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| 17 Nov 17:30 | Norwich | ![]() |
1 – 0 | ![]() |
Man Utd |
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| 18 Nov 16:00 | Fulham | ![]() |
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Sunderland |
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| 19 Nov 20:00 | West Ham | ![]() |
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Stoke City |
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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!!
GW11 NOTHING BUT BONUS POINTS!!! #FPL
| 10 Nov 15:00 | Arsenal | ![]() |
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| 10 Nov 15:00 | Everton | ![]() |
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| 10 Nov 15:00 | Reading | ![]() |
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| 10 Nov 15:00 | Southampton | ![]() |
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| 10 Nov 15:00 | Stoke City | ![]() |
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| 10 Nov 15:00 | Wigan | ![]() |
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| 10 Nov 17:30 | Aston Villa | ![]() |
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| 11 Nov 13:30 | Man City | ![]() |
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| 11 Nov 15:00 | Newcastle | ![]() |
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| 11 Nov 16:00 | Chelsea | ![]() |
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Wigan: Sticking up for the little guy
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?















































