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GW10 – THE REVIEW… by @shots_on_target

 

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.

 

 

 

To read more from @shots_on_target head over to http://www.shotsontarget.co.uk

GW10 – NOTHING BUT BONUS POINTS!!!

Gameweek 10
03 Nov 12:45 Man Utd Man Utd 2 – 1 Arsenal Arsenal
03 Nov 15:00 Fulham Fulham 2 – 2 Everton Everton
Bonus
Riether (2)
Sidwell (2)
Bonus
Fellaini (3)
03 Nov 15:00 Norwich Norwich 1 – 0 Stoke City Stoke City
03 Nov 15:00 Sunderland Sunderland 0 – 1 Aston Villa Aston Vil
03 Nov 15:00 Swansea Swansea 1 – 1 Chelsea Chelsea
Bonus
Hernandez (2)
Bonus
Cahill
Moses (3)
03 Nov 15:00 Tottenham Tottenham 0 – 1 Wigan Wigan
03 Nov 17:30 West Ham West Ham 0 – 0 Man City Man City
Bonus
Collins
Bonus
Clichy (2)
Nasri (3)
04 Nov 13:30 QPR QPR 1 – 1 Reading Reading
04 Nov 16:00 Liverpool Liverpool 1 – 1 Newcastle Newcastle
05 Nov 20:00 West Brom

Bonus
Foster
Mulumbu (2)
Odemwingie (3)

 

West Brom v Southampton Southampton

GW9: THE REVIEW…by @shots_on_target

GW9 Match Centre

to read more from Fantasy Yirma contributor @shots_on_target visit his site at http://www.shotsontarget.co.uk


One of the least anticipated matches of the weekend probably,w with both teams expected to be struggling in a relegation battle come season end.  I had tipped Villa to win this 1 or 2-0 with both Lowton and Holman featuring in my GW9 Select XI.  Bennett’s red card on 52 minutes change the game for both teams with Lambert deciding to sit back and protect a 1-0 lead.  Following the sending off Norwich had 11 attempts on goal and Villa had 0.  Neither team really offer anything from a fantasy perspective.  I’d like to get excited about Benteke, but can’t.


Another frustrating day for Arsenal fans and owners of their fantasy assets (including yours truly).  With Gibbs still injured and Jenkinson immediately ousted from the team by Sagna the combined 31% ownership pair miss out on a clean sheet.  Chief threat for the Gunner’s still resides with Giroud and Cazorla and Mark Hughes’ teams do have had a habit of frustrating superior opposition.  Arsenal’s 8 SoT is usually enough for 2 or 3 goals and it’s time for a deeper look at Arsenal and their ability to actually score goals which I will be doing later this week.

 


I know I bang on about shots on target but Sunderland had none in this match, zero, nada, zilch.  So far this season they have had 12 in total.  Even if Steven Fletcher was capable of scoring with every chance he got they still would be in the lower half of the league for goals scored.  As it is, they are bottom of that particular list with 6. Stoke I feel should’ve gotten something out of this game, with my budget pick Kightly continuing to get shooting chances in the box.  Big shame for Wilson owners who will be out for a good while now with a broken leg.


An interesting game this, at least from my seat, as a gauge for where both these teams are this season and the stats tell the story really.   I would judge this team’s even with Wigan prospering here from home advantage.  Tomkins for West Ham had a hell of a game and was the Hammer’s chief threat with Wigan keeping the partnership of Carroll and Nolan very quiet here.  For the Lactics there was plenty of involvement from all positions, with Di Santo and Kone equally involved up-front and Maloney and McArthur key players from midfield.


The weekend’s highest scoring match in which Reading showed that they can score goals but reminding us that they can’t defend them.  To be fair, Fulham are a good attacking side and have improved on the road from last season with Berbatov’s class up front clearly showing, as well as Ruiz’s settling in this division after his move from last year.  I do like the front three of Berbs, Ruiz and Rodalleg.  Chris Baird is also starting to make a bit of a name for himself as an out of position defender who can pop up with a few goals.  Reading’s goals came from a mix of players who scored with their real only chance of the game so I would not get too excited about anyone of these.


This was the weekend’s biggest surprise surely, that City did not put 3 or 4 past Swansea.  City are really missing the quality of Silva in games where they need to unpick a well-organised defence, although that’s not really something we could have said so far about the Swans this year.  Mancini claimed his team were “so tired”, all expect for Tevez it seems (rested midweek) who had the busiest game for City.   Swansea didn’t have a lot of great chances but Michu continues to be involved in their best, with Laudrup’s decision to continue deploying the Spaniard up-front maintaining his considerable fantasy potential despite a turn in the fixture list.

The first Merseyside derby of the season kicked off another thrilling day of Premiership and Fantasy Football. Fellaini’s return to the team was reward with an assist for those FPL managers who stuck with him through injury but ut was the performances up front of Mirallas and Jelavic in this game that stand out to me.  For Liverpool it is all Suarez.  Whilst many cite his wasteful shooting as a downside, which is true, he has so many shots that I believe he makes up for them.

A fairly equal tie this, and credit should be given to the Baggies for a good show up at Newcastle.  I love Lukaku, if he gets in the starting XI that is, but I can’t understand Clarke’s rotation policy with this front players yet.  Demba Ba for the Magpies is just a force of nature really and if his early withdrawal with a “nerve” injury does not prove too bad expect more goals soon.

A fair few goals were expected from this game, but as the stats show, there weren’t a great deal of chances compared to an average Premier League game.  Rodriguez is slowly stepping up his game and out did Lambert here in the shooting stakes, and indeed was rewarded with a goal.  Fonte continues to pose a threat from the back too.  For Spurs, it’s Bale and Defoe again picking up FPLpoints and hogging the shooting chances.  Dempsey’s 2nd goal in 4 games is interesting too.


As mentioned above for Arsenal, after 9 games played now the performance of the league’s elite teams  needs a deeper analysis.  Obviously 2 red cards would change any match and makes a proper analysis very difficult, but Chelsea failed to be quite as clinical in an attacking sense as they have been so far this season. Once again Mata was central to everything they did.  Hazard was more involved than he has been in some of Chelsea’s games and picked up another assist in this game for getting fouled.  United’s Van Persie and Valancia are the only attacking players to really stand out for the visitors today from a FPL perspective and I am going to have a look at the Dutchman’s value versus point potential in particular.  Wayne Rooney’s limited attempts highlight his role as a midfielder.

FPL GW9: Statistical round up- by @shots_on_target

 

If you haven’t already check out @shots_on_target on twitter and visit his site www.shotsontarget.co.uk/

 

He is spoiling you with individual team statistics for all Premier League clubs.

You can click the team names below for an in-depth statistical round up by

  • Visual representation of each player’s appearances in the last 6 weeks and their fantasy form (F.SCORE).
  • Key Player Stats: shots, shots in box, shots on target, key passes, assists, minutes and goals
  • Key Player Info:   FPL price, points scored and % ownership
  • Projected Points for the next 6 fixtures(note:  Pts x 10)
  • Star Player indicators – to 15 F.SCORE and top 15 Value players indicated
  • Latest injury news from Physioroom.com

 

Team Pages:

GW9 – NOTHING BUT BONUS POINTS!!

Gameweek 9
27 Oct 12:45 Aston Villa Aston Villa 1 – 1 Norwich Norwich
Bonus
Benteke
Bonus
Turner (3)
Hoolahan (2)
27 Oct 15:00 Arsenal Arsenal 1 – 0 QPR QPR
27 Oct 15:00 Reading Reading 3 – 3 Fulham Fulham
27 Oct 15:00 Stoke City Stoke City 0 – 0 Sunderland Sunderland
Bonus
Shawcross (3)
Huth (2)
Bonus
Mignolet
27 Oct 15:00 Wigan Wigan 2 – 1 West Ham West Ham
27 Oct 17:30 Man City Man City 1 – 0 Swansea Swansea
28 Oct 13:30 Everton Everton 2 – 2 Liverpool Liverpool
28 Oct 15:00 Newcastle Newcastle 2 – 1 West Brom West Brom
Bonus
Ba (2)
Cisse
Bonus
Lukaku (3)
28 Oct 15:00 Southampton Southampton 1 – 2 Tottenham Tottenham
28 Oct 16:00 Chelsea Chelsea 2 – 3 Man Utd Man Utd

GW8 – The Review… HOW DID YOU DO???

Juan Mata is clearly the stand out performer in this match and Fantasy Manager have taken notice with a £0.2m price rise already this week after 80,000 transfers in.  Chelsea are on to something and Mata is their main man with both Hazard and Torres well overshadowed in an attacking respect.
For Tottenham a rejuvenated Jermaine Defoe rewarded Villas-Boas’ faith with another goal amid amid plenty of threat and creativity.  From the stats, Spurs had their opportunities to get more from this match with plenty of chances spread out around the team.  Interestingly their poor rate of goal conversion this year is not too dissimilar from that of Chelsea’s this time last season with AVB at the helm.

 Wayne Rooney has had a big, big impact to United upon his return to the team.  The front three of Rooney, Van Persie and Welbeck and full of fantasy potential and the key men to consider for your teams.  Which one though?  Rooney and Van Persie are probably on a level in terms of point potential so Rooney’s lower price edges him ahead.  If Welbeck keeps getting starts though he could be a steal.   Stoke had a good go but their defence was uncharacteristically sloppy, with Pulis admitting as much after the match.  Perhaps they didn’t know how to handle being a goal up, or perhaps United were just too good.

Everton’s bubble, whilst not quite burst, is slowly starting to deflate it seems.  The absence of Fellaini blunted their attack in this match with Jagielka leading the chances for the Blues, mainly from set pieces.  With Pienaar now suspended for the home derby with Liverpool the Belgain’s absence may be even more telling.  For the home side Hoilett and Granero were the chief threat, with Taarabt not quite as busy as you’d hope, especially against ten men.  QPR are slowly growing this season and finding their best system.  

  

 

Suarez frustrated Liverpool fans and fantasy managers everywhere with another typical display, only hitting the target once from 10 efforts.  He did get an assist though, there is that.  Young Raheem Sterling stole the headlines though taking up a much more central role in this match where he saw plenty of goal-mouth action.  Reading mustered a few efforts but are really lacking as an attacking force so far this season.

Much was expected of Fulham,  and Dimitar Berbatov in particular, but Paul Lambert’s men spoiled the party with a solid defensive display.  The signs are there that the Villians are improving under the Scot, at least in a organisastional sense.  Going forward is a different matter though, with only Agbonglahor and Lowton providing anything if note in attack.  Berbatov continues to be chief goal threat for Fulham, and Richardson’s performance is worth a note.

That Man City came back to win this game despite being a man down for most of the game is one thing.  That they dominated the game having more shots on target (8) than the Baggies have suffered at home so far combined is really quite impressive – Liverpool (2), Everton (1), Reading (1),  QPR (3), City (8).    Their fantasy options are so clouded by rotation risk though it’s enough to give FPL manager a headache.  West Brom did pretty well overall, although didn’t really get much going in front of goal until Lukaku’s introduction.

  

 
Swansea are a wonderfully adventurous team under Laudrup, in contrast to their outings under Brendan Rodgers last season.  They juts seem to lack a bit of quality, which is perhaps evident in the Dane’s decision to promote Michu to the lone forward role over regular front man Danny Graham.  This obviously is a boon for Michu owners but also promotes the likes Ki and Guzman into a more attacking role.  Michu again grabbed a goal, and a header at that, and fantasy managers will now see how he does against a trickier run of opponents.  Wigan created a fair number of chances in this game.  Martinez’s men are a decent attacking team, probably on a par with Swansea when on home soil, with Kone, Di Santo and Maloney from midfield the men to watch. 

  
Southampton continue to ship goals at an alarming rate. Despite Adkin’s bold claims that they will continue in their attacking remit, this kind of form is going to see them going down, in style perhaps, but still going down.  Kevin Nolan continued to show he is a major threat in the box, feeding of Carrol’s aerial play and Mark Noble’s set pieces.  Ricky Lambert’s absence from the visitor’s starting eleven will have hurt owners, and this is not the first time this has happened season.  Clearly Adkin’s think he’s team lack a certain tactical facet with their top-scorer in the team.

 The Canaries pulled off the shock of the weekend with a 1-0 victory against an out-of-sorts Arsenal.  Grant Holt is a good striker at this level, as he showed last season.  He can be counted upon to score at a reliable rate when given the opportunity and provided the only real threat on offer from the home side. Who knows what happened to Arsenal in this one.  Their defending was poor and neither of Podolski on the flank or Ramsey in midfield offered very little.  The main threat came from Cazorla and Gervinho, with Norwich doing a good job of limiting the former to long range efforts.  Oliver Giroud was the focal point of the attack fro Arsenal and should be expected to pick up some big points soon.

Demba Ba equals Goal Machine.  He couldn’t find his way through Sunderland’s well drilled defence in this game so put it into his own net instead.  He just can’t help himself!  He had three times as many shots on target in this game on his own than Sunderland did and is the focal point of everything Newcastle do going forward.   Cabaye continued his recent under-the-radar form and looks a viable alternative to the over-hyped Ban Arfa.  Sunderland are looking pretty woeful in attack this season.  I really cannot get excited about any team that can only manage 1 shot on goal at home in 90 minutes. 
You can follow Fantasy Yirma writer @shots_on_target and also visit his site at www.shotsontarget.co.uk great follow for all things #FPL

FPL: Statistical round up – by @shots_on_target

 

 

If you haven’t already check out @shots_on_target on twitter and visit his site www.shotsontarget.co.uk/

 

He is spoiling you with individual team statistics for all Premier League clubs.

You can click the team names below for an in-depth statistical round up by

  • Visual representation of each player’s appearances in the last 6 weeks and their fantasy form (F.SCORE).
  • Key Player Stats: shots, shots in box, shots on target, key passes, assists, minutes and goals
  • Key Player Info:   FPL price, points scored and % ownership
  • Projected Points for the next 6 fixtures(note:  Pts x 10)
  • Star Player indicators – to 15 F.SCORE and top 15 Value players indicated
  • Latest injury news from Physioroom.com

 

Team Pages:

NOTHING BUT BONUS POINTS GW 8

Gameweek 8
20 Oct 12:45 Tottenham Tottenham 2 – 4 Chelsea Chelsea
20 Oct 15:00 Fulham Fulham 1 – 0 Aston Villa Aston Villa
20 Oct 15:00 Liverpool Liverpool 1 – 0 Reading Reading
20 Oct 15:00 Man Utd Man Utd 4 – 2 Stoke City Stoke City
20 Oct 15:00 Swansea Swansea 2 – 1 Wigan Wigan
20 Oct 15:00 West Brom West Brom 1 – 2 Man City Man City
20 Oct 15:00 West Ham West Ham 4 – 1 Southampton Southampton
20 Oct 17:30 Norwich Norwich 1 – 0 Arsenal Arsenal
21 Oct 13:30 Sunderland Sunderland 1 – 1 Newcastle Newcastle
Bonus

O’Shea (2)
Larsson (2)
Bonus
Cabaye (3)
21 Oct 16:00 QPR QPR 1 – 1 Everton Everton

GW7: NOTHING BUT BONUS POINTS

 

06 Oct 12:45 Man City Man City 3 – 0 Sunderland Sunderland
06 Oct 15:00 Chelsea Chelsea 4 – 1 Norwich Norwich
Bonus
Ivanovic
Hazard (2)
Torres (3)
06 Oct 15:00 Swansea Swansea 2 – 2 Reading Reading
Bonus
Routledge (3)
Bonus
Hunt
Pogrebnyak (2)
06 Oct 15:00 West Brom West Brom 3 – 2 QPR QPR
Bonus
Morrison (2)
Gera (3)
Bonus
Taarabt
06 Oct 15:00 Wigan Wigan 2 – 2 Everton Everton
Bonus

Di Santo
Kone (2)
Bonus
Pienaar (3)
06 Oct 17:30 West Ham West Ham 1 – 3 Arsenal Arsenal
07 Oct 13:30 Southampton Southampton 2 – 2 Fulham Fulham
Bonus
Fox
Fonte (3)
Bonus
Hughes (2)
07 Oct 15:00 Liverpool Liverpool 0 – 0 Stoke City Stoke City
Bonus
Wisdom (3)
Gerrard
Bonus
Begovic (2)
07 Oct 15:00 Tottenham Tottenham 2 – 0 Aston Villa Aston Villa
07 Oct 16:00 Newcastle Newcastle 0 – 3 Man Utd Man Utd

The GAMEWEEK 6 REVIEW (by @shots_on_target)

Here’s the round up of the 9 games played so far in GW6. Many thanks to our regular guest post writer @shots_on_target for some great analysis. You can read more of his articles at http://www.shotsontarget.co.uk/

We will have a Yirma Twitter takeover this evening from 7.30PM with football pundit @mark_jones86 taking over the @fantasyyirma account to cover the #QPR V#WESTHAM game. So contact us at fantasyyirma@hotmail.com today with any #FPL questions you have or leave a question in the comments section below.

@ryano83

ARSENAL 1-2 CHELSEA


Arsenal dominated the attacking play in this game, trebling the number of shooting opportunities in the box to that of Chelsea, but failing to hit the target with any regularity.  Chelsea on the other other proved to be very ruthless when presented with a chance in the box, particularly scorer of the first goal, Fernando Torres.  Arsenal continue to struggle to finish off their creative play.  Chelsea are a tough nut to crack though (ask Messi) and owners of Cazorla should remain confident with him creating 4 Key Passes and getting himself into the box for 4 shots.  For Chelsea, Hazard, despite his obvious quality, did sweet f.a. in this game from a fantasy point of view, whilst Mata stepped to finally replicate some of last season’s FPL form.

READING2- 2 NEWCASTLE


Demba Ba will grab the fantasy headlines from this one.  He represents a clear threat in comparison to team mate Cisse, and is a great player to own in FPL.  The rest of the magpies are falling to produce on a reliable basis.  Sure, Ben Arfa still has the odd moment of magic in him but on this evidence he is overpriced, he didn’t even take a shot in this game.  For Reading, this was their best game so far from both an offensive and defensive point of view, creating more chances this 90 minutes in their previous 2 games put together and limiting Newcastle to just a handful of chances.  Unfortunately for the Royals though, the fell to Ba.

EVERTON 3- 1 SOUTHAMPTON

Despite an early scare Everton racked up the chances and the goals they deserved.  15 shots in the box, and 8 on target is really what you’d expect of United or City, and in Nikica Jelavic they have a man to score them.  Fellaini continued in his up-front role supported by the impressive Mirallas, who is really hitting the ground running after his summer move from Olympiakos. Both were unlucky not to get more than an assist between them.  Not so for Pienaar who did very little in FPL terms, despite such a dominant Everton display.  For the Saints, Lambert was kept pretty quiet with just one shot but it was Gaston Ramirez who stood out, not just for his goal, but for his overall involvement in the visitor’s attacking play.  They created a fair amount of chances too, there are goals in both these teams.

NORWICH 2 – 5 LIVERPOOL

This was the Luis Suarez show.  The Uruguayan absolutely dominates Liverpool’s forward play and has always had the quality to find the back of the net.  With some juicy fixtures on the horizon FPL interest in Suarez is rightly set to explode.  Elsewhere, Sahin showed what he’s about playing in the support role in Shelvey’s absence.  If he can make this position his own he could be a great fantasy asset.  Norwich were almost as creative as Liverpool in this game, and the scoreline flatters Liverpool a little.  They are yet to settle on a front man but if Holt or perhaps Snodgrass can find their shooting boots they could start to pick up both real and fantasy points.

STOKE 2-0 SWANSEA

This was exactly the scoreline that many people expected.  Swansea’s bubble has burst up against the drilled quality of teams like Everton and now Stoke.  To be fair, Laudrup’s men are not built for a day out in Staffodshire and have plenty to offer the fantasy manager over the next couple of fixtures.  Stoke were impressive in their game plan and Tony Pulis knows exactly how to play the way he does.  Peter Crouch is a  threat in the box and players like Adam know how to find him.

MAN UTD 2 – TOTTENHAM 3

This game was everything that the Premiership is about.  Under-pressure Villas-Boas got his early game tactics spot on as Spurs went straight for the jugular at Old Trafford, leaving the likes of Giggs a mere spectator.  Gareth Bale was a geniune menace and his form is key to Tottenham, and he is in some great form right now.  United piled the pressure late on, with Spurs forced to drop deep and defend.  Van Persie, Nani, and Rooney all stood out for the Red Devils despite Rooney just getting a 45 minute run out.

FULHAM 1-2 MAN CITY


Fulham’s recent results have gotten people talking but they came up against a solid City side here who controlled the game well and really limited the attacking nous of the home team.  Berbatov’s unfortunate injury means he will miss up to 3 games and he will be missed, although the front Ruiz and Petric did well as the the focal point up front.  For City, Tevez place in the starting XI settled the biggest fantasy question of the day but he did not do all that much and was predictably subbed off just over the hour mark.  Aguero played the full 90, as did Silva, and these two are the real starts of City’s attack.

SUNDERLAND 1-0 WIGAN


Steven Fletcher and Sunderland do it again, score from their only shot on target.  Can they continue to do this for much longer.  To be frank, if Steven Fletcher was capable of scoring with every shot he takes he would not have been playing for Wolves last year and Sunderland this, no offence Mackams!  He is a quality finisher though, no doubt about it, but he’s not Superman, Wigan should feel hard done by, they probably did enough to score, but O’Neil has his Black Cats as well-drilled as his reputation.

ASTON VILLA 1- 1 WEST BROM

 

Two surprising omissions in the starting line-ups here, with Bent and Lukaku both missing out.  Shane Long was the main threat for the Baggies early on a grabbed a goal with Gera providing most of the threat from midfield.  For Villa, Benteke was plenty involved but is still adjusting to the style and pace of the Premiership and failed to find the target with any of his 6 efforts.  Bent and Lukaku’s introductions from the bench livened up the encounter with both heavily involved as the game opened up, with Holman also impressing for the Villains.