Chelsea Vs Southampton | 1st December | 16.10 CHELSEA: Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta; Essien, Ramires; Mata, Oscar, Hazard; Torres SOUTHAMPTON: Boruc; Clyne, Lovren, Fonte, Shaw; Schneiderlin, Wanyama, Ward-Prowse, Lallana; Rodriguez, Osvaldo. written by @CalcioAnalizzat Chelsea prepare to host Southampton at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon, in the midst of a truly testing time for their […]
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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).
Premier League Prediction Challenge with Copa90!!
Nov 29
Gameweek 13 : FantasyYIRMA vs COPA90 ! Its that age old story, blog meets blog at the Football Blogging awards, a few beers and before you know it Copa90 are having a go at #ChallengeYIRMA Copa90 is the football channel that knows there is no final whistle. Pitch, laptop, or console, the game never stops. So after […]
Everton’s Leighton Baines: Replacement Therapy?
Nov 29
Former #FPL World Number 1 and Friend of the site @K3LVIN looks at potential replacements for Leighton Baines in the run up to GW13. Many thanks to @K3LVIN for taking the time to put together his thoughts on defensive options that should be on your radar! With Leighton Baines potentially out of action for up […]
GW13 Preview: Arsenal’s Per Mertesacker makes BFG case for the defence
This week we’ve once again decided to shun the glory seeking midfielders and forwards and give you a preview focused entirely on improving your team’s defence (Andre Villas-Boas, take note).
Clean sheets and bonus points are up for grabs over a Fantasy weekend which features winnable games for plenty of the division’s elite, and although Arsenal might find it tough as they go to a Cardiff side who’ve beaten Manchester City and drawn with Manchester United at home this season, with a defender such as Per Mertesacker (£5.6m) in their team they’ll head to South Wales with confidence.
The big German registered a huge 11 points in the victory over Southampton last weekend thanks to being fouled for a penalty and keeping a clean sheet, feats which made him eligible for two bonus points from the Fantasy gods.
Mertesacker took a while to settle into the English game after he joined the Gunners from Werder Bremen in 2011, but he is now seen as his side’s main man at the back, and will be crucial to his team’s hopes of registering more points as they seek to prolong their time at the top of the table.
Cardiff may have scored twice in their draw with Manchester United, but prior to that they’d registered only one goal in their previous three games, and the likes of Mertesacker, Laurent Koscielny (£5.3m) and Kieran Gibbs (£5.4m) will be targeting another clean sheet.
It’s hard to make it out from this picture, but the BFG is actually trying to tell people to join the FY Mini-League!
Elsewhere, Manchester City’s stellar home form has made their defence feel extremely comfortable when they play at the Etihad Stadium, where they’ve kept four clean sheets in six home Premier League games this season.
Pablo Zabaleta (£6.0m) played a part in all of those shutouts, whilst the signs are that Costel Pantilimon (£4.9m) will continue in goal for City in their domestic matches at least.
The latest one of those sees them host Swansea on Sunday, a match that is likely to see many Fantasy bosses lose faith in full-backs Angel Rangel (£5.4m) and Ben Davies (£5.0m), with the pair set for a torrid afternoon.
Better full-back choices are likely to come from Liverpool, who go to a goal-shy Hull City side who’ve scored just once in their last three home games this season.
An injury to Reds left-back Jose Enrique (£5.8m) has opened the door for the interesting (and cheap) youngster Jon Flanagan (£4.5m), but it might pay to go with the more established Glen Johnson (£5.7m) for this contest in which the England man is going to be looking to get forward at every opportunity.
Manchester United’s trip to Spurs has the potential to be a goalfest and so we’re going to overlook that particular fixture this week, and instead look at Chelsea’s home test against a Southampton side who are suddenly running into some tricky fixtures.
The Saints’ previously sturdy defence is going to come under pressure at Stamford Bridge, when Chelsea’s John Terry (£6.4m) and Branislav Ivanovic (£6.4m) will fancy keeping a clean sheet against an attack that, for all Southampton’s success, have still only scored four goals on the road all season.
At the other end of the country, a resurgent Newcastle go in search of a fourth straight victory when West Brom come to St James’s Park, and they’ll be helped in that quest by the return of full-back Mathieu Debuchy (£4.9m) from suspension.
The Baggies could only draw 2-2 with Aston Villa last time out despite leading 2-0, and Paul Lambert’s side will hope to build on that comeback as they host struggling Sunderland on Saturday afternoon.
Despite a couple of notable home wins during his time in charge, Gus Poyet hasn’t yet seen his team pick up a point or even score a goal away from the Stadium of Light, a run that Aston Villa captain Ron Vlaar (£4.5m) will be determined to see continue.
Off the Mark: Gareth Bale’s brilliance used to save Tottenham, now it’s the team’s turn
Spot the odd one out in this sequence.
Sergio Aguero: 11 games, 10 goals. Luis Suarez: Seven games, nine goals. Daniel Sturridge: 12 games, nine goals. Tottenham Hotspur: 12 games, nine goals.
That’s right. Three are individuals, one is an entire football club, a world-renowned football club who are expecting to challenge the elite teams at the top of the Premier League table and not have goalscoring records that would only stack up to the individuals who play for them.
The goalscoring problem at Spurs has been highlighted throughout their decidedly mixed start to the season, but at the weekend we saw a far more alarming concern come to light.
Granted, they were facing a trip to Manchester City – probably the toughest assignment in the Premier League just now – but their meek surrender and almost acceptance of a 6-0 hammering must be tough to take for Spurs fans, whose team are now priced at 4.60 to make next season’s Champions League with Bwin.
Those same supporters spent the summer putting on a brave face over the departure of Gareth Bale to Real Madrid, and perhaps understandably looked towards the huge influx of players brought in with the money from his sale with expectation more than hope.
These players seemingly have it all.
There is Roberto Soldado’s excellent La Liga goalscoring record, Erik Lamela’s series of eye-catching displays in an entertaining Roma side, Christian Eriksen’s performances for Ajax which had scouts heading over to Amsterdam in their droves, Paulinho’s increasing importance for Brazil.
It is all there, and all of them are clearly fine players, but none of them is Bale.
Time and time again last season, the Welshman would ride to the rescue for Tottenham and Andre Villas-Boas with a timely intervention usually taking the form of a spectacular goal. “Where would they be without him?” we often wondered, and the answer was here.
But “here” isn’t actually that bad.
Spurs are ninth going into the weekend, but that is only four points off second placed Liverpool in this increasingly condensed Premier League table.
Following on from Thursday night’s Europa League distraction against Tromso in Norway, they welcome Manchester United to White Hart Lane on Sunday afternoon in what could just be the perfect game for them.
David Moyes and his men have hardly been impressive on the road this season, with their latest slip-up coming in the dying moments at Cardiff, and this could just represent the perfect chance for Spurs to inject some life into their season.
As well as the City drubbing, the recent home reverses against West Ham and Newcastle are likely to be on the minds of plenty of home fans who attend the game early on Sunday, but the players must sense that this is an opportunity for them to get back on track.
Win, and it will have been the perfect start to a week which also includes trips to struggling Fulham and Sunderland, matches in which it will be the team ethic that gets them over the line as opposed to any form of individual brilliance from one of their stars.
It was always going to be difficult for Tottenham at the beginning of this season due to the sheer number of new faces who had entered the building and were playing on the same pitch as each other before really introducing themselves, but a little more trust in one another could go a long way.
Soldado isn’t going to score the same amount of goals as Bale.
Lamela isn’t going to sprint at defences in the same manner that Bale did.
Eriksen isn’t going to score free-kicks like Bale.
And Paulinho isn’t going to dominate games like Bale.
Bale is gone, but Tottenham live on, and it’s about time that the team acted like it.
***
We need to talk about Kevin(s)
It is all well and good claiming that referees need more help and would benefit from a greater use of technology, but when they make errors as glaring as the ones that Phil Dowd and Kevin Friend made on Saturday it is hard to have any sympathy for them.
Kevin Mirallas’ lunge on Luis Suarez in the Merseyside derby wasn’t just a red card it was about three of them, whilst what an earth possessed Friend to dismiss Wes Brown in Sunderland’s clash at Stoke is beyond all rational observers.
So give referees help if they need it, sure, but make sure they get the basics right first, and if they don’t then ban them until they do.
***
Bluebirds can silence Gunners
Manchester City obliged last week, and this weekend’s best bet would be one that they’d welcome as well.
Title rivals Arsenal go to a Cardiff side who’ve already beaten City and drawn with Manchester United on their own patch this season, with another draw here looking like the way to go.
Arsenal Top, Spurs Flop, Suarez’s leg almost gets the Chop
Nov 26
As always we are happy to feature Fantasy Football guest posts. This GW review comes from new site FantasyFootball247.com. If you would like to feature on FantasyYIRMA.com please email us at FantasyYIRMA@hotmail.com #COMPETITION Guess the number of Champions League goals tonight Click Here to enter https://t.co/foe1lmG3LF pic.twitter.com/p4vVKhwows — FantasyYIRMA #FPL (@FantasyYIRMA) November 26, 2013 […]
Cardiff City vs Manchester United: Confirmed Lineups (NO Robin Van Persie)
Nov 24
Team Lineups provided approximately 1 hour before kickoff .@CardiffCityFC XI: Marshall; Taylor, Caulker (C), Turner, Theophile-Catherine; Medel, Whittingham, Mutch, Cowie, Odemwingie; Campbell. — Cardiff City FC (@CardiffCityFC) November 24, 2013 .@CardiffCItyFC bench: Lewis; Hudson, Cornelius, Kim, Noone, Gunnarsson, Bellamy. #CARMUN — Cardiff City FC (@CardiffCityFC) November 24, 2013 #mufc team – confirmed: De Gea; Smalling, […]
Manchester City vs Tottenham: Confirmed Lineups
Nov 24
TEAM NEWS: Pantilimon, Zabaleta, Demichelis, Nastasic, Clichy, Navas, Fernandinho, Yaya Toure (C), Nasri, Negredo, Aguero #cityvspurs #mcfc — Manchester City (@ManCity) November 24, 2013 SUBS NEWS: Hart, Lescott, Richards, Guidetti, Garcia, Milner, Dzeko #cityvspurs #mcfc — Manchester City (@ManCity) November 24, 2013 Team v City – Lloris; Walker, Dawson, Kaboul, Vertonghen; Paulinho, Sandro; Lennon, Holtby, […]
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