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Tips out for Yirma: GW3
Tips out for Yirma…
Gameweek 3:
@pedro_lamb
1. Spurs win (-1 hc) LOSE BET
2. Newcastle win (-1 hc) LOSE BET
3. Man City win (-1 hc) WIN BET £15 RETURN
Week Score Lost £15
@mark_jones86
1. West Brom v Everton DRAW @ 23/10 LOSE BET
2. Newcastle to beat Villa to nil @17/10 LOSE BET
3. Wigan to beat Stoke @5/4 LOSE BET
Week score – Lost £30
@ryano83
1. Arsenal win @5/2 WIN BET £35 RETURN
2. Spurs v Norwich Draw @7/2 WIN BET 45 RETURN
3. Man United HT/FT 13/10 LOSE BET
Week Score won £50
FY Tipster Challenge
Here within the Fantasy Yirma administration team, we like to pretend we have money. With that in mind we have devised a FY Tipster selection competition.
The loser from the Admin team at the end of the season will pay the £50 prize fund for the mini league!!
| FY Tipster | GW3 Spend | GW3 Return | Total Spend (GW2) | Total Return | Difference |
| @pedro_lamb | £30 | 15 | £90 | £39 | – £51 |
| @mark_jones86 | £30 | 0 | £90 | £0 | – £90 |
| @ryano83 | £30 | 80 | £90 | £134 | + £44 |
Rules
Each player must place 3 £10 bets (Monopoly) per gameweek. (singles only)
The bet can be on any individual result/market/outcome with the only proviso being that you must stipulate the odds at time of selection submission and it must be from the same odds provider.
In practice this means your 3 £10 bets can be across 3 fixtures or 3 markets within one match.
We challenge everyone to make 3 selections also and we will include this in our table. Make your selection in the comments below.
Get your tips out for Yirma!!!
Gameweek 3 preview: The value of Sterling
Gameweek 3 preview: The value of Sterling
What were you doing when you were 17? Actually, on second thoughts I don’t want to know.
Whatever it was, unless you’re Michael Owen or Steven Gerrard it’s unlikely that you were running about the Anfield turf with a brilliantly youthful innocence and what looks to be a genuine love of seeing the ball at your feet.
Raheem Sterling has got that, and he showed it during his 90 minute display in the red of Liverpool against Manchester City last Sunday afternoon.
Now this is a Fantasy football blog. We are here to try and give you advice about what to do with your team. So of course I’m not going to say that Sterling should immediately be transferred in and made captain ahead of Liverpool’s match with Arsenal on Sunday afternoon, but the teenager’s £4.5m price tag should raise interest from Fantasy bosses who like to get a squad player who will provide real value.
Thinking long term, Sterling’s value will only go up, and so if you can afford the luxury of bringing in a player who will supplement your squad rather than star in it, then there aren’t many better choices than Liverpool’s new young talent.
The team he plays in looked good last weekend, and there will be many who fancy them to beat a so far scoreless Arsenal on Sunday afternoon, when Nuri Sahin (WHY IS THERE STILL NO PRICE??) is likely to make his English and Fantasy football debut against the team he looked set to join all summer, especially with Lucas Leiva now injured again. Martin Skrtel (£6.0m) remains a popular choice despite last weekend’s error.
His backpass allowed Carlos Tevez (£9.5m) to score at Anfield, and with the Argentinean’s value already up by £0.5m since the start of the season, Fantasy bosses would be wise to add him to their squad before it’s too late. Tevez is a good bet to impress when City host QPR at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday evening.
Just what their neighbours Manchester United will do following the injury to Wayne Rooney remains to be seen, although the blow creates a perfect opportunity for the Fantasy game’s most expensive player Robin van Persie (£13.1m) to settle into his stride at his new club, whilst Shinji Kagawa (£8.6m) is another who could thrive in Rooney’s absence. United should beat Southampton at St Mary’s on Sunday.
Gameweek 3’s key problem is the absence of a Chelsea fixture of course – although Eden Hazard could still find a way to make an assist – and so if Fantasy bosses have a free transfer available and the funds to bring in a big name for one week only, they could well settle on Tottenham’s fixture against Norwich at White Hart Lane.
Spurs have misfired under Andre Villas-Boas so far, but with Emmanuel Adebayor (£9.6m) and Rafael van der Vaart (£8.9m) looking to fire against the Canaries that could all change here. Gareth Bale (£9.5m) might be the man to turn to if you can afford to replace Hazard and then buy him back at an inflated price though.
Elsewhere, many Fantasy bosses will be looking a Newcastle’s home match against struggling Aston Villa as a chance for Papiss Cissé (£9.5m) to rediscover last season’s prolific goalscoring form, but it is Hatem Ben Arfa (£7.6m) who has picked up the most points in the Magpies team and could be set to impress again.
It has been Swansea and Everton who have impressed everyone this season, and although both have winnable games again this weekend, it is the Blues players who travel to West Brom who might offer the prospect of more points in the long-term.
Marouane Fellaini (£6.8m) and Nikica Jelavić (£8.5m) have started as they mean to go on.
@Mark_Jones86
Twitter, and its part in Liverpool’s downfall
In May, Twitter revealed that it has 140 million active users worldwide. They didn’t say how many of those accounts had ever retweeted a joke about Stewart Downing, but it’s safe to assume that it’s most of them.
Twitter is immediate. It is ruthless and merciless. It mocks misfortune, underperformance and the downright embarrassing. In short, it usually mocks Liverpool.
It was at it again on Saturday, as the Reds kicked off their Premier League season with a 3-0 defeat to West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns.
It was a strange game. West Brom probably deserved to win it but certainly not 3-0. Gary Neville, in his excellent punditry slot on Sky’s Monday Night Football after Everton had beaten Manchester United, noted that it was somewhat of a freak result. The Reds were comfortable until Zoltan Gera’s bolt from the blue gave the Baggies the lead shortly before half-time, and suddenly in a haze of red cards, penalties and missed chances the game was gone.
Other than the kit and a couple of new names the first league match of the Brendan Rodgers reign wasn’t overly different to many of Kenny Dalglish’s games last season, and the hysterical reaction on social media channels was much the same.
Even now at the time of writing, some four days after the game, a GIF image of Jamie Carragher being knocked to the ground by Romelu Lukaku has just popped up on a popular Twitter account with over 50,000 followers. It will be retweeted to hundreds of accounts and then passed on to even more, all in the name of laughing at Liverpool.
On Saturday afternoon a #RodgersOut hashtag appeared as the details of the match at The Hawthorns were being relayed to those who had seen nothing but the scoreline.
Those using it were largely doing so ironically – although Twitter does have an alarming capacity to introduce you to every village’s idiot – but it has long since been decided amongst the social media masses that this is how Liverpool fans react when their team loses.
Some do react like that.
It stands to reason that a club as big as Liverpool – surely the second most-supported in the UK behind Manchester United – will have a large selection of fans of all beliefs and mentalities, of which reactionary is certainly one. A few Liverpool fans make ridiculous comments, they get retweeted hundreds of times by those who like embarrassing the club, and suddenly thousands of fans are supposed to hold those same beliefs, be they naïve, foolish or in some cases – especially during last season – unashamedly provocative.
That these comments usually come from those who appear to rarely set foot anywhere near Anfield shouldn’t be discounted, but what should is the belief that all supporters feel the same way.
Liverpool – a club who have turned making bad decisions into an art form ever since sacking Rafael Benitez in the summer of 2010 – might just be a bit unfortunate that their most turbulent times have come during the social media boom, when every wrong move is laid out there for the world to see.
Inside Anfield there still remains a mostly intelligent support which realises just what a tough job Rodgers has in picking up the pieces at a club who nearly went to the wall in 2010.
Visiting teams are frequently applauded off the pitch when they’ve achieved a good result – as they seem to do more and more these days – but there is no doubt that the belief that the club’s support is respectful and knowledgeable has been diluted by the presence of fans on Twitter and across the Internet. As the team has faltered, so has the reputation of the support.
As a whole, the club have gone through tough times on and off the pitch since Benitez guided them to second place with 86 points in 2009, and it seems an awful long time before they’ll be back anywhere near that sort of haul again.
Rodgers even suggested that there will be more results like last Saturday’s to come before it gets better.
Expect to be reading about them in 140 characters or less.
NIFFTY LEAGUE IS BACK!!
Since 2007 more than 800 people have had a go on YIRMA.
The NIFFTY LEAGUE (Northern Ireland Fantasy Football Through Yirma) started in January 2012 as an invitational Head to Head version of the main game.
Reset and raring to go for the new season NIFFTY is back!
Capped this year at 38 people we have a great mixture of Northern Ireland legends, current Internationals, local radio personalities and the 20th most influencial man in Northern Ireland…
We feel the NIFFTY League has an impressive line up!! Keith Gillespie, Warren Feeney, Grant McCann and Michael O’Connor have almost 200 International Caps for Northern Ireland and much is expected of their teams!
Alan Simpson Vs Stephen Clements is the NI radio grudge match – battle of the airwaves!! I imagine a forfeit for the loser of this pairing could be quite entertaining….
With several fantasy football enthusiasts and of course the Fantasy Yirma Admin team of @ryano83 @mark_jones86 and @pedro_lamb this league promises to throw up some good matches and produce some questionable banter on twitter.
Click here for the full round up! https://fantasyyirma.wordpress.com/niffty-league/
*@ryano83
Follow us on @fantasyyirma for #NIFFTY updates
NIFFTY League players:
TIPS OUT FOR YIRMA!! GW2
Tips out for Yirma…
Gameweek 2:
@pedro_lamb
1. Newcastle to beat Chelsea 11/2 LOST BET
2. Everton to beat Villa 7/5 WON BET
3. Southampton to win by exactly 2 goals 5/1 LOST BET
@mark_jones86
1. QPR to beat Norwich 11/5 LOST BET
2. Defoe to score at anytime 5/6 LOST BET
3. Arsenal to beat Stoke 11/10 LOST BET
@ryano83
1. Norwich to beat QPR 11/8 LOST BET
2. Villa v Everton Draw 9/4 LOST BET
3. Swansea to beat West Ham 23/20 WON BET
FY Tipster Challenge
Here within the Fantasy Yirma administration team, we like to pretend we have money. With that in mind we have devised a FY Tipster selection competition.
The loser from the Admin team at the end of the season will pay the £50 prize fund for the mini league!!!
| FY Tipster | GW1 Spend | GW1 Return | Total Spend | Total Return | % Difference |
| @pedro_lamb | £30 | £0 | £30 | £0 |
0% |
| @mark_jones86 | £30 | £0 | £30 | £0 |
0% |
| @ryano83 | £30 | £32.50 | £30 | £32.50 |
108.3% |
Rules:
Each player must place 3 £10 bets (Monopoly) per gameweek. (singles only)
The bet can be on any individual result/market/outcome with the only proviso being that you must stipulate the odds at time of selection submission and it must be from the same odds provider.
In practice this means your 3 £10 bets can be across 3 fixtures or 3 markets within one match.
We challenge everyone to make 3 selections also and we will include this in our table. Make your selection in the comments below.
Get your tips out for Yirma!!!
Fantasy Yirma: Gameweek 1 preview
Gameweek 1 preview: The story of the Blues
By now you’ll have clocked it. There can’t really be a Fantasy player who hasn’t.
The 2012/13 season will kick-off with the European champions gracing us with a double Gameweek.
It can’t really get any better can it? You’ve got all those great Chelsea players to choose from and the chance to score double points with each and every one of them, and quadruple with your captain – be it Eden Hazard, Juan Mata or Ross Turnbull. The world is your expensive, Russian oil money-purchased oyster.
Yet is it that simple? Chelsea’s matches against first Wigan and then Reading certainly look winnable, but players should be mindful that the price for the Blues doubling up on Gameweek 1 is that they’ll miss out on Gameweek 3, when Roberto di Matteo’s side (if he’s still there by then) will have swanned off to Monaco to take on Atlético Madrid in the UEFA Super Cup.
So the question facing Fantasy bosses all summer has been whether or not to load up on Chelsea players for the first couple of Gameweeks or to stay away. The answer can be found in an annoying club song, because as far as this Gameweek is concerned – Blue is the colour.
Chelsea’s best players are all expensive enough for you to easily be able to find replacements once they miss out on playing in that third Gameweek, and so at least two and perhaps three of Di Matteo’s boys should be in your starting XI come the big kick-off on Saturday.
As for who those players are, well the Blues’ midfield can now be considered a minefield due to all the players that they have at their disposal in there, and whilst it’s tempting to go with the £9.5m pair of Hazard and Mata, perhaps the old stager Frank Lampard (£9.0m) could come up trumps at the start of yet another campaign.
The usual suspects at the back for Chelsea will feature heavily on plenty of Fantasy teamsheets, as will Fernando Torres (£10.0m), a strong captaincy choice at the start of a huge season personally.
As is the nature of the game, when one team has a double Gameweek then another must too, and its newly-promoted Reading who take the honours as 2012/13 kicks off.
They won’t be expected to take anything from Stamford Bridge next Wednesday, but their Saturday fixture at home to Stoke does offer the potential of a clean sheet for goalkeeper Adam Federici (£4.5m, and a useful substitute in your team) and the defenders. They are likely to start with a back four of Ian Harte, Alex Pearce (both £4.5m), Kaspars Gorkss and Chris Gunter (both £4.0m).
Further forward, the Russian Pavel Pogrebnyak (£5.0m) has proved popular due to his success at Fulham last season, whilst midfielder Danny Guthrie (£4.5m) is a good signing for the Royals and has a goal or two in him.
Elsewhere across the division as the big kick-off approaches, the potential for a stalemate between Newcastle and Tottenham should have you looking at nobody but goalkeepers and defenders from the pair, whilst wins are predicted for Arsenal and Liverpool as they start the season at home to Sunderland and away at West Brom respectively. Reds new boy Joe Allen (£5.5m) has proved a popular buy with one in four of Fantasy players selecting him.
Manchester City start the defence of their crown with what could be a goal-filled success at home to Southampton – Carlos Tevez, at £9.0m, looks even more of a steal after that Community Shield goal – whilst Manchester United can take advantage of Everton’s often slow start to the season when they go to Goodison Park on Monday night.
All eyes might be on Robin van Persie (£13.0m) there, but it is the return of Nemanja Vidic (£7.0m) which should have Fantasy bosses cheering.
Follow me on twitter @Mark_Jones86
See more of Mark’s posts at @FantasyYirma and https://fantasyyirma.wordpress.com/
To join the free Fantasy Yirma mini league on the official Premier League game follow this link. Remember Free to Play … £50 to the winner!! What’s to lose?? http://fantasy.premierleague.com/my-leagues/15005/join/?autojoin-code=44397-15005
Fantasy Yirma: Winner’s Insight !!
In the past 3 seasons of official fantasy football game Tom K has been exceptionally consistent. 3 top 10,000 performances culminated last year with an unbelievable finishing place of 204th with a massive points tally of 2306.
Let’s put this in perspective people 204th out of 2,500,000+ is not bad at all!!!
We wanted to put Tom on the spot and ask him for some insight on how he manages his teams – he did not disappoint. Here are his thoughts on how to go about looking after your fantasy team and maximising opportunities….
The guys from Fantasy Yirma asked me to write a few notes about how I play the game (and somehow managed to gain top spot in their league last season and the crisp £50 that comes with it!) so here is some insight into how I did it.
Fantasy Premier League veterans will learn nothing new here, and those who take massive selection gambles will be disappointed, but sadly the best way to mini league glory is often the slow and steady approach.
With Gameweek 1 being so important to a Fantasy season, the best piece of advice would be to not leave team selections until Saturday 18th August. Anyone who played last season will know the shambles that took place from about midday on the Friday before kick-off when the FPL website imploded leaving many with skeleton teams. Do not make the same mistake again!
More seriously, I haven’t scouted too many players in detail so I won’t mention specifics as the Yirma boys do a fine job of that themselves.
I am a hugely conservative player so most of what I am about to write is common sense but as that often goes out of the window in Fantasy Football selection, here are a few random thoughts:
- 1. Pick players who start for their clubs. Easy. It’s a squad game and you should make the most of all 15 spots (with the possible exception of second keeper if you have a top quality option as first choice). There are base price options in defence and midfield so if you are looking at this range ensure the guys you are going for actually start.
- 2. Don’t make transfers based purely on price rises/falls early in the week. It is so much more important to have a full strength team rather than an extra 0.1 in the bank, and the risk with an early transfer is that if anyone else is struck down or goes missing then you might be tempted to take a points hit to make amends. Which leads me on to…
- 3. Points hits are often unnecessary. You get a free transfer every week so points hits should only be used in exceptional circumstances. I took two last year and by having a full squad to pick from it’s easy to avoid. Rolling transfers over and using two free transfers at a time is far more sensible.
- 4. Forward Planning. Make transfers with the next five or six gameweeks in mind. Look at fixture schedules to make sure you will be happy with the player for a number of weeks as other priority transfers will crop up all the time.
- 5. Don’t waste the wildcard! I used mine along with many others in Gameweek 36 last season and it made such a difference in getting over the line. Some will argue about getting a bit of extra cash by using it early but for me it isn’t worth it. Save it for the winter or spring and you won’t regret it. Using it for Gameweek 2 is a colossal waste, you have had all summer to tinker so put that itchy trigger finger away.
- 6. Let new players Settle. Let players adjust to the league before taking the plunge. Having a midfield of Hazard, Kagawa, Michu, Cazorla and Holman might be end up being incredible but have a couple of safer picks alongside the new boys just in case they are bedded in slowly by managers or don’t fire from the start. By all means if you like the look of them (I certainly do) then have a couple but remember they are a risk.
Good Luck!!
Tom
Big thanks to Tom for taking the time to submit this post. Best of luck this season – but let someone else win! 😉
To join the free Fantasy Yirma mini league on the official premier league game follow this link. Remember Free to Play … £50 to the winner!! What’s to lose?? http://fantasy.premierleague.com/my-leagues/15005/join/?autojoin-code=44397-15005
Bouncing back?
Don’t forget…
To join the free Fantasy Yirma mini league on the official premier league game follow this link. Remember Free to Play … £50 to the winner!! What’s to lose?? http://fantasy.premierleague.com/my-leagues/15005/join/?autojoin-code=44397-15005
Injuries, terrible form and appointments with Argentinean golf courses were all reasons why these five didn’t shine in Yirma in 2011/12, but could things be different this time around?
Fernando Torres, Chelsea, Forward – Fantasy Price Tag £10.0m
Just the FA Cup, Champions League, European Championships and Euro Golden Boot award made last term an unforgettable season to forget for Torres, who still comes across as one of the bigger enigmas in the division.
Bit part roles in all of those successes will have created a hunger though, and a desire to prove that the £50m Chelsea invested in him a year-and-a-half ago could still prove to be money well spent. There is a sense that if it’s ever going to happen, it’ll have to happen now.
Last season he scored exactly a quarter of the goals and picked up over 100 less Fantasy points than he managed in his electric debut season at Liverpool in 2007/08, and whilst he is unlikely to hit those heights again he might at least find himself approaching them.
The departure of Didier Drogba and the decision to loan Romelu Lukaku to West Brom has seen Roberto di Matteo place a huge vote of confidence in Torres, and with Chelsea recruiting creative players from all over the world to help him out this summer he won’t exactly be short of goalscoring chances.
He’s likely to take more than a few of them too.
Stewart Downing, Liverpool, Midfielder – Fantasy Price Tag £6.5m
By now everyone knows the stats, so much so that it doesn’t even matter that they weren’t true.
As endless tweets, Facebook jokes and message board posts will tell you, Downing’s first season as Liverpool’s £20m winger produced zero goals and zero assists – even though the Fantasy stats point out that he set up two goals in a match at QPR, whilst he managed a couple of strikes during the Reds’ run to the finals of both domestic cup competitions.
Regardless of that, his performances were still nowhere near what Liverpool supporters demanded, and the England man will know that he’ll have to step up his displays if his future at the club is to last much longer. Fortunately for him, he might just have the chance to.
With Brendan Rodgers ready to switch Liverpool’s approach to a 4-3-3 formation, Downing would appear set to occupy the wide right position in the front trio alongside Luis Suárez and Fabio Borini, at least until the Reds dip back into the transfer market – although the emergence of youngster Raheem Sterling (£4.5m) is worth keeping an eye on.
It was from a similar position that Downing bagged 163 Fantasy points in his final season at Aston Villa, more than double he got at Liverpool last season and including seven goals and nine assists for those who like to keep a track of such things.
He might not manage the same tally again, but an improvement looks almost certain.
He could scarcely have got any worse.
Carlos Tevez, Manchester City, Forward – Fantasy Price Tag £9.0m
He’s back – for now – and he looks ready to make up for lost time.
Manchester City fans may have forgotten all about Tevez’s indiscretions last season the moment he started banging the goals in, and Fantasy bosses might be ready to do just the same.
The forward’s fine goal in the Community Shield on Sunday could have been taken from the impressive back catalogue he built up in scoring first 210 and then 185 Fantasy points in each of his first two seasons at City, and now seemingly back on board and back in Roberto Mancini’s plans, it might not be the last such wonderful strike.
The prospect of building a partnership with Sergio Agüero should have City fans drooling and opposition defenders dreading, and if Tevez quickly settles down and – more importantly – is kept happy, then his £9.0m Fantasy price tag could suddenly start looking incredibly cheap.
Nemanja Vidic, Manchester United, Defender – Fantasy Price Tag £7.0m
Would Manchester United have won the league last season if Vidic had been around all campaign?
It’s impossible to predict of course, but the presence of a player who scored well over 100 points in four out of his five other seasons in Fantasy Premier League, and 94 in the other one, certainly would have aided a United side who chopped and changed things at the back after the Serb picked up the knee injury in November which ruled him out of the rest of the campaign.
Now fit, the club captain will slot straight back into Sir Alex Ferguson’s side as if he has never been away, and his club are likely to benefit from both his defensive organisational abilities and his goalscoring threat in the opposition penalty area.
A real leader, Vidic’s return isn’t just a welcome one for United fans but also for Fantasy bosses who were frequently left scratching their heads at just which players would line-up for Ferguson’s side last season.
When fit Vidic walks in to United’s team, and could well walk into yours too.
Lucas, Liverpool, Midfielder – Fantasy Price Tag £5.0m
Like Vidic at United, Lucas’s absence from over half of Liverpool’s season can’t be underestimated, but was certainly vital.
The Brazilian isn’t the kind of player who’ll win man of the match awards every week or even get you a lot of Fantasy points, but it was clear to see how Liverpool struggled as soon as he picked up the problem in November which ruled him out of the rest of the campaign, with youthful, often raw players pressed into service in his absence.
Now back and taking his place in the centre of a Liverpool team who are likely to dominate possession in the vast majority of their games, Lucas will be looking to get back to the form which has made him one of the top defensive midfielders in world football, and he could well be regarded as an excellent cheap option for your team at just £5.0m.
Consistency is key for the Brazilian, and if you’re prepared to play a squad game then his valuable input and steady accumulation of points could be just what you need.
*M
Second season syndrome? Part II
Having already had a look at five players who’ll be looking to impress in Yirma for a second year running, it’s time to cast an eye over five more regulars on last season’s teamsheets who’ll be worth considering again.
Michel Vorm, Swansea, Goalkeeper – Fantasy Price tag £5.5m
That odd scratching sound that you heard every Saturday morning for 38 weeks was coming from those Fantasy managers lucky enough to start the season with Vorm as their substitute goalkeeper.
However, the noise of fingernails over forehead grew quieter and quieter the longer that Vorm’s debut Premier League season went on, and suddenly the expensive, big name keeper you’d bought to start for your Fantasy team could be sold off to raise funds that were needed elsewhere. The big Dutchman would do just fine.
The former Utrecht goalkeeper impressed everyone as Swansea’s last line of defence last season, keeping 14 clean sheets and only conceding two goals in his side’s first eight home league games of the season.
The question of whether or not Vorm can sustain that form is like everything else that surrounds his club since the departure of Brendan Rodgers though – unknown.
New boss Michael Laudrup is sure to bring in the type of expansive, stylish football that Rodgers favoured, but with key men potentially leaving then results could well be mixed, meaning that trusting the big Dutchman to start for you this time could prove a hasty decision.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Arsenal, Midfielder – Fantasy Price Tag £7.5m
What do Arsenal want Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to be? A very good player for them, obviously, but Arsene Wenger’s summer signings hint at another season as an impact player for the youngster who fleetingly impressed for England at the Euros.
For someone who only turns 19 next week that isn’t such a bad thing of course, but there were glimpses towards the end of last season that showed ‘The Ox’ could maintain a strong hold on a first-team place if given the chance.
Will he be given that chance though? The signing of Lukas Podolski has placed one of the most internationally experienced top level players in Europe squarely in Chamberlain’s position, whilst Santi Cazorla only increases the already vast midfield options available to the Gunners. Jack Wilshere might even be seen at some point this season too.
The belief amongst many is that Wenger is grooming former Southampton youngster Chamberlain to become a more effective version of former Southampton youngster Theo Walcott, and whilst that is all well and good, for as long as Walcott is at the club – which admittedly might not be for much longer – then it is difficult to see Chamberlain making a sustained impact.
This could be a frustrating campaign for the youngster and those who pick him.
Jose Enrique, Liverpool, Defender – Fantasy Price Tag £6.0m
Much like Liverpool as a whole, Enrique’s league performances steadily got worse the longer last season went on.
He’d started well, but like everyone at the club he’ll be looking forward to putting that league campaign behind him, and the arrival of Brendan Rodgers will have invigorated a squad which was in dire need of a spark.
Enrique was Liverpool’s third top points scorer behind Luis Suarez and Pepe Reina in 2011/12, and whilst Rodgers is sure to change a lot about his new club’s style of play he is likely to have found the two first choice full-backs he inherited at Anfield to be to his liking.
Liverpool will look to use those full-backs in attack as much as possible in 2012/13, and whilst a personal preference would be to choose the added goal and assist threat of Glen Johnson (£6.5m), if you haven’t got the extra cash then a move for Enrique could prove a shrewd one if he starts well again.
James McClean, Sunderland, Midfielder – Fantasy Price Tag £6.5m
Yes, he’s down as a midfielder again.
McClean’s haul of 101 points last season wasn’t bad at all for a player who didn’t start a match since New Year’s Day, and the Irishman again looks likely to start on the left of Sunderland’s front three.
Things have been remarkably quiet around his club all summer – at the time of writing only Carlos Cuellar has joined for first team duty, but interest remains in Steven Fletcher – and with that suggesting Martin O’Neill is more than happy with the squad at his disposal, the Sunderland boss looks set to go with the same again as he starts his first full season with the club.
McClean’s impact on Sunderland last season saw him quickly become a mainstay in the team, and he’ll be raring to go again after only sampling 14 minutes of action during the Republic of Ireland’s disappointing Euro 2012 campaign.
He’ll get far more time in the Premier League, and could once again prove to be a terrific addition to any midfield – if a more expensive one this time around.
Ashley Young, Manchester United, Midfielder – Fantasy Price Tag £8.5m
It was an up and down debut season at Old Trafford for Young – up as he ran towards the penalty area, down when he got int it – and both the arrival of Shinji Kagawa and consistent form of Antonio Valencia could make this a difficult campaign for him.
Nani is still around too of course, and with the rumours surrounding Robin van Persie refusing to go away then the vacancies in the forward positions at Manchester United could soon be even scarcer than ever before. We haven’t even mentioned Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck and Javier Hernandez yet. Oh, and Dimitar Berbatov too.
All of which leaves Young in danger of being squeezed out, and even if he does start matches he is unlikely to finish them due to the vast resources available to Ferguson.
He’s been far from a failure at United of course, but his impact tends to come in short bursts, and he might have to prolong those if he is to hang around in Ferguson’s team, and yours.
*M
Second season syndrome?
All were new signings in 2011/12, and all impressed in Yirma, but can the five players below keep up that form heading in to 2012/13??
Demba Ba, Newcastle, Forward – Fantasy Price Tag £7.5m
Few players had more schizophrenic seasons than Ba last time out, as the arrival of a man we’ll mention below saw his goalscoring form at first dry up and then evaporate completely.
It was tougher to find a Fantasy manager without the Senegalese in his team in the first half of last season than one who did have him, as Ba’s goals shot Newcastle up the table and kept several Fantasy bosses scratching their heads over captaincy selections on Saturday mornings.
Then the forward headed off the Africa Cup of Nations in January, returned with his international team-mate alongside him and suddenly the goals dried up.
Newcastle boss Alan Pardew had of course decided to alter Ba’s position slightly, and although it must be said that he did still weigh in with some assists, the forward’s impact was seemingly reducing game by game, so much so that the summer of transfer rumours surrounding his exit from Tyneside were hardly surprising.
He stayed of course, but a repeat showing from last year’s dazzling first few months looks unlikely.
Nikica Jelavic, Everton, Forward – Fantasy Price Tag £8.5m
Up in Scotland, Jelavic is now merely a substantial if solitary profit in the Rangers accounts, but the happy memories that Gers’ fans had of him are now being shared in the Blue half of Merseyside.
Jelavic’s predatory instincts have unsurprisingly gone down well amongst Everton fans who have arguably not seen a finer forward in Blue since the early days of Wayne Rooney, and the Croatian will be determined to shine in his first full campaign at Goodison Park.
Much was made last season of Jelavic’s instant, one touch finishes, and so whilst you may want to avoid him if you prefer your forwards to be more involved in the play and frequently able to contribute with assists, as an out-and-out goalscorer in a team who will play to his strengths there can’t be many better picks.
After a summer away at the Euros, this campaign will be the ultimate test to see if the Croatian can produce it consistently in Fantasy Premier League.
The early signs are all encouraging ones.
Papiss Cisse, Newcastle, Forward – Fantasy Price Tag £9.5m
It can’t possibly go as well for Cisse as it did from January to May. Can it? CAN IT???
The Senegalese’s impact at Newcastle following his transfer from German club Freiburg was nothing short of extraordinary, as goals were scored and records tumbled all over the place.
A clinical, almost effortless forward, Cisse’s performances at St James’s Park (sorry Mike Ashley) have drawn comparisons with Andy Cole’s, and there is no doubt that Newcastle will once again look to play to his strengths as they did so well during the latter half of last season.
However, what with the demands of the Europa League, yet another Africa Cup of Nations coming up in January and now that defenders know his threat a little more, it will be extremely difficult for Cisse to repeat last season’s heroics again this time around.
At £9.5m he’ll have plenty of takers, but expecting him to produce the same fireworks as he did in 2011/12 might just leave you disappointed.
Sergio Aguero, Manchester City, Forward – Fantasy Price Tag £11.5m
The moment that Aguero secured the league title for Manchester City in May will be burned into the brains of his club’s supporters’ for a lifetime, and probably the minds of Manchester United fans for even longer.
It was deserved too, both for the club and a player who made the transition from La Liga to Fantasy Premier League with ease ever since he scored twice on his debut against Swansea in City’s opening match of the campaign.
Aguero is a livewire; a player who never gives defenders a second on the ball and leaves them wondering for hours just what they can do to stop him.
Bar Robin van Persie he was the best forward in England last season – that Kyle Walker took the PFA Young Player of the Year award ahead of Aguero isn’t a good advert for the decisions of footballers – and the Argentinean looks more than ready to help his side defend their title this time.
He is a simply brilliant attacker, and one that you need to find room for in any team – Fantasy or otherwise – whatever the cost.
Yohan Cabaye, Newcastle, Midfielder – Fantasy Price Tag £7.0m
As this column indicates, Newcastle bought pretty well last season, and there is an argument for saying that Cabaye was the best addition of the lot.
A lively midfielder, the Frenchman showcased more than a keen eye for goal the longer 2011/12 went on, and after a year of getting used to playing against the big-hitters of the league he’ll now have to understand that he is one.
One of the lesser discussed qualities of Cabaye, however, is his toughness. He can mix it in the middle with pretty much anyone, and so seeing as he is highly unlikely to become overawed by the new challenges he faces as he becomes a marked man, there is nothing to suggest that he won’t prove to be a success on Tyneside again.
As discussed above, the rigours placed on Newcastle this season might ensure that they don’t reach the highs they did in the last campaign, but their French midfielder can still impress.
A bargain buy? Oui.
*M
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