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GW11 NOTHING BUT BONUS POINTS!!! #FPL
| 10 Nov 15:00 | Arsenal |  |
3 – 3 |  |
Fulham |
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| 10 Nov 15:00 | Everton |  |
2 – 1 |  |
Sunderland |
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| 10 Nov 15:00 | Reading |  |
0 – 0 |  |
Norwich |
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| 10 Nov 15:00 | Southampton |  |
1 – 1 |  |
Swansea |
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| 10 Nov 15:00 | Stoke City |  |
1 – 0 |  |
QPR |
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| 10 Nov 15:00 | Wigan |  |
1 – 2 |  |
West Brom |
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| 10 Nov 17:30 | Aston Villa |  |
2 – 3 |  |
Man Utd |
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| 11 Nov 13:30 | Man City |  |
2 – 1 |  |
Tottenham |
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| 11 Nov 15:00 | Newcastle |  |
0 – 1 |  |
West Ham |
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| 11 Nov 16:00 | Chelsea |  |
1 – 1 |  |
Liverpool |
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Gameweek 11 preview: Rebel without a clause
Theo Walcott still hasn’t signed a new Arsenal contract.
He hasn’t signed it at the time of writing, he’s not likely to have signed it by the time you’re reading this, and he probably still won’t have signed it when you come back to these pages ahead of Gameweek 12.
If Walcott (£8.7m) wasn’t so bland as to make a legion of football fans yearn for the post-match interviews of Michael Owen then his dispute with Arsenal could almost be portrayed as a dramatic stand-off, with the nippy winger-but-wants-to-be-thought-of-as-a-forward and Arsene Wenger drawing pistols at dawn and seeing which one backs down first.
In reality it’s just a stare-off, which will only end one day when one of the parties gets bored and decides that their time will be spent better elsewhere, be it Walcott wandering off to pastures new or Wenger realising that one of the most dynamic players in the Premier League really is worth hanging on to after all.
What it has created is a situation in which Walcott is determined to perform well to simultaneously try and prove that he’s worth keeping hold of and to impress potential future employers at the same time.
Recent goals in the Capital One Cup and the Champions League have staked Walcott’s claim for a starting berth in Wenger’s league team, and with Gervinho injured and Jack Wilshere suspended for Saturday’s home game against Fulham, the Frenchman could do worse than to hand a starting place to a player who will be desperate to impress.
Of course it would be a gamble to transfer Walcott into your team given the uncertainty over his position at Arsenal, but ahead of a Gameweek which could go one of several different ways given the fixtures it might just be a gamble worth taking, especially when you consider his differential potential (he’s owned by 1.3% of teams), the possibility that he could be played upfront and the idea that he’ll be playing for another team in January. Liverpool have been linked, and he’d start every week there.
For now he’s still at Arsenal though, where Olivier Giroud (£8.4m) and Santi Cazorla (£9.4m) will be other players worth considering if you think that the Gunners can beat Fulham at home on Saturday. Bacary Sagna (£5.4m) is a defender worth keeping an eye on now that he’s returned to the team and dislodged previous Fantasy favourite Carl Jenkinson (£5.0m).
Elsewhere, this intriguing Gameweek offers up very few strong defensive options given the close nature on paper of many of the matches, but one of the strongest surely comes at Goodison Park where Everton take on a Sunderland side who have scored just once in their last five in league and cup – and that goal came from Newcastle’s Demba Ba.
Leighton Baines (£7.6m) could be a wise move as Everton bid to end a run of four straight draws, with Nikica Jelavic (£8.5m) and last weekend’s top points scorer Marouane Fellaini (£7.2m) sure to be popular picks.
Manchester City haven’t convinced recently and their match with Tottenham on Sunday looks to be one which will include goals, whilst Chelsea will be backed to beat Liverpool especially given that Juan Mata (£9.4m) will return after missing the Swansea game and Oscar (£7.8m) will look to repeat the goal he scored in the Champions League in midweek.
Cheap striking options over the weekend can be found in Reading’s Jason Roberts (£4.5m) and Arouna Kone (£6.5m) of Wigan but for our final forward we look towards Manchester United, and not towards the player you think.
Whilst Robin van Persie (£13.5m) now features in over a third of teams, Wayne Rooney (£11.8m) can only be found in 8%, and as United click ominously into gear you have to assume that that number will only go up.
He may have missed a penalty against Arsenal last weekend but Rooney made up for that with an assist, and as @shots_on_target suggested last weekend he could be the way to go ahead of a welcoming set of fixtures for Sir Alex Ferguson’s men, starting with Aston Villa on Saturday.
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?
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
Manchester United – #FPL Selection Advice
Many thanks to @shots_on_target for providing this Fantasy Yirma exclusive post! You can check out his top content at http://www.shotsontarget.co.uk .
The burning question on many Fantasy Managers lips right now is which Manchester United players to own ahead of the a delightful fixture list. Sir Alex’s Ferguson’s men are already the top scoring team in the league this season with 24 goals, 3 ahead of next best Chelsea. This was despite some tricky fixtures against the defensive set up of Stoke and away at Stamford Bridge. What can they achieve over the next set of games?
| GW 10 | (H) ARS | GW 16 | (A) MCI | |
| GW 11 | (A) AVL | GW 17 | (H) SUN | |
| GW 12 | (A) NOR | GW 18 | (A) SWA | |
| GW 13 | (H) QPR | GW 19 | (H) NEW | |
| GW 14 | (H) WHM | GW 20 | (H) WBA | |
| GW 15 | (A) RDG | GW 21 | (A) WIG |
As can be seen, aside from the trip to the Etihad in GW16 there’s hardly a game where United won’t be expected to score, and there could be a few drubbings along the way. So who to own? I’m going to take a look through each of the three outfield positions in fantasy football – Defence, Midfield, and Attack.
DEFENCE
| DEF | £ | TSB |
| Rafael | £6.0 | 20% |
| Evra | £6.8 | 7% |
| Ferdinand | £5.9 | 3% |
| Vidic | £6.7 | 3% |
| Jones | £5.6 | 1% |
First up there have been questions raised about United’s defence this season. An early injury to Vidic has left United without their defensive rock again this season, and it’s telling, although the finger has been pointed at the lack of a proper hard man to boss the midfield, a la Roy Keane and Patrick Viera. These are players of the last decade though, and today’s football is evolving, spearheaded by Barcelona and Spain. These days you don’t need necessarily need a hard man in midfield, particularly at the top level, rather 11 good football players, who can pass the ball and use the available space on the field as a team in both the attacking and defensive play.
Sir Alex’s men have been conceding goals and giving up clean sheets, and perhaps not really caring, relying on sheer goal threat to win games. The £24M signing of Robin Van Persie a clear indicator of their intent this season it seems.
Despite this though, they aren’t defending terribly, and are still within the top 5 or 6 teams defensively, which makes the likes of Jonny Evans and Rafael arguably ownable at £6m or less on clean sheet potential alone. It’s the attacking potential though were United’s players will be hoping to earn their corn. Below is a graphic showing Man Utd’s current back four. The image shows the relative statistics for each of the defender’s key attacking stats. As shown, Evra and Rafael lead the way in all categories, which is expected of full-backs in a side like United. Jonny Evans has been a threat from set pieces too, whilst Rio Ferdinand is left to watch the halfway line it seems.
Of these four, Rafael at £6m now compared to Evra’s £6.8m is clearly the man to own. The Brazilian’s current ownership of 20% means 1 in 5 FPL managers will have him in their line-ups. Despite his high ownership I’d still recommended buying him, he’s the kind of player who could score really big and represents little risk for his value.
MIDFIELD
| MID | £ | TSB |
| Kagawa | £8.2 | 7% |
| Valencia | £8.6 | 3% |
| Cleverley | £5.7 | 3% |
| Nani | £8.4 | 2% |
| Scholes | £5.3 | 2% |
| Carrick | £5.8 | 2% |
| Young | £8.2 | 1% |
Carrick is the only player in the United midfield that has played every game so far. Alex Ferguson has really chopped and changed his midfield, bringing in the likes of Giggs and Scholes for certain games, Cleverly has been in and out, Young was injured, Kagawa still is. It’s really been a minefield.
The chief contenders for FPL points are currently Valencia and Young, with Nani and Kagawa behind these two fighting for inclusion. The graphic below has been done on a per minute basis and Ashley Young has had little game time compared to the others. It seems Kagawa and Nani fit into a similar pattern, heavily involved in the attacking build-up (Final 3rd Passes) and creating a medium number of chances and shooting opportunities for themselves. Valencia is much more direct; he does not feature much in the attacking build-up, or get in many shots. He’s out wide providing the ammo. With doubts over the starting roles still for Nani, Young, and indeed Kagawa, Antonio Valencia is my pick of United’s midfield.
FORWARDS
| FWD | £ | TSB |
| Van Persie | £13.4 | 32% |
| Rooney | £11.8 | 8% |
| Welbeck | £8.0 | 1% |
| Hernandez | £7.5 | 1% |
The big question. Rooney or Van Persie. Both? What about neither. Welbeck and Hernandez are intriguing options and you should act fast if either Rooney or RVP were to suffer an injury, for now they will have to remain on the sidelines.
It has to be said it is still very early in the Rooney-Van Persie partnership. They only started 3 games together in the league so far. In these though, Rooney has tended to drop very deep, playing as a midfield playmaker, as can be seen by his final 3rd passes in the image below. , which represents both players stats in these last 3 games only. Rooney surprisingly, despite his less advanced position, has edged out Van Persie in all four key stats. In the 3 games they’ve played together both have scored 2 goals, Rooney has 2 assists, Van Persie 3. They have also shared set pieces, with Van Persie having most of the corners and Rooney the free kicks. It really is a close call, but with Rooney coming in at £1.6M cheaper and much less owned he gets my vote out of the two.
Gameweek 10 preview: Stoking the Fantasy fires
Being told that you sometimes play like Stoke City is apparently an insult these days, but it could be Stoke players who prove the most effective in Fantasy Premier League over the next few weeks.
A relatively kind fixture list up until just before Christmas should alert Fantasy bosses to Tony Pulis’s men, who go to Norwich City this weekend in search of a first away victory of the season.
That record along with just the nine points taken from nine Premier League matches so far might not give the impression that the boys from the Britannia have been anything to write home about in this campaign, but in goalkeeper Asmir Begovic (£4.8m) and forward Peter Crouch (£6.8m) they have two of the standout value for money selections in the game this season. Defenders Ryan Shawcross (£5.0m) and Robert Huth (£5.5m) and midfielders Jonathan Walters (£6.4m) and Michael Kightly (£5.5m) also provide interesting options, but it is to Crouch that Stoke will turn to on Saturday at Carrow Road against a team who have conceded more goals than everyone but Southampton so far.
Crouch will be coming up against one of the six clubs in this season’s Premier League that he has represented before, and he looks a good bet to bite the hand that used to feed him and find the net for the first time since scoring twice at home to Swansea on Gameweek 6. Finding form could be crucial to both Pulis’s team and yours ahead of this kind run of games.
Elsewhere over a Premier League weekend which would do well to be as dramatic as the last one and the midweek League Cup ties, Manchester United could go top of the table for a few hours at least as they take on Arsenal at Old Trafford early on Saturday afternoon.
These heavyweight clashes are usually best avoided by Fantasy bosses due to their often tight and competitive nature, but Robin van Persie (£13.4m) simply can’t be ignored here as he comes up against his former employers for the first time.
Unlike Crouch he’ll only face old friends twice this season, and with the Dutchman having found the net in his last two league matches and seven times overall to jointly lead the Premier League goalscoring charts alongside Demba Ba (£8.4m, but who is a doubt for Newcastle’s trip to Anfield on Sunday), then his form is easily apparent and matches the class that he undoubtedly has.
Every league match that Van Persie has started for United has produced either a goal or an assist for the Dutchman, and with it being almost impossible to envisage that run coming to an end on Saturday, if you’ve got the cash to splash then it could well be a wise move to rely on Robin.
Tottenham players are sure to prove popular given their home match against struggling Wigan, and whilst Jan Vertonghen (£6.4m), Gareth Bale (£9.6m) and Jermain Defoe (£8.0m) are sure to be attracting plenty of attention from Fantasy bosses, it might be worth considering that Spurs face trips to Manchester City and Arsenal in their next two weeks, and so it could be better to wait to bring their boys on board.
With the basement battle between QPR and Reading sure to be a committed affair on Sunday, perhaps there is potential for points on Monday night when West Brom take on Southampton at The Hawthorns.
With the Baggies having won four of their five home matches – only losing to champions Manchester City – and considering that the Saints have lost all four of their away fixtures, then success looks likely for Steve Clarke’s men in the final game of the weekend.
Key to that success is likely to be James Morrison (£6.2m), whose two goals and three assists this season have been key to the performances of Clarke’s side, and who is likely to be heavily involved against a team who have made shipping goals an art form since their elevation to the Premier League.
West Brom don’t play like Stoke, but they could be just as effective for you this week.
Tottenham Hotspur: Quietly confident
The attention was largely elsewhere during a madcap Sunday which could quite accurately be described as ‘Super’ due to the drama on show, but Tottenham Hotspur didn’t let that distract them from achieving their goal.
On England’s south coast, Spurs rather quietly slipped into the top four with a 2-1 win over Southampton that might not have done much for the home side’s prospects of avoiding relegation, but certainly served as a huge boost to the ambitions of the visitors at the other end of the Premier League table.
The win was Tottenham’s fifth from the last six league outings, with any doubts over manager Andre Villas-Boas following a winless first three games now firmly placed in the past.
That run of a loss at Newcastle followed by home draws against West Brom and Norwich even saw a few of the more reactionary Spurs fans call for Villas-Boas’s head and the return of good old Harry Redknapp, but the results since mid-September have now surely got any remaining doubters off the Portuguese’s back.
The task now is of course to keep on impressing, and going into a November which includes fixtures against Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool it will also be important to stay calm and not let results go to their heads.
Staying quietly confident might just be the best thing for Villas-Boas and Spurs right now, and so not for him the bullish and always inaccurate cries from Redknapp that his side were ready to challenge for the Premier League title.
The manner that Chelsea took the game away from them in their 4-2 win at White Hart Lane a week and a half ago showcased that Tottenham’s squad isn’t quite on a par with the top sides in the division just yet. Finishing just below them is a different matter altogether though.
In Gareth Bale, Moussa Dembele, Aaron Lennon, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Clint Dempsey, Jermain Defoe and Emmanuel Adebayor there are the raw attacking materials for a serious tilt at the top four from Tottenham, with qualification for the Champions League surely more than just a pipedream during a campaign in which a good cup run would also strengthen Tottenham’s claims to be considered amongst the big boys.
Reaching the Champions League quarter-finals in 2010/11 perhaps led to some people behind the scenes at Tottenham deciding that the club should run before they could walk, and with Redknapp eventually paying the price for such an increase in expectations then maybe it’d be wise for Spurs fans to just take each game as it comes right now. When you have a talent such as Bale on your hands though, that is easier said than done.
In these times of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo it can be easy to overlook other talents and compare them to that star duo – comparisons which they will always lose out in.
However, Redknapp’s recent claim that Bale is the best British player in the Premier League is probably a correct one in terms of recent form, and if the Welshman can keep on inspiring his side then the sky could well be the limit for Tottenham – so long as that sky falls just below Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City that is.
Like it or not that is where Spurs are right now, but that is a terrific base from which a young manager can build and look to improve as he establishes himself at a club who are slowly beginning to take him to their hearts.
Spurs and Villas-Boas shouldn’t mind that they’re not the centre of attention as long as they keep winning.
Leave it to others to decide when the quiet confidence deserves to be shouted about.
Gameweek 9 preview: Sergio sets sights on Swans again
As introductions to English football go, it was a pretty spectacular one.
Sergio Aguero (£11.1m) entered Premier League life in the 59th minute of Manchester City’s first game of the 2011/12 season against Swansea City at the Etihad Stadium last August, and 31 minutes later he’d scored two goals.
It was the perfect beginning to a campaign in which Aguero would – in this writer’s opinion anyway – establish himself as the most complete forward playing in England right now, with his final kick of the season bringing the kind of joy to Manchester City fans that they hadn’t experienced in 44 years.
This time around things haven’t gone so smoothly, with the knee injury suffered just 13 minutes into City’s opening game of this campaign against Southampton stalling his progress and seeing him cast to the sidelines for over a month.
Now, having played a part in each of City’s last four games and registering two goals and an assist whilst doing so, Aguero will face up to Swansea again as a man determined to repeat former glories.
Picking City forwards is not for the faint-hearted, and nor is trusting them going by the Champions League loss in Amsterdam on Wednesday, which ended with Roberto Mancini fielding all four of his frontmen at once in a bid to get back into the game.
European disappointment will only make the Italian more determined to succeed on the domestic front just like last season of course, and there can be little doubt that a fit and firing Aguero looks to be a menacing addition to his teamsheet ahead of the weekend. He’d look good on yours too.
Other City options ahead of a game they’ll be expecting to win include midweek goalscorer Samir Nasri (£8.2m and worth serious consideration given David Silva’s injury), super-sub Edin Dzeko (£7.5m) and of course Carlos Tevez (£9.4m), but the latter hasn’t scored in his last five games after finding the net in his first three, and if you’ve got the spare cash then it could be time to switch to his Argentinean mate Aguero in a bid for more firepower.
Elsewhere the Sunday clashes at Goodison Park and Stamford Bridge will attract the most attention, but it is the two other fixtures on that day which should be catching the eyes of Fantasy bosses.
Tottenham go to a Southampton side who have shown a worrying inability to construct any form of functioning defence far too often this season, and with the revolving door policy in front of the Saints net set to continue the visitors will fancy some goals.
Jermain Defoe (£7.8m) is sure to prove a popular choice as his goals continue to keep Emmanuel Adebayor (£9.0m and falling) out of the Spurs side, but it is to a man who often provides him with service that we look to next.
Aaron Lennon (7.0m) only makes it into 4.3% of Fantasy Premier League teams, but the quicksilver winger will fancy his chances up against the creaking Southampton backline, and he could just make hay as Spurs chalk up goals and points on the south coast.
At the opposite end of the country, Newcastle take on a West Brom outfit who had the wind knocked out of their sails by Manchester City last weekend.
The Magpies, on the other hand, were solid before somewhat unfortunately letting their lead slip in the derby match at Sunderland last week, and this fixture might just be another home match in which Hatem Ben Arfa (£7.9m) will shine.
As we’ve discussed on these pages before, Ben Arfa is a man to back when Newcastle play at St James’s Park, and he’ll fancy improving on his record of two goals and one assist when the Baggies come calling.
Cloud nine on Gameweek nine awaits for him, and possibly you too.
Chelsea: Three is the magic number
For Chelsea fans, the good things are coming in threes.
The club have won three of the last eight Premier league titles, there’s only been once this season when they didn’t take three points from a league game, and they’ve only conceded three goals at home and three goals away during their unbeaten first eight league fixtures.
Key to that success has been the terrific trio of attacking midfielders who appear to have the fate of their side at their feet.
In Juan Mata, Eden Hazard and Oscar the Blues possess the kind of talents that the rest of the Premier League can only dream of owning.
They don’t come cheap of course – with the trio costing around £80million to unite – but with Mata the oldest at 24 and Hazard and Oscar both just 21 it’s not inconceivable to believe that they’ll all be strutting their stuff at Stamford Bridge for the best part of the next decade. If you’re a Chelsea fan and that didn’t get you licking your lips then I suggest you might like to try another sport.
All three stars have taken the spotlight at some stage already this season, with Hazard shining in his first weeks in English football, Oscar delivering a scintillating Champions League debut at home to Juventus and Mata currently enjoying the limelight thanks to a series of impressive displays and goals over the past few weeks.
The Spaniard had a restricted beginning to 2012/13 following a 12 months which saw him complete his debut Premier League campaign, become an FA Cup and Champions League winner, score in and win the Euro 2012 final and then compete for his country at the Olympic Games, but now his true quality is shining through and Chelsea are reaping the benefits.
The manner in which his two goals transformed last weekend’s 2-1 deficit at Tottenham into a 3-2 lead had a kind of quality about it that you often only associate with championship winning teams, and if Chelsea carry on like this for much longer then it surely can’t be long before they are installed as favourites to win the league ahead of the Manchester clubs.
The chance to get one over on one of them comes on Sunday when Manchester United visit Stamford Bridge for probably the biggest game of Hazard and Oscar’s fledgling Chelsea careers so far.
The Belgian and the Brazilian might have been playing second and third fiddle to Mata’s leading man in recent weeks, but all three have the quality to decide a game which, given United’s recent defensive problems, looks to be Chelsea’s for the taking regardless of their Champions League loss in Donetsk on Tuesday night.
The attacking nature of his trio might have led Roberto di Matteo to occasionally rein them in, but the platform provided by the solidity of John Obi Mikel and the energy of Ramires behind them allows Chelsea’s fab three to be let off their leashes. It is a setup which means that the pressure to score goals isn’t suffocating Fernando Torres the way it used to do, whilst it’s also made Frank Lampard realise that he might as well start getting comfortable on the substitute’s bench.
Di Matteo has fielded the three stars in matches at Arsenal and Tottenham this season, and so a home game against Sir Alex Ferguson’s side isn’t likely to see him abandon the approach.
Beat United and Chelsea suddenly go seven points clear of them, whilst increasing their opponents’ league defeats this season to three.
There’s that number again. Chelsea fans won’t tire of seeing it throughout the season.
By the end of it though, if their star trio can keep on performing there is every chance that they’ll see their team at number one.
GW8 – The Review… HOW DID YOU DO???
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