There was a time when a search for the best two teams in England wouldn’t have needed to take place outside of a park on Merseyside. Ahead of Manchester United and Arsenal, and far better than Chelsea and Manchester City, were Everton and Liverpool, the two clubs separated by a stretch of grass known as […]
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GW15 Preview: Liverpool’s Luis Suarez simply has to be backed to nail Hammers
We’ll make no apologies for failing to be very original, but after urging you all to make Luis Suarez (£12.4m) your main man for Gameweek 14, we’re going to do so again.
Suarez’s stunning display and four goals – three of which will surely be contenders for Goal of the Month – in Liverpool’s 5-1 victory over Norwich City on Wednesday will live long in the memories of all who were fortunate enough to witness it, and ahead of the visit of West Ham United to Anfield on Saturday there simply isn’t a better captain choice than the Uruguayan.
There were plenty of astonishing statistics doing the rounds on Wednesday night – Suarez has now scored 11 goals in his last four games against Norwich, something that could only bring a rueful smile and a shake of the head from John Ruddy when he embraced him at full-time – but there are others to consider ahead of the weekend too.
After missing Liverpool’s first three home league games of the season through suspension, Suarez has now scored an incredible 10 goals in his four Anfield appearances during this campaign.
Having only scored twice as a team in those three home games their star forward was absent for at the start of the campaign, Liverpool have now hit 16 goals in their last four games on their own turf, something that is sure to worry a West Ham side who lost at Crystal Palace last time out and have only won once away all season.
Another huge blow to the Hammers will be the absence of midfielder Ravel Morrison (£5.1m) through suspension.
The former Manchester United man would have been looking forward to taking on the Reds, but without him and with Suarez in this kind of other-worldly form, there only looks to be one result on the horizon at the weekend. And one man whose goals will provide it.
Elsewhere, there is a former Liverpool player who might just help to fill the Morrison-sized hole in your team.
Swansea’s Jonjo Shelvey (£5.3m) was terrific in racking up 14 points in the 3-0 win over Newcastle on Wednesday, and with three goals and three assists this season he is certainly a player to be keeping an eye on.
The Swans face a home game with Hull on Monday night and then go to a Norwich side who will potentially still be dazed from the Suarez show, and Shelvey can take advantage as his team try and break into the top half.
That Swansea-Hull game at the Liberty Stadium is the last of the weekend, but you could argue that the most important will be the first.
Manchester United have slipped to ninth following three winless games, and after the defeat to Everton the bad news keeps coming for David Moyes, who’ll be without the suspended Wayne Rooney (£11.2m) for the home clash with Newcastle.
The Scot will be desperate for Robin van Persie (£13.8m) to return to fitness for that game, which could see Danny Welbeck (£7.0m) make a third start in a row.
There will be plenty of people who fancy Everton to get a result at Arsenal following their win at United, and unlikely Old Trafford hero Bryan Oviedo (£4.3m) will surely keep his place for the trip to the Emirates.
However, the final say there is more likely to come from Mesut Ozil (£10.3m), who scored his first goal in six in the Hull win. Nicklas Bendtner (£6.5m and selected by a huge 0.0% of teams) will drop back to the bench.
Chelsea and Manchester City will be seeking to keep pace with the Gunners at the top as they face two more tricky away games having come through Wednesday night unscathed.
City go to a Southampton side who are suddenly falling away a little, and Alvaro Negredo (£9.3m) will surely return to the visitors’ team in place of Edin Dzeko (£6.8m), whilst Yaya Toure (£9.6m) will be as crucial as ever.
Chelsea are at Stoke, and although that will bring familiar challenges they are likely to be overcome if Eden Hazard (£9.6m) demonstrates the brilliant form he showed in the win at Sunderland.
He didn’t quite reach the levels set by Suarez on Wednesday, but frankly who can?
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.
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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).
GW11 Preview: Suarez and Liverpool to bite back against Fulham
Nov 7
Liverpool’s apparent title aspirations might have been given a reality check with their defeat to Arsenal last weekend, but as long as the Reds keep beating the teams that they are supposed to beat then this can still be a successful season for them. The top four is still a realistic aim, and likely to […]
Off the Mark: Joe Hart hasn’t become bad, he’s just forgotten what made him good
FantasyYIRMA has been nominated for the Best FPL Football Blog at the 2013 Football Blogging Awards. To cast your vote, simply click on this link.
You’ll have seen them all by now, the hashtags, the harsh comparisons and the jokes no doubt ripped off and retold to thousands of followers across the globe. When you’re in a slump, Twitter is not your friend.
When you’re the goalkeeper for England and Manchester City, not many other people are either.
Each error is going to be seized upon and dissected in minute detail, and so the aim has to be to simply stop making as many mistakes. For Joe Hart, that is proving easier said than done.
City would have welcomed a point from their weekend visit to Chelsea, especially seeing as they fell behind in the first half and responded well in the second.
There were crucial momentum points up for grabs there, points perhaps more important than the one they were to achieve from the 1-1 result. Then disaster struck.
Hart’s error in not trusting Matija Nastasic enough to deal with both a lofted ball forward and an onrushing Fernando Torres turned one point into none, an encouraging draw into a damaging loss and a decent result into a third league defeat of the season. That’s the same as Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool combined.
Despite maintaining the title of the top scorers in the division, City’s away form now shows just one win in five. Maintaining that won’t even get them into the top four, never mind the top one.
Hart has been the man blamed by many for this slump, and decisions such as his last minute rush of blood at Stamford Bridge indicate why.
Is this the same man once widely thought to be the best goalkeeper in the Premier League? Physically yes, give or take a few skin flakes he’s removed from his scalp, but mentally the answer looks to be no.
Judging by his lack of faith in Nastasic’s ability to deal with the Torres situation, Hart simply hasn’t got enough trust in his defence at the moment. The company around him doesn’t fill him with confidence, as opposed to the Kompany who usually keeps him safe.
The absence of City’s skipper Vincent Kompany – who has started just four of his side’s nine league games this season, completing only two of them – is the key to Hart’s struggles.
Of course the Belgian isn’t a one-man defence capable of shielding Hart from any shots heading towards his goal, but he does inspire others around him, including Nastasic. Hart would have played behind the Serb on plenty of occasions, but the Nastasic he’ll have seen lining up alongside Martin Demichelis on Sunday would have been a different player to the one the goalkeeper would see playing with Kompany.
Perhaps Hart is also lacking that leadership in front of him when he plays for England too, with Roy Hodgson picking the likes of Phil Jagielka, Gary Cahill and Joleon Lescott at centre-back, none of whom possessing the organisational skills of, say, a John Terry.
Let’s not begin a tub-thumping call for the Chelsea man to return to international football though, and instead focus on a goalkeeper who hasn’t become bad, he’s just forgotten what made him good.
At 26, Hart could easily have another 10 years at the top left in him, and that decade is likely to feature one or two more slumps in form like the one he’s experiencing now.
If he can learn from it though, and remember to place trust in his defenders, then he might just look back on this period as the making of him.
City will certainly hope so anyway, as will those of us sick of reading those same old Twitter jokes.
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Clear thinking is the key to Sturridge form
Liverpool’s forwards are a joy to watch at the moment, and while the spotlight was rightly on the brilliant Luis Suarez at the weekend, it is the development of Daniel Sturridge which is the greater attraction.
Twenty-one goals in 27 Liverpool games is statistic approaching Messi-Ronaldo levels, and it has been really refreshing to see and hear the forward talk with such openness and honesty about the need to de-clutter his mind in order to become a better player.
The fact that Sturridge has only awarded himself “a six or seven” out of 10 for his Reds career so far (and the seven didn’t sit well with him) suggests that he’s his own harshest critic, but goals like the brilliant chip against West Brom at the weekend don’t come from six or seven out of 10 players.
They come from superstars.
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Swans need to avoid Euro hangover
Swansea look handily placed in ninth at the moment, but that is just three points above the relegation zone.
Such is the tightness of the division they are likely to have slipped somewhat by the time they take on Cardiff City on Sunday, in a match that those who don’t follow football outside of the Premier League might be about to realise the significance of.
It’s going to be big, and with a Cardiff win taking them above their bitter rivals in the table, the Swans need to make sure that their European campaign doesn’t distract them from the bigger picture.
That picture, for much longer than Sunday, is purely made up of South Wales bragging rights.
Newcastle vs Liverpool: Confirmed Lineups and Preview
Oct 19
Newcastle vs Liverpool: Saturday 19th October KO 12.45pm Team news released approx 1 hour before kick off #NUFC v #LFC (4-3-3): Krul; Debuchy,Yanga-Mbiwa, Williamson, Santon; Cabaye, Tiote (c), Sissoko; Gouffran, Ben Arfa, Remy. — Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) October 19, 2013 #NUFC subs v #LFC: Elliot, Dummett, Anita, Obertan, Sammy Ameobi, Shola Ameobi, Cisse. — […]
Newcastle vs Liverpool: The Lineups and Fantasy Preview
Oct 6
Newcastle vs Liverpool: Saturday 19th October KO 12.45pm Team news released approx 1 hour before kick off GW8 FANTASY FOOTBALL PREVIEW As international breaks go that one was pretty entertaining wasn’t it? But it’s time to get back to the real stuff now. When we left the Premier League a fortnight ago, the […]
GW7 Preview: Liverpool’s Suarez set to reign against Crystal Palace
In amongst the chaos of his latest infamous suspension and the summer-long transfer saga it was easy to forget just how good a footballer Luis Suarez is. Last Sunday we were given a timely reminder.
The return of everyone’s favourite Uruguayan – this may be an exaggeration – to Premier League action couldn’t have come at a better time for Liverpool or a worse one for Sunderland, and after his brace against the Black Cats on Sunday the Reds will now be looking to Suarez (£11.0m) to fire in a winnable looking home clash against Crystal Palace this weekend.
Following a slip-up the last time they were on home soil when they lost to Southampton, Liverpool and boss Brendan Rodgers will know that they can’t afford to drop any more Anfield points in the early stages of the season if they want to keep pace with the boys at the top.
In recent weeks, Rodgers has unveiled a new 3-4-1-2 formation which promises to give Fantasy bosses plenty to think about.
The setup is designed to get the most out of both Suarez and five-goal forward Daniel Sturridge (£9.7m), but it is also set to see plenty of Liverpool’s defenders such as Kolo Toure (£5.0m) and Mamadou Sakho (£5.5m) get minutes on the pitch, with Jose Enrique (£6.2m) certain to get forward from left wing-back and Victor Moses (£6.3m) likely to get into attacking positions in the continued absence of Philippe Coutinho (£8.6m) through injury.
All of which makes Liverpool an interesting prospect for Fantasy bosses at the moment, but they are by far the only one ahead of a weekend which promises much.
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For Arsenal, the only club currently above the Reds in the league table, every weekend is one to look forward to at the moment.
The top of the table Gunners go to West Brom on Sunday afternoon chasing a sixth straight Premier League victory, and they’ll go there with the likes of Mesut Ozil (£10.5m) and Aaron Ramsey (£6.4m) in the sort of form which has seen them amass huge ownership percentages in the Fantasy game.
At The Hawthorns they’ll be looking to load the bullets for the in-form Olivier Giroud (£9.4m).
The Frenchman scored his first Premier League goal on this weekend last season, and he’s come a long way since then.
West Brom’s superb win at Old Trafford showed that they’ll be no pushovers, but the form that the Gunners are in makes them impossible to ignore here, and Giroud and company can bring Steve Clarke’s men back down to earth.
Elsewhere, a suspension to Fernando Torres (£8.4m) means that Samuel Eto’o (£8.9m) could start Chelsea’s trip to Norwich, whilst Robin van Persie (£14.0m) is set to return for Manchester United at Sunderland just as there is another doubt over the fitness of Wayne Rooney (£10.9m).
Manchester City’s clash with Everton is a high quality start to the weekend, and given the Merseysiders’ fine record of only having lost on one of their last six trips to the Etihad, it could pay to trust the likes of Romelu Lukaku (£7.6m) and Ross Barkley (£5.3m) to impress again for the visitors following their fine performances in the Monday night win over Newcastle.
The Geordies go to Cardiff this weekend, and the hosts will be looking to build on the fine win they earned at Fulham last Saturday through a late winner from Jordon Mutch (£4.4m).
However, the real midfield influence for the Welsh side comes from Peter Whittingham (£5.1m), who has played every minute of every league game this season and has registered a goal and two assists.
He’ll be looked to by the Bluebirds this weekend and could be a good addition to your side too, particularly if you need a replacement for Hull’s impressive three-goal midfielder Robbie Brady (£5.3m), who will be out of action for the next month following a hernia operation.
Off the Mark: With Suarez back for Liverpool, the heat is on Rodgers
Sep 25
Remember Luis Suarez? Goalscorer, headline-maker, borderline basket case? Of course you do, and he’s soon to be back in a Liverpool side that – bar last weekend’s surprising setback at home to Southampton – did pretty well in his absence. That 1-0 loss to the Saints was the only one of the 10 matches Suarez […]
GW5 Preview: You can’t ignore Liverpool’s Sturridge and Arsenal’s Giroud
Sep 19
BEST #FPL BLOG AWARD Every so often there comes a time in each Fantasy Premier League season when not having a certain player in your team is akin to gross negligence. Everybody else in your mini-league has them, and so by not selecting these special players you’re simply leaving yourself no chance to make any […]
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