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Gameweek 4 preview: Tevez to rule Britannia

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Just under half of you reading this can skip the next few paragraphs.

It’s not the traditional approach to the start of a piece that I’m usually hoping that you’ll read all the way through, I’ll give you that, but there isn’t much point in telling a lot of you what you already know.

Carlos Tevez (now £9.8m after a rapid price rise since the start of the season) can currently be seen in 48.9% of Fantasy Premier League teams, a staggering amount and testament to both the Argentinean’s low price at the start of the game and the form which has seen him score a goal in each of Manchester City’s three matches so far whilst racking up three assists too.

These may be famous last words, but Tevez looks focused, fully fit and prepared to stay away from South American golf courses.

His ‘lost’ campaign of last season is now forgotten about, and he now – admittedly aided by the injury to Sergio Aguero – has re-established himself as the focal point of City’s attack at the beginning of his side’s defence of their Premier League crown. He simply cannot be ignored by Fantasy bosses.

He can, however, be overlooked by his national manager Alejandro Sabella, who left Tevez out of his Argentina squad for the World Cup qualifiers at home to Paraguay and in Peru in the past week. Such words should be music to your ears.

Tevez will be fresh for Manchester City’s trip to Stoke on Saturday afternoon, a match that always carries its own levels of difficulty but one that Roberto Mancini’s side should emerge victorious from.

If they take the points from the Britannia, then expect Tevez to be picking up more than a few points of his own.

Elsewhere – 48.9% of you can come back now – it looks to be a big scoring Gameweek for players from Arsenal and Manchester United given their respective fixtures.

Unlike United, Arsenal have been solid at the back in their opening three games and there looks to be nothing to suggest that that solidity will stop when they entertain Southampton at the Emirates. However, before considering bringing in the likes of Thomas Vermaelen (£7.0m) and even cheap option Carl Jenkinson (£4.8m), Fantasy bosses should bear in mind that the Gunners’ next two fixtures after they play the Saints see them head for Manchester City before hosting Chelsea.

Perhaps it will pay to be more forward-thinking then, with the addition of Santi Cazorla (£9.1m) sure to increase the creativity within your team, and Lukas Podolski (£8.4m and still cheaper than Olivier Giroud) no doubt ready to impress after scoring his first goal for the club at Anfield last time out.

At Old Trafford the usual suspects will be eyeing goals with the visit of Wigan Athletic, but with selling the family silver now required if you want to afford Robin van Persie (£13.4m), perhaps a gamble on Danny Welbeck (£8.4m) could prove fruitful. Midfield options are also plentiful, and with Shinji Kagawa (£8.6m) reportedly suffering a knock on international duty with Japan, Tom Cleverley (£6.0m) could be thrust into the more forward role we saw him occupy for England over the past week.

It is a man who left United behind who could prove the most astute addition for this Gameweek though, with Dimitar Berbatov (£6.9m) looking terrific value ahead of what is sure to be his first Fulham start against West Brom at Craven Cottage.

The forward – whose retirement from international duty leaves him fresh for the weekend – will only see his value rise, and so it might pay to get in early.

Just as it did with Tevez a month ago.

@Mark_Jones86

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There’s a draft coming from that bloody window!!!

Aug 31

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Closing time: The frantic ending to the transfer window

The music has stopped, the bouncers are putting chairs on the tables and there are football managers staggering around and looking for whatever they can get their hands on.

Alright, maybe that is a bit extreme, but the last few hours of the transfer window can often have the feel of a local nightclub with a questionable reputation. Virtually everyone is available if you’ve got the right moves, but you might pick up somebody you’ll regret in the morning.

Ever since the introduction of summer and winter transfer windows, it is the closure of both rather than the opening which always makes big news.

Sky television have turned the bi-annual event into a frantic soap opera all of their own, as men and women in a TV studio shout to reporters stationed in car parks full of expectant youngsters, all of whom are waiting to hear the news that a tireless midfielder from Feyenoord has passed his medical and completed his season-long loan. Cue the cheers.

The quality of these pantomimes have been on a steady decline since 1st September 2008, the day that the city of Manchester welcomed Robinho and Dimitar Berbatov to their two Premier League football clubs amidst the kind of against-the-clock drama that Jack Bauer usually monopolises.

The fact that now, two-and-a-half years after Robinho last kicked a ball for Manchester City, his unwitting co-star Berbatov surely stands on the verge of leaving Manchester United wouldn’t even have been considered back then. Both players, at £30m plus the rest, were going to be superstars for their new clubs, regardless of what anybody thought.

Berbatov’s performances at United can be debated over until all involved are blue in the face, but it would take a really convincing argument to state that he was worth the money that United shelled out on him back then, whilst it might take a hypnotist to convince you that Liverpool were right to spend a similar amount two-and-a-half years later on Andy Carroll, another who could be on the move again this week.

Yet at the time it was all about the thrill of spending. The clubs were operating against the clock and wanted to make their move, Liverpool in particular following their windfall from the Fernando Torres sale to Chelsea.

Were they not operating against the clock the club would not have shelled out the cash that they did on Carroll. The player was a confirmed target, but the Reds were happy to wait until the summer for him to get in their taxi. The offer they got for Torres sped up a manic process.

And that is what the final few hours of the transfer window are. Manic.

Clubs blinded by the thrill of the chase and the money involved make huge moves, and they are often false ones. QPR stayed up by the narrowest of margins last season after spending big in each window, almost creating new teams as they did so and removing the character and team spirit which had got them to the Premier League in the first place.

Staging the end of the window after the first matches of the league season doesn’t exactly help matters either, and can lead to players refusing to play for their clubs in a bid to force through moves as seen in the cases of Luka Modric and Clint Dempsey.

One of those got his transfer, and the other one will eventually. Players know that if they flirt with moves for long enough they’ll get what and who they want.

Maybe ultimately that’s what everyone desires.

The player gets his move, the manager gets to experience the thrill of the chase, the fans get to watch the drama unfold. In the background, the agent counts his money.

All of them were in the dodgy nightclub in the first place, so they must have known that it would end like this.

No-one goes home early and alone on deadline day, after all.

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Gameweek 3 preview: The value of Sterling

Aug 30

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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

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Twitter, and its part in Liverpool’s downfall

Aug 26

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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.

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An apology, by @Mark_Jones86

Aug 26

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I’ve let Yirma down.

I know I wasn’t supposed to do it. I know that Yirma legend and Fantasy football God Tom K told me not to do it. I know that, if I could take Saturday afternoon back, I probably wouldn’t do it again.

But part of me is delighted I’ve done it.

It all started, as so many of the most regretful stories do, with Mohamed Diame.

As I watched the West Ham, Senegal and Werder Beertent midfielder roam aimlessly around Swansea City’s Liberty Stadium early on Saturday afternoon, with his team getting ruthlessly hammered by a Swans team with a terrific case of new manager syndrome, a horrible thought crossed my mind.

It was a thought that all of you will have at some point this season, although only the very brave and very stupid of you will act upon it this early.

It was the sight of Diame trudging off the pitch with his team 3-0 down to be replaced by Alou Diarra which finally made it hit home for me. I couldn’t deny it any longer.

My Fantasy football team was rubbish.

I was sure that I had it right at some point during the endless tinkering of the summer, but the collection of 15 players I was staring at now just made no sense whatsoever.

Diame? Darron Gibson? Fabricio Coloccini? Ramires? Ian Harte? It just didn’t look right.   

Evidently the big man upstairs (not my large Polish neighbour Jakub) agreed with me, and sent a monsoon to Sunderland to prevent Harte and his special brand of being-useless-from-anything-but-a-dead-ball football from seeing any action at the Stadium of Light on Saturday afternoon. Football was undoubtedly the winner.

There was, however, one man who I thought could save me from this mess.

One man who, like the warrior he is, would lead my rag-tag bunch of wounded, rotated misfits to success, glory and somewhere in the region of a 40 point Gameweek.

It wasn’t Jakub or the other fella, but it was instead another big man who was sure to rise to the occasion and perform on his long-awaited return to his home turf.

Introducing an icon. The one and only. The captain of Manchester United and, for this week only of Werder Beertent. The great Nemanja Vid… oh, Fulham have scored haven’t they?

Bang goes the clean sheet then, but that’s alright. There’s still time for the big Serbian to get on the scoresheet… Perhaps from a cross or a mix-up with the goalkeeper…

My job involves keeping track of football results, so there was literally no escape from the moment when – in the 64th minute of the match against Fulham at Old Trafford – Nemanja Vidic decided to make up my mind for me by hopelessly flicking the ball into his own goal and putting himself in minus points territory.

Now I’m no Manchester United fan, and as such there will always be a part of me that cracks a smile whenever they concede a goal between now and their Intergalactic Cup Final defeat to the Saturn Superstars in 2072 (Sir Alex having retired three years earlier), but this time it was different. I had to act.

So I did.

Straight away the heart of my team was ripped out, leaving only three survivors – all of whom will coincidentally go on to be useless in this afternoon’s Liverpool v Manchester City match.

Out they came and in went the new faces. New, glorious faces. Faces that would laugh at the mere mention of Mohamed Diame.

And then it was done. And then I clicked it. And then I clicked the confirmation bit asking me if I was sure I knew that I was being completely mental. I was sure.

Activate Wildcard.

So I’m sorry to Yirma. Sorry Tom K. Sorry to you if you don’t agree with me. But I’m happy.

Rest assured I’ll be occupying my comfortably mediocre mid-table position come May, something that was in serious doubt for a few minutes there on Saturday afternoon.

I like my team now.

Of course Marouane Fellaini will keep scoring goals. Of course Swansea will carry on keeping clean sheets. They’ll probably keep them in every match for the rest of the season, I suspect.

I hope you all enjoyed the two-week headstart you got on me then, because I’m ready to start now, and I’m finally fully confident in all of my 15 players.

At least until that second Wildcard in January anyway.

I wonder how much Diame will be then?

@Mark_Jones86

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BONUS POINTS GALORE…. GW2

Aug 25

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SUNDAY 26TH AUGUST

Stoke City Stoke City 0 – 0 Arsenal Arsenal
Yellow cards
Wilkinson
Huth
Saves
Begovic (2)
Bonus
Wilkinson (3)
Kightly (2)
Saves
Mannone (3)
Bonus
Vermaelen (2)
Jenkinson (2)

 

 

Liverpool Liverpool 2 – 2 Man City Man City
Goals scored
Skrtel
Suarez
Assists
Gerrard (2)
Yellow cards
Suarez
Saves
Reina
Bonus
Skrtel (2)
Goals scored
Yaya Toure
Tevez
Assists
Tevez
Saves
Hart
Bonus
Yaya Toure (2)
Tevez (3)

 

As with last week – Bonus points are up very early… we figure the PL guys will get bored by week4 and bonus points will revert back to monday mornings.. so enjoy while it lasts!!

Defenders Top 5 BP £      B
i Ivanovic CHE 6.6      5
i Baines EVE 7.0      5
i Collins WHM 5.0      3
i Cahill CHE 6.5      3
i Figueroa WIG 4.5      3
   Midfielders Top 5 BP £    B
i Michu SWA 6.8    4
i Kightly STO 5.5    3
i Hazard CHE 9.7    3
i Fellaini EVE 6.6    3
i Pienaar EVE 6.5 3
Forwards Top 5 BP £     B
i Torres CHE 10.0     4
i Odemwingie WBA 7.0     3
i Van Persie MUN 13.0     3
i Petric FUL 6.1     3
i Zamora QPR 6.4     3
Swansea Swansea 3 – 0 West Ham West Ham
Bonus
Rangel (3)
Michu (2)
Graham (2)
Aston Villa Aston Villa 1 – 3 Everton Everton
Bonus
Baines (2)
Fellaini
Pienaar (3)
Man Utd Man Utd 3 – 2 Fulham Fulham
Bonus
Rafael (2)
Evra
Van Persie (3)
Norwich Norwich 1 – 1 QPR QPR
Bonus
Pilkington (2)
Snodgrass
Bonus
Zamora (3)
Southampton Southampton 0 – 2 Wigan Wigan
Bonus
Al-Habsi (2)
Figueroa (3)
Maloney
Tottenham Tottenham 1 – 1 West Brom West Brom
Bonus
Assou-Ekotto (3)
Bonus
McAuley
Morrison (2)
Chelsea Chelsea 2 – 0 Newcastle Newcastle
Bonus
Bertrand
Hazard (2)
Torres (3)
Defenders Top 5 BP £      B
i Ivanovic CHE 6.6      5
i Baines EVE 7.0      5
i Collins WHM 5.0      3
i Cahill CHE 6.5      3
i Figueroa WIG 4.5      3
   Midfielders Top 5 BP £    B
i Michu SWA 6.8    4
i Kightly STO 5.5    3
i Hazard CHE 9.7    3
i Fellaini EVE 6.6    3
i Pienaar EVE 6.5 3
Forwards Top 5 BP £     B
i Torres CHE 10.0     4
i Odemwingie WBA 7.0     3
i Van Persie MUN 13.0     3
i Petric FUL 6.1     3
i Zamora QPR 6.4     3

 

 

 

 

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TIPS OUT FOR YIRMA!! GW2

Aug 24

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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!!!

 

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Fantasy Yirma: Gameweek 2 preview

Aug 23

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Gameweek 2 preview: Forwards to earn their Spurs?

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Maybe earning his Spurs is a bit less important to Emmanuel Adebayor than earning AT Spurs, but after completing his move to White Hart Lane from Manchester City at least he’s added another quality striking option for Fantasy managers.

The Togoloese forward (£9.5m) is likely to go straight into the squad for Saturday’s clash at home to West Brom after eventually turning his loan switch into a permanent one, with ‘Ade’ adding much needed strength in depth to Andre Villas-Boas’s striking department after the Portuguese was left with just Jermain Defoe (£7.5m) as a solitary senior forward for last weekend’s loss at Newcastle.

Defoe scored there of course, and he’ll be looking to take that form into the meeting with the Baggies, where he could still start despite the arrival of his new/old team-mate.

The England man continues to be linked with moves away, but it is unlikely that you’ll see Defoe depart North London at least until Villas-Boas is able to bring in yet another forward, and even then all talk of a transfer seems premature.

Now nearly 30, Defoe has seemingly spent a career on the fringes despite consistently finding the net.

There always seems to have been the feeling that managers can do better than him – either at club or international level – but with Adebayor likely to take a while to settle in after having no pre-season to speak of, Spurs are sure to have to turn to him over the coming weeks. Their next four matches see them face West Brom (h), Norwich (h), Reading (a) and QPR (h). The potential for goals is there for all to see.

That should draw you towards Tottenham’s forwards – perhaps with your Sergio Aguero money – and also to the men playing behind them. If Villas-Boas is to persevere with just the one attacker, then Gareth Bale (£9.5m), Gylfi Sigurdsson (£9.0m) and Rafael van der Vaart (£9.0m) will all be looking to get into scoring and assisting positions behind him.

Elsewhere this Fantasy weekend, the lack of a double Gameweek, the advice to avoid Chelsea players who’ll be inactive next weekend and some very intriguing fixtures make it somewhat of a tough one to predict.

After losing so heavily at West Brom, it would be just like Liverpool to bounce back and get a positive result against Manchester City, but it would take the most confident of Fantasy bosses to turn to the likes of the £9.5m pairing of Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez against the champions, despite City’s concession of goals against Southampton and the Liverpool pair’s rest from the trip to Hearts in midweek.

City will miss Aguero of course and so a stalemate could ensue, which is probably what Arsenal would settle for from their tough trip to Stoke where Gunners forwards should probably be avoided.

Manchester United will be determined to bounce back from their loss to Everton on Monday, and with many put off by Robin van Persie’s price tag (£13.0m) it could well be the other home debutant Shinji Kagawa (£8.5m) who impresses against Fulham at Old Trafford, where it goes without saying that the Whites’ players who impressed on the opening day against Norwich – Mladen Petric (£6.0m), Damien Duff (£6.0m) and Alex Kacaniklic (£4.5m) – will find it tougher to shine again.

Other opening day stars Michu (bumped up to £6.7m) and Marouane Fellaini (£6.5m) could have it a little easier at home to West Ham and away to Aston Villa respectively, whilst in the battle of the two teams beaten 5-0 last week, it could pay to focus on QPR’s players ahead of those from Norwich.

Junior Hoilett (£6.5m) – a scorer home and away against Norwich for Blackburn last season – might well shine the brightest. 

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15 Transfers That Shocked English Football!!

Aug 17

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We are delighted to be working in tandem with http://www.footysays.com

Following on from Robin van Persie’s completed move from Arsenal to Manchester United, here’s a look at 15 more transfers which shocked English football.

Click here for full article https://fantasyyirma.wordpress.com/fy-guest-posts/

Written by @Lewbob91 for @Footysays

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Fantasy Yirma: Gameweek 1 preview

Aug 17

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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/

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