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GW11 THE REVIEW!! by @shots_on_target
Many Thanks to @shots_on_target for this weeks GW round up. For more great articles from our very own “Statto” check out his website at http://www.shotsontarget.co.uk !!
Special mention this week to new guest poster Super Grover who has provided Match reports to supplement the tables
Very accurate and clinical shooting by both teams. The game wasn’t quite as open as the score dictates as 15 shots in the box is pretty standard. Just one of those games where everything goes in, except Arteta’s penalty that is!
As for individuals, Giroud is the obvious star here. Superb game all around. Berbatov continues to be superb and appears almost fixture proof at this point. Ruiz would be interesting if listed as a MID.
Cazorla’s numbers weren’t bad, but at his price range he needs to produce more in this kind of fixture. Suspect a number of owners will be rethinking their elite MID options with Mata on fire and Silva back from the injury list.
Sunderland managed to find the back of the net again although Everton were clearly the better side in this one. Everton continue to press forward and are susceptible to counters. All the Blues offensive players were involved (Fellaini, Pienaar, Baines, Jelavic, Mirallas) and any of them could have brought home the points. This team remains a gold mine for attacking fantasy purposes.
Wouldn’t look too much at Heitenga’s shot opportunities. Yes he kicked/headed the ball towards the goal, but if Saturday is any indication he’s going to struggle to ever put one on the goal. With any skill he could have easily netted a brace.
While Sessegnon was a handful and showed some of the form he demonstrated last season they still managed just 3 shots on goal. It is still difficult to consider this team from an offensive perspective other than perhaps Fletcher.
My model predicted about 1.5 goals for Man U this weekend. They scored 3 from onlu 5 shots on target. They continue to confound any statistical forecaster with their absurd conversion rate (now at 46% for the year). Van Persie was the most provocative player, but had 4 shots to Rooney’s 4 in 17 fewer minutes and Hernandez’ 3 in 47 fewer minutes. RVP remains a fantasy monster but at soon to be 13.7 million you certainly are paying for it.
Villa didn’t do a whole lot but everything they did was funneled through Benteke and Weimann. While Benteke is a legit fantasy option, Weimann seems like a non-entity to me. This was his first game of any real contribution and Bent remains an ever present option on the bench. I personally see no value in Villa’s offense.
Even game in which Stoke were probably somewhat fortunate to get a clean sheet. Crouch and Walters were involved, but neither are elite options as Stoke isn’t going to put up many crooked numbers this year. For QPR, Taarabt was a menace to both sides as usual, being more than a bit free with his shots. Granero was also heavily involved and Hoillet was solid as well. This is the third game in a row the trio has started together. Any of the three are legit fantasy options if QPR can click into some sort of form. All are on my radar.
Terrible game to watch. From Adebayor’s diving to Mancini’s sideline histrionics. City dominated the game throughout and probably should have scored 3. Aguero and Silva were excellent as expected while I thought Tevez was a bit subdued. Dzeko really was only involved in his goal and a corner, but his presence remains troublesome to Tevez owners. Interestingly Balotelli and Nasri weren’t even included on the bench.
To me, Aguero and Silva are the key options here, with Tevez there if you want to try and read Mancini’s mind. The defense remains stout as Totenham barely threatened and the goal was very soft. Probably should have been a clean sheet for City.
For the Spurs, there wasn’t much to talk about. Adebayor was a flopping menace but didn’t really threaten much. Bale was starved of many real opportunities for him. One thing to note is that Huddlestone took nearly every free kick and 1 of the 2 corners. If that continues that is a bit of a knock on Bale’s value. It did not occur last game though so I wouldn’t look too much into it. Besides Bale, the rest of the Spurs look like non-options right now.
Don’t look now, but Southampton’s defense is improving. It’s still not good mind you, but improvement is improvement. Swansea really didn’t generate much offense and widely-held Michu and Routledge were invisible. For Routledge, this is the 3rd straight fixture that he has been a non-factor. De Guzman was better this week and has been better recently, but probably not strong enough to warrant investment.
For Southampton, Lambert remains a well-rounded asset, especially at home. He now has 21 chances created on the season, third behind Suarez and RVP among all forwards. If he plays he is almost certainly worth the money at 6.1. Ramirez continues to rack up solid numbers in his playing time. He is now averaging 3 shots and 2.2 chances created per 90 minutes, solid numbers for a 6.0 million MID. Lallana remains a solid 6.0 option as well.
Even game. Both teams were somewhat threatening but only generated 4 chances on target. For WBA, Morrison remains the key figure although Lukaku remains a constant goal threat when he is given time on the pitch. Brunt started instead of Gera this week so that probably removes Gera as a budget option. On the other side it was more of a mixed bag. Kone scored but had only 2 shots all day and no key passes. Di Santo didn’t do much either. Watson did manage 3 shots for the second week in a row. Could he become an option with regular playing time?
Shots on target was right, Reading’s defense was the way to go this week! A pretty non-eventful game, with both teams struggling to generate anything with only 13 total chances created. Hoolahan, Snoddgrass and Holt remain interesting options on Norwich presuming rotations issues can be weeded out. For Reading, only Shorey did anything useful by racking up 3 key passes from his very advanced left-back position. Not sure he is worth investment though as they won’t be playing Norwich’s offense at home every week.
Newcastle probably deserved at least a draw here. West Ham continued their run of allowing a ton of shots and not a ton of goals. Currently, the opposition is converting just 17.7% of their shots on target against the Hammers. Don’t expect that to continue. On offense, WHM has been very aggressive getting shots close in and the pattern continued this week. Nolan remains the primary contributor here although Noble is very cheap and remains on all kicks (including penalties).
On the other side it was pretty much status quo. Cabaye outperformed HBA, but Ben Arfa did enough to keep him as a viable, albeit pricey, midfield option. Ba was Ba, with the only difference being that he didn’t score on one of his 2 shots on target. Cisse remains a non option at this time.
Entertaining game to watch. Liverpool came out in a 3-5-2 formation with Enrique and Johnson as wing backs. Seemed to confuse the Reds more than Chelsea and the home team really dominated the first half. The second half saw a switch to a more traditional back four with Enrique playing left-mid and Gerrard dropping deeper to orchestrate the offense instead of Joe Allen (who was putrid in the opening 45). Liverpool were the better team in the second half and deserved the single point.
On Liverpool, Suarez continued his excellent recent form and seemed more restrained than usual (a 5th yellow on his mind perhaps). His shot and key pass numbers were down a bit but that was more of a reflection of the dominance by Chelsea in the first half. Sterling again created a couple opportunities with his pace. I purchased Sterling at 4.7 and am thrilled with his production. At his current price, I am not sure I wouldn’t be happier trying my luck with Taarabt. On the backline, both Johnson and Enrique were involved offensively, although Enrique’s clumsiness was apparent to my eye. Gerrard was a non-factor as he spent most of the second half directing things as a holding mid. He also gave up corner duties to Suso.
For Chelsea, Mata, Hazard and Torres were all heavily involved. Oscar was excellent but he remains a bit deeper than the other two #10s and thus doesn’t have the same fantasy potential in my opinion. Torres was Torres, getting a hold of a good number of solid chances but failing to put any in the back of the net. Hazard and Mata both remain solid fantasy assets.
Big thanks again to @shots_on_target for the Stats and new guest poster SuperGrover for his match reports!! Visit http://www.shotsontarget.com for more great articles!!
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
GW10 – NOTHING BUT BONUS POINTS!!!
| 03 Nov 12:45 | Man Utd | |
2 – 1 | |
Arsenal |
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| 03 Nov 15:00 | Fulham | |
2 – 2 | |
Everton |
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| 03 Nov 15:00 | Norwich | |
1 – 0 | |
Stoke City |
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| 03 Nov 15:00 | Sunderland | |
0 – 1 | |
Aston Vil |
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| 03 Nov 15:00 | Swansea | |
1 – 1 | |
Chelsea |
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| 03 Nov 15:00 | Tottenham | |
0 – 1 | |
Wigan |
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| 03 Nov 17:30 | West Ham | |
0 – 0 | |
Man City |
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| 04 Nov 13:30 | QPR | |
1 – 1 | |
Reading |
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| 04 Nov 16:00 | Liverpool | |
1 – 1 | |
Newcastle |
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| 05 Nov 20:00 | West Brom
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Southampton |
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.
GW9: THE REVIEW…by @shots_on_target
GW9 Match Centre
One of the least anticipated matches of the weekend probably,w with both teams expected to be struggling in a relegation battle come season end. I had tipped Villa to win this 1 or 2-0 with both Lowton and Holman featuring in my GW9 Select XI. Bennett’s red card on 52 minutes change the game for both teams with Lambert deciding to sit back and protect a 1-0 lead. Following the sending off Norwich had 11 attempts on goal and Villa had 0. Neither team really offer anything from a fantasy perspective. I’d like to get excited about Benteke, but can’t.
Another frustrating day for Arsenal fans and owners of their fantasy assets (including yours truly). With Gibbs still injured and Jenkinson immediately ousted from the team by Sagna the combined 31% ownership pair miss out on a clean sheet. Chief threat for the Gunner’s still resides with Giroud and Cazorla and Mark Hughes’ teams do have had a habit of frustrating superior opposition. Arsenal’s 8 SoT is usually enough for 2 or 3 goals and it’s time for a deeper look at Arsenal and their ability to actually score goals which I will be doing later this week.
I know I bang on about shots on target but Sunderland had none in this match, zero, nada, zilch. So far this season they have had 12 in total. Even if Steven Fletcher was capable of scoring with every chance he got they still would be in the lower half of the league for goals scored. As it is, they are bottom of that particular list with 6. Stoke I feel should’ve gotten something out of this game, with my budget pick Kightly continuing to get shooting chances in the box. Big shame for Wilson owners who will be out for a good while now with a broken leg.
An interesting game this, at least from my seat, as a gauge for where both these teams are this season and the stats tell the story really. I would judge this team’s even with Wigan prospering here from home advantage. Tomkins for West Ham had a hell of a game and was the Hammer’s chief threat with Wigan keeping the partnership of Carroll and Nolan very quiet here. For the Lactics there was plenty of involvement from all positions, with Di Santo and Kone equally involved up-front and Maloney and McArthur key players from midfield.
The weekend’s highest scoring match in which Reading showed that they can score goals but reminding us that they can’t defend them. To be fair, Fulham are a good attacking side and have improved on the road from last season with Berbatov’s class up front clearly showing, as well as Ruiz’s settling in this division after his move from last year. I do like the front three of Berbs, Ruiz and Rodalleg. Chris Baird is also starting to make a bit of a name for himself as an out of position defender who can pop up with a few goals. Reading’s goals came from a mix of players who scored with their real only chance of the game so I would not get too excited about anyone of these.
This was the weekend’s biggest surprise surely, that City did not put 3 or 4 past Swansea. City are really missing the quality of Silva in games where they need to unpick a well-organised defence, although that’s not really something we could have said so far about the Swans this year. Mancini claimed his team were “so tired”, all expect for Tevez it seems (rested midweek) who had the busiest game for City. Swansea didn’t have a lot of great chances but Michu continues to be involved in their best, with Laudrup’s decision to continue deploying the Spaniard up-front maintaining his considerable fantasy potential despite a turn in the fixture list.
The first Merseyside derby of the season kicked off another thrilling day of Premiership and Fantasy Football. Fellaini’s return to the team was reward with an assist for those FPL managers who stuck with him through injury but ut was the performances up front of Mirallas and Jelavic in this game that stand out to me. For Liverpool it is all Suarez. Whilst many cite his wasteful shooting as a downside, which is true, he has so many shots that I believe he makes up for them.
A fairly equal tie this, and credit should be given to the Baggies for a good show up at Newcastle. I love Lukaku, if he gets in the starting XI that is, but I can’t understand Clarke’s rotation policy with this front players yet. Demba Ba for the Magpies is just a force of nature really and if his early withdrawal with a “nerve” injury does not prove too bad expect more goals soon.
A fair few goals were expected from this game, but as the stats show, there weren’t a great deal of chances compared to an average Premier League game. Rodriguez is slowly stepping up his game and out did Lambert here in the shooting stakes, and indeed was rewarded with a goal. Fonte continues to pose a threat from the back too. For Spurs, it’s Bale and Defoe again picking up FPLpoints and hogging the shooting chances. Dempsey’s 2nd goal in 4 games is interesting too.
As mentioned above for Arsenal, after 9 games played now the performance of the league’s elite teams needs a deeper analysis. Obviously 2 red cards would change any match and makes a proper analysis very difficult, but Chelsea failed to be quite as clinical in an attacking sense as they have been so far this season. Once again Mata was central to everything they did. Hazard was more involved than he has been in some of Chelsea’s games and picked up another assist in this game for getting fouled. United’s Van Persie and Valancia are the only attacking players to really stand out for the visitors today from a FPL perspective and I am going to have a look at the Dutchman’s value versus point potential in particular. Wayne Rooney’s limited attempts highlight his role as a midfielder.
FPL GW9: Statistical round up- by @shots_on_target
If you haven’t already check out @shots_on_target on twitter and visit his site www.shotsontarget.co.uk/
He is spoiling you with individual team statistics for all Premier League clubs.
You can click the team names below for an in-depth statistical round up by
- Visual representation of each player’s appearances in the last 6 weeks and their fantasy form (F.SCORE).
- Key Player Stats: shots, shots in box, shots on target, key passes, assists, minutes and goals
- Key Player Info: FPL price, points scored and % ownership
- Projected Points for the next 6 fixtures(note: Pts x 10)
- Star Player indicators – to 15 F.SCORE and top 15 Value players indicated
- Latest injury news from Physioroom.com
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