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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 | ![]() |
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Fulham |
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| 10 Nov 15:00 | Everton | ![]() |
2 – 1 | ![]() |
Sunderland |
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| 10 Nov 15:00 | Reading | ![]() |
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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 | ![]() |
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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 | ![]() |
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Liverpool |
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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
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
Team Pages:
The GAMEWEEK 6 REVIEW (by @shots_on_target)
Here’s the round up of the 9 games played so far in GW6. Many thanks to our regular guest post writer @shots_on_target for some great analysis. You can read more of his articles at http://www.shotsontarget.co.uk/
We will have a Yirma Twitter takeover this evening from 7.30PM with football pundit @mark_jones86 taking over the @fantasyyirma account to cover the #QPR V#WESTHAM game. So contact us at fantasyyirma@hotmail.com today with any #FPL questions you have or leave a question in the comments section below.
@ryano83
ARSENAL 1-2 CHELSEA

Arsenal dominated the attacking play in this game, trebling the number of shooting opportunities in the box to that of Chelsea, but failing to hit the target with any regularity. Chelsea on the other other proved to be very ruthless when presented with a chance in the box, particularly scorer of the first goal, Fernando Torres. Arsenal continue to struggle to finish off their creative play. Chelsea are a tough nut to crack though (ask Messi) and owners of Cazorla should remain confident with him creating 4 Key Passes and getting himself into the box for 4 shots. For Chelsea, Hazard, despite his obvious quality, did sweet f.a. in this game from a fantasy point of view, whilst Mata stepped to finally replicate some of last season’s FPL form.
READING2- 2 NEWCASTLE

Demba Ba will grab the fantasy headlines from this one. He represents a clear threat in comparison to team mate Cisse, and is a great player to own in FPL. The rest of the magpies are falling to produce on a reliable basis. Sure, Ben Arfa still has the odd moment of magic in him but on this evidence he is overpriced, he didn’t even take a shot in this game. For Reading, this was their best game so far from both an offensive and defensive point of view, creating more chances this 90 minutes in their previous 2 games put together and limiting Newcastle to just a handful of chances. Unfortunately for the Royals though, the fell to Ba.
EVERTON 3- 1 SOUTHAMPTON

Despite an early scare Everton racked up the chances and the goals they deserved. 15 shots in the box, and 8 on target is really what you’d expect of United or City, and in Nikica Jelavic they have a man to score them. Fellaini continued in his up-front role supported by the impressive Mirallas, who is really hitting the ground running after his summer move from Olympiakos. Both were unlucky not to get more than an assist between them. Not so for Pienaar who did very little in FPL terms, despite such a dominant Everton display. For the Saints, Lambert was kept pretty quiet with just one shot but it was Gaston Ramirez who stood out, not just for his goal, but for his overall involvement in the visitor’s attacking play. They created a fair amount of chances too, there are goals in both these teams.
NORWICH 2 – 5 LIVERPOOL

This was the Luis Suarez show. The Uruguayan absolutely dominates Liverpool’s forward play and has always had the quality to find the back of the net. With some juicy fixtures on the horizon FPL interest in Suarez is rightly set to explode. Elsewhere, Sahin showed what he’s about playing in the support role in Shelvey’s absence. If he can make this position his own he could be a great fantasy asset. Norwich were almost as creative as Liverpool in this game, and the scoreline flatters Liverpool a little. They are yet to settle on a front man but if Holt or perhaps Snodgrass can find their shooting boots they could start to pick up both real and fantasy points.
STOKE 2-0 SWANSEA

This was exactly the scoreline that many people expected. Swansea’s bubble has burst up against the drilled quality of teams like Everton and now Stoke. To be fair, Laudrup’s men are not built for a day out in Staffodshire and have plenty to offer the fantasy manager over the next couple of fixtures. Stoke were impressive in their game plan and Tony Pulis knows exactly how to play the way he does. Peter Crouch is a threat in the box and players like Adam know how to find him.
MAN UTD 2 – TOTTENHAM 3

This game was everything that the Premiership is about. Under-pressure Villas-Boas got his early game tactics spot on as Spurs went straight for the jugular at Old Trafford, leaving the likes of Giggs a mere spectator. Gareth Bale was a geniune menace and his form is key to Tottenham, and he is in some great form right now. United piled the pressure late on, with Spurs forced to drop deep and defend. Van Persie, Nani, and Rooney all stood out for the Red Devils despite Rooney just getting a 45 minute run out.
FULHAM 1-2 MAN CITY

Fulham’s recent results have gotten people talking but they came up against a solid City side here who controlled the game well and really limited the attacking nous of the home team. Berbatov’s unfortunate injury means he will miss up to 3 games and he will be missed, although the front Ruiz and Petric did well as the the focal point up front. For City, Tevez place in the starting XI settled the biggest fantasy question of the day but he did not do all that much and was predictably subbed off just over the hour mark. Aguero played the full 90, as did Silva, and these two are the real starts of City’s attack.
SUNDERLAND 1-0 WIGAN

Steven Fletcher and Sunderland do it again, score from their only shot on target. Can they continue to do this for much longer. To be frank, if Steven Fletcher was capable of scoring with every shot he takes he would not have been playing for Wolves last year and Sunderland this, no offence Mackams! He is a quality finisher though, no doubt about it, but he’s not Superman, Wigan should feel hard done by, they probably did enough to score, but O’Neil has his Black Cats as well-drilled as his reputation.
ASTON VILLA 1- 1 WEST BROM
Two surprising omissions in the starting line-ups here, with Bent and Lukaku both missing out. Shane Long was the main threat for the Baggies early on a grabbed a goal with Gera providing most of the threat from midfield. For Villa, Benteke was plenty involved but is still adjusting to the style and pace of the Premiership and failed to find the target with any of his 6 efforts. Bent and Lukaku’s introductions from the bench livened up the encounter with both heavily involved as the game opened up, with Holman also impressing for the Villains.
GW6 NOTHING BUT BONUS POINTS!!
Due to the fact that Carlos Tevez is still in my team, I’m not going to even try and work out how he got two bonus points this week… but he did and this pleases me – as it will please a large percentage of #FPL players!
Anyway.. here are the Bonus points in Full.
@ryano83
| 29 Sep 12:45 | Arsenal | ![]() |
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| 29 Sep 15:00 | Everton | ![]() |
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| 29 Sep 15:00 | Fulham | ![]() |
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Man City |
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| 29 Sep 15:00 | Norwich | ![]() |
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| 29 Sep 15:00 | Reading | ![]() |
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Newcastle |
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| 29 Sep 15:00 | Stoke City | ![]() |
2 – 0 | ![]() |
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| 29 Sep 15:00 | Sunderland | ![]() |
1 – 0 | ![]() |
Wigan |
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| 29 Sep 17:30 | Man Utd | ![]() |
2 – 3 | ![]() |
Tottenham |
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| 30 Sep 16:00 | Aston Villa | ![]() |
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West Brom |
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| 01 Oct 20:00TBC | QPR | ![]() |
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West Ham |
An apology, by @Mark_Jones86
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?
Fantasy Football: Set Piece takers
So… tis football eve and if you are involved in Fantasy Football you are doing 1 of 2 things;
1. panicking as you finally getting around to pick your team
2. changing your substitute goalkeeper for the 17th time this week.
We all know people who are meticulous in their preparation, we all know players who seem to fluke it week in week out. This post is for both sets.
Hopefully this should help everyone as they make their final decisions.
Huge thanks to http://www.mancityonline.com for providing this list of expected Set Piece takers for every team. Great site – follow them also on twitter @mancityonlineco .
*R
Below are the Set Piece Takers for the Premier League 2012-13, they are in order of the likelihood they will carry out the Set Piece, the first name is the preferred taker. The preferred corner takers are the first two names in the list.





















































