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Gameweek 18 preview: Santi presents Wigan with a problem

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Santi is coming to Wigan, and perhaps he should be coming into your team too.

We all know that this is a special time of year, a time to look forward to and dread in equal measure.

That’s right, the Fantasy Cup starts on Saturday, and including Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla (£9.7m) in your Fantasy team could see you gain the edge over your opponent and secure a spot in the next round quicker than reindeers move on Christmas Eve.

Of course it’s easy to react to a player’s stellar performance in a previous game – such as Cazorla’s hat-trick at Reading – and immediately put him in to your team in the hope that he will repeat such a world-beating display, but there is a genuine reason behind putting your money on Arsenal’s Spanish star succeeding at Wigan in Saturday’s early kick-off.

It’s called the Marouane Fellaini problem.

Everton’s Belgian ace was fortunate to only receive a three game ban for his headbutt on Stoke’s Ryan Shawcross last weekend, but nonetheless he has still presented the many Fantasy bosses who own him with a dilemma. Those who have the luxury of some extra money stashed away – and we all need that at this time of year – will probably be thinking that they could go one of five ways.

But Gareth Bale (£9.5m) still isn’t back from injury, Eden Hazard (£9.5m) has gone off the boil somewhat and David Silva (£9.4m) hasn’t found the net regularly enough. There is of course Juan Mata (£9.5m), but Chelsea face an Aston Villa side who have just brilliantly beaten Liverpool, whilst the ex-Valencia man played the vast majority of Wednesday’s Capital One Cup match against Leeds in midweek.

Bringing in Cazorla should of course come with the warning that Arsenal’s Boxing Day game against West Ham has been called off due to Tube strikes, but the club are reportedly looking to play that match in early January, raising the prospect of a double Gameweek in the near future for their Spanish star.  Santi’s gifts should be well received.

Elsewhere this weekend the match between Newcastle and QPR brings together one team who have been on a steady decline in recent weeks and another one who have just experienced their campaign’s only high point.

Harry Redknapp’s Rangers will head for St James’s Park following the Adel Taarabt (£5.6m) inspired 2-1 win over Fulham last weekend, but Newcastle know that they simply have to win this match following their recent struggles, and they showed enough promise in last weekend’s loss to Manchester City to show that they will give their visitors problems.

Demba Ba (£8.2m) scored his 11th league goal of the season in that match, and he could be turned to again as Alan Pardew’s side look to puncture any QPR optimism immediately.

On Sunday Robin van Persie (£13.8m) and Wayne Rooney (£12.0m) will again team up as Manchester United face a tricky trip to Swansea, which they should be going in to only three points clear at the top of the table given that Manchester City face a home match with Reading on Saturday. Sergio Agüero (£11.0m) and Yaya Touré (£7.9m) look to be the players who’ll impress there, although Javi Garcia (£5.0m) is an intriguing cheap choice following his goal last weekend.

The Fellaini-less Everton go to West Ham where Nikica Jelavić (£8.2m) will be looked to for goals, whilst Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers has hinted that he could be ready to rest Raheem Sterling (£5.7m) for the home match against Fulham, meaning that even more onus could be put on Luis Suarez (£10.3m) – although the Uruguayan hasn’t scored in his last four games.

The popular Stoke duo of Asmir Begovic (£5.6m) and Shawcross (£5.8m) will face a tough task as they go to Tottenham, whilst Southampton’s Rickie Lambert (£6.1m) and Jason Puncheon (£4.8m) will be looked to to impress against struggling Sunderland.

West Brom’s fine form may have stuttered somewhat, but they can pick it up against Norwich at The Hawthorns, where James Morrison(£6.3m) can be counted on to provide a threat to the visitors.

@Mark_Jones86

GW17 – The Review.. by @shots_on_target

As per usual another great roundup from our Stat-tastic regular @Shots_on_target . Check out his site at http://www.shotsontarget.co.uk

 

A

No real surprises here.  Rooney and Van Persie continue to dominate chances for the most attacking team in the league.  Sunderland did very well actually, beating the league average in the shot categories (green arrows).  Sessegnon looks back in the kind of form which saw him attract such attention last season.
B

Stoke are a tricky team to play against and took a large hammer to Everton’s recent form, limiting them to just one shot on target from Jelavic (not including Shawcross’s own goal). Everton did manage to get shots off in the box but this often suits Stoke’s physical defence.

C
Newcastle have really picked up through the season in an attacking sense, and have started generating lots of chances.  This of course is good news for Demba Ba who was doing well before hand anyway and got a goal here this week.  City are moving up the gears too and deserved their win, Aguero and Tevez forming the focal point of the attack with Silva back pulling the strings.

D
Liverpool were tactically outdone here.  Villa defended deep and in numbers and in Benteke and Weimann they have the power, pace and skill to do well on the counter-attack. Suarez continues to be the beating heart of Liverpool’s attack but it’s not an attack which can simply walk over a team like Villa who are playing well for Lambert now.

E
No shots on target for Swansea, and only 3 all day, compared to a quite massive 29 for Spurs.  I’m going to hazard a guess that Villas-Boas’s hugely successful tactical nous from his Porto’s days was not actually a fluke and all those nights playing Football Manager must have rubbed off.  There are a lot of great options in this side – Defoe and Adebayor and of course the returning Gareth Bale.  Vertonghen has been promising a good game (pointswise) for a while now too.

F
Contrary to popular belief QPR’s home form defensively is not too dissimilar to most team’s in the division and Redknapp’s switch to playing Taarabt higher up the pitch has perhaps released the shackles from the Moroccan. He still chose to hit all 7 of his shots from outside the penalty area and perhaps could be tagged as the the poor man’s Luis Suarez in this respect.  If so represents quite a FPL asset as a midfielder.  For Fulham, ‘Shots on Target’ favourite Bulgarian failed again to register a single shot, and despite QPR’s buoyancy under Redknapp this was a pretty woeful display for Martin Jol’s men.

G
Norwich’s fine form continues in a game in which they showed some guile to go with their grit.  Pilkington and Hoolahan, two players frequently flirted with in FPL last season, scored and assisted the goals.  The all round performance of Snodgrass stands out too.  Wigan’s chief hope of something was with Kone this week but nothing to get excited about.
H

Another resilient display can be chalked up on Sam Allardyce’s record as he grabbed a point for his team after a game devoid of a lot of creativity.  Carlton Cole is doing his best to lead the line for the Hammers in support of Nolan and the absence of Andy Carroll.  James Morrison’s return to the lineup for West Brom saw him back amongst the think of the action.

I
Monday night’s final match of the gameweek brought perhaps the most thrill and excitement and Arsenal, led by Santi Cazorla hat-trick put the sword into Reading.  Walcott’s inclusion ahead of Giroud will raise plenty of eyebrows and he had plenty of chances to score, as did Podolski.  Is this a case for Theo’s inclusion in the team as the main striker from now on, does he create space and openings for the other players to flourish that Giroud does not?  Or are Reading just warming up from the Championship?

GW17 NOTHING BUT BONUS POINTS!!! #FPL

Gameweek 17
15 Dec 12:45 Newcastle Newcastle 1 – 3 Man City Man City
15 Dec 15:00 Liverpool Liverpool 1 – 3 Aston Villa Aston Villa
Bonus
Gerrard (2)
Bonus
Weimann
Benteke (3)
15 Dec 15:00 Man Utd Man Utd 3 – 1 Sunderland Sunderland
15 Dec 15:00 Norwich Norwich 2 – 1 Wigan Wigan
15 Dec 15:00 QPR QPR 2 – 1 Fulham Fulham
Bonus
Taarabt (3)
Faurlin (2)
Bonus
Petric
15 Dec 15:00 Stoke City Stoke City 1 – 1 Everton Everton
16 Dec 13:30 Tottenham Tottenham 1 – 0 Swansea Swansea
16 Dec 16:00 West Brom West Brom 0 – 0 West Ham West Ham
Bonus
Myhill (2)
Brunt (2)
Bonus
Cole (3)
17 Dec 20:00 Reading Reading v Arsenal Arsenal

Walcott
Santi Cazorla (3)
Podolski (2)

#FPL GW16: NOTHING BUT BONUS POINTS !!

08 Dec 15:00 Arsenal Arsenal 2 – 0 West Brom West Brom
Bonus
Sagna (2)
Gibbs (2)
Arteta (3)
08 Dec 15:00 Aston Villa Aston Villa 0 – 0 Stoke City Stoke City
08 Dec 15:00 Southampton Southampton 1 – 0 Reading Reading
08 Dec 15:00 Sunderland Sunderland 1 – 3 Chelsea Chelsea
Bonus
Johnson
Bonus
Mata (2)
Torres (3)
08 Dec 15:00 Swansea Swansea 3 – 4 Norwich Norwich
08 Dec 15:00 Wigan Wigan 2 – 2 QPR QPR
09 Dec 13:30 Man City Man City 2 – 3 Man Utd Man Utd
09 Dec 15:00 Everton Everton 2 – 1 Tottenham Tottenham
Bonus
Pienaar (3)
Jelavic
Bonus
Dempsey (2)
09 Dec 16:00 West Ham West Ham 2 – 3 Liverpool Liverpool
10 Dec 20:00 Fulham Fulham 2 – 1 Newcastle Newcastle
 

Bonus
Sidwell (3)
Duff (3)
Rodallega
Sunderland Sunderland 3 – 0 Reading Reading
Bonus McClean (3)

Sessegnon
Fletcher (2)

Guest Post: #FPL Reflection by @RotoZdroik from RotoExperts

 This guest post was submitted by Adam @RotoZdroik from US Fantasy Sports site www.RotoExperts.com. RotoExperts feature award-winning experts and analysis across various major sports platforms.

 

Many thanks to Adam for his contribution and if you would like to guest post for Fantasy Yirma – Contact us at fantasyyirma@hotmail.com

 

 

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Wait, Manchester United lost to who? One of the richest and most popular clubs in the World fell to the hands (or feet) of Norwich on Saturday.

That’s right, a team scoring almost three goals per game lost to a team that was scoring less than one goal per game with a goal differential of negative 10. About zero people predicted the Canaries to come away with a win. Don’t forget, they also beat Arsenal and Tottenham (Capital One cup) in the past month, as well.

What does this mean for your Fantasy squad? Norwich is by far the best-valued squad when looking at defenses. John Ruddy only costs 4.6m (at the official game at premierleague.com) and has four clean sheets in his last five matches. He has more points than any other keeper does in the Premier League. Joe Hart has 14 less points yet currently costs 2.3m more. That’s the difference between having Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney on your team.

As for the Canary defenders, none of them cost more than 4.5m. Javier Garrido had the assist against Man United and now has bonus points in two straight games. He has five more Fantasy points than Patrice Evra, costs a lot less and is owned by about five percent less of contestants. Sebastien Bassong and Michael Turner also deserve a mention on the back line, as they have been key in Norwich’s current run.

In the other matches, red cards took the headline. Emmanuel Adebayor scored and then was sent off shortly after against his former club. Arsenal went on to score five goals after Adebayor was given the boot. The same story can be said about Brede Hangeland for Fulham. He got a red and offensively challenged Sunderland proceeded to put three in the back of the net. Marouane Fellaini picked up only a yellow card in their road loss at Reading, but that still lead to a two-game suspension for him since it was his fifth of the campaign.

Liverpool and Manchester City were favorites of most Fantasy owners as they combined for an 8-0 score line. In form striker, Luis Suarez, scored twice while defender Jose Enrique scored, assisted and got full bonus points. He was my No. 1 defender in last week’s rankings.

As for City, it took some time but they got back to scoring big against Aston Villa. Carlos Tevez had two goals and two assists while David Silva once again showed life with a goal and two assists. Sergio Aguero made an appearance as well, scoring twice.

Swansea continues to defy odds with their always-productive midfield. Pablo Hernandez, Johnathan de Guzman and Michu all found the score sheet in a road win. QPR lost yet another disappointing game, but this one came at home against the club that is directly above them in the table. Never a good thing.

In somewhat of an upset, West Brom took out Chelsea on the legs of their usually consistent forwards. Peter Odemwingie and Shane Long both grabbed goals while Chelsea looked largely unimpressive for most of the game. West Brom continues to impress every week.

WEEKLY TIP

Instead of going defensive, it’s time to focus on some attacking options.

Man United vs. QPR

United is not happy coming off a loss and QPR gets them at the most unfortunate time.
Everyone knows about Robin van Persie so he shouldn’t come as a surprise. Rooney will be back from illness and couldn’t pick a better time to break his scoring streak. Each of them was rested for their midweek Champions League match. My top defender choice, Patrice Evra, will also have full strength for this one.

The hardest part to decide on United is their midfield. Shinji Kagawa is out for another month which means both Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia will continue to get starts. Each of them presents a risk, especially for their price, but each has plenty of upside in this match.

Stoke City vs. Fulham

This may be a surprise choice, but hear me out. No one else will be looking at Stoke City players for good reason; they only have 10 goals through 12 matches. However, on the other end of this, Hangeland will not start for the first time all campaign for Fulham. Not to mention, Fulham has allowed eight goals in their last three road matches and 11 goals in their last four matches overall.

Peter Crouch is basically their only true forward that needs to be looked at. He hasn’t scored in six straight gameweeks, but that is about to change. Charlie Adam is easily their most popular midfielder and he should grab at least an assist in this one. Jonathan Walters is another option to check out, but make sure he’s playing first as he’s dealing with a knee injury. Defensively, Ryan Shawcross and Robert Huth are always good options. Geoff Cameron deserves a look as well since he’s the cheapest of the bunch.

WEEKLY RANKINGS

Goalkeepers

  1. Anders Lindegaard, Manchester United, 5.4m, vs. QPR
  2. Tim Howard, Everton, 5.6m, vs. Norwich
  3. Ali Al-Habsi, Wigan, 5.0m, vs. Reading
  4. Asmir Begovic, Stoke City, 5.1m, vs. Fulham
  5. Boaz Myhill, West Brom, 4.4m, at Sunderland


Defenders

  1. Patrice Evra, Man United, 6.8m, vs. QPR
  2. Rafael, Man United, 6.4m, vs. QPR
  3. Leighton Baines, Everton, 7.6m, vs. Norwich
  4. Jose Enrique, Liverpool, 5.7m, at Swansea
  5. Ryan Shawcross, Stoke City, 5.2m, vs. Fulham
  6. John Arne Riise, Fulham, 5.7m, at Stoke City
  7. Liam Ridgewell, West Brom, 5.0m, at Sunderland
  8. Ivan Ramis, Wigan, 4.5m, vs. Reading
  9. William Gallas, Tottenham, 5.0m, vs. West Ham
  10. Kaspars Gorkss, Reading, 4.0m, at Wigan


Midfielders

  1. Santi Cazorla, Arsenal, 9.4m, at Aston Villa
  2. Gareth Bale, Tottenham, 9.7m, vs. West Ham
  3. Juan Mata, Chelsea, 9.6m, vs. Man City
  4. David Silva, Man City, 9.3m, at Chelsea
  5. Eden Hazard, Chelsea, 10.1m, vs. Man City
  6. Hatem Ben Arfa, Newcastle, 7.8m, at Southampton
  7. Antonio Valencia, Man United, 8.6m, vs. QPR
  8. Pablo Hernandez, Swansea, 6.1m, vs. Liverpool
  9. Kevin Nolan, West Ham, 6.9m, at Tottenham
  10. Charlie Adam, Stoke City, 6.6m, vs. Fulham


Forwards

  1. Robin van Persie, Man United, 13.7m, vs. QPR
  2. Luis Suarez, Liverpool, 10.2m, at Swansea
  3. Demba Ba, Newcastle, 8.3m, at Southampton
  4. Olivier Giroud, Arsenal, 8.4m, at Aston Villa
  5. Carlos Tevez, Man City, 9.4m, at Chelsea
  6. Sergio Aguero, Man City, 11.0m, at Chelsea
  7. Lukas Podolski, Arsenal, 8.2m, at Aston Villa
  8. Wayne Rooney, Manchester United, 11.8m, vs. QPR
  9. Rickie Lambert, Southampton, 6.0m, vs. Newcastle
  10. Peter Crouch, Stoke City, 6.8m, vs. Fulham

YOU’RE THE CAPTAIN

 

  1. Robin van Persie, Man United
  2. Luis Suarez, Liverpool
  3. Olivier Giroud, Fulham
  4. Carlos Tevez, Man City
  5. Demba Ba, Newcastle

 

The Red Devils were just shutout on the road. They aren’t very happy and go against the last-place club in the league. United averages three goals per game at Old Trafford and RVP will be around all of them.

There may not be anyone else more in form at the moment than Suarez. He has scored in four straight matches. While he’s on the road, Swansea’s defense isn’t impossible to get by.

All of a sudden, Arsenal’s attacking prowess was back against Tottenham. Ten guys or not, they still scored five goals. Giroud is the man of the moment with three goals in his last two matches.

While he probably won’t have another two-goal, two-assist performance at Chelsea, Tevez is still the likeliest of candidates to score in this match. Chelsea hasn’t had a clean sheet in seven straight games.

Newcastle isn’t playing great, but that doesn’t matter to Ba. He will find the back of the net no matter the situation and this situation is friendly for him even on the road.

*Stats up-to-date as of Nov. 19

 

 

About the author: Adam Zdroik, Staff Writer View all posts by
Adam joined RotoExperts in 2008 as a member of the Scout/Player Updates Team. Throughout the years, Adam has written articles encompassing a number of sports. If you like your Fantasy advice full of numbers and straight to the point, look no further. Find him (@RotoZdroik) on Twitter, to get a daily take of what’s happening in the sports world.

GW12 – NOTHING BUT THE BONUS POINTS #FPL

Nothing but the bonus points from the #FPL game from http://www.premierleague.com

17 Nov 12:45 Arsenal Arsenal 5 – 2 Tottenham Tottenham
17 Nov 15:00 Liverpool Liverpool 3 – 0 Wigan Wigan
17 Nov 15:00 Man City Man City 5 – 0 Aston Villa Aston Villa
17 Nov 15:00 Newcastle Newcastle 1 – 2 Swansea Swansea
17 Nov 15:00 QPR QPR 1 – 3 Southampton Southampton
Bonus
Hoilett
Bonus
Puncheon (2)
Lambert (3)
17 Nov 15:00 Reading Reading 2 – 1 Everton Everton
Bonus
Shorey
Le Fondre (3)
Bonus
Naismith (2)
17 Nov 15:00 West Brom West Brom 2 – 1 Chelsea Chelsea
17 Nov 17:30 Norwich Norwich 1 – 0 Man Utd Man Utd
18 Nov 16:00 Fulham Fulham 1 – 3 Sunderland Sunderland
19 Nov 20:00 West Ham West Ham 1 – 1 Stoke City Stoke City
Bonus
O’Brien (3)
Bonus
Huth
Walters (2)

West Bromwich Albion: Some forward thinking

 

Have you heard the one about the Irishman, the Belgian and the Nigerian? Premier League defences have and they’re growing increasingly sick of it.

It’s no joke that West Bromwich Albion are performing so well in this campaign though, and with early season optimism now giving way to mid-season reality there appears to be a real belief that Shane Long, Romelu Lukaku, Peter Odemwingie and an increasingly impressive supporting cast can fire the Baggies to new heights.

Just how high those highs can get depends on what happens over the next few months of course, but with pre-season hopes of successfully fighting relegation now morphing into desires of a top half finish (even Europe?) then The Hawthorns is fast becoming a good place to be.

Roberto di Matteo will be back there on Saturday 21 months after losing his job as Baggies boss, and whilst his sacking seemed more than a little harsh at the time it is yet further evidence that this is a club who are not afraid to make brave and bold decisions both on and off the pitch.

Behind the scenes, sporting and technical director Dan Ashworth undertakes a role the like of which isn’t all too common in the Premier League, and would become less so at the end of the current season were he not involved in appointing his successor before his heads off to take up a similar role with England.

A former player, Ashworth is a savvy operator who has gone about improving West Brom’s fortunes since being appointed to the role in late 2007. When things looked in danger of unravelling under Di Matteo, Ashworth stepped in and appointed Roy Hodgson to steer the side to mid-table. Eyebrows might have been raised when he chose Steve Clarke as Hodgson’s replacement following his departure for England, but so far so very, very good.

And why shouldn’t it be? Clarke was an experienced player at the top level and has learned his coaching trade under the likes of Jose Mourinho and Kenny Dalglish. That Ashworth and West Brom had the bravery to give him his step up to become a No. 1 is a decision that has so far been richly rewarded.

The likes of Ben Foster, Gareth McAuley, James Morrison, Claudio Yacob and Youssouf Mulumbu have all impressed as the Baggies have picked up six wins in their opening 11 games to sit fifth in the table above fancied teams such as Tottenham and Arsenal, but it is those three attackers mentioned earlier who appear to epitomise everything about this forward thinking club.

Long, Lukaku and Odemwingie have each scored three goals in the league this season, and although when combined that only just puts the three of them ahead of the division’s top scorers Luis Suarez and Robin van Persie – who each have eight apiece – they have been invaluable contributors to a team who appear to fear no-one.

There will of course be tough challenges ahead – not least Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United before the turn of the year – but there is nothing to suggest that West Brom should go into any of those games with an inferiority complex. Everton, a club who West Brom are currently on the same points as and beat at The Hawthorns in early September, are often lauded for the workaholic way that they tackle every game, so why not the Baggies too?

As well as hard work, Clarke’s rotation of his three forwards has been key to their success, and there wasn’t a hint of dissent when Odemwingie was dropped to the bench for last weekend’s visit to Wigan just a few days after he’d scored twice against Southampton.

The options will be limited against Chelsea at the weekend due to Lukaku being unable to face his parent club, but Long, Odemwingie and their team-mates will be working as hard as ever to deliver against the European champions.

Clarke will demand nothing less, and’s that’s no joke.

@Mark_Jones86

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

Gameweek 11
10 Nov 15:00 Arsenal Arsenal 3 – 3 Fulham Fulham
Bonus
Giroud (2)
Bonus
Kacaniklic (2)
Berbatov (3)
10 Nov 15:00 Everton Everton 2 – 1 Sunderland Sunderland
10 Nov 15:00 Reading Reading 0 – 0 Norwich Norwich
Bonus
Morrison
McCleary (2)
Bonus
Garrido (3)
10 Nov 15:00 Southampton Southampton 1 – 1 Swansea Swansea
Bonus
Schneiderlin (2)
Bonus
Monk (2)
Dyer (3)
10 Nov 15:00 Stoke City Stoke City 1 – 0 QPR QPR
Bonus
Shawcross (3)
Adam (2)
Bonus
Ferdinand
10 Nov 15:00 Wigan Wigan 1 – 2 West Brom West Brom
10 Nov 17:30 Aston Villa Aston Villa 2 – 3 Man Utd Man Utd
Bonus
Weimann (2)
Bonus
Carrick
Hernandez (3)
11 Nov 13:30 Man City Man City 2 – 1 Tottenham Tottenham
Bonus
Silva (2)
Aguero (3)
Bonus
Caulker
11 Nov 15:00 Newcastle Newcastle 0 – 1 West Ham West Ham
11 Nov 16:00 Chelsea Chelsea 1 – 1 Liverpool Liverpool
Bonus
Terry (2)
Bonus
Jose Enrique
Suarez (3)

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