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GW10 – NOTHING BUT BONUS POINTS!!!

Gameweek 10
03 Nov 12:45 Man Utd Man Utd 2 – 1 Arsenal Arsenal
03 Nov 15:00 Fulham Fulham 2 – 2 Everton Everton
Bonus
Riether (2)
Sidwell (2)
Bonus
Fellaini (3)
03 Nov 15:00 Norwich Norwich 1 – 0 Stoke City Stoke City
03 Nov 15:00 Sunderland Sunderland 0 – 1 Aston Villa Aston Vil
03 Nov 15:00 Swansea Swansea 1 – 1 Chelsea Chelsea
Bonus
Hernandez (2)
Bonus
Cahill
Moses (3)
03 Nov 15:00 Tottenham Tottenham 0 – 1 Wigan Wigan
03 Nov 17:30 West Ham West Ham 0 – 0 Man City Man City
Bonus
Collins
Bonus
Clichy (2)
Nasri (3)
04 Nov 13:30 QPR QPR 1 – 1 Reading Reading
04 Nov 16:00 Liverpool Liverpool 1 – 1 Newcastle Newcastle
05 Nov 20:00 West Brom

Bonus
Foster
Mulumbu (2)
Odemwingie (3)

 

West Brom v Southampton Southampton

Gameweek 10 preview: Stoking the Fantasy fires

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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.

@Mark_Jones86

GW9: THE REVIEW…by @shots_on_target

GW9 Match Centre

to read more from Fantasy Yirma contributor @shots_on_target visit his site at http://www.shotsontarget.co.uk


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:

GW9 – NOTHING BUT BONUS POINTS!!

Gameweek 9
27 Oct 12:45 Aston Villa Aston Villa 1 – 1 Norwich Norwich
Bonus
Benteke
Bonus
Turner (3)
Hoolahan (2)
27 Oct 15:00 Arsenal Arsenal 1 – 0 QPR QPR
27 Oct 15:00 Reading Reading 3 – 3 Fulham Fulham
27 Oct 15:00 Stoke City Stoke City 0 – 0 Sunderland Sunderland
Bonus
Shawcross (3)
Huth (2)
Bonus
Mignolet
27 Oct 15:00 Wigan Wigan 2 – 1 West Ham West Ham
27 Oct 17:30 Man City Man City 1 – 0 Swansea Swansea
28 Oct 13:30 Everton Everton 2 – 2 Liverpool Liverpool
28 Oct 15:00 Newcastle Newcastle 2 – 1 West Brom West Brom
Bonus
Ba (2)
Cisse
Bonus
Lukaku (3)
28 Oct 15:00 Southampton Southampton 1 – 2 Tottenham Tottenham
28 Oct 16:00 Chelsea Chelsea 2 – 3 Man Utd Man Utd

FPL: 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:

GW7: NOTHING BUT BONUS POINTS

 

06 Oct 12:45 Man City Man City 3 – 0 Sunderland Sunderland
06 Oct 15:00 Chelsea Chelsea 4 – 1 Norwich Norwich
Bonus
Ivanovic
Hazard (2)
Torres (3)
06 Oct 15:00 Swansea Swansea 2 – 2 Reading Reading
Bonus
Routledge (3)
Bonus
Hunt
Pogrebnyak (2)
06 Oct 15:00 West Brom West Brom 3 – 2 QPR QPR
Bonus
Morrison (2)
Gera (3)
Bonus
Taarabt
06 Oct 15:00 Wigan Wigan 2 – 2 Everton Everton
Bonus

Di Santo
Kone (2)
Bonus
Pienaar (3)
06 Oct 17:30 West Ham West Ham 1 – 3 Arsenal Arsenal
07 Oct 13:30 Southampton Southampton 2 – 2 Fulham Fulham
Bonus
Fox
Fonte (3)
Bonus
Hughes (2)
07 Oct 15:00 Liverpool Liverpool 0 – 0 Stoke City Stoke City
Bonus
Wisdom (3)
Gerrard
Bonus
Begovic (2)
07 Oct 15:00 Tottenham Tottenham 2 – 0 Aston Villa Aston Villa
07 Oct 16:00 Newcastle Newcastle 0 – 3 Man Utd Man Utd

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

Gameweek 6
29 Sep 12:45 Arsenal Arsenal 1 – 2 Chelsea Chelsea
Bonus
Gervinho
Bonus
Mata (3)
Torres (2)
29 Sep 15:00 Everton Everton 3 – 1 Southampton Southampton
29 Sep 15:00 Fulham Fulham 1 – 2 Man City Man City
29 Sep 15:00 Norwich Norwich 2 – 5 Liverpool Liverpool
29 Sep 15:00 Reading Reading 2 – 2 Newcastle Newcastle
Bonus
Kebe
Hunt (2)
Bonus
Ba (3)
29 Sep 15:00 Stoke City Stoke City 2 – 0 Swansea Swansea
29 Sep 15:00 Sunderland Sunderland 1 – 0 Wigan Wigan
29 Sep 17:30 Man Utd Man Utd 2 – 3 Tottenham Tottenham
Bonus
Nani
Bonus
Vertonghen (2)
Bale (3)
30 Sep 16:00 Aston Villa Aston Villa 1 – 1 West Brom West Brom
Bonus
Clark
Bonus
Olsson (3)
Long (3)
01 Oct 20:00TBC QPR QPR v West Ham West Ham

Twitter, and its part in Liverpool’s downfall

 

In May, Twitter revealed that it has 140 million active users worldwide. They didn’t say how many of those accounts had ever retweeted a joke about Stewart Downing, but it’s safe to assume that it’s most of them.

Twitter is immediate. It is ruthless and merciless. It mocks misfortune, underperformance and the downright embarrassing. In short, it usually mocks Liverpool.

It was at it again on Saturday, as the Reds kicked off their Premier League season with a 3-0 defeat to West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns.

It was a strange game. West Brom probably deserved to win it but certainly not 3-0. Gary Neville, in his excellent punditry slot on Sky’s Monday Night Football after Everton had beaten Manchester United, noted that it was somewhat of a freak result. The Reds were comfortable until Zoltan Gera’s bolt from the blue gave the Baggies the lead shortly before half-time, and suddenly in a haze of red cards, penalties and missed chances the game was gone.

Other than the kit and a couple of new names the first league match of the Brendan Rodgers reign wasn’t overly different to many of Kenny Dalglish’s games last season, and the hysterical reaction on social media channels was much the same.

Even now at the time of writing, some four days after the game, a GIF image of Jamie Carragher being knocked to the ground by Romelu Lukaku has just popped up on a popular Twitter account with over 50,000 followers. It will be retweeted to hundreds of accounts and then passed on to even more, all in the name of laughing at Liverpool.

On Saturday afternoon a #RodgersOut hashtag appeared as the details of the match at The Hawthorns were being relayed to those who had seen nothing but the scoreline.

Those using it were largely doing so ironically – although Twitter does have an alarming capacity to introduce you to every village’s idiot – but it has long since been decided amongst the social media masses that this is how Liverpool fans react when their team loses.

Some do react like that.

It stands to reason that a club as big as Liverpool – surely the second most-supported in the UK behind Manchester United – will have a large selection of fans of all beliefs and mentalities, of which reactionary is certainly one. A few Liverpool fans make ridiculous comments, they get retweeted hundreds of times by those who like embarrassing the club, and suddenly thousands of fans are supposed to hold those same beliefs, be they naïve, foolish or in some cases – especially during last season – unashamedly provocative.

That these comments usually come from those who appear to rarely set foot anywhere near Anfield shouldn’t be discounted, but what should is the belief that all supporters feel the same way.

Liverpool – a club who have turned making bad decisions into an art form ever since sacking Rafael Benitez in the summer of 2010 – might just be a bit unfortunate that their most turbulent times have come during the social media boom, when every wrong move is laid out there for the world to see.

Inside Anfield there still remains a mostly intelligent support which realises just what a tough job Rodgers has in picking up the pieces at a club who nearly went to the wall in 2010.

Visiting teams are frequently applauded off the pitch when they’ve achieved a good result – as they seem to do more and more these days – but there is no doubt that the belief that the club’s support is respectful and knowledgeable has been diluted by the presence of fans on Twitter and across the Internet. As the team has faltered, so has the reputation of the support.

As a whole, the club have gone through tough times on and off the pitch since Benitez guided them to second place with 86 points in 2009, and it seems an awful long time before they’ll be back anywhere near that sort of haul again.

Rodgers even suggested that there will be more results like last Saturday’s to come before it gets better.

Expect to be reading about them in 140 characters or less.