Anelka Fires Four Past Milan
Nicolas Anelka continued his superb pre-season form by putting four goals past an AC Milan side this morning. The Frenchman took his tally to seven goals this summer, adding to Lampard’s opener as Chelsea humbled a weakened Milan lineup.
It begs the question - is Le Sulk le striking solution for our fantasy teams?
AC Milan 0 Chelsea 5
Chelsea went in front in this one after just two minutes. Lampard getting the benefit of one of his trademark deflections, firing in a low free kick that found its way into the Milan net. Five minutes later Anelka got started. The Milan defence made a hash of a clearance from Malouda’s searching ball and Anelka finished smartly from the edge of the box.
Chelsea’s third goal was just an embarrassment - Milan’s keeper Kalac, formerly of Leicester City, air kicking a back pass and leaving Anelka free to stroke the ball home.
Deco replaced Ballack for the second half and the playmaker soon made an impact, finding Malouda who duly crossed for Anelka to seal his hat-trick. Malouda was also the architect for Anelka’s fourth, as Chelsea went 5-0 up in under an hour.
Scolari’s starting lineup offered more talking points. Ballack was given his first start of the pre-season as part of a midfield three that also included Lampard and Mikel. Both of those players have been ever present under Scolari so far so it looks as though Essien, Ballack and Deco are the three players who are competing for the remaining one or two midfield slots.
Essien started the last game in the attacking right midfield role which today went to Wright-Phillips, with Malouda taking Cole’s spot on the left of the attack. In defence meanwhile Ivanovic was given a try out at right-back and Alex got a start alongside Terry.
Anelka, not surprisingly was the focus of much of his post match comments, with some interesting insight into Scolari’s instructions to the Frenchman which could have a bearing on his goal output this seaosn.
“Anelka today and the last game played more inside the penalty area than before,” remarked Scolari.
‘That is where I asked him to play and where I need him, not right and left as before, because we have one striker and that is Anelka”.
After this performance and those words from Scolari, Anelka is surely a safe bet for the team sheet come August 16. As such he must surely be a consideration for fantasy managers. A confident Anelka is a very different prospect to the player we saw for the latter half of last season when he was often in the shadow of Drogba and employed out in a wide position. Drogba’s absence from Chelsea’s pre-season has given Anelka the opportunity to show he can play a central striking role for Scolari and he has taken his chance.
Chelsea have now completed their pre-season matches and have already flown back to the UK to begin their final preparations for the season. That means we already have all the clues we’re going to get as to Scolari’s lineup and formation for the start of the season. He referred to having “a nice selection problem” after today’s game and that’s certainly the case. However he continues to state that he is 85% sure of his starting lineup for the season kick-off against Portsmouth.
‘I have the idea but not completely. Maybe I receive good news about Drogba and we have 12 days to train and maybe we have something I don’t expect,” added the Chelsea boss.
The paper talk today indicated that Drogba was about to sign a bumper 4-year deal wth the club. The striker is still recovering from a knee injury that has seen miss the entire pre-season. As Scolari indicates, it could be that Drogba makes a speedy recovery in the days of training that remain. However, given his lack of match fitness, Chelsea must surely go into the Portsmouth game without him, putting the emphasis firmly on the shoulders of Anelka to get the goals. Given current form it’s difficult not to back him to rise to the responsibility. Based on the pre-season, Anelka, along with Darren Bent at Spurs and maybe Crouch at Portsmouth, is currently the form striker in the Premiership.
It will be interesting to see if Anelka’s popularity rises as a result of today’s haul. Currently just 1% of Fantasy Premier League and Telegraph managers have dared to draft him in.
Lampard meanwhile, has also had an impressive pre-season, despite speculation regarding his future. Surprisingly in the Fantasy Premier League game he has been selected by just 5% of managers thus far, while only 8% of Telegraph managers have opted for him. Despite this Lampard is surely set to start the season as one of Scolari’s “untouchables” and is clearly still paramount to Chelsea’s attacking impetus. Lampard’s three pre-season goals may well convince fantasy managers that he deserves attention and see him brought into a few more fantasy lineups in the next week or so.
Chelsea also ended the pre-season having conceded just one goal, emphasising that Cech and his defence are likely to continue to offer strong defensive returns. Cech is currenlty fifth in the FPL and Telegraph keeper rankings.
Chelsea vs AC Milan:
Cech (Cudicini 72), Ivanovic (Ferreira 61), Alex, Terry (Carvalho 61), A Cole; Ballack (Deco h-t), Mikel, Lampard; Wright-Phillips (Sinclair 77), Anelka (Shevchenko 66), Malouda.
MegaSalviO
Akers
Berbatov's touch
Big Bad Dom
al...
dadoune
dunk
Clive
Hmmm, the jury is still out. 85% sure is about right - I reckon that’s slightly more % than most Chelsea’s midfield players will play this season. I reckon most of them will play 80% of prem games with all the rotation and substitutions. I may draft a likely starter who could make a large haul but only when chelski have a run of favourable games or a juicy home fixture. I’m waiting on things settling down a bit first. I can’t see much point in going for a player who’s in and out of the side from week to week, and even when they do play, don’t offer a great deal.
I’m going for loads of mid-price players which all have potential and see which ones do well, and then think about the harlem globe trotter teams players.
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Reply by CK on August 3 10:02 pm:
ok, so what’s your team then?
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Definately the most impressive in the pre-season, still at 9.5 in the FPL I really don’t know whether to gamble RVP or the Yak.. He’s pretty much Scolari’s boy at the mo and can see him doing well. Anybody given him a chance?
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Anelka will flop against the big boys as usual. Need to give him time though
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i was worried about him cos he did seem to drift out too much and allow others the goalscoring opportunities…but now that i see scolaris told him to to stay in the middle and get more in the box surely he will get the support he needs from such a quality team?
Can see him starting off on fire again this season and with much better side behind him who knos? he is a funny player tho shit cold or HOT and certainly if he is the latter u want in! el schorcho more impressive than bent?
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who thinks deco is worth a buy and if not who else apart from chelsea that will really guarantee goals and assists
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Deco could be worth a punt? But personally I’d find another £2m and buy lampard. Goals, assists, bounus points the lot!!
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What about Ballack? I’ve not heard him mentioned much but he finished the season strongly, did well at Euro 2008 and I’m pretty sure Scolari has said he likes him.
Thoughts?
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Reply by Cambo on August 3 10:43 pm:
Too much scope for rotation in chelsea and spurs’ midfield.. Apart from Lamps, probably. You’ll be guessing each week who is going to start. Steer clear i reckon!
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Yep, steer clear for now. There are enough variables to consider at the start of the season, so it’s best not to get stuck with an expensive bench warmer.
I’m probably going to go with;
Schwarzer, Turnbull
Jagielka, Toure, Steinsson, Knight, Woodgate
Fabregas, A.Young, M.Taylor, M.Petrov, Pedersen
Van Persie, Elmander, Bellamy
+2.5m left in the bank.
Mainly points ‘compilers’, nothing fancy or that risky. Ok, the forwards look a bit light, but i’d rather have the money in the bank for the flexibility it’ll give me.
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Anelka almost as target man?
I just can’t see it, although haven’t seen any of him pre-season… I would have thought he was perfectly suited to running the channels or pursiung through balls. His best season in English football came at Arsenal- there his pace was used to score many on the break.. Maybe he has lost some pace? He’s certainly no Drogba when it comes to controlling high balls and holding off defenders…Will Chelsea play long ball under Scolari?!
Think I’ll leave him out for now and wait and see…
RvP looked good again today… he will get assists and goals if he’s fit.. But am afraid that’s a big if… Every challenge he seems to go down like a crumpled scarecrow and I worry if he’s ever going to get up!
Also, I think Adebayor will be having a similar good season to last year.. He seems to stay relatively free from injury too.
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few questions:
1. is Scharner a guaranteed starter this season? he played nearly every minute last season, but slightly worried that he didn’t feature at all in Wigan’s last friendly
2. Will Reina start? Cavalieri has played a lot more pre-season. Is Cech + Carragher a safer bet than Reina + Carvalho?
3. Which Arsenal defender (if any)? I’m currently leaning towards Gallas, because as captain he’ll never be rested, plus he offers a goal threat… or do Clichy and Sagna’s assist/bonus points look more appealing?
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scharner and reina should be definites. the gallas/ clichy is harder to call but i’m going with clichy as he was a bonus magnet at the end of the season
have defence and gk locked down now (for moment!).
Which would you guys go for.. lampard and 5m midfield sub (any suggestions btw, really scraping the barrel there!) or young and petrov/other. i’ve lost a bit of faith in young. villa could be off the boil at the start of the season and lampard looks lively at moment and fitting in with big phils plans
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Reply by Sam (Team Sam) on August 4 12:16 am:
personally, i’d go with Young and Petrov. I have both in my time, and both are going to be the main source of their teams attacks, as well both taking corners. Lampard is always good, but this season with all their midfield options, why wouldn’t Chelsea rest him at home to Hull? I think he could miss out on some major points, by being rested against weaker oppossition, whereas Young and Petrov have no replacements.
as for 5mil midfielders, I have Geovanni in my team. He’s looked good in pre-season, and although Hull will probably go down, i can see him getting a few points along the way. another potential option is De Ridder (he’s only 4.5!!). could be an absolute bargain, especially as he seems to be taking corners
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I’d hold off going for De Ridder. He’s 24, yet he has only played 60 first team matches (scoring 3 goals). Wigan have plenty of midfield options, with 8 other quite good quality players. I’d be surprised if he plays more than 1300 minutes this season.
Geovanni could do alright. A lot depends how often Hull get out of their own half though!
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Reply by Bedknobs and Boomsticks on August 4 8:50 am:
Guthrie for £5M. Keegan seems to like him as a Joey Barton replacement. Could be a real bagin if (IF) Newcasle do OK. Their early fixtures are good for rotating him in and out too.
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which 2 of the following 3 strikers would you pick?
bent
yakubu
ashton
and you stay away from de ridder, do you know any other 4.5 mids that you think will play?
another thing, has young contributed anything during preseason? i have him arteta and yakubu in my team, but havent heard anything about any of them…
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Reply by Sam (Team Sam) on August 4 5:32 pm:
Bent + Bellamy instead maybe…. I’ve got those 2 and RVP up front
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probably bent and the yak. but it all depends on whether spurs get pavlyuchenko as to whether he’ll start. i have him in my team but a wait and see
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