The Pre-Match Preamble

Another bleary-eyed stream of conciousness to kick-off the gameweek. There’s a need to be wide awake this morning though – with United kicking off at Goodison at 12pm, there’s a rare and cheeky opportunity to break the system….

The FPL deadline for team changes, transfers and of course captaincies is 11.30am….that should give us managers just a few minutes to make changes with the teams at Goodison safely in our possession. Clearly, this could be a major bonus for Ronaldo owners contemplating making him captain. There’s a small chance that he could miss out after the threat to rest him against Celtic, wasn’t followed through on Tuesday. I’m pretty sure he’ll line up in the eleven and do some damage but there’s nothing like having the facts before giving out the armband – it doesn’t happen very often.

The Sporting Life is an excellent source of early team news and I’ll post the breaking news on the teams and Ronaldo’s situation here.

This little exploit at least makes our Saturday morning just that tiny bit more exciting on a day when there are just four Premiership matches. Most of us will be looking to Goodison for points then, with the majority of the fantasy big-hitters following with their games tomorrow.

Not too much updated injury news doing the rounds this morning. The only major point of interest concerns Robbie Keane, who is making all the right noises in the morning papers who suggest that he’ll be in the lineup at Stamford Bridge.

Elsewhere, there are reports breaking that indicate that Carew will be dropped from the Villa side – even if fit – because of allegations that the striker was out “on the tiles” on the morning of the Ajax match on Thursday. He missed the game with illness/fatigue but reports allege that Carew was actually visiting one of Birmingham’s pole dancing clubs the night before. The club are apparently carrying out an internal investigation and are set to fine Carew two weeks wages – £100,000 apparently. That’s a lot of dances.

I’ll obviously carry out my own inquiry in to this and, once I’ve interviewed every lapdancer in Birmingham, I’ll bring you my report. In the meantime, O’Neill is said to be “furious” with his striker and there’s every chance that the player will be out of the lineup for Sunday’s trip at Wigan. That will certainly put pressure on Agbonlahor to be fit and available and raise Wigan’s clean sheet chances that little bit more.

On to my own linueups, and in the FPL I’ve gone with a 4-5-1 this week with just Zaki up front, backed by a Lamps, Ron, SWP, Young and Ireland midfield. Zamora is skulking on the bench this month, although if Traore fails to turn out for Portsmouth, he’ll be jumping off the bench – no doubt to contribute his usual 2 points.

In the Guardian game, I’ve gone crazy and opted for a foolish 4-4-2 – by no means the most profitable formation in the game. I wanted to give Adebayor and Zaki a run-out together though – so I’m hoping they repay the faith by outscoring my benched players – Olsson and Denilson.

As for the Scout Picks – I’ll stand by the selection of Richardson in midfield, although Sunderland’s dreadful record against Newcastle doesn’t fill me with optimism. Rooney’s omission caused some raised eyebrows but I did stress that this was hampered by the “two player per club rule” I self-impose.

Rooney is looking for his 100th goal, a day after his birthday and is back at Everton. The omens and form are on his side but I’ve preferred the option of Ronaldo and a United defender for this one. Don’t go selling Rooney for Adebayor on the back of the picks though – that’s really not the message.

In terms of last minute inklings – I’m still getting the stirrings over the Bolton strikers at Spurs. I just feel that Elmander could make an impression at the Lane tomorrow. The home defence is still in doubt with so many injuries and King’s uncertain fitness. The pressure is on Ramos but I see him only managing a draw at the most against Megson’s side.

I just hope we all have a better weekend than Spurs. Good luck to you all.