Slipping to Thursday again and following on the heels of the weekend preview provided in the podcast, here’s the weekly meander with my jottings on the forthcoming fixtures…
Best For Clean Sheets…
It’s impossible to look beyond the impenetrable two – Liverpool and Chelsea yet again. They look to have clean sheet friendly fixtures for yet another gameweek. Fulham’s visit to Anfield looks unlikely to trouble Reina to a large degree given that they’ve scored just two goals on their travels. Equally, Newcastle’s away record is dismal enough to suggest that the leaders will cast them aside at Stamford Bridge with plenty of attacking and defensive points to go round.
Stoke perhaps offer the best value defensive potential this week. They are attempting to turn their home turf into a fortress and the visit of shot-shy West Brom looks another opportunity for them to kick-on with a clean sheet packaged up into the bargain. Fuller sits out through suspension which seems likely to blunt their attacking play – at the back however, the likes of Shawcross and Higginbotham (who could be on penalties with Fuller out) are worth a look.
The Boro vs Bolton clash is the outsider for defensive points. Boro are so unpredictable, it’s always unwise to put your house, shed or tent on them but this game certainly doesn’t look to have many goals in it. I’m expecting a narrow home win here – possibly with a rare cleanie.
Best For Goals…
Arsenal’s visit to City looks the plumb match-up here. City are still banging them in to compensate for their brittle back four and, to a lesser extent, the same can be said for Arsenal. Wenger will be without Fabregas and Walcott but will likely start with both Van Persie and Adebayor to compensate for that loss. You can’t see the City defence standing up to that pairing without conceding and equally, you’d expect Robinho, Wright-Phillips and Ireland to cause plenty of concern for an Arsenal defence who have lost the stability of Sagna at right back. I can see four to five goals in this one if it goes to form.
Hull have been powerful on their travels – only Chelsea have had more success on the road. They should ask questions of the Portsmouth rearguard then and that could well see two to three goals here. The likely protagonists – Geovanni, King, Kranjcar (if fit) and Defoe (if fit) all look decent shouts for profit here. If Defoe isn’t available however, Portsmouth could be set to struggle and could even see Adams opt for 4-5-1.
Elsewhere Chelsea could score any number of goals from 1-10 at home to Newcastle so Anelka investors could well be in for early returns. Spurs will be looking to bounce back from the Fulham defeat and are likely to need at least a couple to see of Blackburn if Harry keeps Gomes in goal. I’m also looking forward to see how Cisse and Jones shape up against Zola’s beleaguered West Ham. The Hammers kept a rare clean sheet last time out – I can see them being stretched by the Sunderland pairing though and I’m expecting a couple of home goals here, with at least one in reply from Zola’s side.
Best for Frustration…
Villa vs United looks to be the obvious game with plenty of attacking points flying around – although a closer examination reveals that this could well be a tight, low scoring affair. Villa kept a clean sheet at the Emirates but it’s difficult to see them achieving another with United in town. Ferguson’s men haven’t found the goals away from home though and look more likely to nick an early one and look to protect the lead. O’Neill meanwhile, could go with five in midfield and look to keep this one tight until the later periods.
The stats show that Villa are averaging just over a goal a game over the last five at home and United are reading the same over their last five away. I’ve an inkling that we could have a 1-1 or 1-0 win for United on our hands here.
Fulham spoiled our Bent-bandgwagon party last weekend and they could well prove stubborn opposition for the Liverpool this time out. Rafa’s men will have one eye on the Champions League – they seem likely to be without Gerrard and they’ve had plenty of players on international duty. It’s a Liverpool win – but by a narrow margin in my view.
Finally, I’ve got the fear over Monday’s Wigan vs Everton fixture. Many of us will be watching this, hoping for a late boost to our fantasy week totals but with Wigan’s home record and Everton nursing a string of injuries (Pienaar, Fellaini and Cahill all doubts), I wonder if we see anything but a turgid affair with few goals and fantasy points being shared out. I’m expecting little to cheer from my Monday Night Football.




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Im not too sure,must have scrolled down to the bottom by mistake, weird!
http://www.arsenal.com/news/ne.....r-man-city
Even Toure will miss Arsenal trip to City.. With Sagna, Eboue and Toure all injured, seems like Djourou will make his comeback..
Can u boys help please.
Im looking for a defender that plays most weeks, iv only got 4.3m
I was thinking mabe some1 from Fullam or Bolton ?
Thanks
Paintsil perhaps, he’s made that position his own and Shwarzer is in good form behind him. Plus, Hodgson rarely rotates.
Safe options are Pantsil-ful Obrien-Bolt
if you fancy a bit of a gamble Gardner Bolt
I would prob go for O’Brien A (Bolton), he plays every game and is nice and cheap (4.3)
Where do thay play at the back?
I would stay clear of Bolton for a while, look at the list of their upcoming fixtures.
I have been watching Gardner but wouldn’t bring him into my side as a rotating Defender till GW 23 in January.
Thank you boys
Same for Fulham. Try Figueroa. Wigan miss a game one week but their fixtures seem good compared to Ful and Bol.
Out of all that, Paintsil from fulham is your best bet. Very strong at Home, don’t concede.
Wigan can;t keep a cleanie to save em selves.
And Bolton are just plain shite
Shawcross for the next few weeks only. Good fixtures.
Tiny little smiley, I’ll call it ‘Smiley’.
Does anyone think I am a complete nutcase to be considering ireland or robinho for captain ahead of lamps and ron?
My logic is ron might not do much v villa lamps may not play v newcastle.
And Ireland does not play for eh Irealnd so he should be fit and raring to go for city
Robinho is robinho gets goals at eastlands arsenal have no fabregas
Those were the pros…for man city captaincy
The cons are if ron and/or lamps go on a flier and city dont instead of surging i am left further behind
Ireland does not do much at home in eastlands
Robinho is now playing a deeper role…
Ah f**k it i will captain Ireland for the craic as long as lamps remains a doubt.
Keep a close eye on Chelsea news though – Terry was quoted as saying Lampard was going to receive an injection to play midweek, so perhaps the week recovery time puts him back into the Chelsea midfield on the weekend..
I had Robinho captain when he got his hat-trick ( Mr Smug )
Re Reply by Ibracadabra on November 20, 2008 7:12 pm
Ok grand thanks…I suppose lampard is hardly ever injured I should keep the faith until 11.22am on saturday at least!
OK boys and girls and Fran I need your advice.
I’m off away tomorrow morning for the weekend so need to make my captain pick now. I’m leaning towards not giving it to Ron at the moment but if I don’t who do you think I should go with?
My possible choices:
Lamps
Defoe
Kuyt
Thoughts? Am I mad to look beyond Ron?
No, not at all… Despite the importance of the game, CRon just might be too fatigued to play. Plus Villa away is not an easy game. I’d go for Kuyt. Lamps and Defoe are both injury doubts.
Is Lamps definitely a doubt ?
or was it just a knock that wasn’t worth risking ?
Well he withdrew from the Eng game with a ‘rib injury’. It may just have been a knock that wasn’t worth risking but it certainly makes him a doubt. And why chance your captaincy choice on a doubt when you can have a on-form Kuyt instead?
That’s who I’ve got at the moment but I’ve already canged three times! Slightly worried as Kuyt playedthe full 90 mins but he is a bit of a workhorse. Guess he’s the best bet with other injury doubts – just got a feeling Lamps might pull it out of the bag. Hmmm… guess I’ll go pack and decide!
Portsmouth has some nice fixtures coming, what do you think about Crouchie? I’d love to see him do the robot again! Should I bring him in? He hasn’t been that effective lately, and I have my doubts about Tony Adams in general. Can’t afford Defoe.
No, not at all… I mean. Yes, bring him in. Adams appears to like playing a 4-5-1 with Crouch the main striker away from home. Plus Defoe picked up an injury midweek.
He’s already stated there will never be a robot again. Push that one down into folklore…
Crack The Code site has gone seriously down in my estimations , Reina was not posted as remotely close to a rise and yet he has risen , wtf !
Now i have lost 0.2 on my transfers this week because i held back thinking there was no point in doing them before the internationals if people are not going to go up , it’s a handy tool but keeping it accurate would be helpful.
He was
he wasn’t , he was extremely low last night , about 30% , then i log on tonight , and he has gone up , i doubt 20 odd thousand people have put him in in that space of time.
sorry AJ, but I think you’re mistaken-I checked a couple of days ago and reina was fairly close to a rise, 80-90%ish. don’t think CTC have gotten this one wrong.
Yep he was, was watching him yesterday
Well my comp was playing up then , apologies to CTC site.
Either way my stupid computer cost me 0.2 , i just gotta hope that wont cost me in the future.
Yes I too noticed Reina sitting at about 90% at one stage
alright let’s stop rubbing it in ! haha. My computer hasn’t updated the site for some reason which is quite frustrating!
i noticed him at 101% last night late
Yes i have said twice now that y computer is the problem , so i know he was up on the rankings , but not on my computer , ok?!?!?!?!?
I saw it quite high too
Are you sure it was not just your computer playing up AJ?
Yeah, I noticed he was quite high too
I brought Reina in on 18th Nov, when CTC showed him in the high 90s for a rise. He went up that night to 6.2m.
Can’t always take it as read though. I’m planning to ship Ferdy out this week, and was holding off for international news. He went down overnight even though his drop % was only in the 70s. Must have been lots of late sales.
That and the CTC site warns that drops are a bit more unpredictable than the rises.
It does say its not accurate, I never trust it
Only use it as a major estimate
Can generally see when a player will rise without it
Thoughts on Captain this weekend – Ronaldo away to Villa or Anelka home to Newcastle??
need injury news asap
defoe is defiantley playing on the portmouth website it says he is fit and was just suffering from cramp
torres captain this weekend he wil star firing in the goals this weekend. Fulhams defence wont no wats hit them. he looks like hes back after his goal for spain yesterday
Quite possible.
I might go for bosingwa as captain!
Playing catch up? Or just in the mood for a wild choice to spice things up?
Looks like Berba’s out this weekend anyway guys…
http://www.skysports.com/story.....16,00.html
Only got him for my skysports team, think I might just do a straight swap to Bent for next 2 home games.
Just read that Martin Skrtel could be back sooner rather than later. BBC gossip page quoting the Independent.
think a traore will play on weekend?
Nope , He doesn’t seem like Adams’ favourite
Kinda hope not as I just sold him for Belhadj and also have Kranjcar. If Traore plays it will be most likely due to Kranjcar not playing….and I sure hope he is fit!
Im going with Kaboul. I think>
Or Belhadj
Kaboul….
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/.....-side.html
Traore to Belhadj should be a sound transfer. You should be fine.
if Krancjar is fit then he probably won’t.
Traore won’t play IMO. Although looking forward to Marks team news
hmm still trying to decide whether to either transfer defoe for anelka or a sub defender for agger (cos i only have bosingwa, traore, laursen and figueroa) and if traore doesnt play then figeueroa will get me 2 points at best but agger would get me 6. what you reckon?
Tough one. Anelka’s bandwagon as been huge for a reason. Three matches, against sub-par teams, the goals could come in. As could Defoe’s goals if he is fit. I personally prefer defense to flash. I think if I were you I would wait till the last minute and see if you can find some truth on Defoe’s fitness. If he is set to play I would uptrade a fig to Agger. Hold on to Traore one more week, never know but by the looks of it you may want to swap him for Belhadj…if money is an issue do it this week as Belhadj is set to raise .1 in the next day or so.
Sorry I rambled there
appreciated sojourner – is a well tough one – been procrastinating all week, moving towards your thinking to grind out an extra 4 for clean sheet thinking anelka will at best only get 6 more points than defoe if fit – can get belhadj next week – thanks
Just noticed that the FPL recently changed a good many of the profile pics….Fat Franks new one is a laugh!
haha , yep he does look quite comical
ha he’s looking fatter alright or in awe of anelka’s recent record
Frank Spencer!!
Ha
http://farm2.static.flickr.com.....92dbb0.jpg
or i could get belhadj for my sub defender and anelka for defoe and sacrifice 4 points
Can someone advise me on these 2 possible transfers this week?
Torres & Delap or Van Persie & Bentley?
cheers
Tough one
Van Persie & Bentley imo
Torres and Delap for me. Both have decent fixtures and Torres is awesome
i got a feeling bout van persie this week – might be bit soon for torres, not sure bout bentley yet tho – might be alternatives like nasri or even carrick
Here’s one for you..
Reina
Bosingwa,Belhadj,Carragher
Ronaldo,Jenas,Lampard,Geovanni,Delap
Anelka, Zaki
Subs in order:
Bent
Zayatte
Paintsil
Schwarzer
I’m considering:
griffin (stoke) in for zayatte (hull)
jenas out for ireland
I’m thinking it’s worth taking the hit as a clean sheet and midfield goals looks more likely and fixtures aren’t too shabby. Their prices are also on the rise.
Worth it?
Probly
Griffins next 6-3 clean sheets
Ireland pure quality
Im mulling over a double swap dis week
Agger in -Evra out
Bent in- Zaki out
Is taht sensible or cud i spend it elsewhere?
Hmmm…
maybe I’ll go for Van Persie & Delap then get in Torres next week if he proves himself this saturday, I agree with Wolf I can see Van persie doing alright this weekend!
Any news on Alex?
either going to ship out alex for a l’pool defender (got 0.8 in bank) or pantsil (longer term view for bent)
or swap etherington for delap (assists at home where there is no advertising hoard moving)
any views appreciated
maybe even zaki for bent which i can afford
Just got rid of him mate. Physioroom have him back for 6th Dec, by which time Carvalho should be back
is ivanovic likely to play in his place?
If he does it’ll just be for the one game I reckon so prob not worth it!
done alex for ivanovic and etherington for delap, risky double hehe
very. Bit of a waste really with uncertainty on ivanovic, who knows if he will even play this weekend and with Carva coming back, most likely next week. Delap move was good though
dammit misread carvalho return date on physioroom, schoolboy error.
the question is… zaki or griffin to play? zaki is an injury doubt but who knows what’s going on there, will probably bite the bullet and stick with zaki and just have griffin ready to come in if he doesn’t play.
Needed to bring in Anelka this week, so gave up Alex, Sturridge and Arteta to free up funds, and brought in Anelka, Muamba and Griffin.
Not playing Muamba this week, but Griffins got a chance of hauling in the standard defenders points this week. Ronaldo for captain!
http://www.skysports.com/story.....16,00.html
I think i’ll be doing a Berbatov -> Torres this week. Was contemplating doing Evra -> Agger but this could work as well i think.
Can anyone throw a bit of light on how the Crack the Code site works?
Fletcher has been over 100% NTI since Tuesday yet he still hasnt dropped in price. Why?
The ‘price rises’ seem much easier to understand!
Hey does anyone know if I can make transfers gradually during the week and then play wildcard without taking a points loss? Or does one have to do all the transfers at once?
You can make transfers during the week and then play the wildcard without losing points yes, it is considered active for that gw after it is played so any transfers that have gone before it being played are still free.
Gents, I consider both Geovanni, Delap and Zaki to be more of a threat than Arteta this gameweek, and have benched Arteta. Sound like the right choice?
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