The Pre-Match Preamble

It’s Saturday, it’s just turned nine in the morning. I’ll never fully understand how it got to the point where we’re up at this hour contemplating our fantasy football lineups. Neither will our partners. Still, they can’t help you when it comes to deciding on whether to transfer in Torres, or who to Captain this week. I’m not really sure I can either but I’ll have a go…

Starting with some team news tittle-tattle and lll of my papers this morning predict that Fernando Torres will start for Liverpool on Sunday. That will be reassuring for those fantasy managers who have already taken the plunge with the Spaniard or are toying with the idea of bringing him in this morning. I’m still sceptical about his chances of hitting the ground running against Arsenal but there’s no doubting his long-term fantasy potential, particularly with Liverpool’s fixtures looking favourable in the coming weeks (ARS WIG por WLV).

There’s very little contentious team news to ponder, apart from the Torres prediction. Opinion seems split on whether James will return in goal for Portsmouth, with the Guardian and The Times backing him to return. The Sun sticks with Begovic in the Portsmouth goal. Similarly the papers are undecided on whether Tuncay will keep his place in the Stoke lineup at home to Wigan. All three agree that Geovanni, one of my Fantasy Island Risks this week, will start for Hull at home to Blackburn having been benched at Villa Park. Two of the Papers – The Guardian and The Times put Scholes in their United lineups, even though he is suspended. I, like the Sun, expect Gibson to earn another midfield start against Villa.

I’ll end this early morning stroll (well it’s early for a Saturday), with a quick synopsis of my current situation regarding my Fantasy Premier League transfers. It’s been a painful week. I’ve been sitting on two free transfers having banked one from the last gameweek and, although that is often an enviable position, I haven’t really found it an advantage. Tottenham’s Defoe, with his lip-smacking fixture against Wolves today was always a target for me. The question I continued to ask myself over the week was whether it was Bent or Rooney who made way.

Rooney’s injury scare earlier in the week looks as though that decision had been made for me, but by Thursday it was clear that Rooney would play against Villa today. As a sidenote to this scenario, Rooney has not only scored five goals in his last five games, he has also scored five goals in the last five encounters with Aston Villa.

Regardless it’s Rooney I’ve chopped. Owen’s hat-trick in the Champions League in midweek has put doubt in my mind concerning the midweek fixture with Wolves. I’ve a sneaky feeling that Ferguson will hand Rooney a rest from three games in a week and start him today, only to go with Berbatov/Owen or even Wellbeck/Owen on Tuesday. The trip to Fulham next weekend looks a tricky one – Ferguson may well look to arrive with a rested Rooney. Besides, selling Rooney hands me some much needed funds too.

The United man, bang in form, drops from my Fantasy Premier League squad then and in comes Defoe alongside Bent and Drogba (currently my FPL captain). All three have home games today and I’m certainly looking to all of them to do damage. Fingers crossed that Rooney has a quiet one. Think of me when his first goal goes in.

Good luck for another gameweek everyone.