The stats gurus at Opta have provided an interesting article on the Sky Sports site today, listing the form of Premiership sides throughout August over the last five seasons. It makes for some interesting reading.

Since 2003, Chelsea have won 83% of their games in August – the best of any side in the Premiership. Arsenal rank second with 67%. What’s even more interesting is that for Everton and Man City, August has been the best month of the season for the last five years, while Blackburn have won just 15% of their games in August over the same period – some definite food for thought.

For me the article compounds my current thinking on Chelsea. Even though other sides have slightly easier fixtures, I see Scolari’s side, with their form in pre-season, as the side to back. The likes of Cech, Terry, Lampard and Anelka all currently look very strong. Arsenal’s players have proved immensely popular with fantasy managers so far, and quiet rightly, however, given that we’ve seen little of Fabregas, Adebayor and Van Persie in pre-season thus far, Chelsea’s key men currently look the more favourable.

The best bet of course, is to back them both. With United facing just four fixtures out of the first five and with the Liverpool lineup still difficult to call, it’s appears that Chelsea and Arsenal are the prime sources for big fantasy signings, for the first five games at least.