Here’s another early morning pre-breakfast ramble around this fantasy football lark, easing you into the FPL deadline and today’s games. This week, like every other week, it’s the FPL captain issue that’s troubling my bleary head…
Yes, the captain conundrum is teasing me again. We have Ronaldo and United’s stuttering away form at City, and Lampard and Chelsea’s scratchy home form against Arsenal. There could be goals and attacking points in both matches but equally, we could be looking at two tense, tight encounters with meagre fantasy returns.
Chelsea have scored 8 goals in their last 5 home games, but 5 of those came in one match against Sunderland. They’ve been far from fluid at the Bridge then. Arsenal meanwhile, have certainly faltered of late away from home but if you take last week’s 3-0 defeat at Man City out of the equation, they’ve conceded just 5 goals in their remaining 6 away games. They are also fighting for pride and their season on Sunday – Ferguson’s comments today, will surely only promote this fighting spirit. Logic and form appears to hint that the Stamford Bridge clash will be short on goals then.
In comparison, United have averaged just a goal-a-game over their last 5 away games. Similarly City have conceded a goal-a-game in their last 5 home. At least one United goal looks on the cards then, and my thinking is that if City can breach the United defence, then Ferguson’s side will need to retaliate with at least a couple of goals. I’m far from confident about this, we could easily be left with a 1-1 draw from this but I’m certainly leaning towards Ronaldo over Lampard.
Apart from the stats, three factors swing it in Ronaldo’s favour. Firstly City have doubts in both full-back positions. Zabaleta should be fit but has been struggling all week, while Garrido also has a knock and is a doubt for this one. I can see Ronaldo getting at both of these guys and having some joy. Secondly there’s the Ronaldo vs Robinho scenario. The various awards lavished on the United man have resulted in increased flashes of arrogance of late (witness the gestures to the Villa crowd). I think he wants to prove himself as the world’s best player and he’ll be looking to ram that point home with Robinho likely to be on the same pitch.
Finally, there’s the prospect of watching this game live, without Ronaldo wearing my armband. I’ve got away with this a few times but it’s far from a pleasant experience. I’m in a decent mini-league position, I really don’t need to gamble with my captain selection just yet.
There are options for those who do fancy a flutter. Agbonlahor and maybe even Laursen, looking tempting for Villa against Fulham. Although Hodgson’s side are almost Boro-like in their spoil-sporting qualities this season, so this makes me nervous about backing Villa here. Gerrard should be handed the role just behind the lone striker when West Ham come to Anfield on Monday, equally Kuyt may come into a central position more often with Torres absent. Both are certainly worth consideration if you need a differential with your captain choice.
There’s Anelka against his former club at the Bridge, although my reservations with Lampard extend to him too of course. Other than that, you’re in the realms of inspired gambles – Bent, Ashley Young, Robinho…all certainly worth consideration if you’re looking to follow a hunch or flash of inspiration. With attacking points looking at a premium again, one inspired choice for captain could make all the difference.
In terms of my own FPL lineup – I’m currently mulling over the merits of benching Delap in favour of Portsmouth’s Belhadj. A close run thing this. While I don’t trust the Portsmouth defence, they could get goals against Blackburn and Belhadj still appears to be in the running for a left midfield slot. The Delap long throw meanwhile, could well be nullified by Phil Brown who will surely have something up his sleeve to deal with it. In fact, I noticed that this article had Brown claiming that he had a player who could chuck the ball further than Delap – a secret weapon that he could reveal at Stoke today. Worth watching out for that.
Here’s, some late team news you may have missed from yesterday. First at the Emirates, we can expect to see Sagna, Adebayor and Nasri all in the Gunners lineup for Stamford Bridge, having returned to full training on Friday. Chelsea have doubts over the fitness of Joe Cole who picked up an ankle knock against Bordeaux. Kalou could well come in then – although Ballack is another possibility.
Mido is back for Boro but will be set for a place on the bench – although he seems likely to take some minutes off of Alves late on. Wigan skipper, Mario Melchiot is back so Bruce will have to decide whether to recall him at right back, which could see Taylor dropped to the bench or shifted to a midfield role.
Finally, I must draw your attention to the newly revamped Fantascene website. Ed has been working on changes after the launch of the site earlier this season and has come up with a superb new package.
You can now register with the site and select your starting eleven for the gameweek, earning points for the performance of your picks which will boost your “trust points”. These points add further weight to your selections each week and there’s a running table of the top “pickers” on the site. As before, it does a brilliant job of canvassing opinion on the best eleven each week and now there will be no silly selections created by those who, for some reason, got pleasure in breaking the concept. If you’re resting back on a settled FPL selection before the deadline, register with Fantascene and pick you selection now..
That’s it from me then. I’m off for breakfast before today’s feeble five match programme gets under way (I hate it when they do that). Have another excellent gameweek folks. Lets hope there’s some goals his time eh?