It’s Saturday, there’s half-an-hour before the Fantasy Premier League deadline – it’s time to take in one last post before buttons are pressed and hopes are pinned on another gameweek selection. Here’s my pre-breakfast, pre-match preamble with some last minute thoughts…
The gameweek looks a profitable one with some decent fixtures that appear to play into the hands of the home sides. Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, West Ham and a to a lesser extent, Sunderland, Bolton and Boro, all have home fixtures that could provide goals and possible clean sheets. I for one, am feeling fairly secure in my loose predictions for the majority of the matches.
I can’t say the same for the United vs Liverpool clash that kicks things off at noon. This is of course the game of the day but it’s the one fixture that looks a potential trip mine for fantasy managers. The lineups are predictable enough give or take a Giggs or two, however, the outcome and possible fantasy returns look hard to predict. I was happy predicting a tight, low scoring game. However, the style in which Liverpool disposed of Madrid and the performance of the re-formed Torres/Gerrard partnership, is making me nervous this morning. Given that Rafa’s team need the win to maintain any hope in the title race, maybe we will see an away goal and perhaps even an early one. If that happens then we could perhaps see an open game with goals after all.
Elsewhere my concerns surround team selections at the Emirates and at Goodison. Arsenal’s lineup up front looks almost impossible to predict. Wenger commented yesterday that he would make a late call on his team selection following the sapping 120 minutes in Rome on Wednesday. The Van Persie decision is the key one – if he plays he will have the opportunity to at last bring in some returns after weeks of disappointment. Right now, I stand by the prediction that he will start with Bendtner preserved for Tuesday’s Cup replay with Hull. With Eduardo injured, Van Persie’s chances look enhanced and Arshavin, who seems certain to start, could possibly be deployed up front with him. On another note, I wonder if Wenger will split Toure and Gallas and start with Djourou after Toure’s comments in the week? I can but hope.
At Goodision the big team selection decision that affects fantasy managers is whether Moyes give the nod to Saha up front. Moyes indicated that the Frenchman is ready for a start having made a goalscoring impact as sub against Boro. “What I’ve got to decide is where and when I use him, so that I get the most benefit out of him,” remarked Moyes in yesterday’s pre-match conference.That would appear to indicate that he still feels that Saha must be nursed over the coming weeks and perhaps hints that he will look to start him in tougher games than Stoke at Goodison. We shall see – if Saha starts then he has very strong potential in today’s game but clearly he’s not a player we can bank on in the long-term, given his injury record.
Another important team selection decision for fantasy managers will come at the Bridge. Will we see the fit-again Carvalho oust Alex for the spot alongside Terry? Such a tough call this given Hiddink’s relationship with Alex and his form in recent weeks. Following Champions League exertions, Hiddink could see the home fixture with City as the game to test Carvalho’s fitness. It’s certainly a worry for Alex owners and allf of us could do with some clarity so we can assess potential investment going forward.
Just touching briefly on the subject of the Fantasy Premier League captain – in truth this looks a non-issue. Lampard is leading our poll on the front page, with Cahill tailing him. That’s just about a spot-on representation of how things measure up for me this week. Lampard and Cahill are you safe options with home fixtures against City and Stoke. Frank just about has the edge for me in a gameweek where I’m looking to consolidate rather than take a risk. It seems strange as a Ronaldo owner to be turning my back on him when he plays at Old Trafford, but I’m just about standing by my prediction that the Liverpool clash will be a tight affair and possibly, just possibly without goals.
In some ways the Everton defence – Lescott, Baines and Jagielka – all present even more conservative but certainly sensible, captain options for the gameweek. If you want a slight risk then Drogba is worth backing if you’ve already made the investment to transfer him in. For a big gamble you’re looking at the likes of Matt Taylor and Downing – for me, with ten games left, that’s just too speculative.
Finally on to some website news. I still have a slight technical issue that some of you will have noticed of late. It appears that some of those comment posters adding links to their FPL team via the website field, are having their comments held in a queue as suspected spam. I have been manually approving these but the problem still persists for some. As a result, I’m likely to remove the website field later today just for a while to see if that improves things. Those of you who want to provide a link to their team will need to add the link within the body of the comment. Hopefully this will only be a temporary issue.
On a more positive note, there was a late night test of the new chat room last night (thanks again to those who participated) and all went well. The chat room will go officially live for the first time for the United vs Liverpool match this afternoon. I will be posting the link in the Dugout Discussion and re-opening the chat room in time for the start of the match. The idea behind this is to host a chat session so that we reduce the “Goal!!!” style commentary comments on matchdays. Please feel free to continue to contribute comments of course, although if you can be on of the 40 concurrent users in the chat room, then this is the place to be if you want to communicate your pain and joy for the fantasy week in real-time.
I’ll see you in the chat room later then. For now, it just remains for me to wish you good luck for another gameweek.