Saturday morning starts with a hurried breakfast and several hundred words to see us past another Fantasy Premier League deadline and into the first kick-off. This Saturday is like any other, if a little more sunny and jazz-filled (yes the band is outside my window again).
Let’s go for a little preamble around the fantasy pitch before kick-off then…
As always, let’s start with the armband issue in the Fantasy Premeir League, as this gameweek looks tighter than ever. There’s help at hand of course – our poll shows Ronaldo, Gerrard, Lampard and Beattie as the leading candidates and, as always, that’s not far wrong.
The majority vote goes to Ronaldo and that’s where my armband sits again this gameweek. To my mind, United will need a few goals at the Cottage and will be looking to restore confidence after the defeat to Liverpool. Ronaldo should be influential if that pans out.
There’s little between Ronaldo and Lampard to be honest, as I see Chelsea in a similar situation to United this weekend. Hiddink’s side will need goals at Spurs, given the form of the home side, so again, Lampard should be a major influence with profits on the cards.
My decision with the captaincy reflects that I am consolidating matters at the moment. Having opened up a decent lead and with Granville without Ronaldo in his side, the captaincy is not something I’m looking to gamble with. If I found myself behind at this point, I may have toyed with Van Persie for Arsenal at Newcastle. I don’t need to take such risks though, so the captaincy stays with Ronaldo.
You could be in a very different situation of course, at which point the likes of Beattie and Cahill will come into the armband equation. Unlike me, you could also fancy Liverpool to continue on the goal trail when they take on Villa at Anfield on Sunday. I’m not expecting an attacking game here, although, if Liverpool can get the early goal, all that will change and Torres and Gerrard will be leading candidates for decent profits.
My omission of the Liverpool pair in the Picks could go terribly wrong though – much depends on the Villa side that turns up and O’Neill’s approach on the day. I’ve said all week that I feel that this game will be tight and I’ve stuck by that with the Picks going into the weekend.
Team selection wise I’m particularly interested in whether Bellamy will return for City against Sunderland and the role played by Arshavin for Arsenal at Newcastle. Both are firmly on the fantasy radar for the run-in but while Bellamy has to prove his fitness, Arshavin has to prove he can contribute regularly from a wider role, if indeed he is shifted by Wenger today.
Transfer wise, again I’ve consolidated matters and opted for a defensive switch, bringing in Shawcross for Djourou at the back. Stoke have strong fixtures to come and while I was tempted to make a Beattie for Johnson switch up front, that can wait with Van Persie and Kevin Davies looking good/okay prospects this gameweek. I’m fairly happy with my lineup, although I think I’m only looking at an average scoring week with so many of my side away from home.
This should be an eventful gameweek and a lively one, with plenty of conflicting opinion floating around on the site. It’s certainly a good week to take the plunge with the site’s new chatroom if you’ve missed out to this point.
The Dugout Discussion chatroom will be opening for the three o’clock kick-offs. I’m going to relax for the Portsmouth vs Everton clash early today, with three of my players taking the field for the Toffees. If Everton conceded and Cahill draws a blank, I’m already up against it this gameweek so this will be uncomfortable viewing for me.
Later this evening though, between the afternoon and evening kick-off, Granny will be running a quiz in the chatroom. If you fancy that, make sure you pop in at 4.45 today as the full-times start rolling in.
As always, I’ll post the link to the chat room in today’s Dugout Discussion post so keep an eye out.
All that’s left, as we creep towards the deadline, is to wish you all good luck for another gameweek. That particularly extends to skilla, rrr and any other “Scouters” still flying the flag in the FPL cup.