Santa has well and truly come early for the eagle-eyed Fantasy Manager. Five of last weekend’s seven postponed fixtures have been confirmed as re-plotted onto the calendar, while the other two look like they may have a date down as well. Jackpot…
We start with Aston Villa visiting Wigan which has now moved to January 25 and will inevitably slot into Gameweek 24 with the previously rescheduled visit of United to Blackpool. This will give Wigan (FUL, ars/AVL, wba, BLA) a set of fixtures that looks inviting on the goals front while Aston Villa (bir, MCY/wig, mun, FUL) aren’t gifted quite so kindly with a run to go with that double helping of gametime.
Next up is Birmingham City who have rescheduled their home tie with Newcastle for February 15, placing that into the territory of Gameweek 27. McCleish’s men (MCY, whm, STK/NEW, che) won’t be in the kindest run they’ve ever seen with those City and Chelsea games providing a tough sandwich, while Newcastle (ful, ARS, bla/bir, BOL) are equally unlucky on the front of being afford a double Gameweek in one of their “high” spells.
Then we have three more games rescheduled for Gameweek 27 as Blackpool vs Spurs, Arsenal vs Stoke and West Brom vs Wolves have all been assigned a game on February 22. This will be a long double gameweek.
Initial standouts on inspection of that bunch are, of course, Arsenal who will have four home games in four Gameweeks (WIG, EVE, new, WOL/STK); heavy investment in Wenger’s men seems likely. Spurs’ trip to Blackpool is with a tough trip to Wearside and inbetween what will be two important home ties versus Bolton and Arsenal – challenging.
If Blackpool can keep their pitch in order, they will also now see a crazy run of games (SUN/MUN, WHM, eve, AVL/TOT) at Bloomfield road. That’s five home games in six, though certainly not the easiest, and two double Gameweeks almost within touching distance. Fellow promoted side West Brom will also attract investment in their cheaper wares as the Baggies tie their fixture with a home game against West Ham (WIG, mcy, WHM/WOL), that’ll be a double header versus the Premier Leagues bottom two sides.
No official announcements have yet been made on the other two postponed fixtures (Liverpool vs Fulham and Chelsea vs Man United) but the normally pretty reliable BBC seems to have added the latter to their calendar on March 1 in their calendar (Gameweek 28) and the former on January 26th (Gameweek 24). If these prove solid sources – it is the BBC, I’d be pretty hopeful they are – then Liverpool will have five home games (WOL, BOL, bla, EVE, wol/FUL, STK) in six gameweeks following their trip to Blackpool on Boxing Day – all of a sudden I need Fernando Torres back. The top of the table clash meanwhile comes at stringent times for both Chelsea and United, which might make it a little easier to avoid banking on all of the budget busters available.
Expect a more thorough analysis of these new games to come from the team in the New Year as the double fixtures get a little closer. Given that the new “second wildcard” rule comes into effect from Gameweek 23-27, strategists may want to plan accordingly. One thing is for sure, transfer activity will surely rocket.
