Thanks to the Carling Cup Final and Charlie Adam’s dodgy temperament (amongst other factors), this week was shaping up to be a painful one for many a Fantasy Manager unless a few brave decisions were made, particularly in the midfield area. With popular options such as Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri, Theo Walcott, Rafael Van der Vaart, and Adam all missing out, fortune -and plenty luck- favoured the brave souls who plumped for Aston Villa and Wolves midfielders in particular.
Villa annihilated Blackburn 4-1, with six saves from Paul Robinson preventing the scoreline from further embarrassing Steve Kean’s side, as Ashley Young and Stewart Downing racked up the points for their Fantasy Premier League (FPL) Owners. Young bagged two goals and an assist, whilst Downing helped himself to a goal and an assist and the pair picked up three and two Bonus Points respectively, making their hauls 18 and 12 for the gameweek. With a great run of games ahead, there will no doubt be plenty investment in the pair over the next few weeks.
Over at Wolves, Mick McCarthy’s side recorded their best-ever Premier League win to jump out of the relegation zone. Jamie O’Hara and Matt Jarvis each scored a goal as Blackpool, without Charlie Adam, self-imploded, mainly thanks to DJ Campbell’s pointless red card which now deprives Ian Holloway of his star striker for the next three games.
O’Hara has now scored in his last two games and although he will miss the next league match with parent club Spurs, is proving to be essential in the club’s relegation battle. He picked up 2 Bonus Points, taking this week’s tally to 10. Adding this to his 3 last week, and the loanee is looking like a real alternative to Charlie Adam. Jarvis’ goal and a Wolves clean sheet saw him pick up 8 points, and, coming off a 2 Bonus Point performance last week, also looks key to his club’s survival chances.
With four games to go before we can draw a line under what has been a thoroughly frustrating gameweek, these four players currently sit at the top of the midfield scorers for gameweek 28, and any team with a combination of Young plus one, or even two, can expect a nice little boost up the rankings tonight. Depending on that number of points hits, of course.
