Fernando Torres grabs a hat-trick as Chelsea put six past QPR. Juan Mata is amongst the points again, while John Terry grabs his fifth of the season in the Stamford Bridge rout. Rafael Van der Vaart picks up the points, as does Kyle Walker, after a bitterly disappointing Blackburn display at the Lane.
Fernando Torres
With a couple of starts looking assured, we’d drafted him into the Scout Picks, but Torres surpassed all expectations with a superb hat-trick against QPR yesterday afternoon. The 9.9 priced forward rewarded those 22,000+ Fantasy managers who snapped up his services ahead of Chelsea’s pair of fixtures and, similar to Luis Suarez, choose this weekend to record his highest points haul of the season. Torres picked up 17 points, producing his second double figure return in his last four starts, as the Blues avenged their Gameweek 9 defeat at Loftus Road. With Didier Drogba likely to be rested again for the visit of Newcastle ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup Final, a buoyant Torres could well rack up the points once again when the Magpies come calling on Wednesday.
Juan Mata
The 9.7 midfielder was afforded a 66 minute appearance by Roberto Di Matteo but still had enough time to return four assists for his Fantasy owners. Mata kept up his strong form under the interim boss – yesterday’s 16 point haul was the fifth time in six starts he has produced attacking points since the dismissal of Andre Villas-Boas. With replacement Florent Malouda grabbing a goal and the likes of Salomon Kalou and Daniel Sturridge all getting amongst the points, though, the worry is that Di Matteo could be a little cautious with Mata’s game time for the Newcastle encounter. Mata now sits on a 161 point haul for the season after yesterday’s display, the fifth top scoring midfielder thus far and has picked up 16 assists, more than any other player in the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) game.
John Terry
With injuries and suspension hitting Chelsea hard, their skipper looked the only certainty for a couple of starts over the double Gameweek. Paulo Ferreira was handed a rare start at right-back, as Jose Bosingwa partnered Terry in the heart of defence – the latter headed home his fifth goal of the season, just one less than Thomas Vermaelen at the top of the defender charts. Although Terry’s hopes of a double figure haul were scuppered when Djibril Cisse notched a late consolation, Bosingwa still benefitted from a clean sheet – he was subbed off for Sam Hutchinson two minutes before the Frenchman’s goal.
Rafael Van der Vaart
While Gareth Bale continued a goalless streak that stretches back to Gameweek 23, the Dutchman opened the scoring in yesterday’s 2-0 win over Blackburn. Van der Vaart has now notched in each of his last three starts at the Lane, handing his 7% Fantasy owners an eight point return ahead of Wednesday’s game with Bolton. Spurs are now back in fourth but will need to up their away form for the Reebok trip if they are to keep ahead of Newcastle – Harry Redknapp’s side have scored in only one of their last six away matches.
Kyle Walker
With Blackburn desperately needing points, many had expected Steve Kean’s side to at least come out fighting at the Lane yesterday. Instead, what unfolded was a game that resembled an attack v defence training match at times – Rovers failed to muster a single shot over the entire ninety minutes. As a result, Spurs grabbed their first home clean sheet since Gameweek 25 and, with Walker also firing home a superb free-kick for his side’s second, the full-back returned a 15 point haul for his display at the Lane. Subject to almost 70,000 transfer in after Benoit Assou-Ekotto was ruled out last week, Walker is now one point ahead of the left-back for the season, after taking his total to 136 yesterday. While Spurs have been poor from an attacking perspective on the road of late, Walker’s owners will be confident ahead of the trip to Bolton – the Londoners have conceded just once in their last three on the road.
