A Rickie Lambert brace fires Southampton to their first win of the season. Steven Fletcher nets for the third Gameweek in a row, Leighton Baines continues to rack up the points for Everton, Kevin Nolan scores at home yet again, while the Chelsea defence returns another clean sheet as the Blues edge out Stoke at the Bridge…
Rickie Lambert
A Watchlist candidate earlier this week, he produced the goods as Southampton registered their first points of the season. Lambert bagged a brace in the 4-1 hammering of Villa to place himself firmly in the Fantasy spotlight ahead of a trip to Everton – he has now found the net four times and produced an assist in his opening five Gameweeks. Priced at 6.0 in FPL and 6.8 in the Sky Sports game, he’s set to pick up plenty new suitors over the next few days and is making a persuasive case for the cheap third forward slot in our squads. While the Goodison game may be tricky, Nigel Adkins’ side then welcome (FUL, TOT, SWA) to St Mary’s in the following six – Lambert’s track record, which has also included goals against City and United, highlights his capabilities.
Gaston Ramirez
Allowed the freedom of a central attacking role in support of Lambert, the Uruguayan sparkled on his full debut and came away with an assist. Ramirez is classed as a midfielder in both the Sky Sports game (5.5) and the FPL (6.0) and, if Adkins continues to play him in this role, he would present a strong option for those managers unable to find room for Lambert in their forward lines. Certainly Adkins hinted that he was pleased with his pairing up front which would suggest it would be a viable tactic for matches to come…
“Rickie Lambert has now scored four goals in the Premier League and I thought the combination between him and Gaston Ramirez was mouth-watering.”
Lambert also appreciated Ramirez’ contribution, outlining his qualities…
“He’s something special, and I thought that he, Ads and Puncheon made my job much easier today. Any team when a player like Gaston comes in is just going to be improved on and I thought he was excellent today. He’s sees everything including what’s going on behind him and the runs that you make and that makes everyone’s jobs that much easier.”
Paulo Gazzaniga
The Argentinian stopper will be an unfamiliar name to most but his full Premier League debut was of interest to Fantasy managers. Gazzaniga replaced Kelvin Davis in the Southampton goal and, along with Reading’s Alex McCarthy, now offers another rock bottom budget price keeper option, priced at 4.0 in the FPL. Clearly, both the Reading and Southampton defences are suspect and appear to offer little potential for clean sheets, but Gazzaniga and McCarthy do at least offer starts and save points for those looking to shop on a budget.
Steven Fletcher
His eye for goal continues to rescue points for Sunderland. Fletcher took his tally for the season to four after his opener at Upton Park saw West Ham concede at home for the first time this term – he is now joint-top goalscorer, along with Lambert, Michu and Robin Van Persie. Despite grabbing a 1-1 draw, Martin O’Neill’s side showed little attacking intent – Fletcher’s effort was their only attempt on target all day yet, once again, that was all he needed to maintain his 100% scoring record since joining from Wolves. Priced at 7.0 in FPL, he’ll be drafted in by many ahead of the home game with Wigan – if the Black Cats are to triumph next weekend, it seems almost inevitable Fletcher will again play his part.
Leighton Baines
An assist, clean sheet and two bonus points at Swansea continued the Everton left-back’s eye-catching start to the season. Baines is now up to 37 FPL points – the most impressive aspect has been his consistency, with only one poor Gameweek thus far (9, 7, 1, 9, 11) with bonus points accrued in four of his five appearances. He’s returned a goal and a pair of assists already, in addition to two clean sheets, and with a home clash against Southampton next time round, he could be a real armband candidate next weekend. With a strong run of fixtures for the foreseeable future, the prospect of further returns looks enticing – many a Fantasy manager will be juggling their budget to find a space for Baines, if they haven’t done so already.
Kevin Nolan
While the West Ham backline disappointed their Fantasy owners, Nolan maintained his superb home consistency with a late equaliser earning his side a share of the points. The Hammers skipper has now netted in each of his first three home matches – with Andy Carroll still out due to a hamstring problem, Nolan’s contribution is more crucial than ever right now and his mid-price appeal across the Fantasy games grows with every Upton Park match. Sam Allardyce’s side now have three home fixtures in the next five – the visit of Southampton in Gameweek 8 offers plenty potential for Nolan to replicate his form but with Arsenal and City also arriving in Gameweeks 7 and 10 respectively, his scoring streak could struggle to continue.
The Chelsea Defence
Four clean sheets in the first five Gameweeks highlights a real upturn in resilience for Roberto Di Matteo’s side this season. John Terry’s Fantasy owners were left hugely frustrated after the Chelsea skipper was benched for the visit of Stoke, only to be subbed on in the 90th minute; his omission means only two defenders – Branislav Ivanovic and Ashley Cole – have started all five of the Blues’ league games. Cole’s match-winner and clean sheet took his FPL tally to 39 points – he is now third overall prior to today’s games, with Ivanovic top on 42 points.
Chelsea Rotation
The decision to rest both Terry and Frank Lampard should have Fantasy managers on alert. Di Matteo gave us no doubt in his post-match comments that this would be a policy he would continue to pursue…
“It’s just utilising the squad, we have some good players, a good squad, we just wanted to bring some fresh players in. We’ve done it many times before and will continue to do so because we play so many games. The guys have played a lot of games already and we’ve got so many more to come, so using the squad is very important for us. You don’t want to get to November and be burned out.”
With Oscar coming into the equation and Victor Moses replacing Eden Hazard early in the second-half, there will be concerns that Di Matteo could start applying rotation in attacking midfield areas. Di Matteo started with Mata, Hazard and Oscar for the first time in yesterday’s game and had this to say on the experiment…
“It’s the first time we have tried it, it certainly needs more work and practice, to tactically integrate them into our system. I thought today it worked very well, but it will take time for them to know each other better. I want them to have mobility and rotation, they are very intelligent at finding free space, we lacked a bit of width at times so we needed our full backs to provide us with that.”
Significantly, Di Matteo then went on to sing the praises of Moses, suggesting that he is now in line for his first start…
“He came on against Queens Park Rangers, and again today. He probably has a good chance to start in the next game. It’s a good chance for us to introduce some of our new signings. We signed him in the last couple of days of the transfer window and then it was the international break, so it’s not like he’s been with us for a long time.”
Swansea Form
One point and no clean sheets from the last three, no goals in the last two – the opening couple of Gameweeks are quickly becoming a distant memory. Neil Taylor’s injury at left-back and Chico’s suspension have dented Swansea’s defensive resolve significantly, while the cracks are starting to appear in the midfield. Nathan Dyer dropped to the bench, with Pablo Hernandez earning his first start on the flank – the Spaniard was subbed off with a knee problem, though, allowing Dyer a brief sub appearance. He lasted just 13 minutes before receiving his marching orders for two yellow cards – Dyer will be available for next week’s trip to Stoke, though, as he will serve his one-match suspension in the midweek Capital One Cup clash with Crawley. Michu’s owners are starting to get twitchy – although the trip to Stoke looks tricky, most will choose to hold for the visits of Reading and Wigan in Gameweeks 7 and 8 before considering their options, with Swansea then set to face City and Chelsea in their subsequent two fixtures.
Romelu Lukaku
Drafted into the West Brom forward line, the subject of our Moneyball article in the week duly repaid that faith with the winning goal for the Baggies as they broke Reading resistance. Steve Clarke took the decision to drop Shane Long to the bench to make way for the Chelsea loanee, explaining the thinking behind this post-match and hinting at further opportunities for Lukaku…
“It was a difficult decision to leave him out but I just felt Lukaku had been very patient waiting for his chance from the bench…I’m looking for Romelu to continue the fine form he has shown for us so far and score a few more goals. I would imagine there is a recall clause in his contract but if they do come back for him I can’t affect that.”
With intense competition in our Fantasy forward lines, Lukaku will likely need to maintain strong form to start acquiring Fantasy suitors, although his situation is clearly worth monitoring given West Brom’s current form and with home games with Southampton and QPR to come.
