Brace yourselves. Sift your way past the turkey stuffing leftovers and half-eaten tins of Quality Street and cast aside the regret brought on by that one mince pie too many – as Fantasy managers, we’ve got work to do.
Boxing Day begins a feast of football that allows us to gorge on a trio of Gameweeks over the next seven days, leading us into the New Year. For starters, our lunchtime encounter at the Bridge sees Chelsea square up to the Hammers as Sam Allardyce’s side look to breach a backline that has served up five clean sheets in their last six league outings.
Jose Mourinho’s best attempts to play Scrooge with a pre-deadline refusal to face the press and update us on Eden Hazard’s dodgy ankle meant many Fantasy owners went into the Gameweek sweating over the Belgian’s fitness. Fortunately, Hazard has been passed fit and starts once again as he looks to net for a sixth successive appearance at the Bridge.
Like Hazard, Diego Costa has preferred home comforts and has netted in all but one of his seven home appearances in front of the Chelsea faithful. Cesc Fabregas, with returns in 11 of 16 league matches, is joined by Oscar in the XI – the Brazilian returns to the role in “the hole” as Fabregas drops into the double-pivot once again.
Yet to earn a clean sheet on their travels, West Ham look unlikely to arrest that record today. Given the recent form of players such as Stewart Downing and Andy Carroll, though, Allardyce has the attacking potency capable of spoiling the hosts’ hopes of a home clean sheet – only Chelsea and Man City have scored more times on the road than the in-form Upton Park side. Big Sam makes a trio of changes for this one – Alex Song, Diafra Sakho and James Tomkins are replaced by Mark Noble, Enner Valencia and James Collins in the XI.
