Player Picks Week 15

Welcome to the first week of December, it’s going to get nasty from here on in, beware of rotation!

Stoke City v Manchester City

Stoke recorded an unexpected loss against Sunderland last time out and believe me, Mark Hughes was not happy, but they bounced back midweek to reach the semi-finals. They face another Capital One Cup semi-finalist, Manchester City who steamrolled past Hull City.

Tough one to call, Mark Hughes always has a point to prove against Manchester City, but City should win with the quality available. Note: Aguero's not fit again. 0-3 Final Scoreline.

Player picks: Hard to look past De Bruyne for this one, but Kolarov could do nicely too for the clean sheet and free kick potential.

Arsenal v Sunderland

Boy is Big Sam relishing this one.  He actually made Lee Cattermole look good last week, so he’ll be looking to annoy Wenger once again. Sunderland actually held Arsenal to a goalless draw in this fixture last week, with Pantilimon pulling off some amazing saves.  Arsenal’s season is again being disrupted by injuries, and I can see that becoming a problem once again for the London club, especially in central midfield. Final Score: 1-1.

Player picks: Aaron Ramsey is back and Ozil will look for him after getting constantly frustrated by Giroud.  On the other side, Patrick Van Aanholt scored 10 points last week with a goal, and a defender in an attacking role is always good for us!

Manchester United v West Ham

Ugh. This could be a fantasy nightmare. Stay away unless you’re investing in the defense for Manchester United, cause I really don’t know who’s going to score. 1-1

Player Picks: Chris Smalling as the goal-scoring defender.  Mauro Zarate if you’re feeling brave.

Southampton v Aston Villa

Hard to call this one.  I’ve started to see some improvement for Villa against Watford last week, despite losing 2-3. For all of Southampton’s strengths, they struggle against teams that prioritise their defense, which is what Villa will do away from home. 1-1 draw (yes, call me chicken)

Player Picks: Tadic could come back into the goals with Amavi out of the picture, there could be plenty of space to exploit. My dark horse pick for this week is Steve Sidwell, there are issues in Southampton’s backline with Jose Fonte possibly out and no apparent clear starter for Southampton’s right back spot.

Swansea v Leicester

There were signs of life for Swansea against Liverpool last week as well, can they engage Leicester the same way? I just don’t see it. Will Gary Monk make it to 2016? I just don’t see it either.0-3 to Leicester.

Player Picks: Definitely Vardy.  I do have concern over Mahrez being rested by tinkerman Ranieri, but if he starts, then by all means pick him.

Watford v Norwich

Two promoted teams, but has anyone noticed that Watford are in the Top Ten right now? Watford are clearly ahead in terms of quality, and discipline. 2-0 as Flores’ men continue to do well, but there is uncertainty with regards to Gomes (Watford’s keeper). Check injury updates.

Player picks:  Paredes as a nice out of position defender pick, and Deeney for the penalty conversion as Norwich collapse.

West Brom v Spurs

It could’ve been Berahino against Spurs, but West Brom manager Tony Pulis does not seem to rate him. This could be a real slug fest, as West Brom will look to contain and frustrate Spurs. Harry Kane finally blanked last week, will he bounce back this week? I seriously don’t think so, but Spurs should still win. 1-2 to Spurs.

Player picks: Erikssen with a setpiece goal, and Aiderweireld to continue the Spurs trend of goal-scoring defenders.

Chelsea v Bournemouth

One team becoming defensively solid, one team discovering their attacking verve. Which shall prevail? Probably the Londoners, but they’ll concede. 2-1.

Player picks: Willian blanked last week, but that was Spurs, expect a great free kick this weekend. All eyes are on Hazard as a false nine, but I’m tipping Loic Remy to return and do well.

Newcastle v Liverpool

It’s hard not to look at this matchup and think: Massacre. But there you have it. 4 - 1

Player picks: Firmino, Benteke. Not sure if Coutinho will be ready, but we get to check.

Everton v Crystal Palace

Everton were undone last week by a Bournemouth fight back. This is arguably one of their harder matchups but I think they will do just enough to defeat the Londoners.

Player picks: Deulofeu with some magic, Seamus Coleman for the clean sheet and assist.

That’s it for the matches, here’s my team as it stands:

So obviously I need to replace Sanchez, but it does give me an opportunity to pick up an extra Manchester City midfielder for the early match. I also have to decide between playing Cech or Lloris (Cech has the edge for the home advantage, but….). I’m sorely tempted to use a transfer to bring in Coutinho, on Sunday, but that’s overloading  (Yup, it’s another week without Vardy!). There’s also the Euro option to consider, but I’m not sure about that.

That’s it! Good luck this weekend! Stay clear from injuries!

Player Picks Week 14

Last week before December where it gets really congested and more and more players fall to injury!

I’ve been busy so I’ll get right down to it. As you know, in the MyEG Stadium Astro game, normally you can make sure someone plays before you transfer him out for another starting player. 

Unfortunately, this week, there’s no early match, and there’ll be five matches in the first round of matches which start at 11am. That’s 10 teams, here they are:

Aston Villa v Watford

Bournemouth v Everton

Crystal Palace v Newcastle

Man City v Southampton

Sunderland v Stoke

Let’s assume you don’t have anyone in your squad who is ALREADY injured or suspended (meaning he won’t play regardless).  Are there any players involved in the first round of matches above that you could really score points from, to the point you’re willing to sacrifice potential points for any of your existing players?

THE 5 QUESTIONS ARISING OUT OF WEEK 13

Well, that was one mind-blowing weekend wasn’t it? There are many questions, but here’s the 5 key ones:

1. Are Liverpool for real?

Possibly the biggest story coming out is the amazing win Klopp engineered at the Etihad. Speaking as a Liverpool fan, I was very impressed with how the team worked together. The understanding between Coutinho and Firmino was definitely something they worked hard at during the international break, and it showed.

The question now is whether they can do it consistently and sustain such energy throughout the season. The style looks exciting but hell, I get exhausted just watching the amount of running they do. From a fantasy perspective though, the City win kicks off a nice stream of fixtures for fantasy teams to profit from Liverpool players. I got in Firmino for the match and it paid off nicely.

Wikipedia prank after the match!

2. Aguero or no?

Of course the one player that ended up scoring in the Etihad for the Blues was Sergio Aguero, returning from injury to score against Liverpool to give his team some hope.

His return from injury now leaves teams looking at the possibility of working him into their teams. The impending return of David Silva, Aguero’s partner in crime could really help open Manchester City’s goal-scoring floodgates, and end their current indifferent form.

At $15m, he doesn’t come cheap though, and your quality elsewhere might suffer trying to fit him in, not to mention his position as a striker. Otherwise, Silva or De Bruyne would be your next best options if you want to get at least some points due to Aguero’s return.

3. Has Arsenal’s yearly deterioration begun?

We always hear and talk about how Arsenal start off very well, but tend to tail off as players get injured or tired, not to the point of relegation of course, but just enough to derail their league title hopes. Well guess what, Arsenal's defeat against West Brom has set off the alarm bells once again. 

The loss of Coquelin resulted in such a turnaround that even the most loyal Arsenal fan would begin wondering what’s going on. It's a very taxing schedule ahead, and Wenger's stubborn refusal to buy any outfield players during the transfer window is really coming back to haunt him now. Ozil remains Arsenal’s most reliable player but he can’t do it alone, as other key players like Sanchez tire.

I find it especially annoying because I transferred Cech in during the international break!

4. Is Ronaldo worth the funds and striker spot?

Let's face it, barring that goal fest against Espanyol, he hasn't justified his spot in our teams. Neymar has, and the impending return of Messi also raises questions, especially with the ever so valuable premium striker spots. Hell, even Higuain came off the bench and scored, despite arriving late from Argentina. At a price of 16m, I am seriously looking at selling Ronaldo off and buying another premium player (? See above) or go cheap and use the extra funds to strengthen my team in other areas, particularly the defense.  It now depends on whether or not Benitez stays, whose strategy and tactics to me is the key reason why Ronaldo is not performing. If news says Benitez is staying, then Ronaldo’s off my team.

Finally,

5. When will Vardy stop scoring?

I humbly admit that I’m consistently wrong about Vardy, thinking each gameweek that this is the week his run comes to an end, preferring to stick with his reliable mate Mahrez. As such, Vardy always fails to join my line up (probably why I’m still stuck in the 200+ ranks) despite his cheap as chips price. I’m starting to think the only way Vardy will stop scoring is if I actually do pick him up. (Vardy-keepers beware!). He’s also so budget friendly you could stick GST on him and it wouldn’t matter one bit.

That’s it for the highlights. Elsewhere, we’ve got Kane and Lukaku on a hot run of form, Chelsea finally winning and West Ham coming apart. It’s certainly an entertaining league with lots of surprises!

Next up is the midweek Champions League and Europa League matches, where no doubt more player injuries will be on the horizon. See you next time!

Player Picks Week 13

It’s been a long wait but here we are again. The biggest match this weekend is obviously Manchester City and Liverpool, I hope you’ve got your viewing spots settled at your favourite mamak. It’s 1:30am on a Sunday morning but it shouldn’t stop you hardcore fans from watching with your pals!

Before I start, I’d just like to let you know that thanks to Astro, I will be on the Bual Bola talk show tonight at 830pm on Astro Awani 501 to talk, what else, football and fantasy football! Hope you guys tune in!

Right, let’s take a look at each match in turn (again, 2 picks per matchup using my matchup format).

Microsoft Surface Pro up for grabs!

MICROSOFT SURFACE PRO up for grabs!

In today's article, we take a look at teams with the best fixtures for Period 4 as defined in the MyEG Stadium Astro game.

Before I start, I just wanted to mention that my last article on the local football fantasy scene hit 500+ views, trending right at the top! I'm very flattered and honoured that all of you came in to read it, if you ever have feedback, do let me know too!

Anyway, back to business, so I obviously failed in my quest for that Samsung 6 in Period 3, otherwise I'd be strutting around like a peacock in this column. In any case, for the MyeEG Stadium Astro prize, Period 4 begins this Saturday the 21st and will last until December the 18th. That's 4 rounds of fixtures for every team, including the Europe teams, so no extra fixture anywhere to take advantage of.

A Microsoft Surface Pro is your goal this time around, good luck!

Let's get the European players out of the way first:

The Euro Watch

Messi has returned to training, so if you haven't used up your Euro transfer for the month yet, then he definitely comes into consideration. His return could well have an impact on Neymar's output. Having said that, this week it's the Clasico (Real Madrid v Barcelona), where anything can happen.

Ronaldo has scored 8 times in 13 matches. For him, that's an average record, especially when you consider that 5 of those goals were in 1 match. Nevertheless his other 3 goals were in his last 4 matches, suggesting that he may have found some consistency. Higuain has scored in 4 of his last 5 La Liga matches, so he's definitely another source.

Finally of course, there's Lewandowski who leads the goal-scoring charts where the MyEG Stadium Astro game is concerned. His fixtures are not that great though, as Period 4 sees him face teams all in the current top half of the Bundesliga.

 

Who's this dude? Possible hit pick of the month!

Top 3 teams with the best fixtures

Okay, back to the Premier League. Here's my pick for the three teams with the best fixtures for the next four weeks, which you can apply to both the MyEG Stadium Astro game and your other games.

1. Everton - Aston Villa (h), Norwich (a), Crystal Palace (h), Nor (a),

Crystal Palace is the only speed bump in that sequence, but fortunately for Everton it's at home, where they have a good goal-scoring record (tied third with Southampton, behind only Manchester City and Leicester City). Lukaku is where the spotlight is on, but. Barkley has tapered off in recent weeks, but those who already have him will probably hold. Deulofeu has been burning up the scene and is someone you should take a serious look at too. The return of Baines could very well improve their chances of clean sheets as well, bringing their defenders into consideration.

2. Spurs - West Ham (h), Chelsea (h), West Brom (a), Newcastle (h)

Three home matches, and with Harry Kane in good touch, it's hard not to back them. Son is also returning, and I can see them doing very well. The first fixture appears the toughest as West Ham are just below them on the table, but West Ham's loss of Payet brings down the quality of the attack considerably, and if Spurs push harder, the Irons will end up defending a lot more than attacking.

3. Arsenal - West Brom (a), Norwich (a), Sunderland (h), Aston Villa (a).

It's a mouth-watering sequence of fixtures against four of the bottom 8 teams, tempered by the key problem that 3 of them are AWAY. Of the four, the first match appears the trickiest, after which also comes a must win Champions League match against Dinamo Zagreb in midweek, so you'd be forgiven for not going all in until the following weekend as Wenger attempts to manage his key player's minutes. The other issue concerns Alexis Sanchez. Wenger has talked about giving him a rest, and even though it looks unlikely he'll bench him so much, his minutes will definitely require monitoring, especially after his Chile matches. Ozil is the man in form, and he was not involved in the Internationals so ignore him at your peril!

That's it for Period 4. See you on Friday for this week’s Player Picks!

For my other football fantasy articles, please visit unknownworlds.blogspot.com.

The Local Fantasy Football Scene In Malaysia

With the International Break still in effect, I’d like to go local and talk about how vibrant our fantasy football community is here in Malaysia. Probably the best Facebook page out there dedicated to fantasy football is “Kaki Fantasy Football” (Links provided below!). This page was created way back in May 2012. With over 15,000 members it gives you a very good idea of how active Malaysians are in fantasy football.

The Kaki Fantasy Football members are involved in various fantasy games, such as our local MyEG Stadium Astro game (both the Premier League and Piala Malaysia too!),  and the official Fantasy Premier League game (both the Premier League and the Champions League).

Plenty of tournaments are also held through this FB page. Tournaments like the SK PREMIER LEAGUE, SK LEAGUE H2H TAGTEAM, SKAFCUP2015, JINGGA ACADEMY FANTASY and even guessing the score competitions like SK-TEKA SKOR all keep the community active and in touch. Through the efforts of the various administrators, they have even managed to secure various sponsorships for prizes. What’s admirable is that they have managed to avoid charging anyone from entering any tournament, keeping them free while still managing to give away prizes for these contests. Of course, if there are any potential sponsors out there, do let them know!

Like other fantasy football forums, blogs or Facebook community pages, the community helps each other out on a regular basis, with players posting for help and giving suggestions on a regular basis. For example, for the MyEG Stadium Astro game, members also share the Euro Codes and Bonus Transfer Codes in good competitive spirit as they help each other to maximize point scoring as much as possible.

On another note, most of its members also belong to international websites, like the Fantasy Football Scout blog and the Starting 11 Forum. Our Malaysian presence is such that our participation has been recognized internationally. I myself had the honour of being asked to help moderate the Starting 11 Forum, something I have been doing for the past three years or so now.

In any case, it’s very encouraging to see our community grow.

Here are some links for those interested in the local scene:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/KakiFantasyFootball/ - The Kaki Fantasy Football Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/groups/stadiumastrofantasybpl/  -  The MyEG Stadium Astro Facebook page

http://wanozil.blogspot.com/  - A blog in Malay for fantasy football

http://www.slidingtackles.com/ - A local blog dedicated to the Fantasy Premier League

Let’s keep the community going! Malaysia Boleh!

Get ready, the Internationals will soon be over, December will see matches coming hard and fast, make sure you’re prepared.

Player Picks Week 12

Welcome to Week 12! As usual, be wary of teams travelling from their Champions League or Europa matches, such as Liverpool (from Russia). Always check injury news, and remember, even though you would never pick certain players (e.g. Cazorla of Arsenal), if he’s injured, his absence might impact on the fantasy productivity of other players. Another perspective is when a key defender is injured (such as Smalling), it would impact on David De Gea’s chances of a clean sheet.

This week I’m returning to the match-up format where I look at each match-up make a prediction, and pick out the 2 best possible picks. However, this time, the 2 picks do not have to be for each side, but can be for the same team.

Week 11 Woes and Triumphs

So much for the usual suspects scoring a hat-trick, but a warm welcome to Arouna Kone, the newest member, and the second Everton player to join the club!

Other than Everton vs Sunderland, the other matches involving the options I mentioned last week ended up being a lot tougher than expected. Manchester City made it harder for themselves with Bony forgetting to bring his shooting boots, and not starting Sterling. Wijnaldum with his Newcastle team found themselves thwarted by a keeper in excellent form (Butland). Mane (and Southampton) were against a losing but resilient Bournemouth side that played a much better second half. Kane only managed to score in the last minute against Villa. And who would've thought Kone would be the one to join the hat-trick list, and not his teammate Lukaku. Unfortunately, like Naismith before him, we can't immediately assume that he will be a regular starter.

So what else happened?

Week 11 Spotlight

Welcome back as we look to a potentially large goal-scoring weekend! This time around, my article will be spotlighting those players who have a chance this week to join the ranks of the hat-trick elite.

Hat-tricks, who’s next?

Last time out, Kane highlighted an otherwise fairly miserly fantasy week 10 last night, as he joined the ranks of the hat-trick heroes for the season. Believe it or not, it's only been 10 weeks, yet we have had SEVEN hat-trick heroes already (NINE if you include Lewandowski and Ronaldo). Let's look at them:

1. Callum Wilson (now injured)

2. Naismith (now out of favour)

3. Sanchez (going strong)

4. Aguero (now injured)

5. Sterling (can he do it again?)

6. Wijnaldum  (playing in a relegation zone team)

7. Kane (is he back?)

Will another hero rise this week?

Let's look at the contenders:

1. Kevin De Bruyne - Facing a defensively inept Norwich who have yet to keep a clean sheet in the Premier League. To put it into perspective, Norwich let 6 goals in against Newcastle. NEWCASTLE, who were at the time (and still is) in the relegation zone. Kevin De Bruyne is becoming a key player for City, and although he only had one assist against Bournemouth in a 5-1 win, you would suspect his time is soon.

2. Raheem Sterling - Can he do it again? Let's face it, he was poor against Manchester United, but then, you wouldn't call that a game of much quality, with both teams looking not to lose instead of trying to win. It's hard to imagine Norwich keeping him at bay, with the constant rotation in defense as Alex Neill tries to find a more stable combination.

3. Sadio Mane - Bournemouth's troubles are not over, and the speedy Mane is set to possibly push Bournemouth into the relegation zone. Mane was also not involved midweek, so he should be fresh for the weekend.

4. Wijnaldum (can't spell his first name) - The lifting of Coloccini's suspension will boost Newcastle, and they'll be determined to show their win against Norwich was no fluke. Stoke are very much an unknown quantity right now, and their Capital Cup One exertions (120 minutes plus penalties) could very well make them pay the price against a team that was not involved.

5. Romelu Lukaku - It's hard to see Big Sam letting Sunderland concede that many goals, but let's face it, he doesn't exactly have a quality defense to work with, and at Merseyside those flaws will show. Romelu Lukaku is the perfect person to exploit this as he looks to bully the defense into submission.

6. Harry Kane – There’s enough evidence to indicate that this is a player that thrives on confidence, and his hat-trick against Bournemouth can only mean better times are ahead. Managerless Aston Villa are an unknown quantity though, as the departing of Sherwood might precipitate a more defensive strategy as caretaker manager Kevin McDonald may try to play for a draw in an away match, and as such Kane comes last in the list.

Dark horse: Yaya Toure. He took the penalty in the midweek match against Crystal Palace, and if Norwich concede penalties, he looks set to take them in the absence of Aguero. He won’t likely have much defensive duties and his runs forward could be fruitful.

It's funny not to see fantasy stalwarts Mahrez, Vardy and Sanchez on my list, but their matchups look tough. (Leicester against West Brom away, and Arsenal against Swansea away).  I haven't listed Pelle and Bony either, as I feel that they will be more involved with the build up or assisting the goals. They also started in the Carling Cup midweek matches so may get tired faster than the other candidates.

So, how does your team look right now, here’s mine at the moment:

Obviously, the most critical problem concerns Costa. Costa has claimed he is ready to play through the pain barrier against Liverpool, although as a Liverpool fan, I hope he doesn’t score. Gomis is still on bad  form, and I don’t see him getting much against Arsenal.

The other problem concerns Fabianski, and although I think Swansea will make it hard for Arsenal, I can see him conceding two goals, which makes me considering benching him instead.

I will most likely do the following during the weekend:

Coutinho to Kevin De Bruyne, Costa to Lukaku, Gomis to Kane.

By doing so, I will end up playing 5 out of the 6 hat-trick candidates I listed. It’s a real case of putting my money where my mouth is!

All the best!

Player Picks Week 10

Welcome to Week 10! Once again, be wary of teams travelling from their Champions League or Europa matches, in particular Manchester United (from Moscow) and Chelsea (Ukraine).

This week I'm trying out a different format. This time around, I’ll look at each match-up in turn, make a prediction and pick out the 2 best possible picks.

1. Aston Villa vs Swansea

As bad as Swansea are at the moment, Aston Villa are worse. However, despite only scoring 2 goals at home so far, with Sherwood under increased pressure, I can see Aston Villa at home attack more and thus leave gaps. Score draw.

Grealish to open his account, Gomis to break his drought.

2. Leicester vs Crystal Palace

Both teams have an attacking philosophy which should not change, I don’t expect clean sheets either. It’s a high scoring match with Leicester nicking it. Mahrez WILL start by the way. 3-2

Mahrez over Vardy this week.  Jason Puncheon to score at least one of the goals, possibly a penalty.

Week 9 Aftermath

Neymar, Wijnaldum, Sterling.

If you had any of these three during the weekend, you’re probably in pretty good shape right now. I fortunately had Wijnaldum. On Saturday, I saw Sturridge succumbing to injury and joining Kolarov on the stands, while Mahrez and Hazard failed to make the starting lineups. To make things worse, I forgot to substitute in Sanchez for the late match! By the end of Saturday, I had dropped about 100 spots to 319, pretty much back to where I started last week.

Enter Sunday, enter Wijnaldum (instead of my original plan of Ayoze) and he, together with Janmaat, helped me to regain those 100 spots and then some. I have Fabianski and 1 transfer to go for tonight’s match, which will hopefully help me into the Top 200.

How did all of you do?

Gameweek 9 Player Picks

(Note: This article was published on the Stadium Astro site on Friday, but was not published in this blog until today, and is published for completeness)

Hope you enjoyed the break, we're back for Week 9, but REMEMBER to check injury news as close to the deadline as possible due to the internationals.

There are also players flying back late from their respective countries matches, so be wary of players from South America for instance, most of whom return to England late. While it might not put you off players like Sanchez, you might reconsider captaining them. Bear in mind the Champions League midweek matches, and we could see some low-scoring matches amongst the top teams.

Strikers

Costa comes in to the spotlight, well rested after a three match ban, not involved in the internationals, and publicly admitting he had a bad start to the season due to indiscipline and weight issues. Any other result than a win for Chelsea will put serious question marks on Mourinho's ability to manage his squad into a third year. The recent criticism by the Spain manager could well become motivation, as Costa might drop all the nonsense he's been doing on field and concentrate on scoring goals.

Pelle is in fantastic form at the moment and in most other fantasy games has been touted as the ideal Aguero replacement.

Speaking of Aguero's replacement, Bony is expected to take the field but I'm really not convinced that he can do the job.

Ayoze, anyone? As mentioned in my Period 3 Preview, Newcastle desperately need to start winning matches, and the upcoming fixture list gives them an excellent chance to start doing so. Since Newcastle only play on Sunday, you can use your week's transfers to include him in the starting line-up. He also frees up funds nicely for next weekend as you will want to keep him for the Tyneside derby next week.

Dark horse: I'm looking at Mbokani of Norwich, who might be ready for a start after scoring as a sub in Norwich's last match.

Midfielders

Kevin De Bruyne finds himself as Manchester City's main man, in the absence of Aguero and Silva,  and has been brought in by many fantasy managers. Doubts have been brought up as to City's effectiveness in attack without their key players,

Christian Erikssen comes into the story as he plays Liverpool who have been very wobbly in defense since they lost 0-3 to West Ham back in August. Erikssen executed to almost perfect freekicks last week so he can cause havoc to the Liverpool backline. It remains to be seen if Klopp can galvanise Liverpool so soon, so Erikssen is a strong option.

On the cheaper scale, Sadio Mane comes into fine form having scored two and assisted one in his past two matches. Southampton play Leicester who are 3 points above them but Leicester don't seem to make clean sheets a priority. However, I'm leaning towards Tadic this week as a better performer.

While I have Mahrez in my team, it's a bit hard to recommend him because a) he clocked two 90 min appearances for Algeria and b) I actually think Southampton can hold off Leicester, despite popular theory on the web about it being a high-scoring match.

Finally, Mata has been involved in most of Manchester United's goals so far. Although it's a tough match against Everton,  he could be the difference with a set piece winner.

Defenders

I won't spend much time here, but Azpilicueta of Chelsea, Janmaat of Newcastle if fit, are good choices for the weekend. Russell Martin is useful at set pieces against a defensively suspect Newcastle. I actually fancy a Terry set piece goal in the works against a sad Villa.

Ryan Bertrand is a great attacking option as well against Leicester as he continues his return from injury.

Goalkeepers

Begovic against a goal-shy Aston Villa, and a Chelsea without Ivanovic might actually keep a clean sheet for once! Worth considering but Chelsea face a strong West Ham the following week.

Fabianski will play in the last weekend match against Stoke. Stoke have yet to find some attacking consistency and Swansea's defense this season has been fairly strong.

Myhill has a chance of a clean sheet at home to Big Sam's Sunderland which will look to make defending a priority.

That's it!

My squad as it is:

I used the international break transfers as follows:

Pedro to Costa
Aguero to Lewandowski
Darmian to Janmaat

Unfortunately, after I had done them, Kolarov got injured, teaching me a lesson that it pays to be just a bit more patient (although there is a slight chance of him recovering). Janmaat is a huge gamble, but it could really pay off in the weeks ahead.

I will not be transferring any Man City player for now as I prefer to see how they do first. Most likely I will be bringing in Gomis or Ayoze, and maybe an Arsenal defender.

Good luck all!

Period 3 Preview

It's that time again folks, where I look at the period ahead as defined by the Stadium Astro game, with a focus on fixtures, highlighting the top three teams that have the best fixtures during this period.

Period 3 is from 17th Oct - 20th Nov, which is four gameweeks in total and the prize for the best performing team during that period is a Samsung S6! My S3 is getting fairly banged up, so I'll be putting a lot more effort in the next few weeks myself!

So here's the three teams whom I feel have the best match-ups:

Gameweek 8 wrap-up

Calling the weekend eventful would be an understatement. It’s a bit hard to summarise it all neatly, but here we go: 

1. Two managers gone in a day!

Dick Advocaat and Brendan Rodgers were the first and second manager casualties for the 2015/2016 season, one resigned, one getting fired. It does make selecting their players a bit more tricky, as we will not be sure how the teams will be set up at first, although with the Stadium Astro game, we get to at least see their line-ups. However, on a positive note, statistically speaking, Premier League teams with new managers tend to win, or at least perform well for the next match, so they’re worth considering fantasy-wise, but exercise caution. It’s important to note that Sunderland have a useful set of fixtures in the near future.

The Captaincy dilemma

I wanted to spend a bit of time discussing the Captaincy choice in this article.

I usually don’t spend much time discussing the captaincy in my player picks, but I really should. Let’s face it, choosing the right Captaincy can really make a difference to your points, if done properly.  Case in point, Cristiano Ronaldo scoring 30pts in Gameweek 5, nets you 60pts with the captaincy. I didn’t have him, so my ranking dropped like a rock.

I have always maintained a policy that more often than not, your captain is usually your Euro player, which would be either Messi, Ronaldo or Lewandowski (the players with the biggest potential to score multiple goals). Historically, they have an excellent record of scoring fairly regularly, not to mention the capacity to score more than 1 goal.  Unfortunately, last weekend only Lewandowski returned dividends, with Messi getting injured and Ronaldo blanking.

In fact, the best player last week was Sanchez, whose hat-trick meant he scored 24pts in total (5pts x 3 goals + 7pts for the hattrick + 2pts for playing more than 70 minutes). Unfortunately, very few picked him considering he had yet to score before last weekend, and they were playing Leicester City, who are still nowhere near the relegation zone. The only other player to have achieved such heights was Ronaldo as mentioned above, however, many had him as Captain back then and profited immensely. This means that the potential for a Premier League player to do better than an Euro player is there.

Criteria when considering a Premier League player

So how do you choose between one of those Euro players mentioned above and a Premier League player? For Premier League players, you need to consider the following:

Key Observations from Week 7

The Premiership race is heating up, with players exploding into form and upsets abound, causing havoc for fantasy football players everywhere! Here are my key observations from the weekend:

Manchester City in crisis?

Manchester City have now lost three matches in a row in all competitions, is it pre-mature to call it a crisis? Maybe it is, but they’ve now been displaced by the red side of Manchester in the table.

City were without Hart, Kompany, and Silva, and without this core group, the squad didn’t have the drive to recover. In particular, it’s quite glaring that without Silva, the Manchester City attack is seriously having problems.

Fortunately, they have the fixtures to recover. This Wednesday, they should comfortably win in the CL against a team rooted at the bottom of the Bundesliga, and they play Newcastle this weekend before the International break.

However, we shouldn’t discount the role of Spurs in City’s downfall.  They did not buckle despite going one down, and grew from strength to strength. The Spurs backline wre in good touch, with Lloris exceptional, and the attack was on form with even Lamela scoring. Kane finally broke his duck as well, which brings us to…

The Who’s Who list

Hazard, Rooney, Sanchez, Costa, Kane

Remember this list from my earlier article before Week 6? Well, Costa is now the only player yet to break his scoring duck, and he was suspended. Sanchez was the pick of the lot with his sumptuous hat-trick, but let’s face it, he was the one person in this list who looked likely to explode given his exceptional work-rate in the opponent box. The question you should consider now is which ones will go on a goal-scoring run for you to exploit.

Especially now that…

Messi’s out for two months!

I captained him for the weekend, only for him to suffer ligament damage early in his match. He will now be out for almost two months, so you now have some extra funds to play with.

 Fortunately, Ronaldo didn’t score either, but Lewandowski still scored two. Neymar now becomes a serious option though, and he will want to step up to the plate and prove that he’s capable of leading the line for Barcelona in Messi’s absence.

Meanwhile, back at the Premiership…

Sturridge returns

Just when the striker slots are looking harder and harder for us to allocate, along comes Daniel Sturridge to put a spanner in the works. He practically saved Rodgers his job  with his weekend brace against Aston Villa. Next weekend they face Everton, a team whom he has a useful record against with 5 goals against them so far. It’s a risk picking him though, as Everton are in reasonably good form.

And finally,

The Goals Against table

The top three teams conceding goals are now Sunderland (16), Chelsea (14) and new entry Leicester (14), somehow justifying the observation I made in my last article about Leicester’s inability to keep a clean sheet. I profited from that by having Sanchez, but even I didn’t see them conceding FIVE goals. Will this latest match trigger a different approach from their manager, Ranieri? Not likely, to be fair.

An interesting side-note is that Leicester were the last team to remain unbeaten, and this has now come to an end in spectacular style.

Okay everyone, time to catch a breath, it was quite an entertaining weekend. See you next time!

Midweek update and Gameweek 7 player picks

The weekend is upon us! Are you ready?

Key midweek happenings

Euro-watch: Midweek saw Lewandowski notch up 5 goals in 9 minutes. Congratulations if you had him (legally of course). Messi and Ronaldo both failed to turn-up. So much for the Euro double week.

Costa banned: Just when you’ve started to consider Chelsea attacking assets again, their key player up top gets handed a 3 match ban. Will this impact on the productivity of players like Hazard?

League Cup: I made a mistake in my last article, Bournemouth was actually involved in the third round. Anyway, the Premier League teams that got knocked out in the third round were Swansea, West Ham, Newcastle, Tottenham, Sunderland and West Brom. These teams will be free to concentrate on the league when the next round comes, so something to bear in mind. I’ll discuss this more when the fourth round arrives.

Onto the player picks for Gameweek 7!

Could Benteke's absence actually help Liverpool?

If you saw the second half of Liverpool's match against Norwich, you'll have realised that Ings and Sturridge appear to be a much fluid pairing compared to Benteke (I know, I know, it was only 45 minutes or so, but bear with me). Ings' movement was certainly something to watch, as he worked very hard to stretch Norwich's defenses, creating space and proving himself to be a nuisance.

Sturridge needs someone like that playing with him and at the moment, Benteke doesn't seem like the one to do it. To be fair, we haven't seen enough of  a Benteke-Sturridge partnership, but if Benteke had not been injured, the chances of us seeing an Ings + Sturridge partnership would have been even more remote. And with Liverpool struggling, that partnership will now get a chance to showcase itself.

Let's face it, Ings is desperate to prove himself, and with Benteke's injury, he is currently doing his best to show why he deserves to start more often. Unfortunately against Carlisle, he did not have a strike partner to work with,

The main problem with Benteke is clearly his price tag, which makes it very hard for Rodgers to drop him from the first 11. At the end of the day though, Benteke has had enough time to show his worth. Whether it's his fault, or due to Rodgers' failure to find a system that suits him, Benteke has yet to show any consistency. A change is needed, if at least to see whether a different set up will work better.

With Benteke injured for two weeks (based on news from The Guardian), we will get to see the Ings + Sturridge partnership for two matches: The home match against Villa, and the away match against Everton (no way will Sturridge be involved in the Europa match in between).

So that's a home match against relatively weaker opposition, and an away match against an in form tough opposition. What we see should give us a reasonable sample as to whether there is potential in persisting with the partnership. Let's see how Liverpool goes.

The two issues Liverpool will have to see whether this partnership will work are these:
1) No Jordan Henderson, the club captain.
2) The indifferent form of Firmino, Liverpool's other marquee signing.

If you think about it, a partnership of Ings and Sturridge with an in-form Coutinho and Firmino behind them could work out very well. With Firmino looking likely to be ready for the weekend, we should be able to see whether that pans out.

Gameweek 6 highlights

Martial lights it up

A lot of doubters were converted to believers last weekend after Anthony Martial once again stole the show.  Martial started for the first time for Manchester United and he duly served up a cool brace against Southampton. The way he took those goals with calmness and composure was an eye-opener, considering he’s only 20 years old. Of course, the other question that needs to be answered is whether Wayne Rooney deserves to retain his spot in the starting line-up after putting up yet another non-performance. Sooner or later, it will cost Manchester United, especially when players like Martial and Juan Mata (who is probably the most under-appreciated Manchester United player right now) have an off-day.

Flavour of the week, Anthony Martial

City lose their clean sheet record

It’s such a boost when you get a prediction right, as I did about Manchester City conceding against West Ham. Having said that, with club captain Vincent Kompany absent, City not only conceded but actually proceeded to lose against the Hammers, raising the question of how much they rely on Kompany’s influence at the back. Up front, David Silva’s late withdrawal had a clear effect on Sergio Aguero’s potential goal-scoring and Manchester City’s fluency as a whole. No doubt Kevin De Bruyne is an able player, but Silva and Aguero have that solid understanding gained from years of playing together. City face a stern test of their credentials next week as they face an in-form, if somewhat unspectacular Spurs side who have not conceded in their past 3 Premier League matches.

Sunderland screw up again

Just when I started to think they were finding some solidity, they collapse spectacularly. It’s very obvious that without John O’Shea (who missed the match due to a virus) in the back four, there is no one to marshall the defence with strength and calmness. They take on a rapidly improving Manchester United side in Gameweek 7 at the Theatre of Dreams, and the signs are looking ominous.

 A possible Chelsea revival?

The London derby saw a lot of flared tempers as Diego Costa did what he needed to do to screw around with the heads of the Arsenal defence. Costa may be facing retrospective action though, so hold off on your transfers for now. And while we won’t be picking Zouma anytime soon, Eden Hazard had his best game since the season started. Out of the 5 players I listed in last week’s Who’s Who list, Hazard turned out to be the only one to break his duck.

Will Hazard go on a run?

Leicester can’t keep clean sheets

They may be one of the most exciting teams in the league to watch, but they can’t seem to keep a clean sheet (CS) to save their lives. I picked Robert Huth because of his goal-scoring threat and price, but have yet to gain any dividends when you have other players in the same price bracket that are picking up better points, not to mention the occasional CS.

This week sees the Capital Cup games take centre stage. Since the fantasy game should not be taking any stats from these games into account, we will no doubt be hoping that none of our fantasy players succumb to injuries, or even take the field for these matches to keep them fresh for the weekend. It’s also worth noting that there are 2 teams who will not be participating. These are Watford and Bournemouth, incidentally both newly-promoted sides, which is something to consider as they will be well-rested for the weekend ahead.

See you next time!

A look ahead to Week 6 - Europe aftermath!

Hi everyone! Welcome to Week 6, hopefully those of us without Ronaldo last week will be able to bounce back.

Let's begin with the following Who's Who list:

Hazard

Rooney

Sanchez

Costa

Kane

Yes, we all know what this list stands for. These are players whom all of us had at least one of them in our squads at some point since the Premier League started 5 gameweeks ago. We all expected to keep at least one since the season started, yet here we are getting ready for Gameweek 6 and most squads have none of these players anymore. Which one of these vaunted players will break their duck first? Personally, I hope it's Sanchez since I have him, so I'll need Chelsea to continue their form at the back (tongue firmly in cheek)!

Week 5 Recap – Ronaldo turns up the heat

So here are my five key points from the weekend. Let’s get right to it!

1. Did you have Ronaldo?

That was pretty much what separated the top-scoring teams from the rest last weekend. I stupidly decided to hold off using my Euro Transfer until next week due to the midweek Champions League matches, so I stayed with just Lewandowski. So, if you had Ronaldo, well done. Those who CAPTAINED him, well, you’re most likely the front-runners for the monthly prize at this stage. If anything, this should highlight to us how important it is to have these Euro players, simply because they tend to score more goals than their Premier League counterparts. I’m referring to the strikers of course...

5 things to consider for Week 5

Hello all! First, let’s look at the potential rewarding fixtures for this week:

Arsenal vs Stoke

West Ham vs Newcastle

Crystal Palace vs Manchester City

Sunderland vs Spurs

Norwich vs Bournemouth

Leicester City vs Aston Villa

Everton v Chelsea

I’ve highlighted the teams in bold as teams you should look at for goal-scoring potential. As you can see, there are heaps of options available, there’s a good possibility that this week will turn out to be one of those record-breaking goal-scoring weeks.

As such, rather than a standard Player Picks article, I wanted to give you 5 not too obvious issues to consider for the weekend.

A look at Period 2 (for the prize!)

Good day everyone! As you know, in the MyEG Stadium Astro BPL game, there are period prizes to be won. Next week we kick off Period 2 (which covers all matches from 12^th September to 16^th October), and the prize up for grabs is an iPAD mini! So I thought I’d take a look at the upcomng matches from a Period 2 perspective.

For Period 2, the Premier League has 4 rounds of fixtures for us to play with.*

Here are my top 3 teams with regards to favourable fixtures:

1. Bournemouth actually have the best fixtures: Norwich (a), Sunderland (h), Stoke (a) and Watford (h). That's 4 of the bottom 7 clubs right there. Callum Wilson is currently on song, and if you take into the fact that he has a great away goalscoring record, you should seriously consider him. The only concern is that Bournemouth are getting bogged down by multiple injuries at the same time (Gradel, Daniels, Mings) which all happened against Leicester. They brought in Glenn Murray, who had a good end to the previous season under Palace, but if you had to choose, I’d still go for Wilson. Matt Ritchie in midfield has yet to give any returns, but this stretch should provide them.

2. West Ham have Newcastle (h), Manchester City (a), Norwich (h), Sunderland (a). If ever there was a stretch of matches for Payet to grab the spotlight, this is it. Sakho is also a nailed on starter and he has already opened his account against Liverpool. They’ve made quite a few midfield signings so I wouldn’t recommend anyone else from their attack until we see a settled lineup. Cresswell could be a decent attacking defender for points, and Adrian should be back after Newcastle to provide some defensive stability. Do remember though, they seem to be terribly inconsistent, so don’t be surprised if they randomly win against Manchester City but collapse against Sunderland.

3. Leicester have Aston Villa (h), Stoke (a), Arsenal (h), Norwich (a). Ranieri tinkered against Bournemouth, switching Leicester to a 4-5-1, dropping Okazaki and his team clearly suffered for it. I expect Leicester to revert back to 4-4-2 this weekend. Mahrez returned to action in international duty after being forced to withdraw at halftime last week due to injury, so he should continue his rich vein of form. Huth is a goal-scoring threat for set pieces, although he has yet to score.

The nice thing is that the players from these teams are all relatively cheap, so you should have no problem fitting in your requisite heavy hitters with them.

Just a little observation, the top 3 sides that have the conceded the most so far are Sunderland (10), Chelsea (9!) and Norwich (8). Until they get their defence sorted out, by all means consider players against these teams. I’m planning to go for Sanchez against Chelsea for Week 6 for example. Kane plays Sunderland in Week 5. Norwich happens to be playing against all those three I listed above as having favourable fixtures. 

Incidentally, Lukaku is in form. Chelsea’s defense are not. Is it the right time for Lukaku to score his first goal against his former club? 

*Euro exception:

Guess what? The Euro teams have FIVE rounds of fixtures to you to play with, more if you plan your transfers properly of course. So make sure you grab the potential for additional points. The extra match happens in the second week, where the Euro clubs play midweek while the Premier League teams play the Carling Cup matches.

All the best, let's try to bring that iPAD mini prize home!!!

The Subs and Transfers Strategy - Illustrated

Before I start, I just want to point out that I’m in no way a great fantasy football player. I have Firmino because of Liverpool bias, for example. I went for Sanchez because I have him in a fantasy draft league. And I’ve had Hazard since the start (sad but true).

In fact, I’m sure most of you at the top have already figured out how to use the subs and transfers optimally in the MyEG Stadium Astro BPL game, which is what today’s article is supposed to help illustrate (after I went through the theory in the post: Maximising points while following rules last week). If you already know all this, then feel free to disregard the rest of this article. For those of you who don’t, well, it’s a chance for you to catch up!