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!

5 Thoughts from Week 4

Note: This article is also published on the Stadium Astro website.

Before I start, I just want to wish everyone a belated Selamat Hari Merdeka! Hope you had a good long weekend, interspersed by football of course. 

So what happened this weekend?

1. Manchester City are not fooling around

Another game, another clean sheet. They are now the only team who have yet to concede. I also called it right (for once), Sterling took his turn to score! So the main problem we currently face in the fantasy world for Manchester City is figuring out whose turn it is to score, as Aguero blanked once again (I'm sure quite a few of us captained him). Their fixtures next month are pretty good though, and should ensure they will still be on top come October. Should you max out on their players?

2. The other big teams struggle

Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and even Spurs had a tough time at the office. Most investment in their attack was wasted. Crazily enough, out of these 5 teams, only Mata and Falcao scored goals (and come on, did anyone actually pick Falcao, seriously). Incidentally, I also don't understand Wenger not starting Giroud, who has such a great record against Newcastle (luckily I couldn't find room for him). Meanwhile, assets from the smaller teams at a fraction of the price continue to show up (Wilson, Sako, Gomis). How much longer will it take for the big guns to click?

3. Sunderland are fighting back

Dirk Advocaat is working hard at proving me wrong. They're still dodgy at the back, but their attack is definitely showing some promise. M’Villa, Lens and Defoe are all potential pick-ups for the game, depending on match-up. However, as long as they have characters like Lee Cattermole and Patrick Van Aanholt with defensive responsibilities, they will continue to leak goals. And yes, they’re still holding up the table.

4. Are Southampton assets worth considering again?

Getting kicked out of Europe definitely has its benefits as they mowed down Norwich. Obviously they were helped by a nice early red card from Steven Whittaker, but sometimes it’s actually harder to play against a 10 man team, as they typically work at shutting things down. I was lucky to still have Mane and get 9 points (I actually wanted to transfer him out of my team last week). With Bertrand coming back soon, and Rodriguez playing himself into form, things could start looking up for them.

And finally,

5. Euro players fail to turn up in August

Out of the attacking assets available on offer, only Lewandowski (2 goals 1 assist) and Rodriguez (2 goals) did anything of note to justify the outlay needed. Messi and Ronaldo were both duds, and you have to wonder whether Rodriguez is now a better option than Ronaldo after that ridiculous free kick he took. For the record, Rodriguez did not start in Real Madrid’s first match so most people probably did not go for him.

In my next article, we’ll talk more strategy, following on from my article in the previous week. I did decently enough this week, managing to jump from 1100+ to 371 thanks to 18 players contributing (well, maybe not Huth and Darmian). I'm sure a lot of you are still above me though! Nevertheless, I’ll talk you through on what I did, and some basic planning moving forward. I'll also touch on the transfer activity.

Take care!