BPL Fantasy - The Race to the Finishing Line Heats Up

With Leicester only one win away from the Premier League Title, let’s tune in to the Stadium Astro overall competition instead! With only three Gameweeks left, let’s see how it looks right at the top of the overall standings:

The top 4 only have a FIVE point gap between them, with 5^th place Destroyer lagging by 15 points. It certainly looks like a four horse race at the moment. The Supremos is still hanging on to the lead but True Champs dropped to 4^th from second. A look into both Suremos and True Champs transfer history reveals that one of the key causes of the drop in period points was not having Sanchez for his two goal haul against West Brom, while Alia FC (one of my Q&A respondents from last week) and Maluri XI both did. Incidentally, Alia FC (one of my respondents from last week’s Q&A), is currently No 5 in the Best Team of the Period, which shows the progress she’s made since the previous period.

Let’s take a look at The Supremos team:

From the outset, it’s a pretty solid team, with good fantasy producers everywhere, with the possible exception of Scott Dann, who has been very poor in the past few months. Here’s the list of players for the other teams in the Top 4:

Alia FC: Buffon, Fuchs, Adrian, Alderweireld, Bellerin, Alli, Payet, Sanchez, Townsend, Kane, Sturridge, Messi, Ronaldo, Cresswell, Mahrez, Wenger

Maluri XI: Hennessey, Bellerin, Fuchs, Pique, Kouyate, Sanchez, Milner, Firmino, Ozil, Messi, Lewandowski, Buffon, Moreno, Alli, Ronaldo, Bilic

True Champs: Adrian, Dann, Cresswell, Bellerin, Mahrez, Payet, Ozil, Sanchez, Messi, Ronaldo, Aguero, Hennessey, Fuchs, Alli, Kane, Pellegrini

Analysing the Top 4, here’s a few points to note:

1. They all have the following 5 common players: Bellerin, Messi, Ronaldo, Fuchs, Alli.  Aside from Alli (who is now banned for the season), the rest could be kept till the end as they have generally strong  points potential.  However, with Ronaldo out this weekend, will any of our Top 4 risk selling him?

2, The Supremos is the only one with Neymar, while Maluri XI is the only one with Lewandowski. This Euro striker differential could help their points if they come good. For the record, I can’t tell if anyone has still kept their Euro Code for April, if they have, they could still transfer them in.

3.  Alia FC is the only one without Ozil, in fact from the looks of it, she hasn’t had him for quite some time, and this is possibly another key factor in her rise, with Ozil having only recorded 1 goal and zero assists for March AND April.

4.  The Supremos is the only one without Sanchez, the best point producer for Arsenal right now. Against Norwich, he will seriously want to consider transferring him in or run the risk of being overtaken, although funds could be an issue. 

5. Everyone except True Champs has dropped Aguero, but it’s most likely because City’s match this weekend is a later one, allowing us to transfer him in later if need be.

6. With the loss of Alli, a key cog in the Spurs attack, Kane’s output could drop, affecting both The Supremos and Alia FC. Given that Spurs play the very last match of the week (a potentially tough game against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge), they might be forced to keep him for Gameweek 37 as well or burn a playing slot. With Alli already burning one playing slot, the latter could be hard to do.

7.  In view of the extra games taking place on the 11^th and 12^th of May 2016 (before the last day finale), our top 4 currently have the following players (incl. managers) that have an extra game:  The Supremos (3), Alia FC (5), Maluri XI (5), True Champs (3). So actually no one has a clear advantage in numbers, but expect everyone to start stocking up this week.

Note that The Destroyer, sitting in 5^th as shown above, is realistically the only person outside the top 4 who could catch up, and even he is 15 points away from 4^th. The next team, RU11, is 18 points away from the Destroyer.

That’s it for now, see my previous article for more thoughts on weekend transfers. Players you should keep in mind are those trying to win their leagues, those fighting relegation, those chasing European football, those going for the Golden Boot and those fighting for a spot in their national squads for Euro 2016.

Good luck for the weekend!