Fantasy Football Observations for Week #2

Prelude

The Barclays Premier League season has kicked off and with it, a whole host of fantasy football games! A bit of history: I've been playing fantasy football since the 2005-2006 season, and I remember one of the first players I had was a hopeless midfielder named Eric Djemba-Djemba. I joined a great forum called www.starting11.com (known as Teamtalk in the old days), where I found a great international community who shared the passion for fantasy football and football in general. In recent times I've been helping out to moderate the forum.

This time around though, I thought I'd contribute a bit more to the community as a whole and start a weekly series on my blog.

What I'd like to do in this series is to summarise observations, interesting facts, that players may have overlooked, forgotten or not considered as a factor for. I hope to highlight items, events or scenarios which I feel are important in deciding your team for the week. I can also see the series focusing more on the less popular teams.

I'm playing 3 games this season, FAPL, Fantrax and Yahoo, but I won't be focusing on any game in particular. Also, those who know me will know I'm nowhere near as good at fantasy football as others are, too often I let emotion or other irrelevant issues cloud my judgement. So there, I've tossed in a disclaimer right there.

Irregardless, I hope you guys find it a useful column to add to all those other resources you read. Those who don't follow football, feel free to ignore this :p



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Fantasy Football Observations: Week #2

Creative Sunderland?

Sunderland whacked Fulham left, right and centre last weekend, but somehow had nothing to show for. They created a lot of chances, and statistics indicate they had 20 shots to Fulham's 5. 17 of those shots were off target though, the main culprit being Altidore. Nevertheless, they've leaped in creativity, a sharp contrast to last season's headaches, and those responsible, a rejuvenated Adam Johnson and Giaccherini, should merit consideration in your teams, at least for the miscellaneous points production.

The London derby

2. Speaking of Fulham, what say you to them upsetting the apple cart at Arsenal even further? Here's a few reasons why:
    - Fulham are coming off an away win, always a boost for the typically travel-shy team.
    - Arsenal are coming back from an exhausting trip to Turkey, and play the first match on Saturday.
    - Martin Jol knows Arsenal are vulnerable right now, the timing is right for a good derby win.
    - Dimitar Berbatov
Sure they lost Stekelenburg to injury, but Stockdale will be up for it. I expect a Fulham victory, with goals on both sides, pushing Arsenal into further depths. But of course, what if Taarabt isn't in the mood....?

Chelsea's striker merry-go-round

3. While the battle for Chelsea's striker spot is going to take a while, I feel that Mourinho is actually giving everyone a chance to show what they can do. I know most of you who had Lukaku in Week #1 have dumped him, but is that the right move? Of course, Old Trafford is hardly the place to be experimenting, but neither Torres nor Ba have showered themselves in glory in the opening 2 matches. And Lukaku's the striker with the most to prove, as Rooney's transfer saga continues...

Southampton's defensive steel

4. Anyone notice Southampton's AWAY clean sheet? While part of it is due to West Brom unable to sort their attack out, Southampton's latest acquistions in central defense (Lovren) and midfield (Wanyama) established a strong presence in their respective areas, which makes their defenders very attractive picks. Having said that, Gaston Ramirez, one of Southampton's key midfielders last season might not feature as much this time as I don't see him fitting well into the current pressing game the manager wants to play.

The Toon dilemma

5. Despite the loss against Manchester City, Newcastle actually have a useful fixture list coming up. But the Cabaye issue continues to linger. Ben Arfa cannot shoulder the creativity by himself. Also, for this weekend's match, Allardyce seems to know what makes the Toons tick and West Ham ended both matches last season against them with clean sheets. Probably best to avoid until the transfer window ends.

Good luck for this week, next week should be even more interesting as the transfer window gets closer!