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?

The Euro watch

Neymar 4, Ronaldo 1, Higuain 1, Lewandowski 0

Very few had him, but Neymar rocked the boat as he put forward a strong audition as Messi’s replacement for us fantasy football players with a four goal haul against Rayo Vallecano. Lewandowski had a rare blank, but Ronaldo became Real Madrid’s all-time top goal-scorer, bypassing Raul with his 324^th goal in just 310 games.

An Aguero-less and Silva-less Manchester City

I was wrong to doubt Manchester City as they did very well in the absence of its two key stars. Sterling stepped up big time as he downed Bournemouth with a hat-trick, serving to remind us why so much was paid to take him from Liverpool. Bony scored the other two goals as he also proved his worth for once. Kevin De Bruyne had a quiet day fantasy-wise, with only one assist to show for, but otherwise he continued to have a strong start to life in the Premiership. The litmus test is this weekend though, with a guaranteed hot derby. The Red side of Manchester dispatched Everton very convincingly to recover from the Arsenal devastation, with even Rooney scoring, setting up a potentially explosive tie this weekend.

Bournemouth had a poor day out, which exacerbated even before kick off when their first choice keeper Artur Boruc succumbed to injury during the warm-up. The situation is starting to get really difficult for Bournemouth, with yet another key player injured. Picking players against them is starting to look like a viable strategy.

Newcastle reply to getting hit for 6 with hitting Norwich for 6

So I was wrong about Manchester City, but boy did I get Newcastle right. McClaren continued with his Ayoze – Mitrovic partnership, and both scored, but Wijnaldum stole the spotlight with a terrific 4 goal haul. Sissoko had 4 assists but Wijnaldum is a far superior option at the same price of 7.9m.

Newcastle really need to make full use of their next few favourable fixtures. After this Norwich match, they face Sunderland, Stoke and Bournemouth. It’s not impossible for them to get 12 out of 12 points, but the key is to stay focused and not fall to lapses in concentration such as those that resulted in both of Norwich’s goals.   

Both teams have serious defensive issues though, so picking players against these two teams should always be considered. Both teams, together with Sunderland, are currently the top 3 teams that have conceded the most goals.

A relatively quiet Klopp debut

Frankly speaking, I was extremely happy to get a draw after Liverpool lost Sturridge again. I wasn’t able to watch the match, but there were encouraging signs and a clean sheet is always good.  Firmino and Benteke are both coming back, so it’ll be interesting to see what Klopp does once he has more resources at his disposal. Liverpool have a very tricky fixture list at the moment (Southampton and Chelsea are next, with 2 Europe matches and a League Cup tie), so it’s probably a good idea to adopt the wait and see approach for now.

Spurs on the other hand continued to have issues in attack with Kane still not clicking despite working hard. Lloris grabbed another clean sheet for Spurs and is currently tied with Cech for the least goals conceded this season (only 7!).  The Spurs defense is proving to be a solid source of clean sheet points.

A changed Chelsea gets what it set out to do…

Ivanovic was finally forced out of the starting lineup through injury, Matic was benched and more importantly for fantasy football, Hazard was benched as well.  Result? Chelsea managed the win, with a clean sheet to boot. Although nowhere near as dominant as they used to be, they got what they needed. On a fantasy note, Costa, the last one of the Who’s Who five, finally opened his account.

Mourinho’s comments post match indicated that Hazard was benched due to his lack of commitment in defending. Frankly speaking, in my humble opinion, it wasn’t a problem last season, how often did you see Hazard track back before? The only reason it’s a problem this season is because Chelsea’s defenders themselves are no longer as strong as they used to be, and with Matic out of form, they need more help from the other midfielders as well. Unfortunately, this means Hazard is no longer a safe pick, at least for now.  

That’s it for now. Good luck for tonight! Midweek will see another round of Europe matches, hopefully everyone’s players will steer clear from injuries.