Fantasy Premier League

Thu May 01 03:00AM by Neal Thurman

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Who would have guessed? ManYoo/Barca with all of those flair players between them (CRon, Nani, Tevez, Rooney, Messi, Henry, et al) would produce a 1-0 display of grit and Chelsea and Liverpool who have a recent history of boring the hell out of us all would produce a 3-2 extra time cracker of a match in the rain?  Great stuff.  A few observations before we get to The Week Ahead...

1) It must be nice to have such impressive muscle memory that even when your playing days are over you can still strike an amazing drive from 25 or 30 yards out.  If anyone happens to see Paul Scholes on the street, please ask him if this is true.

2) All the post-match reports stressed how "brave" Frank Lampard was to step up and bury the PK to put Chelsea ahead.  Really? Isn't that what he does?  Isn't that what he's supposed to do?  I understand the storyline - "boy comes through in the wake of his mother's death" but come on.  It isn't like he dribbled through 5 defenders and scored a transcendent goal.  He had an OK match but he wasn't the best player on the pitch.

3) I have to say, I have no idea how this is all going to end up.  If I had to guess, I'd go with Chelsea winning the Champions League and ManYoo winning the league.

OK, on to the second to last weekend of the season. 

The obvious result of last weekend's Chelsea win is that ManYoo and Chelsea both have reason to play very strong line-ups.  In theory, Arsenal still have second place to play for so they won't go entirely with kids.  Everton and Villa are competing with each other for 5th for at least one more weekend.  Other than those four teams (five if you include Arsenal), the real desperation is at the bottom of the table where Fulham, Birmingham, Bolton, and Reading are all locked in a fierce battle to stay up and continue to reap the rewards of the Premiership's insane television rights contract package.  Everyone else?  Probably more focused on which resort they'll be heading to and when their first tee-time of the close season will be available.

One other thing to think about, Jeremy has been running a team that changes every weekend to feature as many of the players facing Derby as possible.  That team has done very well for the last month since the experiment started.  Just saying...

Strikers
Santa Cruz because he's really good AND he's playing Derby at home...Jason Roberts because he's playing Derby at home and he's cheap...Theo Walcott because he's been pretty good for cheap since he's been starting...James McFadden because I have a feeling his acquisition is going to make a huge difference in the relegation race...Dave Kitson because Reading are fighting for their lives and Spurs are paying more attention to the transfer rumor mill than their matches...Leroy Lita because he's in the same boat as Kitson and he's really cheap.

Hard to say how to evaluate Rooney given his health situation.  At this piont, I'd bet on Anelka getting the start at striker for the Blues against NUFC.  If you're in on K2, I'd stick with him but this is not the weekend to buy in.

Midfielders
CRon because he still has more work to do to secure the winner's medal...Jummy because he's been great...Barry for the same reason...Pennant because he's been playing as part of the Liverpool "B Team"...Bentley because he's a stud and playing Derby...MGP because he used to be a stud and Derby has a way of reminding players of their glory days...SReid because he's priced at 2.31 and playing Derby and anyone could get a goal against them...Nani because he's got to hit the net eventually with all those wild shots, no?...Larsson because he's a great phantom point guy and he's playing Fulham

Defenders
The easy answers are all from Rovers...you can have Warnock, Nelsen, and Mokoena for just under 15 total.  Sure, its a lot of eggs in one basket and who knows if Mok will play but honestly, it seems like a pretty safe basket regardless of how many goals Derby scored on an Arsenal squad who knew that they were going to score way more than Derby could keep up with.

Other options include Woody because he's cheap...Ridgewell because Birmingham could easily blank Fulham...Ferreira because he's cheap and could start...Skrtel because he's affordable and will probably start for LIV.

Keepers
Seems like Friedel is the obvious choice for the week but he's pretty expensive so I'm going to assume you don't necessarily have the money to afford him...Carson is a reasonable choice at a reasonable price...Gordon could be a reasonable bet as well against Bolton who as Jeremy said "have the motivation but probably not the ability"...my final thought would be Taylor from Birmingham - not a strong feeling but better than most of the others available.

Hard to evaluate

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