Fantasy Premier League

Monday Morning Manager

Mon May 05 04:38PM

Penultimate weekend in the league, and nothing much was decided.  Relegation is going to be two from four as Fulham and Bolton continue their run of form (what a fickle thing) and Birmingham and Reading continue to struggle.  Everton continue to be a lifeless shell of the team that almost crashed the CL party but Villa unable to take advantage, falling at home - much to the chagrin of all of Carson's owners - to Wigan.

I didn't have a good feeling about Carson.  If you look at his chart, he's been in the red more often than the black recently.  And before Villa's vein of form (against Derby, Birmingham and Bolton) they were as apathetic a side as Everton have become.  And I feared a return to that... be it overconfidence, or over-tired.  And sure enough, even with Mellberg in defence - his being a doubt due to illness was another mark against Carson for the weekend - they gave up two goals to Valencia.

Of course I picked up Friedel instead of Carson.  And that didn't turn out much better.  One save, win, and goal allowed for a grand total of three points.  Oh well, at least I had better success against Derby further up the field with RSC and JRob filling their boots, and BFDB's all around game matching them for points.

Heck, I even got 4.5 pts from John Pa(i)ntsil playing @ManU.  So I'm pretty chuffed about how the weekend went.

One more match today, and it's a doozy.  Chelsea need a win to keep the pressure on ManU, and while NUFC have turned it on in the last month or so, I don't expect them to be able to keep Che at bay any more than Liverpool could in midweek.  

So both sides of the table will be taken to the final matches.  ManU against a Wigan side with nothing left to play for - coached by a ManU legend.  Hmmm.... Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Kuszczak just need one more league appearance to earn a winner's medal?  I know he got one last year after special application to the FA having only played in six matches, but why go through that again?

One Red Devil who won't play again this year is Nani who hurt himself head-butting Lucas Neil (pictured) and got his marching orders.  One last hurrah for Giggs perhaps, who finally after a season's worth of under-performance, has dropped down to 9.75, and the second page of middies.

At the foot of the table, Bolton will need at least a point @ Stamford Bridge for safety.  They can still lose and survive, but will have to keep it tight to do so and hope that their slightly less bad goal difference see them through.  Reading travel to Derby where the Rams would surely love to drag the Royals down to the Coke league with them.  Reading haven't scored a goal in over a month and this has to be nervy times for them. Fulham, currently safe on goal difference, visit a Portsmouth side who have only scored twice in the league since clinching a spot in the FA Cup final.  And finally, in the toughest match of all, Birmingham host a Rovers side that I wouldn't expect to roll over for anyone.  

Personally, I don't have much to play for.  I'm the West Ham of fantasy.  Pretty locked in to my spot with 40 pts to the person ahead of me and 30 to the chasing player (Hi, Mike & Toby).  Can't get complacent, but unlikely to change.  I'd love to crack the 99th percentile, but I don't know what that would entail, or if it's even possible.  So we'll just try to pick a motivated and entertaining team and try to avoid any Friday trades as those never work out.

Until next week,

The Manager 

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