Fantasy Premier League

The Week Ahead

Thu Dec 14 04:01PM

Well, the two-gamers - Cesc, Drogba, Sheva, and Ashley - made me nervous but in the end Drogba and Sheva combined for a late goal and Cesc came off the bench for an assist.  Not an overwhelming success but unless you got all the one-gamers right (mostly Berbatov and Matt Taylor), the two-gamers were the right choice.  Well, maybe not Kirkland, but the rest were good.

Finally, normalcy has been returned.  ManYoo, Chelsea, and Arsenal are the Top 3 with Liverpool out of the Top 4 by one goal in the goal difference category.  In addition to the state of the table, normalcy has been returned in the form of being back to a stretch of matches where everyone has the same number of matches.  This SHOULD make it a little easier on fantasy managers as we can go back to evaluating our squads on the form of the players and their match-ups rather than having to throw in the two-game vs. one-game factor as well. 

For the occasion, we'll go back to our old system of looking at the week ahead...

Chelsea

It may be that Chelsea, on their form this year, do not deserve their own category anymore.  With the news that Jose Mourinho may not be long for Stamford Bridge making the rounds, things are not looking good.  That said, the January window is coming up and we'll reserve our opinion on Chelsea's prospects until we see what Roman/Jose do then.

This week Chelsea travel to Everton with "who will start?" being the major question for fantasy managers.  Lampard is extremely expensive and probably isn't worth including over less expensive Gerrard or Ronaldo.  For me, those with Ashley Cole at a low price should keep him but otherwise, Drogba and Terry are the only other guys who are really worth it unless Jose announces that Robben is going to start with Drogba - Robben looked great with a target in the middle against Arsenal last weekend.

I can't imagine Jose will help us out and give us much information about the goalkeeping situation but if he does, targeting Chelsea's keeper against misfiring Everton wouldn't be a bad idea even on the road.

The Race for the Champions League

Arsenal and Pompey face off at the Emirates Stadium in what has to be the featured match of the weekend.  Arsenal have to be feeling good coming off a four point week that included a strong performance against Chelsea minus Henry and a win on the road against a team that forced them to grind it out - not exactly their specialty.  Due to the tough nature of the match, players from both teams are devalued this week.  K2 and RvP are likely to feature up top and RvP is a bargain at under 10 while K2 is pretty expensive.  The other interesting players in this match-up - Matt Taylor, Kanu (the original), Cesc, Eboue, Lehmann, and Clichy - are pretty expensive.  If you have one or more cheap, then you should keep them but this isn't the weekend to invest in them.

While Arsenal are involved in a tough match-up and Chelsea are on the road - ManYoo have a match-up that has to make you scratch your head.  Before the managerial change, you had to think this was going to be a walk in the park for ManYoo but you can never tell how a club is going to react to a managerial change.  You often find that guys who may not have been giving 100% effort all of a sudden realize that they have to prove themselves to the new guy to retain their spot in the line-up.  This usually translates to greater resolve from everyone when their opponents have the ball.  They fly around the field tackling everything that moves and no one dogs it getting back down the pitch after a forward run. 

All of the above said, I'm still bullish on Manchester United as they consolidate their position at the top of the table.  Louis Saha and Cristiano Ronaldo are the two most obvious choices with Heinze also an excellent bet given his low price and seeming return to form (and the Starting XI).  Ryan Giggs is pretty expensive for someone who hasn't produced in a while.  He may be due but that's a lot of money to bet on that proposition.

Despite all that, I'm not willing to jump on the bandwagon of any West Ham players until I see some real evidence of a turnaround.

Finally, Liverpool become a meaningful part of this category as they travel to struggling Charlton.  Kuyt and Gerrard are the most obvious choices although Gerrard is very expensive for someone who has been up and down.  Outside of that group and Pepe Reina the rest of the squad has either been ineffective (Alonso and Pennant) or subject to too much rotation (Garcia, Bellamy, Crouch, Gonzalez).  The defence is expensive but Riise and Agger have been excellent fantasy choices if you have the money.  Darren Bent has been very disappointing and represents the only even reasonable bet for Charlton.  He's still not worth it.

Against the Relegation Zone

We've already discussed current relegation zone dwellers Charlton and West Ham leaving only Watford (and then those hovering around the drop zone - Blackburn and Sheffield United).

Newcastle, who have been hot despite their loss to Chelsea yesterday, travel to Watford.  Even our fave Ashley Young has been struggling in recent weeks.  Martins has been hot as has Sibierski and both represent good value this weekend.  Given is sort of expensive but if ever there was a weekend to give him a try, this is it.  We've always liked James Milner but he's too expensive based on his production so far this year.  If Dyer is healthy and ready to play this weekend, he's a great bet as an extremely cheap midfielder.

Blackburn travel to Reading making Royals players an excellent bet.  Former Blog Favorite David Bentley has recently been miscast as a holding midfielder - his production has suffered and he's off the list of interesting fantasy players until this situation changes.  Given Rovers struggles, MGP is only modestly interesting especially with Rovers on the road and playing a team that has been very effective against bottom-half of the table teams.  Look at Doyle, Sidwell, Seol, Shorey, and Hahnemann (although Marcus is expensive).

Can Wigan pull out of their tailspin?  Well, a visit from the Blades is exactly what they needed.  I'm not particularly interested in picking up Wigan players this weekend but for those of you who have a few on the cheap (Kirkland, Kilbane, and any number of their defenders) you probably want to consider keeping them given the combination of the match-up and home match.

And The Rest

Bolton @ Villa - talk about an ugly match in the making.  Gary Cahill, Stilian Petrov, and Anelka are the only guys that interest me much here but none of the above too seriously...

Spurs travel to Man Citeh in a match-up of a hot team (Spurs) against a team that has been extremely stingy at home - not sure how that will work out but Berbatov is too hot to ignore and Defoe is finally a no-doubt-about-it starter with Keane injured...if you have THud on the cheap, keep him for this one, Citeh might not give up many at home but they don't score many anywhere...Trabelsi is pretty expensive these days but he's still a defender playing in midfield...

Fulham host Boro in a match that makes Fulham players relevant again to fantasy managers after a few weeks where they weren't really in the mix...Jensen and McBride are the most interesting to me.  Boro continue to frustrate fantasy managers as none of their players are even remotely consistent when it comes to scoring points.  Not much reason to think about any of them given that none are really in form and they're travelling this weekend and they haven't won away from home yet this season.

Happy Shopping

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