Gameweek 16 Preview
Gameweek 16 Fixtures
Stoke City v Wigan
Birmingham v West Ham
Bolton v Man City
Burnley v Fulham
Chelsea v Everton
Hull City v Blackburn
Sunderland v Portsmouth
Tottenham v Wolves
Man Utd v Aston Villa
Liverpool v Arsenal
In true Mark Lawrenson style, I will reach for an overused cliche and describe this week's fantasy contest as a game of two halves. While fantasy filled squads like Chelsea, City and Spurs all face very intriguing opponents, United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Villa have tough opponents and their fantasy production is likely to be somewhat limited.
Spurs at home to Wolves (2.29 GPG conceded) looks very appetising as does City's trip to the Reebok to play Bolton (2.14 GPG). Chelsea are the pick of the big four as they welcome an Everton side that have conceded 10 goals in their last 4 road trips.
The physio rooms across the country are starting to get full with injured players Michael Essien the latest big name player to go down. I will follow this post up tonight with a last minute run through of the latest injury news.
Clean Sheet Rankings (predicted goals conceded in parenthesis)
No less than 10 teams this week whose projected goals conceded comes in below 1.00 suggesting it could be a good week for clean sheets. The group is of course led by Chelsea who have conceded just once at home all year and welcome an Everton averaging just over one goal a game on the road this season. You also have to like Birmingham and Spurs who are in good defensive form, with Spurs looking particularly attractive having conceded just 2 goals in the last 4 home games (though still, frustratingly, have just 2 clean sheets for the year). Sunderland's statistical ranking is probably ahead of where I would have ranked them based on my preconceptions but such is Portsmouth's terrible away record (3 goals in 7 games), the likes or Michael Turner look like solid plays.
Of the teams at the bottom of the rankings, Wolves, Everton and Portsmouth are sells in the longer term with tough defensive fixtures over the coming few weeks. Remember also that Fulham, Stoke, Everton and Hull also have a bye next week, which suggests Stoke are a hold for the week rather than a buy.
Captain Rankings
As always, thanks for reading and why not post your transfer or lineup questions below or tweet @plfantasy.
Stoke City v Wigan
Birmingham v West Ham
Bolton v Man City
Burnley v Fulham
Chelsea v Everton
Hull City v Blackburn
Sunderland v Portsmouth
Tottenham v Wolves
Man Utd v Aston Villa
Liverpool v Arsenal
In true Mark Lawrenson style, I will reach for an overused cliche and describe this week's fantasy contest as a game of two halves. While fantasy filled squads like Chelsea, City and Spurs all face very intriguing opponents, United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Villa have tough opponents and their fantasy production is likely to be somewhat limited.
Spurs at home to Wolves (2.29 GPG conceded) looks very appetising as does City's trip to the Reebok to play Bolton (2.14 GPG). Chelsea are the pick of the big four as they welcome an Everton side that have conceded 10 goals in their last 4 road trips.
The physio rooms across the country are starting to get full with injured players Michael Essien the latest big name player to go down. I will follow this post up tonight with a last minute run through of the latest injury news.
Clean Sheet Rankings (predicted goals conceded in parenthesis)
- Chelsea (0.10) - BUY
- Sunderland (0.35) - HOLD
- Birmingham (0.47) - HOLD
- Burnley (0.55) - HOLD
- Tottenham (0.64) - BUY
- West Ham (0.72) - HOLD
- Stoke (0.73) - HOLD/SELL
- Hull (0.74) - SELL
- Man Utd (0.82) - BUY
- Man City (0.83) - BUY
- Fulham (1.43) - SELL
- Aston Villa (1.67) - SELL
- Liverpool (1.67) - SELL
- Bolton (1.95) - SELL
- Portsmouth (2.29) - SELL
- Wigan (2.58) - SELL
- Blackburn (2.87) - HOLD/SELL
- Arsenal (3.01) - HOLD
- Everton (3.38) - SELL
- Wolves (4.37) - SELL
No less than 10 teams this week whose projected goals conceded comes in below 1.00 suggesting it could be a good week for clean sheets. The group is of course led by Chelsea who have conceded just once at home all year and welcome an Everton averaging just over one goal a game on the road this season. You also have to like Birmingham and Spurs who are in good defensive form, with Spurs looking particularly attractive having conceded just 2 goals in the last 4 home games (though still, frustratingly, have just 2 clean sheets for the year). Sunderland's statistical ranking is probably ahead of where I would have ranked them based on my preconceptions but such is Portsmouth's terrible away record (3 goals in 7 games), the likes or Michael Turner look like solid plays.Of the teams at the bottom of the rankings, Wolves, Everton and Portsmouth are sells in the longer term with tough defensive fixtures over the coming few weeks. Remember also that Fulham, Stoke, Everton and Hull also have a bye next week, which suggests Stoke are a hold for the week rather than a buy.
Captain Rankings
- Didier Drogba
- Frank Lampard
- Jermaine Defoe
- Aaron Lennon
- Fernando Torres
- Ashley Cole
- Darren Bent
- Emmanuel Adebayor
- Cesc Fabregas
- Wayne Rooney
As always, thanks for reading and why not post your transfer or lineup questions below or tweet @plfantasy.
Comments
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_5764897,00.html
im just being a pest...
good write up Chris!
Dre - I had Defoe at 1 then chickened out and went with the Chelsea boys. I am a bit spooked by the fact that sometimes Spurs don't don't fire (1-0 loss to Stoke) where as Chelsea tend to punish teams they should beat. I wouldnt be surprised to see Defoe burn me again (after I publicly mentioned my decision to go with Adebayor ahead of him and he smashed in 5 goals!).
HART
BIKEY ivanovic TURNER pantsil
FABREGAS hunt TAYLOR
DEFOE(C) rooney ADEBAYOR
GIVEN elliott EVRA dunn
Defoe should definitely be above Lampard is the captain rankings. He looks to be in incredibly dangerous form and was extremely involved last week. I was surprised by the inclusion of Torres and Adebayor in your captain rankings. I think its too soon to know on Torres, didn't play enough midweek to get a feel for his form or fitness.
"Arshavin, William Gallas, Cesc Fabregas, and Armand Traore have all recovered from knocks picked up against Stoke last week".
I'm keeping him in and would have no fear captaining him if you so choose.
I mentioned above to Dre that I really like Defoe I just feel you're much more likely to get a crushing 2 points with Defoe than Drogba. Thinking about it I might bump him above Lampard but again Frank seems to deliver bonus points or an assist to usually ensure you will get double figures if you captain him.
Adebayor's fixture is great as Bolton surrender over 2 goals a game at home. As for Torres it is a risk but the fixture is good and he is simply dynamite whenever he plays (10 goals in 10 games).
Auburn - I like Valencia, SWAP then Lennon for the next 5 weeks due to Lennon's fixtures after this week. Valencia is settling in well and faces no rotation risk at the moment and is even handling some free kick duties.
I like Milner alot more than Giggs purely due to Giggs' rotation risk over the busy Christmas period. Can't see him playing twice a week very often. That said, Milner's fixtures aren't great and it might be worth going cheap here and upgrading your defense or attack if it needs it.
Arshavin, Cesc, Gallas, Traore all recovered from knocks picked up against Stoke.