PLFantasy

Firstly, an apology for the lack of preview last week. Work commitments along with the short game left me caught short. Hopefully everyone was aware of United and City's absence and planned accordingly while picking a captain become somewhat trickier with the likes of Rooney and Tevez absent. The headline game of week 24 will of course be the clash at the Emirates between Arsenal and United, which is probably the biggest game of the season so far. Fantasy wise I don't love the game with these games tending to have a couple of goals and a lack of clean sheets (the only clean sheets in this fixture since 2002 have been the 0-0 in 2005/06). Four more teams have double gameweeks with the highlight of course being league leaders Chelsea who have a pair of road games against two of the weaker sides in the division (though both have actually been decent at home). Double gameweeks are going to play a massive part of the remainder of the season with no less than 14 scheduled over the ne...

Apologies for the lack of a preview this week. The short week crept up on me and work commitments prevented me turning around a decent preview in time. Normal service will be resumed for next week which is a standard Saturday deadline. Double gameweeks for Chelsea, Fulham, Hull and Portsmouth are the headlines. Stay tuned for the preview to be posted shortly. Thanks for your patience

dif ·fer·en·ti·a· tion (n) 1. The act, process, or result of differentiating 2. The process of computing a derivative. 3. The process by which cells or tissues undergo a change toward a more specialized form or function, especially during embryonic development. I hope you all captained Rooney or Fabregas this week! I'm pleased to say t his pair were my top 2 captain picks for the week though judging from most of the mini leagues I am in, they were also everyone else's pick. Pure Juice scored 128 points this week and lost ground in the main competition thanks to the double game-weeks of Arsenal and United. The week served to underline the fact that most teams now have an overlap of at least 4 or 5 players with 7 players owned by 30% of more of all managers. Consider that a number of managers at the bottom of the league have probably not kept up to date and you realise that in reality over half of all your competitors probably most own these players: Rooney (44%) Sorensen (...

Football (or soccer if you'd prefer) is not generally considered to be a game of momentum. While a team can build an element of sustained pressure, the counter attack and long ball are equally viable options and can be used to devastating effect. Contrast this to, say, American Football or Rugby where teams drive and battle for field position and you will see my point. That being said, one couldn't help but notice a potentially significant shift in momentum last night in Manchester, not in a single game, but in an entire sport. It is of course hyperbole to suggest that City will surpass local rivals United in this or future seasons but last night's game evidenced that, at least, this could happen. The state of the two clubs finances could not be much different with City owner Sheikh Mansour continuing to plow millions into the Blue side of the city while the Red side face the prospect of their owners making a cash withdrawal . The case is perfectly illustrated by the Tevez...

A strange weekend of football really which had goals (see Chelsea) as well clean sheets (9 in all). The average points scored were a healthy 48, especially when you consider that United, Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool all play again before the gameweek is up. I was pleased with my captain picks as my top four scored 12, 11, 8 and 5 points respectively while 4 of my top 5 defenses all managed a clean sheet. Chelsea's defense let me down but they more than made up for it with their 7 goals and big games from Anelka, Lampard, Ballack and Cole (who only played 45 minutes). I am starting to get really concerned with differentiating my team as goals from Rooney (45% owned), Fabregas (32%) and Cole (15%) did little to help me catch/pull away from the opposition. However, with Torres, Drogba and Gerrard all unavailable the premium options are limited. Hopefully we will get at least a couple of impact players in the transfer window, but not resting on this assumption, I will post some ideas o...

Last week made waves in the fantasy league for all the wrong reasons. One team in my mini league scored zero as his only two starting players were Phil Neville (2 points) and captain Darren Fletcher (-2). Those with Tevez will have fared better, especially if they captained him, though points elsewhere were hard to find. While embarrassing to score down in the 20s, chances are you only lost a few points on your competitors. This week is more important. Playing double gameweeks well (or poorly) can make or break your league and with four of the best fantasy squads around playing twice, there could be some very large scores around this week. Man United, Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool, Bolton and Hull all play twice and some fantasy value can be had from each of these squads * For United I think Rooney and Valencia are incredibly good starts this week and are close to being the pick at each of their respective positions. Defensively, United are hard to judge but I am confident Brown will play ...

It's time for the ice to hit the fan. Two more games have been added to this week's schedule to give six teams a double gameweek including the fantasy filled squads of Arsenal, United and Spurs. Here's the fixtures along with the average goals conceded by the opposition: Man United: Burnley (3.10), Hull (2.60) Arsenal: Bolton (2.10), @Bolton (1.88) Tottenham: Hull (2.60), @Liverpool (1.10) Liverpool: @Stoke (1.20), Tottenham (1.40) Bolton: @Arsenal (1.40), Arsenal (0.90) Hull: @Tottenham (0.80), @Man United (0.80) United and Arsenal are clearly great plays while Liverpool and Spurs remain very solid options. I like Liverpool longer term due to their good fixtures from weeks 23-30 so Torres and co might be good buy low options. Defensively, United look by far the best play though again Arsenal and Liverpool are solid plays. The fixtures are averaging goals scored by the opposition are below: Man United: Burnley (0.80), Hull (0.70) Arsenal: Bolton (1.60), @Bolton (1.25) Liver...

One thousand nine hundred and ninety nine. This is not the result of a new fantasy formula devised to help you pick your team this week: it is the distance between Cabinda, Angola and Cape Town. I don't often depart from fantasy talk on here but I feel that the recent attacks in Angola need further comment. The events in the troubled Cabinda region are tragic and of course raise issues about the current African Cup of Nations tournament, particularly why the Togolese team were traveling by bus through the disputed territory. However, the parallels drawn between this event and the World Cup in South Afrcia are at best mis-guided and at worst, ignorant. "Once again, the world of sport has been dragged into the news spotlight with tragic consequences. And, with the World Cup looming on the horizon, it could not have come at a worse time for the continent of Africa" ( ESPN ) ""I am appalled. This throws a question mark against next summer's World Cup. You simpl...

Rule number one of fantasy football is to field a full side of 11 players every week and preferably have at least one sub ready to step in in case of a last minute injury. This week is going to be the exception to the rule. With four games off: Liverpool v Spurs Fulham v Portsmouth Sunderland v Bolton, and Burnley v Stoke many managers are going to be struggling to pick a side this week. The key here is not to overreact. Do not throw 4 point transfer fees around just to field a team this week and don't transfer out players with good future prospects just because they are off this week. Also remember that if you own a player whose value has significantly risen ( eg Fabregas ) then you will lose money if you sell him with the intention of buying him back. If I make two transfers, as I was considering anyway, I will be able to play 10 men and I'm happy with that. If you think you can manage in GW 23, City and United players might be worth the 4 point hit as you will get back t...

The Christmas period was tough for many managers (me included) who suffered through unexpected injuries and then the disruption to the fixture list. This will also be the first gameweek without the departed African players thus testing many managers' squads further. The defensive fixtures aren't too bad this week and with the frigid weather not going anywhere one may expect a few defensive struggles this week and playing 5 at the back might be worth considering. Clean Sheet Rankings Fulham - BUY Burnley - HOLD Man Utd - BUY Arsenal - HOLD Man City - BUY Aston Villa - HOLD Chelsea - HOLD Birmingham - HOLD/SELL Sunderland - SELL Wigan - HOLD West Ham - HOLD Liverpool - HOLD Stoke - HOLD Portsmouth - SELL Hull - SELL Bolton - SELL Wolves - SELL Tottenham - BUY Blackburn - SELL Everton - SELL Defensive fixtures don't get much better than Fulham at home to Portsmouth to the point where if you're squad is thin, Fulham defenders might even warrant some captaincy consideration....

Due to the snow along with domestic and European cup competitions the Premier League fixture list has been disrupted of late. I'm sure many of us were burned by the cancellation of tonight's Arsenal-Bolton fixture (I had four players set to play) but as Fantasy Football Scout said, we need to dust the snow off and get back to work. Unhelpfully, premierleague.com still lists the fixtures as they were but a quick search around the Internet has shed some light on this mess. Below is a quick summary of who is playing well which can be used in conjunction with the strength of schedules to help you make your transfer decisions: Gameweek 21 - all 20 teams play once Gameweek 22 - all 20 teams play once Gameweek 23 - Man Utd, Man City, Hull and Stoke all have no game due to the league cup semi final between City and United. For some reason the corresponding Villa-Blackburn fixture has been arranged around the league fixtures so they are still safe plays. Note though that both teams...

Welcome back to the blog everyone - its been a fun few days off for me spent in (somewhat) sunny Florida featuring too much time spent in Disney lines and not enough time watching sports. Luckily the wonders of the internet has allowed me to catchup and I'm ready to try and summarise the past couple of gameweeks and the key events from the holiday period. I am also conscious that the transfer window is now open so I'll do a piece on who we can expect to see coming to the EPL and the fantasy impact they may have. Gameweek 19 No less than 8 clean sheets in week 19 and I'm pleased to say that my 1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th ranked teams all managed to keep the opposition at bay . Birmingham's clean sheet will have surprised some but McLeish's men are for real and the whole back line should be considered every week starters at this point in the season (this was buoyed by the fact that Roger Johnson did not miss time due to injury). My favourite player for the week - Torres - d...