PLFantasy

First of all, an apology for last week as Rooney sat after I (wrongly) concluded that the signs seemed to be indicating he would play. This was made worse for many as Drogba was also benched and so many owners suffered through having 24m of striker on the bench. The situation took a further bad turn last night when Rooney suffered an ankle injury against Bayern Munich and left on crutches . With so little time left in the season, it might be best to cut your losses and bring in either Drogba or Torres now rather than delaying for a couple of weeks and having such a valuable asset sat on the bench. More on this in the weekly preview to be posted tomorrow. Apologies for the lack of update this week, I am taking a few days off work in Berlin. I will have plenty of time to catch up during a 3hr layover tomorrow, so gameweek 33's preview might be a bit rambling (more so than usual).

Before we get stuck into gameweek 32, I am going to quickly fly through my top strikers for the remainder of the season, as promised yesterday. I also urge, nay implore you to look at yesterday's ramblings on midfielders which while somewhat of a Cesc-love-fest contains at least a few useful stats for your amusement. I am limiting this discussion to the big three strikers (Torres, Drogba and Rooney) though that is not a slight on the prospects of Tevez, Bent etc, more that most of us can only afford to employ one or at most two of these stud strikers and so we really need to know which one (or two) we should hitch our wagon to. It must also be noted that Van Persie still leads all strikers with 7.7 PPG, an astonishing stat given the plaudits Rooney (7.4 PPG) has received this year. While some reports are suggesting Van Persie may be back before the end of the season I will only entertain the prospect of spending 10m+ on a player when he is a lock to start, which just isn't th...

Oscar Wilde once wrote that "everything popular is wrong"; a point echoed by the majority of my posts singing the praises of differentiation and uncovering the next sleeper. However, the selection of your star players is equally important and with just 7 weeks to go, now is a great time to assess who will shine the brightest. I am going to focus on midfielders today (and forwards tomorrow) given that the weekly value of defenders/keepers is driven too much by the form/fitness of the squad rather than an individual's ability/form. Midfielders Four double digit million players are available in the game, and it is here that our attention will be focused. I accept that an argument can be made for, say, James Milner over Andrei Arshavin but given the difference in price it seems illogical to compare those two types of player. In order to avoid too much text and to get into the numbers I have created a quick box score to summarise each player. This will be as below: Name (Go...

With all the action this week, stretching through Wednesday evening I thought I better get formulating some thoughts on the weekend's happenings now or face an essay deadline on Thursday morning. Saturday Play the Fixtures The games in the books so far have illustrated just how important it is to play the fixture list each week. Of teams who faced opponents that concede more than 1.5 GPG, all but Wigan managed to net twice leading to big fantasy weeks from budget players like O'Hara, Pienaar, Denilson and Carew. Some of the stars in these games also managed to shine, notably Fabregas, Bent and Arteta (all in my captain rankings this week). Tougher fixtures for Birmingham and Stoke limited the fantasy contribution of their players this week (though Birmingham have a chance for redemption on Wednesday at Blackburn). The clean sheets for the week served to illustrate this point further with 3 of the 4 best fixtures yielding clean sheets despite neither Everton (11th) nor Wigan (1...

While they didn't really explode, Villa players provided a decent haul for those managers who brought them in this week, led by James Milner (12), and hopefully let you gain some points on opposition managers. Agbonlahor was the big disappointment for the week with the rest of my captain picks playing out pretty well ( Milner 12, Defoe 9, Torres 19, Rooney 13, Dunne 8, Young 5, Drogba 10, Lampard 7, N'Zogbia 6). This week will likely see some huge scores and I think you need to be playing at least 5 players on a double to stay competitive. The chance of stealing points on your competition is probably less than in a week where only 2 or 4 teams have a double as less planning will have been required to get some double gamers in this week. Nevertheless, it's important to get your side right in a week where plenty of teams could top 100 points so let's look at the double gameweek sides for gameweek 31 and see where potential value might lie: Aston Villa Opponents: W...

Alright, hopefully we all got through week 29 unscathed and are ready to start milking the points with all the double gameweeks coming up. In summary, the doubles are below which need to be considered when planning your transfers: GW30 - Ast and Wig GW31 - Ast, Bir, Bla, Che, Eve, MNC, Por, Sun, WH and Wol GW34 - Ful and Sto There are also a number of games that are yet to be re-scheduled so the rewards will be even greater in the coming weeks. The side that springs out is Villa who face 4 sides in the bottom half of the table, 3 of which average less than a goal a game at the venue Villa face them (home/away) and 2 of which concede more than 2 a game in the venue Villa face them. In short, buy as many Villa as you can! I currently own zero but am contemplating a 4 or 8 point hit in order to maximise the spoils. Be careful not to transfer out a player with a double next week though as that will make it tough for you to realise a gain on your 4 point investment. Clean Sheet Rankings Ast...

The week isn't quite done but as it's been so disjointed I figured I'd add to the mess by wrapping it up before it's finished. It was a pretty unexciting week that I feel was there to survive rather than thrive on. Captain-tip Fabregas looked to be cruising to a big score with an early goal on Saturday but he then limped off and may now even miss the game with Hull next week . Nasri played well and earned the man of the match and followed that up with a goal and assist tonight in the Champions League. He might be worth a look if you can't afford the dynamic duo of Fabregas and Arshavin. I made a big mistake not bringing Lee in this week and he shone again against West Ham. I think he could be a real gem to close the season with and is well worth his price tag. Elsewhere United disappointed without Rooney though the England frontman is due back tomorrow night so he should be okay for the weekend if he avoids a set back. Another clean sheet showed that Ferguson's...

As the season heads into the home straight, I get the feeling that this week could be an important one in our quest for the top of our respective mini leagues. With 6 teams (including Chelsea, Villa, Spurs and Fulham) out of action I think several teams will be starting with just 6 or 7 men while many others will splash 12 points or more on transfers. Hopefully we all have had plans for the week in place for the last couple of weeks and only need to make a transfer or two to rectify the situation. For advice on which players you should hold and which you should dump, check out my earlier post. Clean Sheet Rankings Everton Arsenal Man Utd Liverpool Sunderland Wigan West Ham Stoke Burnley Portsmouth Birmingham Bolton Wolves Hull I think the top four teams rank significantly above the rest and if you can secure 4 defenders from this pack you will be in great shape. I think Everton and Arsenal defenders are worth paying for due to their favourable schedules with Baines and Vermaelen being ...

This week seems to be a metaphor for the financial crisis at Portsmouth - we all knew it was coming but our plans were probably insufficient. With 6 teams not playing at all and only 2 enjoying a double, many of us are going to struggle to field a full strength side this week without drastic changes. In truth that gives us an advantage as the average punter will either stay put with their weakened side or overreact and spend 20 points bringing in new players. If you do need to make transfers, let's look at which of your players with a bye week should be sold and which would be better kept: Aston Villa - Hold With no game in week 28 either, many of us sold the likes of Milner last week in anticipation of their double week vacation. If you stuck by your Villains then it might be worth holding on again if you can given their double gameweek in week 30 (@Sto, @Wig) followed by a home derby against Wolves. I think these boys should have been sold in week 28 but if you made it through th...