The Final Push

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Last week was a bit of a let down for many fantasy owners, with many - including me - struggling to top 40 points. The big name players continued to hurt owners with Torres sitting this week to join the likes of Rooney and Fabregas on the sidelines. With Liverpool all but out of the Champions League race and Torres focused on facing his former club Athletico in the Europa Cup, I am skeptical as to how much he will figure in the league from now on.

Rooney might return this week but is a risk due to both the unpredictability of big games (nevermind big derby games) while Drogba and Lampard face a tough derby of their own as they travel to Spurs. The team of the week is therefore Villa by some distance who not only enjoy a double gameweek but also have two decent fixtures - @Portsmouth and @Hull. While I am not condoning selling Rooney for Carew straight up, if you have a high priced player and a scrub, it might be worth splitting your cash and getting a pair like Young and Agbonlahor.

The wildcard is Van Persie but his return might be too little too late to help fantasy owners this season.

After that I like City's pair of Tevez and particularly Adebayor as your top premium strikers for the final few weeks of the season. They get the double in week 37 along with a decent run in aside from the Manchester derby this week.

For the final 4 weeks of the season I therefore rank the top line strikers as below:

Gameweek 35
  1. Didier Drogba
  2. Emmanuel Adebayor
  3. Carlos Tevez
  4. Wayne Rooney
  5. Fernando Torres
  6. Robin Van Persie
Gameweek 36
  1. Wayne Rooney
  2. Didier Drogba
  3. Fernando Torres
  4. Emmanuel Adebayor
  5. Carlos Tevez
  6. Robin Van Persie
Gameweek 37
  1. Emmanuel Adebayor
  2. Carlos Tevez
  3. Wayne Rooney
  4. Didier Drogba
  5. Fernando Torres
  6. Robin Van Persie
Gameweek 38
  1. Didier Drogba
  2. Emmanuel Adebayor
  3. Carlos Tevez
  4. Fernando Torres
  5. Robin Van Persie
  6. Wayne Rooney

Comments

mike said…
I think City's double is actually week 37, isn't it?
April 15, 2010 at 10:12 PM
Mish said…
I have Insua, Song, Arteta and Torres in my squad and they are all injured at the moment.
I have to sell at least 2 of them, maybe Liverpool duo.
Who should i get to replace Torres? Rooney or Van Persie? But both are risky, i think. I don't trust Agbonlahor.
Villa's Young is good option for this week and i'm thinking of getting him, but only if Arteta isn't able to play this week. What's on this, Chris?
April 15, 2010 at 10:59 PM
Unknown said…
I've gone for a frontline of Bent, Drogba and Agbonlahor. I'm surprised that Bent didn't make your top strikers list in any of these weeks, especially this week. I think Abgonlahor should be on the list this week as will simply by virtue of having a double against relatively easy opponents, even if both are away.

I am torn between captaining Bent, Agbonlahor or Milner this week.
April 16, 2010 at 1:12 AM
Chris said…
Mike - yeh well spotted. brain fart. ive updated the post.

Mish - for this week I think Drogba is the safest pick as he is almost certain to start at Spurs. Van Persie is still too risky for me so I guess Rooney has the best upside. If you need to differentiate Van Persie's injury status is worth monitoring but I would stick with Drogba or get Adebayor for the rest of the season.

As for Arteta, physio room list him as doubtful and he looks like a risk again this week. With the double gameweek I think Young and Milner are too valuable to pass up and I give him the edge given his better form and lower ownership.

Andrew - I was only ranking the expensive guys as we tend to only own one or two of them and I wanted to help Torres owners decide who to get from here on in. Bent can be owned by anyone so I excluded him here (I should have made that alot clearer). I agree that in terms of overall rankings Bent and Agbonlahor will be very high this week and will feature ahead of some of the bigger names this week.
April 16, 2010 at 4:45 AM
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