Gameweek 33 Preview

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Due to a lack of time I am going to cut short this week's preview to give you an idea of which players to target this week.

Clean Sheet Rankings
  1. Birmingham
  2. Stoke
  3. Liverpool
  4. Tottenham
  5. Man Utd
  6. Everton
  7. Portsmouth
  8. Arsenal
  9. Fulham
  10. Sunderland
  11. Aston Villa
  12. Burnley
  13. Man City
  14. Bolton
  15. Hull
  16. Chelsea
  17. Blackburn
  18. West Ham
  19. Wigan
  20. Wolves
Captain Rankings
  1. Bobby Zamora
  2. Mikel Arteta
  3. Samir Nasri
  4. Danny Murphy
  5. Matt Etherington
  6. James Milner
  7. Carlos Tevez
  8. Fernando Torres
  9. Didier Drogba
  10. Frank Lampard
The choice this week is really between your elite players against a top side (see Chelsea and United) or your form players against weaker opponents (see Arteta and Zamora). The exception is Arsenal who get Wolves at home but with Fabregas and Van Persie out, it's tough to be totally sold on any of their fantasy prospects.

As always, why not post your thoughts below or @plfantasy.

Comments

Unknown said…
Arshavin will not play against Wolves. He has a calf injury and will be out at least three weeks. Do not captain him.
April 2, 2010 at 11:39 AM
dhs_media_ssharp said…
Arteta is unlikely to play against West Ham.

http://www.evertonfc.com/news/archive/2010/04/02/arteta-unlikely-to-face-hammers

Havn't got a clue who to replace fabregas with. Will valencia help man u with more assists/goals with ronney's absence?

How about sami nasri/theo wilcott? both played well against barca imo.
April 2, 2010 at 1:14 PM
Friend said…
I like Nasri. He's stepped up when Cesc was down before and really seems to thrive as a central mid.
April 2, 2010 at 1:30 PM
Unknown said…
birmingham is playing Liverpool. How are they 1st place in clean sheet candidate?
April 2, 2010 at 4:57 PM
Chris said…
Apologies guys, as you can tell I have missed all the weeks' news. I like the Nasri choice and I've added him to the captain ranks. Still waiting on further news on Arteta.

Soo Kyo - I am all about stats rather than perception and while Torres, Gerrard etc look terrifying on paper, the cold hard stats say otherwise. Liverpool have scored 13 in 16 on the road (14th), while Birmingham have conceded 11 in 16 at home (3rd). Factoring in a few other points I build into my projections (form, injuries etc) the stats say Birmingham will concede 0.40 goals this week, good enough for first in the charts. Does this mean they are a lock for a clean sheet? No. But it does mean that they make a smart play over, say, Villa who appear to have an easier fixture but actually face a Bolton side who are solid at home. I think fantasy is all about increasing your odds and Joe Hart and co can do that for you this week.
April 2, 2010 at 5:25 PM
bolanos cf said…
how about baines for captain chris?he take corners and some FK as well.if arteta is out, he will take all imo. thinking of putting him as differential as i'm looking to restore my points at the top in my private league after being slashed to just 13 points since i dont have lampard last week. too bad my opponent even did not captain him in the first place. emergency captain really sucks
April 3, 2010 at 1:06 AM
Unknown said…
wow didnt even realize liverpool gets that few away goals. in stat-wise it is correct but in terms of the form that birmingham and liverpool are (which are completely opposite) i still don't see it happening.
No offense though. Your post is very helpful to my everyweek line up and I use your cs ranking all the time to decide who to play and bench.
April 3, 2010 at 8:39 AM
Unknown said…
Chris, great blog, thanks for all your input. 2 complaints from the weekend: firstly, Nani gets no credit for an assist on Kiko's goal; and secondly Malouda gets no bonus points yet is selected as man of the match. Ridiculous on both counts. Just moaning hear b/c no one else will care. ;) Hopefully captain Torres will come through for me tomorrow! Disappointing return from my starting 11 of:
Sorensen,
Johnson Dunne Dawson
Nani Malouda Dunn Nasri
Bendtner Torres Drogba
3 no starts(1 unplayed)
April 3, 2010 at 6:39 PM
goke313 said…
adam johnson from man city has been a steal :)
April 3, 2010 at 7:37 PM
Ryan said…
Does anyone know the reason Chris Baird suddenly didn't start against Wigan in GW33? He only played for 3 minutes. I'm thinking of getting rid of him if he's going to become a regular benchwarmer.
April 5, 2010 at 11:52 AM
Friend said…
Not sure about Baird. Fulham played kind of a weird line-up on the weekend, probably because they have a Europa game this Thursday.

I would maybe ditch him because the Cottagers seem more interested in their European games lately. Just a thought though.
April 5, 2010 at 6:57 PM
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