PLFantasy

After the earlier post on the best schedules to get you to the wildcard window , a couple of readers had wondered which goalkeeper pairs made sense for that same period. Any new readers might want to take a glance here for my original post on the goalkeeper pair strategy. I am going to assume that most people make goalkeeper transfers either because of injury or when using their wildcard (rather than juggling them on a weekly basis). Therefore the below data is based on the next 12 weeks (sufficient to get you into the wildcard window): Lowest average goals conceded This is calculated by selecting each player's expected goals conceded within a pair and then picking whoever is the best play (the idea being to avoid having keepers from teams who face Chelsea and Arsenal in the same week). I then take the average result for the chosen keeper for the next 12 weeks. The below rankings do not factor in price but I have only taken keepers who cost less than 5m or else the point of t...

If my fantasy team was a TV show then Bear Grylls would be waist deep in freezing cold water while being chased by a hungry, pissed off bear. The season was going relatively well but starting to sputter so I did what any fantasy obsessive would do - blow up the team and replace them with too many spot starters (O'Shea), players on the decline (Berbatov) and injured stars (Fabregas). Four of my five best weeks came in GW1 -5 and I haven't topped 50 points since GW10. My points per week are on the decline and my overall position in the game is taking a beating. However, all is not lost. My team is fit (outside of Fabregas who has been sold) and I'm hopeful for the weeks ahead. My plan is to survive until I can play my second wildcard, and then reload for a push for the final third of the season. We have 9 gameweeks until the wildcard window opens so let's take a quick look at who looks to be valuable between now and then (for those not looking to use their wildcard the...

I've decided to start posting these rankings as soon as possible each week to help everyone with transfer as well as lineup decisions. I can then follow up later in the week with injury news etc. Therefore I will include players on the assumption they will play unless they are definately out through long term injury or suspension. Clean Sheet Rankings Tottenham Man Utd West Ham Aston Villa Arsenal Everton Wigan Man City Bolton Fulham Wolves Chelsea Sunderland Stoke Newcastle Birmingham Liverpool West Brom Blackburn Blackpool Attacking rankings Bolton Man Utd Everton Tottenham Fulham Chelsea Man City Wolves Newcastle Sunderland Birmingham Blackpool Stoke West Ham West Brom Aston Villa Arsenal Wigan Blackburn Liverpool Captain Stats Rafael van der Vaart - Averaging 9.4 PPG at home and 9.5 PPG against opponents who concede between 1 and 1.5 GPG. The form player in the league and close to must own right now. Nani - Averaging 8.67 PPG at ho...

There's a new fantasy game in town which intrigues me and so I am going to risk spreading myself too thin and join. It is arranged in a way similar to the typical US fantasy format which sees each player only available once, rather than being potentially owned by 50% of all owners. I had been hoping to manually create this game myself for next season but perhaps this will save me the trouble. The gist of the game is that we will have $60m to start to buy players and then transfer funds can be spent throughput the season to trade players with other teams. More cash is also earned by scoring points (which is done so in a largely similar way to the pl.com game). Anyone who wants to join can do so at Kaiser.co.uk and sign up for my new blog league called 'Premier League Fantasy Blog' with password 'plfantasy'. The league will be first come first served. The rules allow for 'keeper leagues' but I proposing running the second half of this year as a test and...

I'm excited for this week. I've spent the past week in Wilmington, DE so to be honest I'd be stimulated by a brightly coloured set of crayons at this point, but nevertheless I think this week is going to great. Arsenal-Tottenham may have been the best derby of the past 5 years, Mark Hughes 'welcomes' his former side to Craven Cottage, Chelsea look to bounce back from the unbelievable defeat last week while two upstart teams face at the Reebok, each looking to show that their top 8 credentials are for real. In fantasy terms I am more desperate than expectant. My team has suffered badly in the past 3 weeks and my wildcard has proven to be a disaster. My woeful defense failed to notch a single clean sheet last week despite there being nine on offer. Worse still, since selling him, Jerome Boateng has failed to concede a goal and Vidic added another goal. While he hasn't been spectacular, Fabregas is starting to show his worth and was miraculously awa...

There have been justified rumblings lately about whether Drogba is, gasp, on the chopping board. I do not hide my admiration for the Ivorian legend and the fact he has recently played games while suffering with malaria (presumably caught while doing his extensive charity work ) only increases Drogba’s legend. However – perhaps unfortunately – there are no points awarded for bravery or good deeds and so we must brush aside our personal feelings and look at the cold hard stats (cue half the readers screaming that I am unable to do this Fabregas on a weekly basis . . . and me having no response). First things first, Drogba has really had two separate seasons already this year, or for the cliché lovers he’s been a ‘game of two halves’. The first five games were all quality starts (6 points or more) and he amassed an insane 55 points, including 5 goals 5 assists and 11 bonus points: perhaps the best 5 game run of any fantasy player in history (cue Ronaldo looking up suddenly from his tan...

Fantasy soccer is different to other sports for many reasons but one of the key differences is that players on the same team don't really 'take away' from each other. By this I mean that in fantasy football the presence of another running back or indeed a 260 lb goal line back, can hurt if not kill a teammate's fantasy value due to him stealing carries or, more importantly, goal line carries. The same can be true in basketball (but probably to a lesser extent) in that there are really only a finite number of possessions in an average game and so the presence of LeBron James clearly hurts the fantasy value of Dwayne Wade (how much depends on how much extra offense they can generate to share between two players - okay 2.5 if you count Chris Bosh). In soccer, nothing is really limited aside from the total time of the game. Shots can vary in a game from 1 to 40 and team possession can range from 35% to 65%. Therefore the presence of other good players can help fantasy pro...

To give everyone a head start on transfers and team selections I have posted the weekly statistical rankings below and I will add some random comments and thoughts later tonight. The stats are now based purely on this year's results given that I think we now have a sufficiently large sample size for it to be reliable. Clean Sheet Rankings Chelsea Aston Villa Stoke Tottenham Arsenal Man City Newcastle Everton Blackburn Wolves Bolton Man Utd West Brom Liverpool Birmingham West Ham Blackpool Wigan Fulham Sunderland Captain rankings: Team goals Chelsea (3.62) Newcastle (2.24) West Brom (2.19) West Ham (2.04) Blackpool (2.01) Man City (1.79) Stoke (1.73) Wigan (1.37) Aston Villa (1.36) Wolves (1.34) Bolton (1.19) Tottenham (1.19) Arsenal (1.02) Fulham (0.96) Everton (0.85) Birmingham (0.85) Blackburn (0.75) Liverpool (0.68) Man Utd (0.58) Sunderland (0.00)

When a team loses badly they always say that the best thing is to play again soon to banish the bad memories. I am therefore very thankful for the midweek action so I don't dwell on my disastrous wildcard forray last week resulting in a miserable 24 point week. The weekly wrap up will go up Wednesday night for GW11 and GW12 combined to allow for me to get the preview column out now. Clean Sheet Rankings Chelsea (0.15) Birmingham (0.36) Aston Villa (0.35) Tottenham (0.44) Liverpool (0.79) Newcastle (0.81) Everton (0.91) Arsenal (0.92) Stoke (0.97) Wigan (1.01) Man City (1.35) Wolves (1.37) West Ham (1.43) Man Utd (1.57) Bolton (2.00) Blackpool (2.03) West Brom (2.11) Sunderland (2.14) Blackburn (2.72) Fulham (3.39) Attacking rankings Chelsea (3.39) Newcastle (2.72) Tottenham (2.14) West Ham (2.11) Aston Villa (2.03) Everton (2.00) Stoke (1.62) Man City (1.57) West Brom (1.43) Arsenal (1.37) Man Utd (1.35) Birmingham (1.16) Liverpool (1.01) Wolves...

I have alluded to aPoints before and the individual rankings through GW10 can be found to the right but I haven't ever fully explained what this rating shows. Simply, it is my way to giving an adjusted number of points a player 'should' have scored, if injuries/suspensions hadn't occurred and every player had faced the same schedule.While this is admittedly somewhat absract as injuries and suspensions do occur, it is nevertheless useful as form and schedule are a better indication of future success than the fact that a player has missed time to date through injury. If you lead this category then you will be, in my calculations, the best fantasy player over the course of the season if the current trends continue. 'Best' being defined as achieving the most points as opposed to the best value (which is dealt with by aPPMS ). I will continue to track this stat through the season and I like it as a key indicator of fantasy value to date. It can also be used to...

No rambling this week as I've been moving home with boxes stacked high and much upheaval. This isn't unlike my fantasy team which is chaotic and unpredictable and might need a renovation of it's own very soon. I was saved last week by Vidic and Adam's performances but cruelly punished by last minute goals conceded by Williamson and Jaaskelainen. As you have hopefully noticed I am starting to re-design the site a bit to give everyone constant access to the stats I try and incorporate into my work. I have started with the aPPMS and aPoints to the right of this post and I will be adding short and long term strength of schedules soon. Any requests for specific data to be posted would be welcomed. Without further delay then, here are this week's rankings: Clean Sheet Rankings (expected goals conceded in parenthesis) Birmingham (0.28) Sunderland (0.38) Man Utd (0.40) Blackburn (0.60) Fulham (0.64) Arsenal (0.69) Chelsea (0.98) West Brom (1.02) Everton (1.0...