Gameweek 18 Rankings

Clean Sheet Rankings

1. Blackburn
2. Liverpool
3. Man City
4. Birmingham
5. West Brom
6. Chelsea
7. Sunderland
8. Everton
9. Wigan
10. Arsenal
11. Bolton
12. Newcastle
13. Aston Villa
14. Fulham
15. Blackpool
16. West Ham
17. Wolves
18. Tottenham
19. Man Utd
20. Stoke

 Team Goal Rankings

1. Arsenal
2. Chelsea
3. Blackpool
4. West Brom
5. Blackburn
6. Tottenham
7. Liverpool
8. Wigan
9. Birmingham
10. Sunderland
11. Stoke
12. Aston Villa
13. Man City
14. Bolton
15. Man Utd
16. Wolves
17. Newcastle
18. Everton
19. Fulham
20. West Ham

Team Goals (form adjusted*)

1. West Brom
2. Tottenham
3. Arsenal
4. Blackburn
5. Man City
6. Blackpool
7. Sunderland
8. Chelsea
9. Stoke
10. Birmingham
11. Bolton
12. Man Utd
13. Wigan
14. Aston Villa
15. Liverpool
16. Wolves
17. Newcastle
18. Everton
19. Fulham
20. West Ham

*This formula simply adds extra weight (33%) to the last 5 games rather than the whole season. I haven't tested whether this has proven to be more effective but it's at least worth a glance.

Captain Stats
The captain picks this week are pretty tough with Chelsea and Man Utd squaring off on Sunday. The pick of the stats are below (though the players are not necessarily ranked in order).

• Malouda: despite his patchy form of late he is still averaging 7.0 PPG at home and added 34 points in 3 games in which Lampard played. He should be pushed back into the front three rather than being stranded and so might regain his early season form. Obviously the fixture isn't great but United are giving up 1.43 GPG on the road so Chelsea might have a goal or two in them.

• Bale / Van der Vaart: Spurs have the best fixture of the top teams this week and Bale and Van der Vaart (if fit) are well placed to take advantage. Bale has performed better on the road (5.5 PPG) than at home (3.89 PPG) while Van der Vaart has also shown himself to be reliable away from White Hart Lane (5.60 PPG). Blackpool have only kept one clean sheet at home and that was in GW1 against Wigan. Long story short, Spurs are going to score, it's just a case of guessing who gets the points.

• Torres: The fixture looks better than it is (Fulham have only conceded 9 in 8 on the road) and Torres has regressed after his flurry in GW9-12. That said, he does his best work at home (5.86 PPG) adding 4 goals in 7 games at Anfield. Despite last week's blank against Sunderland, Fulham's defense has shown signs of weakness of late (7 goals in 4 games) so Torres deserves at least a look.

• Drogba: Like teammate Malouda, Drogba has been struggling for form but has still managed to score twice in the past two games. He will surely lose penalty duties after last week's miss coinciding with the return of Frank Lampard but he still has some value. In those first 3 weeks when Lampard played, Drogba scored 4 goals, added 3 assists, was awarded 8 bonus points and had a total of 39 points. This game might define their season and if you think Drogba will shy away and disappear you're crazy.

• Chamakh: I think Chamakh might be the pick of the Arsenal players given Stoke's tendency to concede to forwards over the past few road games. Chamakh is averaging 5.0 PPG against teams conceding 1.5 GPG and he therefore makes another solid selection this week.

• Nasri: I know everyone will go cray if I don't at least mention Nasri here. I feel my hesitancy towards Nasri has been misconstrued as me not rating him. To clear it up, if Arsenal played in the Champions League final on Saturday he is in the team no matter who is fit. There is no question about that right now. What I do question is how he can possibly play every week. It's not a case of 'Wenger will drop x before he drops y' because he has so many options at his disposal. The only way Nasri can play every week is if Wenger departs from his season long strategy of playing two defensive mids and moves Fabregas into that role alongside Song or Wilshere. If not then he is competing for one of the wide positions with Van Persie, Arshavin, Walcott and Rosicky. I don't care where you think he ranks in that list, he won't play every week unless someone is sold or injured. For 1m less I would therefore prefer someone like Bale over the Christmas period whose only risk of missing out is a one off resting. With Fabregas and Van Persie back from injury we will see how this plays out over the coming weeks. As far as this week goes he is a decent option for the armband with 6 of his 8 goals coming at the Emirates. He is averaging 7.83 PPG at home and is performing well against all level of opponents so he makes a good play this week.

If you are wondering where Tevez is, I would not touch him until this situation is resolved. The most dangerous situation is that he is benched and then thrown on with a few minutes to go. Hence I can't consider him for the armband this week.

I think the defensive fixtures are better than the attacking options this week and so I might be tempted to throw 4 defenders out there. The captain picks are pretty uninspiring but value is available in the Arsenal team and I have a suspicion Chelsea might bounce back somewhat.