PLFantasy

Clean Sheet Rankings Clean sheets kept at home/away - opponent failed to score at home/away Man City (8 - 5) Man Utd (3 - 3) and (3 - 2) Chelsea (8 - 3) Stoke (4 - 7) West Ham (3 - 4) Newcastle (3 - 4) Aston Villa (5 - 3) Everton (3 - 4) Fulham (3 - 3) Liverpool (4 - 3) Wolves (2 - 5) Sunderland (4 - 2) Blackpool (5 - 2) Wigan (2 - 3) West Brom (0 - 3) Blackburn (0 - 3) Bolton (0 - 2) Attacking Rankings Predicted weekly goals in parenthesis Man Utd (2.8) Newcastle (2.6) Aston Villa (2.4) Stoke (2.4) Wolves (1.9) Chelsea (1.9) Everton (1.7) Blackpool (1.5) Man City (1.3) West Ham (1.3) Sunderland (1.3) Wigan (1.1) Blackburn (1.1) Bolton (1.1) Liverpool (1.0) West Brom (0.8) Fulham (0.5) Captain Stats Given their tricky fixtures, United players do not look like the slam dunk picks that Arsenal gave us last week, though they are still, of course, at the forefront of the rankings this week: Nani - while the goals haven't flowed on the road (2...

After what seems like an eternity, we are back in action this week with a couple of GW27 stragglers today and tomorrow before a (close to) full program on the weekend. Before we get into the rankings though, let's run around the league and check in with those who tend to know best: the local papers (incidentally, if anyone has a recommendation for a team blog who always get big news, injuries etc right, please pass on the link and I'll add it to the league links review). The Treatment Room He's close to returning from injury but Houllier has already stated that Petrov will have to accept platooning with new arrivals Bradley and Makoun. None of this trio are fantasy worthy right now, especially given the risk of losing minutes every other week. With Sam Ricketts joining Steinsson on the sidelines, Marcos Alonso (4.0m) has a chance to earn some playing minutes for Bolton. Having arrived in the summer from Real Madrid, Alonso has struggled to settle in this term but now ...

Barring any unseasonable weather this is likely to be the last significant double gameweek of the season so you better make it count. I won't re-tread much covered ground here but I would urge, if not demand, that you trundle over to the double gameweek analysis posted earlier in the week. Clean Sheet Rankings (Team clean sheets - opponent failed to score) Arsenal (4 - 5) and (4 - 5) Birmingham (4 - 5) and (4 - 3) Liverpool (6 - 6) West Brom (1 - 6) and (1 - 5) Blackburn (5 - 3) Man Utd (7 - 4) Stoke (2 - 4) and (2 - 2) Sunderland (7 - 2) Blackpool (0 - 5) and (0 - 2) Tottenham (1 - 2) and (1 - 0) Newcastle (3 - 3) and (3 - 4) Chelsea (3 - 2) Fulham (6 - 5) Bolton (3 - 3) Everton (2 - 3) Wigan (3 - 1) Wolves (1 - 2) and (1 - 3) Man City (4 - 0) West Ham (0 - 2) Aston Villa (0 - 0) Some will no doubt take objection at not ranking all the DGW teams at the top but, for most, the fixtures are just too tough to justify such a ranking. If your plan is to take t...

Before we get into the full rankings for the week, I guess that most will be more concerned with the double gameweeks and so this piece will focus exclusively on them, and who ranks best on the teams with two games. Defensive options With defenders, I would be careful before throwing too many eggs into the DGW basket as the fixtures generally aren't that strong and the majority of the teams have at least one game where a clean sheet looks very unlikely. Now, earning 4 points just for showing up is a plus, but I wouldn't be paying 4 points for many defensive starters this week, and your free transfers can probably be better used elsewhere. 1. Arsenal By far the strongest defensive option for the week, Arsenal face sides who score just 0.75 GPG (Wolves) and 1.00 GPG (Stoke) away from home while they themselves boast the 6th best home defense. Two clean sheets in the last three home games and four in a row overall seemed to mark the return of Arsenal as very useful fantasy u...

The transfer window has closed once again with key players moving teams and a couple of fresh faces arriving from overseas. There’s not too much time to let the dust settle though as another gameweek roles round, which looks promising for the Manchester teams, while the headliner match on Sunday will give us a good opportunity to assess whether Chelsea and Liverpool have really turned the proverbial corner after both have struggled (comparatively) in recent times. Clean Sheet Rankings (clean sheets kept at home/away – opposition failed to score at home/away) Man City (7 – 6) Chelsea (8 – 4) Tottenham (4 – 4) Aston Villa (5 – 5) Stoke (4 – 4) Man Utd (3 – 2) Fulham (3 – 3) West Ham (3 – 4) Sunderland (4 – 3) Everton (3 – 5) Arsenal (4- 2) Wigan (2 – 3) Birmingham (2 – 2) Blackpool (5 – 2) Blackburn (0 – 3) Wolves (2 – 3) Newcastle (3 – 2) Bolton (0 -3) Liverpool (3 – 1) Wes t Brom (0-3) Attacking Rankings Man City Chelsea Man Utd Arsenal Blackburn Tottenham ...

With Torres' disappointing comments as he left for a ' top level club ' ringing in their ears, the mood of the Liverpool fans seems to that of genuine hurt and defiance. There will be a lot of chest beating about how the club is bigger than any player but make no mistake, this one hurt. Newcastle fans seemed more disappointed but accepting, and the majority were quick to point to the money they received as a silver lining. I'm not sure what the story is here: loyalty is dead in football, or that we're crazy to expect any (after all Torres is not exactly a local lad). I'm sure the blogs will all have their say tomorrow, but for now, I'll leave it to the fans: Fans feel the club is bigger than any player Money is talking for the Magpies