PLFantasy

The weekly preview is cut short for this week and the next couple as I'm heading to Egypt for a couple of weeks. I'll try and get as much access as possible but updates may be a bit limited:

With 8 weeks gone, all three promoted sides find themselves in solid mid-table positions and in the past few weeks, each has started to provide the fantasy options we thought they might. As was shown this week, it's vital to have a reliable bench filled with players who bring guaranteed minutes along with some fantasy upside and the promoted sides can be a great source for such players. There remain a few question marks over some of the players below, but we can at least get a decent grasp on who should be targeted or avoided right now: Norwich City Despite their low price, and the fact that the back line now looks settled with De Laet on the bench, Norwich have failed to register a single clean sheet to date, despite playing a decent schedule at home (Stoke, West Brom, Sunderland and Swansea). Their 11 goals conceded isn't too bad (T11th) and suggests that they will at least register some clean sheets this year, however, I'm not sure we can wait on ...

Arsenal Szczesny, Jenkinson, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Gibbs, Song, Arteta, Rosicky, Walcott, van Persie, Gervinho Subs: Fabianski, Park, Andre Santos, Djourou, Arshavin, Frimpong, Benayoun. I'm not sure of the value of this team yet, but at least we have a good handle on who will play each week. The only tricky positions appear to be left back and the rotation of Rosicky/Walcott/Arshavin and hence this group should be avoided. Everyone else looks fairly settled in the side and Van Persie gave us a nice reminder this week of how high his ceiling is. He shouldn't be ignored in the Rooney/Aguero sweepstakes (even if a certain blogger did caution against captaining him this week . . . oops). Aston Villa Given, Hutton, Dunne, Clark, Warnock, Delph, Petrov, Ireland, Heskey, Agbonlahor, Bent Subs: Guzan, N'Zogbia, Albrighton, Cuellar, Bannan, Weimann, Herd. Heskey returns to the side at the expense of Bannan, who had shown some promising form during his spell in the side....

The defensive options look good this week with 4 of the better home defenses getting promising visits from teams who have struggled at times on the road. City are obviously the headliner and anyone who doesn't already have their quota of City players should strongly consider bringing in another defender for this week. Granted, you could draw a blank in next week's Manchester derby, but after that the fixtures look very good and Richards, Kompany and co could well find themselves atop the defensive listings by the time we roll into mid-November. Offensively we have some unfamiliar names atop the standings (along with the ever present City) though it'll be a brave manager who throws anyone from that group into the below captain rankings for the week. Captain Picks It's a tough week to hand out the armband as no one really stands out as having the holy trinity of high upside, easy fixture and guaranteed minutes. We therefore fall into the classic argument of whet...

Alex McLeish wants Alan Hutton to return to the form he once showed at Rangers and will presumably play him every week to give him the chance to do so. At 5.0m Hutton is the joint-cheapest member of a so-so Villa back line and if we assured he will play, his attacking upside might push him ahead of Warnock in the player pool . I'm still a bit concerned by the depth the team have at right back but Hutton is getting closer to registering on the radar. Kevin Davies admitted he deserved to be dropped by Owen Coyle (debatable, but it's the right thing to say) and he says he is re-focused to win his spot back. Long term, Davies will start. Granted he hasn't been in great form but he is so important to what Bolton do, and to be honest, is one of the few true Premier League quality players in this side. That said, until he regains his place and his form, he doesn't even register in the player pool (you can't imagine how hard that is to say for me). The Liverpool Ech...

Depth is universally seen as a virtue. We all like to be well informed to avoid being 'shallow'. Managers praise the depth of their teams, and, well, no one wants to take a dive into a paddling pool. The same is true in fantasy - the deeper the pool of talent, the more options we have, and the more opportunities there are to differentiate our teams. With the international break giving us time to catch our collective breath, I thought it might be useful to look at the current pool of talent, and assess how it looks after 7 weeks. The below are the players who I feel should register on our radars. I'm not saying they all represent great investments right now, just that, as things stand, they could hold some value in the short-medium term. A couple of points to clarify before we start. Anyone suffering from a long term injury (even if close to returning) is excluded. You can't be caught picking up injured players too early and so the likes of Glen Johnson or Steve Gerr...

Arsenal Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Song, Gibbs, Ramsey, Arteta, Coquelin, Walcott, van Persie, Gervinho. Subs: Fabianski, Park, Andre Santos , Arshavin, Jenkinson , Frimpong, Benayoun. Not too much of interest here as while this Arsenal side performed better than in some previous games, they are still a side priced to perform on an elite level but failing to do so with any consistency. Santos was rotated once again and should not be considered an option at the moment. I suppose Jenkinson could have some limited value if he secures the right back spot following Sagna's injury but with 3 clean sheets (against Newcastle, Swansea and Bolton) to their name, I don't see this unit as particularly valuable. Aston Villa Given, Hutton, Dunne, Collins, Warnock, Petrov, Ireland, Bannan, Delph, Agbonlahor , Bent. Subs: Guzan, N'Zogbia , Albrighton, Heskey, Clark, Weimann, Herd. N'Zogbia's miserable start to his Villa career continued as he was benched here. We'v...

K_Lock - What do you think about Adebayor as captain?  Grounderz - Chris, any thoughts on Adebayor and Agbonlahor? I've got one more spot for either one of them in the team but I don't know who to buy.  I am very much on board the Adebayor bandwagon, having been a big fan of his work at Arsenal and City (I must also admit to having a bit of a chuckle at his frankly ridiculous goal celebration against Arsenal - who doesn't love a pantomime villain?). He ranks second in the league with 2.3 shots on target per game, trailing only the red-hot Rooney. He's racked up huge PPI numbers in his 3 appearances suggesting that when he scores, the bonus points will be soon to follow. Spurs scored 1 goal in the 2 games before he arrived but have added 8 in 3 since Adebayor has been starting (we are looking at very small samples here though so don't get overly excited by that one). When it comes to captaining players though, I am extremely cautious and honestly a big boring. ...