PLFantasy

I wouldn't say that I'm superstitious, but I'm definitely stitious. Gameweek 13 was unlucky for most of us with Adebayor, Kompany and Terry being the only widely held players to have really big weeks. Aguero, Van Persie and Rooney managed just an assist between them despite playing for the majority of their respective games. Just like their real life teams, you need to quickly shake off a down week and not get too bogged down with the odd blank from our stars. Of those three, I am most concerned about Rooney, purely because of the way he is being deployed, though I thought he was excellent in the first half against Newcastle and will bounce back soon. I would however fully condone holding someone else while we wait for that to happen, particularly given the somewhat tricky trip to Villa Park this week. The form of City's defense is starting to become somewhat of a concern with Lescott's own goal making it 6 straight without a clean sheet. They aren't s...

Arsenal Szczesny, Djourou, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Santos, Song, Ramsey, Arteta, Walcott, van Persie, Arshavin. Subs: Fabianski, Diaby, Koscielny, Frimpong, Gervinho, Chamakh, Benayoun. Djorou over Koscielny made sense at right back given his impressive physical capability, though I'm still not personally convinced this unit can be relied upon given their lofty price tags. Gervinho impressed off the bench and I was surprised to see him there in the first place. I had hoped he might push on to become a useful asset but without guaranteed minutes he joins a long list of overpriced forwards. Diaby returned from injury but didn't look particularly sharp and I wouldn't expect him to get back in the first team next week. That situation is worth monitoring for Ramsey owners. Aston Villa Given, Hutton, Dunne, Collins, Warnock, N'Zogbia, Delph, Herd, Bent, Agbonlahor, Heskey Subs: Guzan, Jenas, Albrighton, Delfouneso, Clark, Cuellar, Bannan. Not too much note in terms...

For the first time this year, I have included data based purely on the current season as 12 games appears to be a relatively useful sample size. I apply a small adjustment to try and account for the strength of schedule already faced (ie. have you played, and been destroyed by, City yet?) but I'm not sure that is tough enough to make the data really reliable. Hence, I am still leaning on the hybrid (current and prior year) data but it's useful to start factoring in the pure current year rankings at this stage. Without running through each difference individually, I just want to highlight the difference a season can make. City rank 14th in this week's rankings but would be number one based purely on their 6 road games this year (in which they've scored an astonishing 23 goals despite travelling to Old Trafford, Craven Cottage and White Hart Lane). Given the way the team has changed in personnel (hello, Mr Aguero) and also tactical deployment (hello, attacking play)...

As we approach the time of the year when managers are increasingly interested in playing their wildcard, it's time to start thinking about some of the key principles and themes to bear in mind when making those all important transfers. In Part I we looked at the importance of looking forward and not dwelling on the past successes of players to date. We now turn our attention to the importance of building a squad, rather than a team, and how this can make the difference between average and bad or great and good weeks. By my count, only six players managed to play every game last year, four of which were goalkeepers (Baines and Skrtel were the other two). As the chart below shows, the majority of 'keepers played a lot of minutes but the other positions (particularly midfielders and forwards) were less predictable. Just 29% of forwards played in 26 games or more and only 49% even managed to appear in half of their teams' games. So what does this mean? Well, in shor...

It's getting to that time of year when fantasy squads start to develop too many common threads and managers begin to longingly look at that 'play wildcard' option when making transfers. With the second wildcard window looming in GW20-23, realistically the two strategies are to: play your first wildcard now, re-load in GW23 and hope to survive the remainder of the year with that team, or hold off until GW20, maximise your squad for the busy Christmas period (possibly taking advantage of the inevitable DGWs) and then switch out to a new team in or around GW30 for the final stretch. There are advantages to both strategies and in all honesty, the fact you have made it this long without using your wildcard puts you ahead of many other managers (even if you have used your first wildcard, you might still pick up a few things to thing about below, so keep reading!)  The choice of when to use your wildcard is going to greatly depend on the idiosyncrasies of yo...

Arsenal Szczesny, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Andre Santos, Ramsey, Arteta, Song, Walcott, van Persie, Gervinho Subs: Fabianski, Rosicky, Djourou, Arshavin, Chamakh, Benayoun, Coquelin. Koscileny got a start at right back here in Sagna and Jenkinson's absence, though you have to expect he will drop out of the side when either recognised right back returns. Aside from that it's as expected with Van Persie underlying his claims of being the top fantasy option around. There is value to be had in this side with Ramsey, Arteta, Walcott and possibly Gervinho looking they need to be in at least included in the player pool. Blackburn Robinson, Salgado, Hanley, Dann, Givet, Rochina, Nzonzi, Dunn, Pedersen, Hoilett, Yakubu. Subs: Formica, Petrovic, Blackman, Roberts, Goodwillie, Henley, Bunn. The goals are a promising sign but it's still hard to know when and where the production is going to come from for this team and thus it's all but impossible to include any...

@teekleton can you please update me on the goalkeeper combo strategy? did you try one? is it working? any good combos for the next 8 gwks? The latest charts showing the best combos of GKs (as of GW11) are updated and can be found here . I am however conscious that I haven't yet done the analysis to prove that the GK-combo strategy has been a success this year, or whether in fact you should have gone with a De Gea type option. I will try and get that analysis knocked out over the weekend, though I would suggest that it will almost certainly have been preferential to employ the strategy so far with Vorm (originally 4.0m) leading all keepers in points by some distance. Throw in good starts for Krul, Al Habsi, Schwarzer and Hennessey and you have a recipe for a successful combo. In the pre-season (and before Vorm signed for Swansea) the recommended combinations were Given/Begovic or Begovic/Moreira (who became Vorm). Given has been a bit disappointing from that group, but I wou...

No matter what happens in the world or how I spend my time, the preview article after an international break is like trying to recall what you ate for dinner four weeks ago. Is Aguero still good? What kind of form is Amr Zaki in this year? Did I have pasta three nights running? I recently described Bolton's home form as improving 'a few weeks back', after they hammered Stoke. That's right, I have zero concept of time without my Saturday morning sun dial. Lucky for us, pretty much nothing happened. Suarez was charged followed the alleged racist comments, though Sepp Blatter doesn't seem to be too concerned (is there anything more worrying than the head of any body being (rightfully) scolded by Rio Ferdinand : the beacon on common sense in this whole debate. This might be the sign of the apocalypse Harold Camping was waiting for). Aguero gave us a scare but then played for Argentina. England gave their fans just enough promise to overreact to and thus be crush...

This will just be a quick post, to address a very good point raised by reader chemikills regarding the inclusion of Arteta in the recent 'long list' of underowned players (chemikills makes some other good suggestions of underowned players in the comments section, which are well worth taking a look at). Anyway, I have a confession to make. The comment that Arteta will benefit from the opportunities afforded to Fabregas was a bit cheap and probably not really based in reality. Fabregas is one of the best players to play in the Premier League, and no matter who replaces him, to suggest they can enjoy the same heights was hyperbole. Anyway, the question did raise an interesting side point: who will benefit most from Arsenal's revival? Arteta or Ramsey? I had been fairly high on Ramsey a few weeks back, but I must admit, he has somewhat slipped from my mind in recent weeks. Looking at the chalkboards from the last 3 weeks, I think it's hard to conclude that Ramsey...

Following on from the earlier list of over owned players , here are a few players who still seem to be underrated, whether based on their production to date, underlying stats, or simply that they deliver better value than a comparable peer. Defenders Gabbidon (4%) - This is partly a symptom of Gabiddon's injury, but he is back entrenched in the first team now and should really be the highest owned QPR defender. Granted, the team shipped 6 goals in the past 2 weeks but they were at Spurs and against City so I wouldn't read too much into that. Gabiddon presents a great opportunity for Ferdinand (7%) and Young (2%) owners to save a bit of cash without losing much, if any, production. McAuley (1%) - I wasn't 100% sure McAuley would lock down a place in this lineup on a weekly basis but he's done just that and has played every minute since GW6. West Brom have been a better defensive unit this year than last and while McAuley probably wouldn't warrant consideratio...

It's always interesting to look at who are most widely owned players as this can give us some ideas as to who we might be overlooking, who is still being overvalued, and finally, how crazy/lazy some managers are. The below isn't an exhaustive list of who to buy/sell, but just a few ramblings on ownership numbers which look strange at first glance. * To be clear, I like some of the below players, and have actively boosted them on this site before. However, in each case there is at least one other option whose ownership numbers are significantly less without much explanation and thus there could be value to be found. Defenders G Cahill (23%) - I love Gary Cahill. He's one of the better defenders in the country and deserves to be linked with the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool on a regular basis. However, until that move happens he is not a fantasy asset. Under Coyle, Bolton have tried (and sometimes succeeded) to play more expansive football and despite the slow start t...