PLFantasy

As I'm sure everyone is aware, we have a couple of double gameweeks on the horizon, along with some gameweeks in which teams currently have no fixture. The affected teams are: Arsenal - No game in GW29 Everton - DGW28 (Tot, @Liv), No game in GW29 Liverpool - DGW28 (@Sun, Eve) Stoke - No game in GW29 Tottenham - No game in GW29 Double Gameweeks Starting with the double gameweeks, the message is one of restraint. Both Merseyside clubs have a tough fixture list in GW28 while Everton's situation is further complicated by their lack of fixture in GW29. Everton have been in decent form of late, particularly at the back making Distin and possibly Hibbert interesting plays, though I'd suggest you'd want to be picking them up with a freebie rather than paying for them as neither fixture looks particularly attractive. That said, the fixtures after the off week in GW29 look good and they will of course get another DGW in the future to make up for that week off. If H...

<a href="#"><img alt="Weekly Rankings " src="http://public.tableausoftware.com/static/images/We/WeeklyRankings27/WeeklyRankings/1_rss.png" style="border: none" /></a> Powered by Tableau CS Clean sheets kept at home/away based on this week's fixture Opp FTS Number of times this week's opponent has failed to score at home/away GPG Conceded Predicted goals conceded this week based on a team and their opponent's performance this season Opp CS Clean sheets kept at home/away by a team's opponent GPG Scored Predicted goals scored this week based on a team and their opponent's performance this season

As you've probably noticed I've been a bit absent these past few weeks due to other work committments. Hopefully these should end tomorrow but I'm totally behind on the news so my apologis if I missed any injuries/suspensions etc in the list below. This is the raw data for the week, and I will try and right up a narrative tomorrow so all you East coasters should be able to see it late night and the GMT crowd should be good to go before the morning deadline. Normal service should resume next week including some of the promised pieces I've been talking about for a while. <a href="#"><img alt="Dashboard 1 " src="http://public.tableausoftware.com/static/images/Ca/Captain_0/Dashboard1/1_rss.png" style="border: none" /&am...

Powered by Tableau CS Clean sheets kept at home/away based on this week's fixture Opp FTS Number of times this week's opponent has failed to score at home/away GPG Conceded Predicted goals conceded this week based on a team and their opponent's performance this season Opp CS Clean sheets kept at home/away by a team's opponent GPG Scored Predicted goals scored this week based on a team and their opponent's performance this season

Last week's FA Cup action coincided with a busy week for me away from fantasy football, hence the lack of posts this week. We're back on track now though and before we get to this week's rankings, I want to get out the first of a couple of posts regarding the final stages of the season, with focus on differentiation and playing your second wildcard if you still hold it. This won't be a huge post as I just wanted to share the data, but I must say that it is incredibly hard at the moment to find differentiating options. Unless you want your team to look like everyone else, you're really limited to grabbing players who have enjoyed limited success but look a tad overpriced (Walcott, Modric, Suarez, Lampard etc) or new arrivals who are notoriously hard to predict (Cisse, Cisse). We'll get to some names later in the week or early next week, but until then, below you will find the strength of schedule played by each team to date, along with the comparative strength...

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&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="#"&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;img alt="Weekly Rankings " src="http:&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#47;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#47;public.tableausoftware.com&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#47;static&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#47;images&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#47;We&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#47;WeeklyRankings25&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#47;WeeklyRankings&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#47;1_rss.png" style="border: none" /&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; Powered by Tableau CS Clean sheets kept at home/away based on this week's fixture Opp FTS Number of times this week's opponent has failed to score at home/away GPG Conceded Predicted goals conceded this week based on a team and their opponent's performance this season Opp CS Clean sheets kept at home/away by a team's opponent GPG Scored Predicted goals scored this week based on ...

Arsenal Szczesny, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Coquelin, Song, Rosicky, Arteta, Walcott, van Persie, Oxlade-Chamberlain Subs: Fabianski, Sagna, Park, Henry, Ramsey, Arshavin, Benayoun. Nothing to see here folks, keep on moving. We all knew Van Persie would play and definitely didn't strip him of the captain's armband in the early hours of the morning, right? I maintain there was an strong argument to not captain Van Persie this week but perhaps it was too risk averse. The outcome obviously indicates he should have been captained but the process is less clear. A tough call gone wrong and apologies to anyone who I swayed the wrong way. On a brighter note, having impressed of late in a handful of appearances, the Ox got his rewards with a couple of well taken goals. He is  the form wide player in Arsenal's side and looks likely to continue his run in the first team. At such a young age he comes with a risk of rotation but I really like him as a differential opti...

To supplement the weekly captain stats , I am going to try and post the relevant links from around the league with regards to the key players' status. Some weeks there won't be much to say, but given that I spend a good couple of hours looking though these reports anyway I figure they're worth sharing: Robin Van Persie I speculated last week that the Dutchman is probably due for a rest at some point and some ' news ' sources seem to be indicating this could be the week. The logic makes sense (supposedly easy game this week and AC Milan on the horizon) and Wenger has confirmed as much , suggesting he is 'tempted' to rest Van Persie. The generally accurate Guardian squad sheets have Van Persie starting, though that may well have been written before Wenger's latest comments. With Chamakh still away, and Henry and the Ox struggling for fitness it would be a surprise to see Van Persie miss out, but the option is clearly there. The good news is that if ...

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We're working on a short week so there's no time to waste getting the weekly rankings up. The tables are up to date as of Tuesday evening, with five more games to come on Wednesday. &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="#"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;img alt="Weekly Rankings " src="http:&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#47;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#47;public.tableausoftware.com&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#47;static&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#47;images&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#47;We&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#47;WeeklyRankings24&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#47;WeeklyRankings&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#47;1_rss.png" style="border: none" /&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; Powered by Tableau CS Clean sheets kept at home/away based on this week's...

Arsenal Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Koscielny, Arteta, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey, Song, Van Persie, Walcott Subs: Fabianski, Rosicky, Ju-Young, Henry, Arshavin, Benayoun, Coquelin. With Arshavin playing so poorly and Henry struggling for fitness, this could well be the starting eleven for some time. I don't see too much value here outside of Van Persie, though we should at least mention Oxlade-Chamberlain who was extremely impressive against Man Utd last week. Though not necessarily great for the team's success, he is not scared to take a shot (four of them tonight) and his direct running will surely lead to some fantasy production if he gets sufficient minutes. He's too risky to be your 4th midfielder but if you can afford to plug him in the five hole, he offers an intriguing upside along with differential potential. I like this defense better with Sagna back but without any cheap options they remain overpriced. Aston Villa Given, Hutton, Cuellar, Dun...

We place an emphasis on strength of schedule around these parts, with the weekly rankings constituting a blend of a team's own ability along with their opponents. At this point in the season everyone has played each other once but you can get a significant differences in future strength of schedule based on where those games have been played (ie are your remaining tough games at home/away, did you already play the 'big teams' twice?) The below tables show the average goals per game of a team's opponents to date ( Avg ) and the average goals per game of a team's next 8 opponents ( Next 8 ). On the defensive side we hope to see a negative difference (ie easier games are to come) while offensively we want to see a positive number. I wouldn't get carried away with these numbers as we already account for strength of schedule in the weekly rankings, but for some teams it could help explain their offensive or defensive struggles and signify an improvement in the f...