PLFantasy

& lt ;a href ="#">& lt ; img alt="Dashboard 1 " src ="http://public. tableausoftware .com/static/images/Ga/Gameweek3Preview/Dashboard1/1_ rss . png " style="border: none" />& lt ;/a> Powered by Tableau We are still limited to subjective views on the captain picks for the week as stats for this season are too few while stats for last season are outdated for most players. Rather than arbitrarily focus on just one of two players, I've added some rough notes for all the main contenders below, including an overall summary of where my thinking is leading me for the week. In terms of playing the fixture, it's City players - by a distance - wh...

Yesterday I gave a couple of big name players who have received negative attention during the opening couple of weeks, but who I feel have a good chance to rebound almost immediately. I intended for the list to be much longer but quickly ran out of names. The same problem does not occur here. Below are some players who I have lost, or never had, faith in and who, for me at least, should be considered for sale now. The priority with which you make the moves will depend on how many other issues you have (ie sell your injured/benched players before someone who is occupying an overly defensive position) but in all cases I believe the below list of players to be held by too many managers: Juan Mata - There is obviously a huge difference between scouting players for fantasy purposes and for real life. I'll often give a snap opinion about a player on Twitter after just a couple of games (as anyone who has seen my swooning for Hazard will attest) but would not dream of suggesting that...

I could open here with an inspirational quote about experience simply being the name we give our mistakes, or that the Chinese symbol for crisis incorporates the brush stroke symbolizing opportunity. However, I'm neither (a) smart enough or (b) in a perky enough mood to do so. The deployment of my wildcard in gameweek 3 is not me seizing an opportunity, it is full blown damage limitation in what has been a disaster of a season to date. I normally scribe a few random thoughts on wildcard usage as we approach the double digit gameweeks but seeing as I'm going through the thought process as we speak, I may as well add my rambling thoughts to the pages of the interweb for all to see (and based on the success of my preseason selection, ignore). Scouting your own team: who to dump and who to keep The exciting part of playing your wildcard is deciding who you want to bring in. Most likely you will have a couple of names in mind because they've impressed to date, have great f...

Arsenal Mannone, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Arteta, Diaby, Cazorla, Podolski, Giroud, Gervinho. Subs: Martinez, Andre Santos, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey, Djourou, Coquelin. Just the two changes here with Mannone replacing the injured Sczcesny and Giroud getting the start up top with Podolski shifting out wide, forcing Walcott to the bench. I don't particularly care for the "Arsenal play too much football with no cutting edge" narrative as I'd suggest it's more often a case of simply not having the depth in quality as the likes of City and United and the 'overplaying' critique is a convenient rationale. That said, in two games this season it has been their final chance conversion which has let them down, though again, I'd say that's a more an issue of comparing Gervinho and Giroud to Aguero or Rooney rather than a philosophical issue with Wenger's system. Giroud looked okay, but didn't do much to encourage any...

The premier league game offers us the choice from over 500 players, though as we all know a majority of these will never even catch a glimpse of Premier League turf this year, never mind play well enough to warrant consideration in our hallowed fantasy lineups. Players are excluded from consideration for a variety of reasons: injury, lack of opportunity, an overly steep price tag or simply not being very good. This year, rather than simply having a list of players I consider 'ownable' (though don't necessarily love), I've tried to make the pool a bit more presentable. Now, I must add a caveat here as unlike the majority of information you find on the site, a number of the views taken in the below table are pretty subjective. My opinion on a player's long term playing time and/or short term fitness is based on reading other news sources rather than any 'inside' information which roughly translates to a number of them being guesses. I do my best to stay up ...

These early season rankings columns are tough as we only have prior year data to rely on, which has the potential to be outdated following the various moves in the off season. Alas, the show must go on, so without further ado here are this week's forecast goals per game for each team. Note that for the promoted sides I have used an adjusted number based on their performance in last year's Championship (further explained here ). <a href="#"><img alt="Dashboard 1 " src="http://public.tableausoftware.com/static/images/Ga/Gameweek1Preview/Dashboard1/1_rss.png" style="border: none" /&...

Arsenal Szczesny, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Diaby, Arteta, Cazorla, Walcott, Gervinho, Podolski Subs: Mannone, Andre Santos, Giroud, Ramsey, Djourou, Coquelin, Arshavin. Not too many surprises here, though I had assumed Santos would get the nod at left back over Gibbs. Gervinho's inclusion was also mildly surprising, though Wenger had mentioned on several occasions that Giroud was not ready to start in gameweek one and thus he found himself on the bench. Over the course of the season I would expect Giroud to get significant minutes up top with Podolski pushed out wide in those games. Koscielny and Sagna are due back at the end of the month and thus I would temper any early excitement there might be over Jenkinson and Mertesacker. The team looked better going forward than the final score suggests though I suppose one could argue that the game was a reminder that players take time to fit together, with the occasional move breaking down due to miscommunicati...