PLFantasy

Looking back at last season 9 clean sheets for the year made the team a mid level defense but their higher cost delivered fairly poor value Managed 3 clean sheets over the final 7 gameweeks  Consistent GPG conceded at home (1.21) and away (1.16) though clean sheet split was more pronounced (6-3) Ranked 8th in home GPG (1.63) and 11th on the road (1.05). Again the number of times failing to score shows a clear distinction (2-7). Defensive unit ranked 5th in P90 including a top ranking in bonus points thanks to stellar totals from Baines (20), Distin (16) and Jagielka (10). Due to their comparatively high cost though, they delivered a P$ ranking of just 11th. The midfield really contributed little all year, ranking 11th in P90 and 19th in P$ . Full, healthy seasons from Cahill and Arteta should help improve these totals. The front line also gave a lackluster performance with 198 points only just eclipsing Tevez's individual total. To be fair, this is pa...

Looking back at last season Failed to score 11 times in the season, including 4 of the last 9 weeks.  Scored 52 goals last season (10th) but 20 of these have moved on with Elmander (10), Sturridge (8) and Taylor (2) no longer with the team. Only logged 5 clean sheets, which were all at home. One of only three teams to fail to log a single road clean sheet (Villa and West Brom). Actually ranked 13th in goals conceded at home and away, so were perhaps a bit unlucky with the clean sheet results Huge variance between home and road goals scored: 1.79 GPG at home (5th) while just 0.95 away (15th). Home record eclipsed Arsenal and tied with Man City. Jaaskelainen ranked 9th in points among 'keepers but the team total was only good for 16th place. If you think other teams will have more settled lineups, you might want to pass. Defensive unit scored just 319 points all season (17th), less than half of Chelsea's total.  Thanks to Cahill's bonus haul (23) the team somehow ran...

When a team loses badly they always say that the best thing is to play again soon to banish the bad memories. I am therefore very thankful for the midweek action so I don't dwell on my disastrous wildcard forray last week resulting in a miserable 24 point week. The weekly wrap up will go up Wednesday night for GW11 and GW12 combined to allow for me to get the preview column out now. Clean Sheet Rankings Chelsea (0.15) Birmingham (0.36) Aston Villa (0.35) Tottenham (0.44) Liverpool (0.79) Newcastle (0.81) Everton (0.91) Arsenal (0.92) Stoke (0.97) Wigan (1.01) Man City (1.35) Wolves (1.37) West Ham (1.43) Man Utd (1.57) Bolton (2.00) Blackpool (2.03) West Brom (2.11) Sunderland (2.14) Blackburn (2.72) Fulham (3.39) Attacking rankings Chelsea (3.39) Newcastle (2.72) Tottenham (2.14) West Ham (2.11) Aston Villa (2.03) Everton (2.00) Stoke (1.62) Man City (1.57) West Brom (1.43) Arsenal (1.37) Man Utd (1.35) Birmingham (1.16) Liverpool (1.01) Wolves...

Milner really bailed my team out last week, thus keeping me in the running for my office championship. I hope your teams are still alive and with 3 weeks to go there is still time to score some major points and make up ground. This week is pretty vanilla with just the 10 standard games and with Ars-MnC and MnU-Tot squaring off, it makes fantasy selections tough again this week. Villa, Liverpool and to an extent Chelsea have good fixtures though the continued absence of Torres and Fabregas along with the uncertainty around Drogba , make it tough to field a dominant side this week. Defensively there are quite a few good options and I can see several team playing 4 or 5 at the back to maximum their exposure to the clean sheet opportunities. Clean Sheet Rankings (projected goals conceded in parenthesis) Chelsea (0.34) Everton (0.55) Wolves (0.55) Bolton (0.56) Man U (0.67) Aston Villa (0.68) Burnley (0.84) Blackburn (0.90) Hull (0.98) West Ham (1.04) Liverpool (1.05) Arsenal (1.17) Portsm...

I'm jumping the gun a bit here as I'm sure the inevitable international injury bug will bite someone midweek but I wanted to give everyone a jump on the upcoming week as we look to come out strong from our week off. Four of the big five teams have good looking fixtures and with double gameweeks on the horizon , the next few weeks could be very important. Gameweek 9 Fixtures Aston Villa v Chelsea Arsenal v Birmingham Everton v Wolves Man Utd v Bolton Portsmouth v Tottenham Stoke City v West Ham Sunderland v Liverpool Blackburn v Burnley Wigan v Man City Fulham v Hull City United are the pick of the week as they welcome a Bolton side that have not won at Old Trafford in their last 6 attempts, conceding 18 goals in those losses. Historically, Rooney has done pretty well against Bolton and I like him this week should he bounce back from the calf strain that kept him out for England. The United defense also looks like strong selection to coincide with the probable return of Edwin v...

Gameweek 6 fixtures Burnley v Sunderland Arsenal v Wigan Aston Villa v Portsmouth Bolton v Stoke Hull v Birmingham West Ham v Liverpool Man Utd v Man City Wolves v Fulham Everton v Blackburn Chelsea v Tottenham Sunday serves up a couple of epic derby matchups where as Saturday provides several opportunities for stronger teams to have some fantasy joy over weaker sides. I love Martinez's confidence and c ommitment to the beautiful game , but Wigan simply do not have the players to keep possession against Arsenal and often the teams who take on Wenger's men with such expectations are often the ones who get shot down. The trip to Burnley also provides a good game to gauge just how good Sunderland can be as Burnley have played well at home this year while Sunderland have managed just one goal on their travels. I also like Villa's chances against Pompey who have yet to gel all their new signings, and Villa should be good for a clean sheet and a few goals in that one. Clean Sheet...

With just one week to go until the big kick off, its time to run through the league, team-by-team, and assess who will play and who presents the best value. Today's post brings you the first 5 teams, with a further 5 to follow each day: Arsenal Projected team: Almunia, Clichy, Gallas, Vermaelen, Sagna, Diaby, Denilson, Fabregas, Walcott, Van Persie, Arshavin It seems that Wenger has turned to the 4-3-3 to try and improve Arsenal's fortunes with Walcott (8m) and Arshavin (11m) the favourites to play alongside Van Persie up front. I have previously stated my admiration for Arshavin , and nothing has happened in the off season to discourage this. I think he provides a striker's tally of goals (getting 5 points a time) and adds enough assists and bonus points to replace Ronaldo in the new holy trinity of fantasy football. Walcott has never really done it for me and I think he will be the first to be dropped if Wenger wants to give Bendtner or blog-favourite Carlos Vela a run o...

Play Forwards/Midfielders Three matches stand out this week as games in which the fantasy points could flow. Liverpool v Stoke Liv erpool looked good last week against United and have looked okay so far tonight (its currently half time in Marseille). Stoke have conceded 5 so far in their two away games despite only travellin g to Bolto n and Middlesbrough. The obvious man to capitalise on this game is Fernando Torres though at 12m it will take some maneuvering to get him into your team. Steven Gerrard is of course another safe bet and will look to grab a goal in the league after his great strike vs Marseille. However, it is the cheaper options who look to b e great value this week with Xabi Alonso and Ryan Babel looking to be good buys. Javier Mascherano played midweek and having just returned from South America is likely to be rested, allowing Alonso to continu e his decent run of league form. Babel has been somewhat of an enigma this season since returning from the olympics...