PLFantasy

Arsenal Mannone, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Diaby, Arteta, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Cazorla, Podolski, Giroud Subs: Martinez, Koscielny, Andre Santos, Walcott, Ramsey, Coquelin, Gervinho. A really good display here from Arsenal with some impressive performances throughout the side. The Gunners earned their 3rd straight clean sheet and were generally good value for it with Mannone not really making any saves of note. The back four have settled down very nicely and were kept together despite the return of Koscielny from injury. Over the course of the season I'm not sure if Mertesacker will hold him off but for now it doesn't make sense for Wenger to change much. Jenkinson remains particularly good value until Sagna returns (currently on schedule for the end of the month) and by then the centre back position should be cleared up so a transition can be made to either Mertesacker, Koscielny or Gibbs if this side remain a solid defensive option. Offensively I am very...

A couple of general points before we dig into the questions. First, apologies for not getting to one of these last week. I was behind on getting the site to a reasonable place before the season and have been playing catchup since. Regular service should now resume. Second, thanks for all the kind comments on the blog. I'm glad my ramblings help some of you make your weekly decisions and maybe provide a bit of entertainment along the way. Finally, I got a number of responses about my question about naming 'assisting the assist' and I'm ashamed to say I'd never heard the term 'hockey assist' despite living in Canada. Anyway, that's perfect, so from now on all those defense splitting passes which earn Mata zero points will be known as hockey assists, or perhaps hA. Onto the questions: Alex Dembele is going to Tottenham afterall. To me that makes him a viable option on a better team at a reduced price. I feel like he will be in the starting line up soo...

& 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subjective views on the captain picks for the week as stats for this season are too few while stats for last season are outdated for most players.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...

Two weeks is a long time in both fantasy and reality. If it goes well you could being talked about as title contenders with the world at your feet (Mancini) but if things go wrong, even the strongest of resumes will be ignored (Wenger). Hopefully you find yourself in the former camp, but if not, don't panic, decide who needs to go then start trying to rack up some points, starting with this week. Clean Sheet Rankings It's always tricky at this point in the season to determine how much attention to pay to prior year and how much to focus on the current season. I have avoided the tough decision by simply adding/averaging the data to give hybrid values. The GPG conceded will therefore be over the 19 home/away games from last year plus this year's single game while clean sheets/ failed to score numbers are simply added together: [Defensive Pick vs Opponent - goals per game conceded (clean sheets kept - opponent failed to score)] Liverpool vs Bolton - 0.93 GP (9 - 7) Ast...

A great afternoon of action ahead with six games this afternoon including fantasy favourites United, City and Arsenal. We're expecting big afternoons for City and Arsenal though I am sure Wolves and Pompey will have different ideas: 15:08 Early chances for United and the backlash is definitely on the cards. United have suffered alot of early criticism which is surely an overreaction to losing one game. Similar criticism was levelled at Ferguson's men last year after the opening day draw with Newcastle but the season ended pretty well in the end for them I seem to recall. From a fantasy point of view however, United are definitely the weakest they have ever been. The defense has suffered through injuries but should prove to be a top 3 unit when Vidic and co are fit. The midfield is devoid of any stud prospects with Valencia having the talent but not the price tag (8.5m) to be worth considering right now. The arrival of Owen has cost doubt over the value of Berbatov while Rooney ...