PLFantasy

Well that went well. One of my better week of predictions is in the bag and Pure Juice sit 113th out of close to 2 million managers having managed six goals and four clean sheets on opening weekend. Unfortunately I don't think I have struck some sort of fantasy blueprint to be applied in all future weeks - more than I got a bit lucky and applied some fundamental principles that hold true for the coming weeks too: While I cautioned earlier about using minutes played as a sure fire barometer for future success, during these opening weeks when team selections are unsettled from prior season, it is essential to go with the sure things and try and avoid trying to discover the next big thing too early. That is why - as some of you have correctly pointed out - I somewhat deviated from my normal strategy of cheaper defenders and brought in Vidic and Terry for opening weekend (this was also due to saving some cash swapping Van Persie to Berbatov quite late on after it becam...

Before I get too carried away with the World Cup , I want to take a bit of time to look back over the season and hand out some well deserved awards. I will be posting some further analysis throughout the season as soon as I have managed to build a decent database that I can use. Premier League Blog Champion Congratulations to Ahmed el Kassar whose 'No Mercy' team won the blog league with a very impressive 2441 points to place just outside the top 1,000 in the world. I plan to comment more on the status of the league next year so please re-join next season and invite your friends as I look to integrate the progress of the team into the blog. PL Team of the Year I have selected the below squad which was available for under £100m at the start of the year, as my team of the year. I would guess that this might be the most controversial section so please post your alternatives below and we'll discuss: GK T.Sorensen (4.0m) Fourth among GK in points scored despite missing...

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...

The end is in sight and the window to make up those final points is closing fast. Though far from controversial or particularly insightful, Villa players having the double this week will give you a chance to make up some ground on your league and it might be worth paying 4 points to bring a couple of these players in. The Manchester and London derbies (Che-Tot) take away alot of the value to be found in the league and Liverpool's (well, Torres) attention seems to have turned to Europe so he cannot be relied upon from here on in. Hence this week's rankings are a bit up and down and several players I have cut out could end up having decent games if they prove their fitness. I am simply not willing to have another 8m player on the bench after suffering through this several times over the past few weeks. Clean Sheet Rankings Aston Villa (1.01 and 1.18) Birmingham (0.30) Liverpool (0.49) Fulham (0.57) Sunderland (0.64) Stoke (0.66) Arsenal (0.73) Blackburn (0.77) Tottenham (0.88) Hu...

It's starting to get serious now. With Chelsea's win at Old Trafford and Arsenal's last minute winner against Wolves, the title is race is fully on with all three teams have a legitimate chance to win it. With the cancellation of the Stoke-Fulham game, gameweek 34 becomes a standard 10 game week, though with no top of the table clashes, there should be points on offer so long as we don't suffer any more big name casualties. Clean Sheet Rankings Liverpool Wigan Stoke Wolves Chelsea Hull Aston Villa Man City Tottenham West Ham Man Utd Portsmouth Blackburn Everton Arsenal Sunderland Birmingham Fulham Burnley Bolton The stats suggest that no less than 8 teams will concede - on average - less than a goal this week which makes for some potential gains from our defensive lines. Liverpool, Wigan and Stoke are a cut above the rest this week and it would be wise to try and get at least three of these in this week. Normally I would stay a million miles away from Hull but with a gr...

While they didn't really explode, Villa players provided a decent haul for those managers who brought them in this week, led by James Milner (12), and hopefully let you gain some points on opposition managers. Agbonlahor was the big disappointment for the week with the rest of my captain picks playing out pretty well ( Milner 12, Defoe 9, Torres 19, Rooney 13, Dunne 8, Young 5, Drogba 10, Lampard 7, N'Zogbia 6). This week will likely see some huge scores and I think you need to be playing at least 5 players on a double to stay competitive. The chance of stealing points on your competition is probably less than in a week where only 2 or 4 teams have a double as less planning will have been required to get some double gamers in this week. Nevertheless, it's important to get your side right in a week where plenty of teams could top 100 points so let's look at the double gameweek sides for gameweek 31 and see where potential value might lie: Aston Villa Opponents: W...

Alright, hopefully we all got through week 29 unscathed and are ready to start milking the points with all the double gameweeks coming up. In summary, the doubles are below which need to be considered when planning your transfers: GW30 - Ast and Wig GW31 - Ast, Bir, Bla, Che, Eve, MNC, Por, Sun, WH and Wol GW34 - Ful and Sto There are also a number of games that are yet to be re-scheduled so the rewards will be even greater in the coming weeks. The side that springs out is Villa who face 4 sides in the bottom half of the table, 3 of which average less than a goal a game at the venue Villa face them (home/away) and 2 of which concede more than 2 a game in the venue Villa face them. In short, buy as many Villa as you can! I currently own zero but am contemplating a 4 or 8 point hit in order to maximise the spoils. Be careful not to transfer out a player with a double next week though as that will make it tough for you to realise a gain on your 4 point investment. Clean Sheet Rankings Ast...

The dust hasn't yet settled on gameweek 26 - indeed it isn't over yet - but it's never too early to look ahead to next week particularly with a couple of key factors for next week's games. Firstly, United have a double gameweek and Rooney is a must own/must captain player. Given that he is already so widely held you risk losing ground on pretty much all your opponents if you don't sign the in-form Englishman. His value has risen sharply over the past 6 weeks but its likely it could move another blip or two this week as more and more owners jump on the Ronaldo-like bandwagon. I have made my transfer uncharacteristically early to avoid losing cash in delaying this inevitable move (the risk is that he gets injured midweek against Milan). A second key factor driving this week's transfer rush is the injury to Ashley Cole, that could rule him out for the season though perhaps not the World Cup . Cole was widely held in the fantasy game (14%) and these owners will now ...

Portsmouth 2-0 Burnley Burnley's woeful away form continued, while Portsmouth continue to get better, especially at home. The game saw Boateng lose his penalty duties to Dindane who squandered the chance suggesting Boateng might be taking them again soon. Dindane did manage to hit the net later in the game though, along with Hreidersson to give Avram Grant the 3 points. The popular fantasy pick Jamie O'Hara picked up an assist while one of my favourites Boateng came away empty handed. The game confirms that Burnley at home is about as good as it gets for a fantasy team while travelling to Fratton Park is perhaps not an easy game these days. Arsenal 2-0 Stoke Many thought this would be a banana skin for un der fire Wenger but Arsenal bossed the game from the off, finishing with 59% of possession. The disappointment of the game was the penalty miss by Fabregas, who rebounded somewhat by adding an assist for Arshavin's opener. Fabregas looked threatening and should have had a ...

Suspensions Plenty of suspensions this week as the 5 yellow cards start to kick in and the raft of red cards last week: Jamie Carragher Habib Beye Gary Neville J'Lloyd Samuel Philp Degen Stiliyan Petrov Barry Ferguson Diniyar Bilyaletdinov Geovani Lorik Cana Kenwyne Jones Note that Jermaine Defoe is back after serving his recent 3 game ban. Injuries A few headlines this week, none more so than some potentially disastrous news from Anfield: Fernando Torres - Rumours are flying round that Torres might need surgery though Sky Sports suggest that having seen a specialist this week, El Nino could avoid any procedures and even play this week against Birmingham. Still held by an incredible 26% of owners makes Torres overpriced and too risky right now. Weeks 14 - 19 look good for Liverpool and Torres might be worth a look then for Van Persie owners spooked by Arsenal's tough schedule but until then I would stay away for now. Steven Gerrard - Phyio Room rate Gerrard as very doub...