PLFantasy

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...

This week's preview is going to be a bit condensed as my internet access has been limited while still on my travels. After the long rambling piece from GW2 was done I had enough time to throw together the below rankings which will hopefully help with lineup and transfer questions for the week: Clean Sheet Rankings Chelsea (0.27) Man United (0.36) Tottenham (0.40) Liverpool (0.55) Blackpool (0.63) Aston Villa (0.70) Wolves (0.79) Newcastle (0.81) Blackburn (1.13) Bolton (1.13) Sunderland (1.17) Arsenal (1.36) Fulham (1.44) Man City (1.48) Everton (1.61) Birmingham (1.63) West Brom (3.39) Stoke (3.73) West Ham (3.83) Wigan (4.03) Aside from the usual candidates, Blackpool stand out as a top pick for the week but I am cautious about this ranking due to the lack of data we have for them at home in the EPL. That said, Fulham were awful away last season (12 goals) and so Blackpool might just be worth a shot if you need a budget option this week. The top four picks...

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...

With less than three weeks to go until the big kick off, its time to start seriously checking the health of the players around the league, as it is vital that you get all eleven players playing every week from the start (especially in light of the several bye weeks in gameweek 2): Phil Jagielka (6.0m) - this one is long term (November) and should rule Jagielka out of fantasy contention until around Christmas time when his return to the starting lineup can be guaranteed. When fit Jags will be a cheap way to get access to the solid Everton defense but forget about the former Blades man for the near future. Jonathan Woodgate (5.0m) - 'unlikely' to be ready for the start of the season, the return to the injury table is not a surprise for the former Leeds star, who just cannot stay fit. I had Woodgate pencilled in as a nice mid level option for a team who had the best defensive home record in the league, and were getting Bale and Hutton back from injury. However, with Woodgate, Ki...

I'm a big fan of looking for ways to use statistics to give us clues as to players' performances. While this is very hard for an actual football team, (as you cannot quantity desire, leadership and passion) for fantasy sports stats work brilliantly. Below I have looked at the top scorers so far in relation to their value (as is done by the 'value' tap on the premierleague.com website). I've then adjusted this based on the fixtures they've played so far to account for players who have played easy/hard fixtures so far. The results are pretty interesting and may give a few clues as to bargains that are still to be found: Goalkeepers Given is atop the GK rankings despite only having kept one clean sheet due to his penalty save and multiple save bonuses. His relative low cost (5.1) have made him great value so far. David James has been the best of the big names after 4 games with an adjusted PPMS of 0.929. Almunia is a big loser in the system due to Arsenal's eas...

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...