PLFantasy

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...

One of my favourite ways to select defenders is to select a player from a team who is valued at a lower value than his teammates (like Armand Traore last year who at 4.5m was considerably cheaper than his Portsmouth teammates). A lot of fantasy players tend to select a particular player based on reputation even though you are really picking a defensive team, save for a extra goals and bonus points that accompany some players. Putting these aside for now, lets look around the league for the potential cheap links this year: NB. Goalkeepers do not count here as they are all generally cheaper than the defensive counterparts: Man United - Rafael (5.5)/O'Shea (5.5)/Brown (6m)/Neville (5.5m) If any of these players can lock down the position then they instantly become almost a must own player as they will be playing alongside the best defence in the league, who are valued at 8m, 7m and 6.5m but will only cost you the same as a Villa or West Ham defender. If Rafael can become an every wee...

The second installment of the minimum price squad fillers focuses on defenders, and I have set the limit at 4.5m. As the likes of Figueroa, Cahill and Turner proved last year, a budget defender can prove to be an invaluable sub, with the three aforementioned players being good enough to feature regularly for many teams. Wigan defenders - Bramble, Figueroa, Melchiot, Scharner (all 4.5m). The Latics had the joint 7th best defense in the league last year and notched 8 clean sheets at home (all of which came in the final 14 games). No new defenders have arrived at the JJB to date and so we can assume the back four will remain as it was last year (with perhaps Sharner moving back into midfield and Boyce (4.5m) stepping in at the back). I therefore think all these four players are decent sub options, with possibly Bramble being the best value based upon his 17 bonus points last year. Stoke defenders - Higginbottom, Shawcross, Faye (all 4.5m), Wilkinson (4m). As mentioned in the goalkeeper ...