PLFantasy

Though I started with the promoted teams , it makes more sense to start at the top as in reality this is how the majority of owners build their teams (insert their superstars first then surround them with as much mid range or budget talent as they can). I’ve included five teams here so that each post is comparatively long but really a sub division has arisen within the elite: the two Manchester powerhouses and the London clubs playing catchup. Note, the projected lineups are far from certain and where I don’t know who will play I haven’t really dwelled on it, and neither should you. If you aren’t convinced a player will start the season in the first eleven he should be nowhere near your starting lineup. This isn’t a league where you draft for December, you need to earn points in GW1 just as much as GW21. Players highlighted as being on my personal shortlist are shown in  blue with those who I believe to be secure in the starting eleven shown in bold . Division 1a: Manch...

Looking back at last season Reputation as a high scoring team is not totally justified ranking just 10th at home with 1.58 GPG and 6th on the road (1.32 GPG ). They did however only fail to score 8 times, a mark that tied for 4th best in the league Just 8 clean sheets on the season ranked 12th, without much dominance at home (5) or on the road (3). The defense substantially improved in the second half though with 7 clean sheets compared to just 1 in the first half. This was despite conceding the same number of goals in total, so it could be someone of a statistical trick rather than a marked improvement in tactics. Their 'keepers gave decent value last year ranking 11th in P90 and 8th in P$ . Some of this value was derived from Cudicini's cheap minutes which will be gone this year with Friedel's arrival.  Defensive unit was actually more valuable on the road, ranking 8th in P90 (13th at home) and 3rd in P$ (11th at home). This is encouraging as it suggests Sp...

I have touched on the double gameweeks earlier but I think we need more analysis if we are to fully enjoy the fruits of them when playing the transfer window wildcard. Let's look at every team who has one or more double gameweeks coming up, who looks set to benefit and how you can maximise the opportunity: Arsenal Who they play and when : GW27 - Wolves and Stoke Who are the best plays : Arsenal look like a very good play both defensively and offensively. The Wolves fixture alone would likely rank Arsenal as the top defensive pick of the week and the addition of another sub-1 GPG team makes them a great play. They've only kept 3 clean sheets at home so I'm not crazy about paying the big bucks for a Thomas Vermaelen (if fit by then) but I would rate Fabianski as a very good pick and Djorou as sensational value if still in the first team. As we know, Arsenal are always a good option to score goals and my prediction tools have them scoring 4.7 goals in the two fixtures. I ...

Last week made waves in the fantasy league for all the wrong reasons. One team in my mini league scored zero as his only two starting players were Phil Neville (2 points) and captain Darren Fletcher (-2). Those with Tevez will have fared better, especially if they captained him, though points elsewhere were hard to find. While embarrassing to score down in the 20s, chances are you only lost a few points on your competitors. This week is more important. Playing double gameweeks well (or poorly) can make or break your league and with four of the best fantasy squads around playing twice, there could be some very large scores around this week. Man United, Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool, Bolton and Hull all play twice and some fantasy value can be had from each of these squads * For United I think Rooney and Valencia are incredibly good starts this week and are close to being the pick at each of their respective positions. Defensively, United are hard to judge but I am confident Brown will play ...

So here is the final team previews, brought to you just one day before the start of the new season (apologies for cutting things a bit close). I will post later tonight a review of all the last minute injury news, as well as tweeting them tomorrow morning before the 11:30 deadline. Today's previews lack the star power of yesterday but plenty of bargains can be found, and each team has something to offer Sunderland Projected Team: Fulop, McCartney, Collins, Ferdinand, Bardsley, Richardson, Cattermole, Cana, Malbranque, Bent, Jones After being given a substantial war chest by the board, Steve Bruce has spent very well on Weirside and his team look stronger than they ever have. It would not be surprising at all to see Sunderland pushing Fulham and West Ham for top half spots rather than scrapping at the wrong end of the table. At the back the team is largely unchanged, which is disappointing for a team who ranked just 13th in total defense (16th home, 12th away) last season. Paolo de ...

A great night of football tonight, highlighted by the amazing 4-4 North London derby, served up a plethora of fantasy points and raised a number of rising stars Rising Stars The Spurs midfielders appear to be getting their act together and could be steals at this point of the season with Jenas (6.8), Modric (6.9), Bentley (7.2) and Lennon (6.7) all notching at least 5 points tonight. The fixture list isn't the best (Liv,@ManC,@Ful) so it might be best to monitor the situation over the coming weeks to see if Spurs really have turned a corner. Ma rouane Fellaini has scored 3 in 4 on his way to a very healthy 0.808 PPMS . Everton have a good looking fixture list coming up ( Ful , @Wes, Mid) and 'screech' may be worth a shot for those looking for someone to differentiate their team held by 0.3%). Michael Turner is a player I alluded to in a previous article and the buy rating remains despite Hull's 3-0 beating tonight by Chelsea. They play Man United next week but af...