More fantasy football! For the third time in 7 days, I’m here to run through the Fantasy Football runners and riders for another week. Last week, which finished all of two days ago, I scored 57 points, beating the average of 47. Ker-ching. That was enough for a green arrow and a rise up to 45,780th. Wonders never cease. But with rotation rife across the top clubs, what does gameweek 15 have in store? My money is on anger and frustration. Let’s dive in.
The Dilemma
After a rare midweek with no clashes between top 6 clubs, they’re back with a bang over the next few weeks, starting with Arsenal vs Man Utd this weekend. Arsenal are in excellent form at home, as shown by their 5-0 demolition of Huddersfield, but Man Utd pose a whole different threat. Alexandre Lacazette is ruled out which will probably mean a recall for Giroud after he scored from the bench, but this is the type of game Mourinho thrives in. Mourinho has a great record against Wenger too, so I’m leaning towards some sort of low scoring affair but with the attacking quality in both teams, you wouldn’t bet on it. In summary, keep what you have but don’t go out of your way to fill up with players from either team.
The same cannot be said for Chelsea, who have a home game with Newcastle United to kick off Saturday’s action. Eden Hazard was rested on Wednesday, which makes him an obvious candidate not only to start but for your captain’s armband against the usually goalshy Magpies. Alvaro Morata blanked against Swansea and I do fear it’ll be his turn for a rest ahead of their Champions League game in midweek. Liverpool have a similar problem, they travel to Brighton on Saturday with a big Champions League game to come during the week. Fortunately, Mo Salah has had his rest and still scored two goals, so I’d think he’ll be recalled. Spurs are badly out of form and travel to Watford on Saturday, which looks like a good bet for both teams to score. Harry Kane remains a good if expensive option, but it seems Christian Eriksen is ripe for a resting. If not this weekend, it’s coming.
Into Sunday and we’ll find a contender for most one sided fixture of the season, as Man City host West Ham. David Moyes has, if anything, made West Ham worse. That’s not an exclusive but they got stuffed 4-0 from previous crisis club Everton, and now they have 3 terrible fixtures to look forward to. The Man City rotation puzzle gets ever more complicated after Wednesday’s games. They face a trip to Ukraine in midweek but it’s a dead rubber with top spot already secured, and it’s the Manchester derby next weekend. Does that mean Pep will go full strength against the Hammers? What even is full strength? Sigh.
Bargain Bin
Big Sam is in at Everton and they host Huddersfield, who are looking a bit shaky away from home. It does mean that Everton defenders are going to be worth having once Allardyce gets to work on them. Jonjoe Kenny at £4.3m looks a good option, especially whilst Coleman and Baines remain sidelined. Alan Pardew is also back in the game, now managing WBA. Pardew traditionally gets a good start at new clubs and was particularly good with set pieces at Crystal Palace, Scott Dann being a natural target. That could make defenders like Hegazi (£4.5m) and Evans (£4.9m) worth having again, but it’s hard to assess WBA as an attacking unit as they try to adjust after Pulis-ball.
Also Consider…
Rotation is in full force as we saw on Wednesday, but there are Champions League games in midweek which cause further confusion. After that we’ve got games next weekend and midweek, then games the following weekend are followed by midweek cup games for those still in the Carabao Cup. In other words, some teams have an awful lot of games to come in December.
Captain
My choice is Eden Hazard, because he’ll almost certainly play and Chelsea will probably rack up a few against Newcastle, even if they had a relative off night against Swansea. Second choice has to be the man of the moment Mo Salah, who seems to find a way to score no matter what the game is or how many minutes he plays. My only concern is that he may be withdrawn early if Liverpool are ahead with their Champions League crunch fixture in mind. With Man City at home to West Ham, no matter which way you look at it you can only see Guardiola’s men scoring a hatful. The problem is, I just can’t pick his team. David Silva should be a lock after being rested in midweek, whilst Leroy Sane missed the Southampton game with illness. He’d be a fine choice but we just don’t know how many minutes he has in him. I hate you, Pep.
My own team is not bad, I’d love to do Hazard for Eriksen but I can only do that by taking a 4 point hit.
De Gea, Monreal, Mee, Daniels, Loftus-Cheek, Salah, Eriksen, Brady, Vardy, Morata, Kane. Subs: Elliot, McArthur, Cedric, Fernandez
I’ll be keeping a close eye on the press conferences to try and garner some clues as to who I should bring in for Eriksen, but until then all that’s left for me to do is wish you good luck, and may all your arrows be green. Oh, and don’t all cheer at once but I’m not here next week. Bye for now.