Greetings and welcome to another hopeless poke around the world of Fantasy Football. Last week, I cobbled together 51 points, which narrowly beat the average of 46. That resulted in the much sought after green arrows, as I rose up to 62,223rd in the overall rankings. Considering I had 27 points after Saturday, I was lucky that Jamie Vardy and Ben Mee scored well to save my blushes. But in a week where four of the so-called “big 6” collide on Sunday afternoon, we’ve got our work cut out to keep those arrows green.
The Dilemma
As mentioned in the introduction, we’ve got a Super Duper Sunday (I think that’s the official title) with Man City vs Arsenal followed by Chelsea and Man Utd. Let’s deal with the former first – Man City are scoring goals from all parts of the pitch at the moment and you just don’t know which Arsenal you’re going to get, especially away from home. I managed to correctly guess Aguero would get a rest last week in order to play in Naples on Wednesday, although Jesus returned just a single point. With Aguero subbed on 76 minutes on Wednesday and Jesus getting just a minute of action, I think there’s probably an argument that both men will start against Arsenal on Sunday but as ever, it’s Pep, so who really knows? As far as Arsenal are concerned, I wouldn’t bet on them keeping a clean sheet, put it that way.
Chelsea vs Man Utd is a huge game, especially after how poor Chelsea were on Tuesday, but Mourinho tends to only play one way in these games and that is to shut up shop and play for 0-0. When you consider how out of sorts Romelu Lukaku has looked in recent weeks, it’s hard to imagine this being a very open game, though any game Eden Hazard plays in always has a chance.
Spurs welcomed Harry Kane back to their side on Wednesday in an impressive way over Real Madrid, you’ve got to think a home game with Crystal Palace will provide further opportunity for Spurs’ main man to add to his tally. Hopefully that hamstring is 100%, it’s an International break coming up so surely Poch can have no thoughts of resting his top scorer.
That leaves Liverpool, who travel to always hilarious West Ham on Saturday evening. The Hammers don’t have the best of records at their still-relatively-new home and Salah and co. will be looking to take advantage of that big pitch.
Bargain Bin
With the big sides clashing with one another, we may have to look elsewhere for points inspiration. Southampton at home to Burnley seems certain to be a low-scoring affair, as does Huddersfield vs West Brom. Picking up defenders from these sides seems like a smart move, especially as Ben Mee picked up the three bonus points on Monday night, priced at just £4.5m too. The cheapest way into the Southampton backline is probably Cedric at £5m, as Virgil van Dijk’s partner seems to be a position that’s up for grabs at present.
More attacking outlets can be found at Leicester, as Demarai Gray impressed on his return to the side last weekend. Claude Puel has been criticised for being a bit negative in his time at Southampton but Leicester certainly seemed recharged in his first game, with Gray the main beneficiary. He’s priced at just £5.3m if you can find a space for him. Swansea vs Brighton looks another tight game on paper, with Swansea’s home form particularly rough, but Tammy Abraham is a decent option for your forward line at £5.9m
Also Consider…
It’s the International Break next week, so be wary of playing your wildcard. I’d personally avoid it this weekend as the fixtures are rough and who knows what will happen on International duty.
Captain
With Spurs at home to Crystal Palace, I’m once again tempted to captain Harry Kane despite being left disappointed by him on two occasions this season. That said, I really like Liverpool’s chances at West Ham, even if I will struggle to forgive Salah for missing a penalty last weekend. I avoid Chelsea vs Man Utd for captaincy picks, though any of Man City’s attacking talents could fill their boots against Per Mertesacker – it just depends who gets the selection nod.
My one change last week was to bring in Jesus for Kane, a move which essentially gained me a point. As long as there’s no negative news on Kane I’m bringing him back this week for Lukaku, who I have finally lost patience with. I’ll probably bring Lukaku back in after the International break as Man Utd have some nicer looking games. I’m very shallow.
De Gea, Cedric, Fernandez, Mee, Atsu, Brady, Eriksen, Salah, Vardy, Kane, Jesus. Subs: Elliot, Mbemba, McArthur, Monreal.
My bench is essentially a goalkeeper and a defender, with Mbemba our of favour and McArthur an injury doubt. It’ll roll on for another week.
It’s the last FPL you’ll have to worry about for 2 weeks, so make the most of it. Keep an eye on the team news and whatever you decide to do, I wish you good luck and may all your arrows be green.