Team Talk Fantasy Football Gameweek 31

Team Talk Fantasy Football DGW31

A fortnight break is hard to take. Oh FPL, where have you been? A massive void has hit our lives. The car never been so clean. We return this week, you’ll be glad to know. Gameweek 31 is here. Put away the vacuum and ready the brain. And relax with a lovely cold beer. And what a week we have in store. Lined with excitement, potential and trouble. Suspensions galore, international injuries. And Rangers and Villa at the double. Our gameweek kicks off, early Saturday. As the Goonies take on the Scouse. The Emirates they say is the same as the Library. No atmosphere, and quiet as a mouse. A shocker of a campaign for the Toffees this term. Has led to calls for the dreaded Grim Reaper. The Saints visit this week, but not all is fine. As they field a second-choice keeper. The Foxes hunt down the Hammers this week. Seeking to get past Adrian and Reid. But it’s looking forlorn, the drop awaits. I think on that we’re all agreed. Sherwood is King, God, The Messiah. A few week’s ago was the chatter. But this week at United, they’ll surely fall down. At the hands of the reborn Juan Mata. There’s a reason that Hull rhymes with dull. At the Liberty the dull team plays. But no logic that Swans sounds just like Fonz. And for the home team, it’ll be Happy Days. West Brom welcome QPR. At the Hawthorns the two shall meet. For a Rangers a win is essential. For the Baggies another clean sheet. Stoke go to The Bridge this week. And for Chelsea surely another home win? But the Potters will battle, they’ll fight and snarl. Much depends on Costa’s hamstring. Free scoring Spurs travel to Burnley. For the home team, things are getting very tense. A battling win is much needed here. And to penetrate the leaky Spurs defence. The Tyne-Wear derby, it’s always such fun. Full of hatred, punch-ups and much bruising. This year is great, both teams are so crap. Can’t wait, it’ll be so amusing. The Champions go south, to the home of the Lord. Who will have a master plan in store. City must improve and recover quite soon. Or they’ll be lucky to make the top four. Our gameweek closes on Tuesday this week. As Rangers do battle with Villa. Both sides are rubbish and struggle to score. Don’t expect much fun or a thriller.
Ok, let’s rock and roll and go Around the Grounds to catch up on all the latest team news after a busy ten days of international action.

Arsenal vs Liverpool (Sat 4 Apr 12.45)
Fresh from their defeat to United in front of a noisy and emotionally charged Anfield, Liverpool will be glad of some lunchtime peace and quiet as they visit the Emirates to take on the Goonies. With United facing a seemingly straightforward home fixture vs Villa, Liverpool will be desperate to get their top 4 challenge back on track to avoid falling further behind. Arsenal of course will be as keen for the three points as they continue to hold ambitions of an unheard of second place and a win here would put the Gooners into 2nd, if only temporarily. Arsenal come into the game on the back of six successive wins in the league which has lifted them to within a point of City, while Liverpool had won five in a row before the defeat to United. Whilst there are normally goals when these two meet, only on one occasion in the last thirteen games has either side scored more than two goals.

Amazing news from the Emirates casualty department as Abou Diaby has begun training! This is not an April Fools, promise. Clearly he won’t be involved for a while (if ever). Good news also of Mikel Arteta, Mathieu Debuchy and Jack Wilshire, who have all returned to training, with Arsene Wenger not yet ruling out Wilshire and Arteta making Saturday’s sqaud. Alex Oxlade Chamberlain continues to miss out, while Danny Welbeck has a “small chance of playing” after picking up a slight knee injury whilst with England. Tomas Rosicky and Aaron Ramsey should be fine – Ramsay has a small groin issue, while Rosicky has been ill.

Unbelievable scenes at Liverpool also as their “injured” England players, Daniel Sturridge and Adam Lallana have both trained this week and are expected to be fit for the early kick off. Who would of thought it eh? Well, it is the season of miracles after all. Now, cast your minds back to last season and the SAS that everyone was banging on about. Well, sadly (not), the SAS can’t play at Arsenal or next week either actually as both Slippy and Stampy (Steven Gerrard and Martin Skrtel) are suspended following last week’s antics in the defeat to United. Lucas Leiva is fit enough to start the game, Dejan Lovren and Jon Flanagan are also available again, while Raheem Sterling will look forward to showing off his skills to future manager Arsene Wenger.

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Everton vs Southampton (Sat 4 Apr 15.00)
The Europa League has gone for Everton, which is probably a good thing for not the biggest squad in the division and also one which has been constantly beset by injuries throughout the campaign. They welcome the Saints this weekend, who will still be hoping for some sort of European qualification at the end of the season. The Toffees have won their last two and in fact are actually unbeaten in their last five at Goodison, although I should point out that four of those have been drawn. The Saints continue to run a tight ship, giving little away, but with goals scored still a problem they will hope for a swift return to form of strikers Shane Long and Graziano Pelle who scored against England in the week. Southampton have won the last two vs Everton, but they were both at home – at Goodison, Everton have won four and drawn the other one of the last five vs the Saints.

Roberto Martinez has a few issues before the game. Romelu Lukaku will need a late fitness test after picking up a hamstring injury at QPR, while Darron Gibson only returned to training on Friday and will also need to be assessed. Arouna Kone is 100% fit after recovering from a knock, while longer term absentees Steven Pienaar and Kevin Mirallas are both medically fit and have trained but probably lack match fitness. The only players definitely unavailable are Bryan Oviedo and Tony Hibbert.

Saints will be without keeper Fraser Forster for the remainder of the season and maybe longer, so Kelvin Davis will step in to the breach. Aside from Forster, midfielder Steven Davis has picked up a groin problem and is rated very doubtful while J-Rod ccontinues his recovery and, according to manager Ronald Koeman, he could be playing in the first team in 4-5 weeks, great news that.

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Leicester vs West Ham (Sat 4 Apr 15.00)
Poor old Leicester, doomed for the drop it seems, though at least they’re going down fighting as was witnessed by their battling 3-4 loss at Spurs last time out. Shame their defence is so bad. Which will, no doubts, have the likes of Diafra Sakho and Stewart Downing licking their lips in front of this weekend. The Hammers will be hoping to finish the season well rather than letting it fizzle out to the point of the record books showing the campaign as an average one, which would be a shame as for large parts of the season they have been comfortably top half and even top six for long periods. Their GW30 win will have restored some confidence, but it was only Sunderland, who we know throw the towel in quicker than Arsenal after the group stages of the Champions League. Leicester are seven points from safety with just nine games left and haven’t won since GW21 – they also haven’t beaten the Hammers in any of their last seven meetings.

Leicester will be without Matthew Upson, Dean Hammond and Zoumana Bakayogo, while manager Nigel Pearson has still to check on his returning internationals. Defender Liam Moore has been recalled from his loan spell at Brentford – not quite sure what he is going to do to spare the club from relegation, but I guess when you’re seven points wrong of staying up you’ll try anything. Anthony Knockaert is available again after missing out recently due to personal reasons. Jeff Schlupp will face a late assessment.

Big Sam says that all his internationals returned ok. And there is more positive news in that Winston Reid has returned to training and is expected to be fit for the weekend. However Enner Valencia is expected to miss out again, despite the striker’s foot injury healing well he is not thought to be quite ready. James Tomkins remains out as does Andy Carroll, although Carroll has started his rehab in Dubai. Tough life.

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Man Utd vs Aston Villa (Sat 4 Apr 15.00)
Villa’s first part of their DGW sees a tough trip to Old Trafford to meet a United team who will still be buoyant after their win at Anfield in GW30. LVG has said he is looking to finish 2nd this season so a win here is essential as there will be tougher obstacle along the way, more specifically in the next two gameweeks when they face both City and Chelsea. Villa go into the game on the back of a home defeat to Swansea, but previously to that had won two in a row, giving fans optimism that the Sherwood revolution would be enough to keep them up. However, this is one of the most one-sided fixtures in the top flight. Villa’s last win over United was in 2009 – not bad you may think given the relative performance of both clubs. However, their last win before that was the infamous “You don’t win anything with kids” match when the likes of Scholes, Beckham and the Nevilles were just starting to ply their trade. Form and history suggests just one result here and it’s possible Sherwood may decide to prioritise Tuesday’s game vs QPR.

LVG said after the win vs Spurs that it is “impossible to change a winning side after that display” – and hence he named an unchanged side that swept Liverpool aside last week. Things may not be so straightforward for RVP’s sugar daddy as many of the United squad have been in action for their countries with some facing long journeys, especially Antonio Valencia, Marcos Rojo and Angel di Maria. Of those three, Rojo is most likely to play as United need him at the back. Jonny Evans is still suspended. Ander Herrera, Juan Mata and ex-Villain Ashley Young were not called up so will be fresh and will play, while the likes of Marouane Fellaini and Michael Carrick took their impressive club form into impressive performances for Belgium and England respectively. Luke Shaw is close to being ready to return but RvP himself has been ruled out of contention for this one, while the only other doubt is Chris Smalling who has been suffering from illness.

There is good news and not so good news for Villa and the Sherwood revolution. The good news is that Ron Vlaar, Philippe Senderos, Joe Cole and Young Tom Cleverley have all returned to training. The bad news is they’re all crap. No, no, don’t worry, that was just my little joke, you sensitive Sherwood lovers. Sort of. The bad news is that Young Tom is ineligible to play vs United and Senderos hasn’t played for five months so is unlikely to be chucked straight in. In fact Sherwood said while many of his injured squad are now back training and medically fit, they lack match sharpness so are unlikely to be chucked in at the deep end, especially with two games innjust four days. Jores Okore is expected to be fit.

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Swansea vs Hull (Sat 4 Apr 15.00)
Steve Bruce takes his Hull team to the valleys knowing they are still two or three wins from safety and one look at their fixture list suggests this may be one of their easier games for they still have to play Southampton, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and United. But this will be far from easy for Hull, for Swansea have shown their resilience of late, although some recent results may not do them justice. They more than matched Liverpool and Spurs, but lost both and were outplayed by United, but won that one. So it’s tough to know what to expect although Garry Monk will have his team focused on both a best ever league position and also a record Premier League points tally. Hull meanwhile showed great fight before going down to Chelsea last time out and one thinks they will have to put in a similar performance this weekend if they are to lift themselves through the 30 point barrier.

On loan Swans midfielder Tom Carroll has damaged ankle ligaments on international duty and is likely to miss the next 4-6 weeks. There is more positive news as both Leon Britton and Kyle Bartley are available after shrugging off injuries. Winger Jefferson Montero suffered a muscle strain while playing for Ecuador but has been assessed since his return and it is not as bad as first feared and a late decision will be made on him. Ki Sung-Yeung returned safely from international duty and trained ok on Thursday.

Hull boss Steve Bruce is pleased to report that James Chester and Mo Diame have both recovered from injury and are fit to face the Swans. However midfielder Tom Huddlestone is unavailable due to suspension but Gaston Ramirez, who had picked up a groin injury, has trained and is in contention to play. Nikica Jelavic and Robert Snodgrass both remain sideliend.

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West Brom vs QPR (Sat 4 Apr 15.00)
DGW part one for Rangers sees a tough trip to uncompromising West Brom, who have kept clean sheets in four of their last five at the Hawthorns. Compare this to Rangers’ record on the road which has seen them record just three points all season. One crumb of comfort, especially for Charlie Austin owners is that Rangers have scored in their last seven games away from home – so something must give here – either Tony Pulis’ proud, tight defensive record or Austin’s DGW productivity. Austin scored a hat-trick in Rangers 3-2 victory over West Brom in December and from a Rangers point of view, one feels he must do something similar if the R’s are not to fall further behind in their fight against the drop.

Pulis reports positive news on strikers Brown Ideye and Saido Berahino, who are both fit to start, despite having minor knocks. Bad news for Rangers that. In the absence of keeper Ben Foster, Boaz Myhill will deputise, while the only other absentee through injury is Callum McManaman. Craig Dawson misses out through suspension, while Claudio Yacob and Christ Brunt are both back after serving their bans.

Rangers boss Chris Ramsay says his team is looking to pick up 4-6 points from their double gameweek. Good luck with that mate, I fancy 1-2pts is more realistic. Maybe even optimistic. Ramsay says all his internationals have returned fit and healthy, except defender Suk-Young Yun who is still on his way back. Richard Dunne, Leroy Fer and Alejandro Faurlin all remain missing, but defender Darnell Furlong is expected to return.

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Chelsea vs Stoke (Sat 4 Apr 17.30)
Saturday evening sees us at the Bridge as Mark Hughes returns to Chelsea. The Blue bandwagon rolls on, not without the odd hiccup, but they are still unbeaten in the league since Spurs smashed them up. It does appear to be a similar theme to last season though, when Jose struggled to motivate his superstars against the smaller or less glamorous clubs, resulting in them throwing away the league. In the past few weeks we’ve seen them draw with Burnley and Southampton and stutter to wins over Villa, Hull and Everton. So there is hope there for Stoke, who will certainly give it a go, but consistency remains a bigger problem for them – a home thrashing by City was followed by three successive wins and then by two losses in a row. Chelsea have won their last eight at home to Stoke, with Stoke failing to score in the last seven of those and if The Special One can persuade his players to turn on the style for a few more weeks, then it should be three points closer to the title for the Blues.

It’s back to the early season presser fun with Jose as he says that Diego Costa has trained this week but the Special One still hasn’t decided whether to start the striker vs Stoke. The only player not available is Jon Obi Mikel. Mourinho dismissed claims of fatigue over his internationals. Good luck Stoke!

Chelsea old boy Mark Hughes has never won at The Bridge as a manager, but has some positive team news ahead of the evening game. Jon Walters suffered a knock in training on Thursday but is expected to be ok, while Marc Muniesa, Erik Pieters, Philipp Wollscheid and Stephen Ireland are all now 100% fit and available. Sadly for the Potters, Victor Moses is ineligible to play vs his parent club and Peter Odemwingie and Bojan Krkic both continue to miss out.

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Burnley vs Spurs (Sun 5 Apr 13.30)
Burnley chief Sean Dyche has been mentioned by some as a candidate for Manager of the Season, though one suspects he will have to engineer a great escape from relegation to be successful. It’s not inconceivable as one look at the league table suggests his team may just have to outscore Sunderland over the last few gameweeks – a challenge which should be doable. But the Clarets will need to show some sort of consistency – they have thrown in the odd and irregular great performance – beating City a few weeks ago, defeating Southampton in December and taking three points at Stoke in GW12 – but these wins have been surrounded by many defeats to those teams around them, hence their league position. The visit of Spurs presents Burnley with another chance to upset the applecart, but Mauricio Pochettino’s men will be keen for one last big push to qualify for Europe and with a certain Harry Kane in the side, anything is possible.

Burnley defender Stephen Ward could come back into contention after recovering from an ankle injuty, while Matty Taylor is another week closer to a return after a good week of training. There are no fresh injury concerns, meaaning it’s just long term absentees Dean Marney and Kevin Long who are sidlined.

Spurs keeper Hugo Lloris has been ruled out of the trip to Burnley after failing to recover from the knee injury he picked up after 3mins of the win over Leicester – Michel Vorm, who conceded three that day will deputise and no doubt concede a couple more. The good news is that Roberto Soldado is also unlikely to play, while defenders Eric Dier and Danny Rose will be available after recovering from minor knocks.

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Sunderland vs Newcastle (Sun 5 Apr 16.00)
They say form goes out of the window come derby day, but for these two giants of the North East form went out of the window long before then. And that’s not the only similarity between the teams – both have new managers in charge, though of course Jon Carver has been in the hot seat at the Toon longer than Dick Advocaat. Both have revolting fans. Come on, you know what I mean. And both are not clear of relegation, though you feel one more win should be enough for Newcastle. The Black Cats have won the last four derbies, usually when they are showing awful form in the league, so it appears they can, at least, get up for a local bust-up. And boy do they need it – no wins since January, just one point clear of Burnley in the relegation zone and only one goal scored in their last six matches – you wait, they’ll go and win 3-0! Whatever happens it should make for fun entertainment – it may be a case of who is less bad on the day, but it’ll be lively and hotly contested and maybe, just maybe, we’ll see some passion and desire from one of the teams at least. Maybe.

Red card magnet and own goal extraordinaire Wes Brown faces weeks on the sidelines after suffering a knee injury at West Ham – Santiago Vergini will likely fill in next to John O’Shea at the back. The ref will still be busy mind you as Lee Cattermole is available again after suspension – both he and Adam Johnson played in a friendly vs Motherwell in the week, while the less-bad members of the squad were on international duty. Ricky Alvarez and Will Buckley will both need a late assessment, while Steven Fletcher will be buoyed after his international hattrick. Against Gibraltar.

Newcastle continue to be haunted by the ghost of Pardew Past. Defenders Massadio Haidara, Paul Dummett and Steven Taylor are all injured, while Fabricio Coloccini misses out through suspension, leaving a skeleton of a defence that even Sunderland should benefit from. Chieck Tiote, Siem de Jong and Rolando Aarons miss out in midfield due to injury while up front Papiss Cisse is left to sit on the naughty step with Coloccini. One positive is the return to fitness of Mehdi Abeid who comes straight back into the squad.

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Crystal Palace vs Man City (Mon 6 Apr 20.00)
Our Monday night football special takes us down to South London to Selhurst Park. A night under the lights at Palace is not the place to be when you are chasing the league, just ask Liverpool, and it’ll be a proper test of City’s rapidly falling title credentials. City could find themselves nine points off Chelsea by the time of the game and if Arsenal and United win their home games, City will start the match in fourth place, putting more pressure on the team which has shown signs of collapse and lack of desire over the last few weeks. Palace, under the direction of Lord Pardew have won three of their last four and have, of late, shown the same “have a go” attitude that was reminiscent under Pulis last season. It’s a fixture dominated by City in recent times, the Champions have won the last seven between the two, including the last three at Selhurst, with Yaya Toure scoring in the last two – it’s his form which is of most concern for City and will likely be the deciding factor, not only for this game, but for how City finish the season.

Lord Pardew expects to have the same players available as per the squad that brought three points back from Stoke. Joe Ledley may need a late assessment after picking up a knock but should be ok, while striker Marouane Chamakh is progressing well, but not quite ready. Mile Jedinak continues his supension, while Jordon Mutch, Fraizer Campbell and Jerome Thomas all remain missing.

City have a concern over James Milner, who has been struggling with a knee injury – he will be given every chance for the game but if he doesn’t make it he is likely to be the only potential absentee with Yaya Toure recovering from his achilles injury. Sergio Aguero scored for Argentina in the week to help his confidence which would of taken a knock after failing to score four league matches.

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Aston Villa vs QPR (Tuesday 7 Apr 19.45)
And so our gameweek ends with the second match for Villa and Rangers as they meet at Villa Park. Team news will be very much dependent on the events of both side’s weekend fixture, but pressure will be on both as they look to either drag themselves further away from the relegation zone or in Rangers’ case, try and escape from the bottom three. This hasn’t been a happy hunting ground for Rangers, who have lost five and drawn the other of the last six league meetings at Villa. Rangers’ away form this season has been well documented already – yep, basically it’s shite. Villa will be hoping for a return to the form that saw them hammer Sunderland and beat neighbours West Brom, rather than the dismal defeat to Swansea at home in GW30.

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Suspension Report

Players suspended for GW31

Mile Jedinak (Crystal Palace)
Tom Huddlestone (Hull)
Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)
Martin Skrtel (Liverpool)
Jonny Evans (Man Utd)
Papiss Cisse (Newcastle)
Fabricio Coloccini (Newcastle)
Craig Dawson (West Brom)

Players who receive ten cautions by the second Sunday in April will receive a 2-match ban. Players currently on 9 cautions are:

Ciaran Clark (Aston Villa)
Cesc Fabregas (Chelsea)
Nemanja Matic (Chelsea)
Victor Wanyama (Southampton)
Phil Bardsley (Stoke)
Seb Larsson (Sunderland)
Neil Taylor (Swansea)

Thanks for reading Team Talk Fantasy Football GW31. This article was written by Cookie

Follow @SteveCook9

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Don’t forget to vote in this week’s Captain Poll

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