Fantasy Football Fixtures Game-week 27

Fantasy Football Fixtures Game-week 27

Darn these pesky cup-blank-lack-o-FPL’y goodness breaks. How dare they take our beloved game away from us, the cheek! Unfortunately, we’ve got to put up with it from time to time but we are delighted to welcome league footy back this weekend. The first blank-week of the season sees Manchester City, Liverpool, Everton and Newcastle sit this one out, leaving us with a few difficult decisions to make. Which players to take on and which to sell this week may just shape the next few weeks for our teams as the season begins to draw to a close. The business end is well and truly upon us, so, without further ado, let’s have a look at some potential yays and nays for the coming weeks as we continue the hunt for respectability…

The Tracker…
We have rated each teams fixtures on a sliding scale. Remember that this is just our opinion and you may feel differently but if nothing else it gives you a nice easy visual aid as to each teams upcoming games..

*Arsenal and *West Brom GW30 – this will also be off if Arsenal beat Hull in their FA Cup replay.

We do have a comprehensive library of other useful trackers including the all singing, all dancing interactive one from Calvin Clyne and you can find them all here – Fixture Trackers

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FAVOURABLE FIXTURES

Leicester – Norwich (H), West Brom (H), Watford (A)
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[/three_fourth]So they are human after all?!? That’s refreshing. For a while there it seemed as though no matter what the opposition tried, there was just no beating this Leicester team but, alas, someone finally stepped up and got one over on them. Not that we are pining for their downfall, or anything like it, but who doesn’t want to see a title race that goes to the wire? That does seem the likely outcome now as just two points separate Spurs and Arsenal from the summit, which makes for a riveting run-in, full of excitement and drama. One thing is for sure; never have a “lesser” team like Leicester been in this position with such wonderful fixtures ahead, leaving the coveted PL trophy dangling like the proverbial. Looking through the fixtures there are no real red-flags at all and the next three weeks provide some of the softest fixtures available. Anything less than seven points from this lot and the loveable Claudio Ranieri will be cancelling the pizza deliveries in a heartbeat…

Fresh off the back of a difficult, on paper at least, run against Liverpool, City and Arsenal, Leicester can now cool their jets a wee bit and enjoy some gimme fixtures where the only things for them to concern themselves with is energy conservation and keeping their key performers fresh, fit and firing. First up, the visit of Norwich. This is not the time or the place for a game with Leicester; again winless from the previous six outings with a disgraceful eighteen conceded in that time, Norwich have absolutely nothing with which to bother Leicester. Level with Sunderland for goals conceded (50) and with little to nothing up front, Alex Neil can basically only hope for Leicester to have the mare of all mares in this one, with Hoolahan scoring a hat-trick, and pray it’s enough for a point. It wouldn’t be. Home win all day long. Sticking with home comforts, GW28 brings another struggling outfit to the King Power. West Brom have slumped into the bottom three in the form table and unless things change very quickly, they’ll be in the actual bottom three before long. A 0-0 with Villa, a 1-1 with Swansea and a 1-0 defeat to Newcastle in recent weeks says it all really and considering the Baggies attack is actually worse than Norwich’s, we just cant see even a point being earned here. Having easily snapped up six points from those two it’s back on the road again for the Champions-to-be, this time travelling to Watford. Just the two wins from the last six for the Hornets isn’t the greatest at all, especially when we see that those wins came against a frail Toon army and a rapidly disintegrating Crystal Palace. We wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Odion Ighalo or Troy Deeney get on the scoresheet in this one but as for earning some points; nah. Just isn’t happening.

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Chelsea – Southampton (A), Norwich (A), Stoke (H)
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[/three_fourth]The cogs in the blue machine are turning once again. Very slowly, mind, but turning nonetheless! With even the most Jose-drenched components now beginning to show signs of life, Big Gus Hiddink will be hopeful that the draws, which have become so frequent for Chelsea in recent weeks, now begin to turn to victories. Just the two wins, again, from the previous six outings and no defeats is relatively good going for a middle of the road team, but that’s not anywhere near good enough for title holders. One man doing all he can to turn things around is Diego Costa. A shell of himself until recent weeks, the Spanzilian has fired home seven goals in his last eight league games and has a few assists thrown in there for good measure, as well as eight bonus points. It’s safe to say that Chelsea would be in a right state if he had been injured or suspended, or both, over this last period and he will be crucial for the coming weeks as he’s really the only regular goal-scorer in the Chelsea squad, at least until Eden Hazard pulls his finger out. Chelsea have a couple of gimmes on the horizon but first, a 50-50 encounter with another recently resurgent team awaits…

Southampton away; not the friendliest of starts then. Top of the form table with just the one draw, and five wins from the previous six matches is impressive enough in this league but when we look a little deeper it’s not hard to see just where this turnaround has come from. Over the last few seasons the Saints’ defence has been key to their success but as we would expect, the “bigger” teams come calling and good things get broken down. Ronald Koeman struggled for a period but now that Fraser Forster and Ryan Bertrand are back in the starting eleven all does look rosy again. This game with Chelsea could go either way but the smart money may be on a draw in this one so there should be some points on the go. Our good friends again, Norwich. A serious beating is on the cards here and here and we’re not on about Delia’s eggs, no no. Norwich have been on the receiving end of some horrendous results in recent years and with eighteen conceded in their last six games, Costa and co look set to add handsomely to their season tally’s. Lastly, a trip to the Brittania. On current form, not the worst of fixtures at all and we do expect Chelsea to get the win here against a team that must be lacking in confidence just now. However, that may all have changed by the time this fixture comes about, lets have a look at why that may be the case…

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Stoke – Aston Villa (H), Newcastle (H), Chelsea (A)
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[/three_fourth]For GW26 we stuck our necks out a little bit and tipped the out-of-form Stoke. At that time the Potters were fresh off three wallopings on the spin and with a few injuries popping up, it was a risky-ish pick. Thankfully, Sparky and his wobbling bunch came through to the tune of 3-1 against Bournemouth. Not the scoreline that Jack Butland owners would have wanted but at least it shows that Stoke haven’t given up the fight and still have enough in the tank to take it to the lesser teams in the league. At time of writing, a quick look at Stoke’s injury list makes for painful reading. Just Erik Pieters, Philipp Wollscheid and Dionatan do Nascimento Teixiera (don’t ask, but in his FPL image he looks as confused as Sparky must be when thinking of what to do with this sorry bunch) are available in defence and Marko Arnautovic remains a slight doubt. Luckily, the next two fixtures require Butland and Butland alone to keep things tight enough at the back before the aforementioned tough game comes along. Right-o, on to the easy ones then…

Aston Villa at home. Not what those of us with no Stoke attacking cover, or Stoke cover in general likes to see. The same could be said for just about any team that the sorry Villans come up against though and unfortunately sometimes these games slip away from us. Still bottom, still eight points off and well and truly back to losing ways, Aston Villa really shouldn’t pose any threat to anyone other than themselves and we’re going for a stroll for the home team in this one. Newcastle at home then follows. Not what those of us with no Stoke attacking cover, or Stoke cover in general likes to see. Thankfully, Toon aren’t quite as bad as Villa so the chances of missing a massive haul or two are less, or at least they should be. We still can’t give Newcastle much hope in this one though and their drubbing at the hands of Chelsea last time out is more than enough to suggest they haven’t found a miracle cure for tosh defences. Now, we’ve come full circle, ish. Back to this Stoke vs Chelsea game then. Again, we would favour Chelsea in this game, for obvious reasons, but with the Bournemouth win in the bag and what is likely to be two further wins under their belt, and maybe a few injured players returning we may be looking at a different Stoke in a few weeks. It’s not long ago they were keeping clean-sheets at a decent rate and putting it up to the “better” teams. It remains to be seen whether they can get that type of form back but rumour has it the life-size cardboard cutout of Ryan Shawcross is en route, which should help matters immensely.

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Southampton – Chelsea (H), Bournemouth (A), Sunderland (H)
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[/three_fourth]As stated earlier, Southampton have wrestled their way back to the top of the form table in recent weeks with some solid defensive performances and very few goals at the other end either. A typical one-nil win last time out then, against Swansea, didn’t really tell us anything other than this team are tight, and will remain tight for the foreseeable future. Despite the great recent form, the Saints have actually had some difficult games over the last few weeks against West Ham, Arsenal and, errr, United, but have come out smelling of roses having beaten both United (hardly a surprise) and West Ham and managed a draw with Arsenal. Not many difficult games remain now for Southampton as they have a pretty good run at it for the remainder and if they can keep the backline fit and solid then they will at least be a nightmare to play against for the rest of the season. Who knows, maybe Charlie Austin will start getting the game-time he deserves and give us an option at the other end of the field for once.

Home advantage this weekend for the Saints then as they entertain ex-champions, Chelsea, in what could be a very interesting game. We’ve been over it already so we’ll skim past it in this section and get right on to where the big points are waiting, or potentially so at least. Having gone on an amazing, stupendous three-game-unbeaten run recently, the Cherries did their best to fool us all, but they failed, miserably. Predictably brought back down to earth by Arsenal a couple of game-weeks ago and spanked by Stoke last time out, Bournemouth have Watford to get through before coming up against Southampton and we feel like they’ll be doing well to get anything from these games, certainly the Saints game anyway. Ah yes, a lovely way to round off the faves for this week; a home game against Sunderland. Perfect. It’s been a funny old season so far and Sunderland have, in recent weeks, added to the madness by picking up some unexpected and strange results, leaving some of us baffled as to what is going on. Can they do it this time against a defensive rock? We doubt it very much and fully expect Southampton to coast this one and maybe even score a few while they’re at it. After all, the Black Cats wont come up against United every week!

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Manchester City: A little something worth considering.
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[/three_fourth]Destroyed by Leicester, humbled by Spurs and no game this weekend, followed by a trip to Anfield. There is no real positive to take from that, on the face of it at least. For us non-casuals, though, there is something big to take from this. We’re all doing pretty iffy so far this season, correct? It begs the questions: Why, and who the hell are these teams who are kicking our asses? Well, they’re casuals most likely and they will continue to be just that. When we put this information together it’s pretty safe to say that one Sergio Aguero is not going to be flavour of the month for long as the casual managers sell him like crazy because of this blank and a world-ending score of 2 last time. Again, they overlook what’s ahead though; Anfield sounds scary, in a way, but can any team be feared when they’ve just shipped three against Arsenal, actually lost to United, shipped four against Norwich and two against Sunderland…. what do we Aguero owners have to worry about? **** all, that’s what. After this potential goal-fest with Liverpool, City come up against a who’s who of tripe defences, any one of which could fall to a monster haul from the one who causes so much pain. Of course, we could lose the Argentine and get him back later but do we really want to run the risk of missing just one of these games, let alone two, especially when a ton of the teams ahead of us are selling such an explosive player? The answer is probably, and hopefully, “no”. Our FT’s are at a premium at this stage of the season so shipping out and then in again a player who under normal circumstances we wouldn’t dream of selling, could prove detrimental to our goals. There’s an opportunity here to steal a march but, of course, it all comes down to the man himself actually staying fit and then of course producing. If some City cover needs to leave your squad for a blank week then so be it, but there may well be a better route than losing the best striker in the league who has this lot in the coming weeks…

BLANK, Liverpool (A), Aston Villa (H), Norwich (A), Manchester United (H), Bournemouth (A), West Brom (H).

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BE WARY OF
Norwich – Leicester (A), Chelsea (H), Swansea (A)

The Canaries’ dreadful run continues, and looks well set to continue over the coming weeks as one of the most out-of-form teams in the league comes up against tough opposition. Norwich’s defensive woes are there for all to see but we might as well ram it home one last time; eighteen goals against in the last six games and a strike-force who, combined, might score that many over two seasons if they’re lucky. It’s curtains for this lot then, especially this weekend against a Leicester team full of guile and creativity. A proper mullering is what is expected from that game and there’s a good chance they’ll get another one against Chelsea! Swansea are the next in line to ruffle the Canaries feathers and having come off a difficult run themselves, which typically ends with this Norwich game, they will be chomping at the bit to get back to winning ways and take advantage of some softer games, none more so than this one. Great time to be a Norwich fan then; on a woeful run and set to be hammered over the coming weeks.

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Swansea – Tottenham (A), Arsenal (A), Norwich (H)

Funny how these sections fall together sometimes. From Swansea to, err, Swansea! The wheels have come off a wee bit in recent weeks for the Swans and they do still have two horrible games to go before being unleashed upon Norwich. It’s a shame this difficult three game run came about when it did, just as form picked up. They were done last week by Southampton, as expected, and next face a Spurs team who are on a march for the title and currently sitting second in the form table with five wins on the spin and a heap of goals scored. Hard to look past the London outfit in this one and then same can be said for our next game, away at Arsenal. Really horrid two games, eh? Hard to see anything other than another wide margined win for the home team, again. Woohooo! relief, and a game against Norwich. They’ll win that one. If not, then it’s time to start lowering the wage bill.

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Aston Villa – Stoke (A), Everton (H), Manchester City (A)

Why do we bother? Seriously, why? Unfortunately, there is a reason. We all know how garbage they are and none of us actually want to field any of their players. However, with blank weeks ahead and the possibility of a sorry Villan making his sorry way into your sorry assed team, now is as good a time as any to deal with that weak spot and get someone in who might actually get some points. Stoke away this weekend, we have covered. Back to home comforts then for an absolute walloping by Everton before the dreaded travel to the Etihad for a proper Kun’ing. Yep, there really isn’t anything else to say other than soon enough this horrible team will finally be out of the league and on their merry way to the Championship, where they will have a huge fight on their hands to stay up, such is the lame investment in the playing staff. Maybe a phone-call to the cardboard cut-out services that Stoke are using could work, although, we doubt they could actually afford a Benteke cut-out anyway and there’s no point in getting a Vlaar one – they come with a fold in them so they cant stand up straight for longer than two minutes. Life-like at least, but pointless.

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Bournemouth – Watford (A), Southampton (H), Newcastle (A)

Seventeenth in the form table, and fifteenth in the actual table and on the slippery slope to the relegation zone is all we need to know about current unfoldings at Dean Court. Fellow strugglers, Watford, may not be an impossible mountain to climb but with it being an away day against a team that does at the very least have a good strike-force, we struggle to see the Cherries getting anything from this game and then it’s on to Southampton. Not what the doctor ordered there either really and if these games are both lost then it will be four defeats on the spin before they take on Newcastle. Much like Watford, Newcastle aren’t exactly juggernauts in this league but home advantage plus some decent enough attackers should be enough to do Bournemouth in but a hopeless draw may be the outcome.

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ONE WEEK WONDERS

West Ham vs Sunderland

A classic one week wonder if ever there was one. Funnily enough, Sunderland are actually one spot above West Ham in the form table this week which says more about West Ham’s inconsistency than it does Sunderland’s “form”. Defeat to Southampton will have disappointed Slaven Bilic but not nearly as much as las game-weeks catastrophic 2-2 with Norwich of all teams. Dreadful result, truly dreadful. It’s done now though and what better way to get back on track than a home game against the Black Cats, especially with Dimitri Payet getting involved again in the cup game. The Frenchman should be raring to go against this lot and we fancy him to produce something.

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Tottenham vs Swansea

It wouldn’t be right to finish this write up without any mention of Spurs and their one way ticket to the top-four. Perched nicely in both form and actual tables, Pochettino’s army are on a tear of late with five wins on the trot and a nifty thirteen goals scored in that time. The Lilywhites will be buoyed by last weeks defeat of Manchester City on their own patch and should, should crush Swansea at the Lane with minimum fuss. Much like Leicester of late, Spurs have a few difficult, on paper, games ahead but also some that they should stroll through. There’s a chance of a title this season and we fancy them to run it close, starting this weekend by slaughtering Swansea.

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Fixture Fun

The game-week 27 DEADLINE is SATURDAY 27TH Feb at 11.45am GMT

It is another busy week of European action with Arsenal and Man City competing in the Champions League and Liverpool, Spurs and Man Utd playing Europa League.
Be sure to check on your players once these have concluded.

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Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Fixtures Game-week 27 – Fantasy Premier League 2015-16. This article was written by NIN

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