Team Talk Fantasy Football Game-week 37

Team Talk Fantasy Football Game-week 37

And there were two. Yep, just two game-weeks remain but fear not this one is another biggie. Yeah baby, I give you DGW37 – 14 fixtures, eight teams doubling up, points galore on offer to either close out or chase down your mini-league. Our monster week starts, aptly enough, in Norfolk as Norwich host Man Utd on Saturday lunchtime and then we move onto five 3pm kick offs as Newcastle look to take a further step to safety as they go to the doomed Villa, Bournemouth welcome West Brom, Palace entertain Stoke, Chelsea go to Sunderland and Swansea travel to West Ham. The evening match sees champions Leicester celebrate at home with Everton the visitors. Sunday sees part one of our game-week concluded as Spurs host Southampton, Watford go to Liverpool and Man City do battle with their feeder club. And then onto the doubles which begin on Tuesday down in the East End as the Hammers host Man Utd in the last competitive match at the Boleyn Ground. Our game-week concludes on Wednesday with the final three matches as Norwich will be going all out for a much needed win vs Watford, Sunderland will be going all out for a much needed win vs Everton and Chelsea will be going all out for a most popular win vs Liverpool.
The midweek action has seen Man City and Liverpool both compete in Europe, so without further ado, let’s go Around the Grounds to see what the managers have had to say.

Norwich vs Man Utd (Sat 7 May 12.45)
A big week for the Canaries begins with the lunchtime visit of United. Norwich are teetering on the brink of relegation and one feels they will need at least four points from their two matches this week if they are to have a chance of staying up. To be fair they battled well at Arsenal last week, creating the better opportunities and frustrating the Goonies before falling to defeat. United arrive with faint hopes of a top four place but they know they’ll likely need to win each of their final three matches to have any chance of a coveted Champions League place and they will need no reminder of what Norwich are capable of after the Canaries won at Old Trafford in December.

Alex Neil will give Ryan Bennett as long as possible to prove his fitness after missing the defeat at Arsenal due to illness. The only definite absentees for the Canaries are Timm Klose, Andre Wisdom and Alex Tettey. Norwich have lost five of their previous seven matches vs United at Carrow Road and another defeat on Saturday will see them staring straight down the barrel of relegation.

Not very helpful from LVG this week I’m afraid as he says he must assess the condition of his squad after an “overload of matches” – “rotation is possible.” One person definitely missing out is Marouane Fellaini who will miss the final three league matches through suspension. Fellaini’s absence could see a recall for Juan Mata or even Wayne Rooney pushed further forward with Ander Herrera or Morgan Schneiderlin coming in. Luke Shaw and Bastian Schweinsteiger remain out, while DGWers hoping to cash in on United defensive coverage are continued to be advised to stick to the most nailed on pair of David de Gea and Chris Smalling.

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Aston Villa vs Newcastle (Sat 7 May 15.00)
Everyone is expected to beat Villa of course, but the Toon arrive this weekend with the extra pressure of knowing they almost have to win here, with the knowledge that Sunderland are just a point behind them with a game in hand. Last week’s narrow win over Palace extended Newcastle’s unbeaten run to four matches and as the confidence grows, so does the expectation. However, the battle with Sunderland will go into the last week of the season rendering every match a “must-win” and Rafa Benitez’s men will be cheered by their fixture form over the Villains which has seen the Toon winning five and drawing the other four of their last nine meetings.

Caretaker boss Eric Black says Villa are sweating on the fitness of Jordan Veretout, Rudy Gestede and Kieran Richardson while defender Aly Cissokho is suspended after being sent off in the defeat at Villa. Gabby Agbonlahor is available for selection again, but not so Jordan Amavi who is unlikely to play for the club again.

Benitez says that Vurnon Anita and Daryl Janmaat have both been passed fit for the trip to Villa, but captain Fabricio Coloccini remains unavailable. Tim Krul, Rob Elliot and Massadio Haidara remain sidelined while Gabriel Obertan and Sylvain Marveaux both left the club by mutual consent in the week. Rafa says he is expecting a tough game at Villa, but says the mood in the camp is very positive and is calling on his team to remain focused and concentrated.

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Bournemouth vs West Brom (Sat 7 May 15.00)
Probably the least important game of the weekend with both teams stuck on 41pts and safe for another season and looking like they can’t wait for the season to come to an end! The Cherries have lost their last three matches while the Baggies are winless in seven and to be completely honest with you I get the feeling that you are as uninspired by this match as I am. The Baggies won 2-1 at Albion in December with all three goals coming from defenders. Thrilling eh?

Eddie Howe confirms that Adam Smith will miss the remainder of the season as he nurses his hernia. Elsewhere, the manager says he may experiment slightly with his line up over the final two matches with the club’s Premier League status secured for another season. Max Gradel is making “good progress” but remains a doubt with a leg injury, while Sylvain Distin and Tyrone Mings remain out.

All I can say, is it’s lucky that West Brom are not top of your priority list this week as Tony Pulis says he may make “a few changes” – and not because of injuries! Therefore trying to second guess or predict what team he sends out is nigh on impossible. Pulis talked up youngster Jonathan Leko who made his debut vs West Ham last week. What we do know is that Chris Brunt is a long-term absentee, James Morrison came through an U21s match in the week and Alex Pritchard remains a doubts and is unlikely to be risked unnecessarily.

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Crystal Palace vs Stoke (Sat 7 May 15.00)
Cup finalists Palace are still not mathematically safe would you believe?! The Eagles are on 39pts and if Sunderland and Norwich win their final three matches they can both finish above Palace – unlikely though that may be, the Lord will want to secure safety this weekend and go into GW38 being able to rest whoever he likes in front of the Cup Final. Stoke have turned into the weirdest team in the league – remember those days earlier in the season when Jack Butland was saving everything, Marko Arnautovic was scoring seemingly every week and even Bojan and Glen Johnson were regular contributors? Long gone are those days and five winless matches on the spin is not the way Mark Hughes wants the season to end so he’ll be keen for his team to arrest the decline.

As expected the Lord is very much focused on getting one more win and says he will send out a team this week to try and accomplish that. Wilfried Zaha won’t be involved though as he is struggling with a hamstring injury and will be wrapped up for the FA Cup final. Yannick Bolaise has been suffering with sickness and Mile Jedinak has a knock so they may also not be risked, but Scott Dann is ok. Marouane Chamakh remains sidelined.

Hughes talked up both Peter Crouch and Charlie Adam in his presser and said both are in his thoughts for the match at Palace. The manager then refuted suggestions that his players are already on the beach by saying how well they played last week against Sunderland – hardly a glowing recommendation. Marc Wilson has been ruled out of the last two matches, but there is better news of fellow defender Glen Johnson who has resumed training and could return in GW38. Bojan injured his foot in training on Thursday and likely won’t train before the weekend, though Hughes is hopeful that his striker will still be ok to play. Jack Butland, Shay Given and Ibrahim Afellay remain out.

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Sunderland vs Chelsea (Sat 7 May 15.00)
A massive match this for Sunderland as they aim to stay on the toes of neighbours Newcastle before their midweek game in hand. Chelsea of course have turned to the spoilers as was evident on Monday night as they wound up the Spurs to a point of complete self-destruction. Have to say, it was quite amusing even if I seem to dislike Spurs less than most. Now whether the Blues will be as motivated as they were last week is doubtful – they were quite open in wanting to stop Spurs league challenge and I’m pretty sure they have little interest in who gets relegated. The Black Cats haven’t beaten Chelsea in the league at home since 2000 (losing ten out of twelve) though of course many will remember them winning at Chelsea two seasons ago which was huge in them avoiding the drop that year. A repeat of that result is much needed by Big Sam’s men on Saturday.

Defender Billy Jones is Sunderland’s only absentee this week as he is suffering from a hip injury. Big Sam did hint at changes with Seb Larsson and Duncan Watmore continuing to impress off the bench – the manager then had a little dig at Spurs by saying that “we can’t afford to lose the plot like Spurs did last week.”

Guus Hiddink reports no fresh injuries for his squad, meaning just Kurt Zouma and Loic Remy are unavailable. Big Guus refutes suggestions of a bust up between Thibaut Courtois and Chelsea’s goalkeeping coach and goes on to say that his team will approach the last two games with the same thoughts to win as they did vs Spurs and will field a strong team to be respectful to the league.

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West Ham vs Swansea (Sat 7 May 15.00)
Almost all of us will have a big interest in this match as it is the start of the Hammers’ home DGW and against a Swansea side who appear to have lost interest in playing away from home. Their last four trips have seen defeats to Leicester, Newcastle and Bournemouth though they did manage a draw at Stoke, but we all know how bad the Potters have been. West Ham have won all three home matches in the Premier League vs the Swans and are now ten matches unbeaten, which sees them just a point behind 5th places Man Utd, who they meet on Tuesday. So they will want to win this one to set up Tuesday’s encounter and given their current form, few will bet against Slaven Bilic’s men making it a third win in a row.

The Hammers have just one injury for the Swansea match and that is keeper Adrian, who suffered a minor calf injury in the win at West Brom – Darren Randolph will deputise between the sticks. Bilic says Adrian is “probably out for the final two matches also, but you never know.” The manager said he and his team are only focused on the Swansea match as they aim to remain in contention for European qualification. In-form striker Andy Carroll has scored four goals in four previous matches for the Hammers against Swansea.

An interesting presser by Swans manager Francesco Guidolin – no, he didn’t talk us through how he has been practicing LVG’s S&M moves with his Mrs – rather he said his future will become clear in ten days’ time and then more importantly for us, says defender “Ashley Williams has played a lot of games and needs a break. He won’t play again this season.” Gylfi Sigurdsson, Neil Taylor, Jefferson Montero and Alberto Paloschi will all miss the trip to Upton Park through injury, but Leroy Fer is expected to return after missing the win over Liverpool with a hamstring injury.

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Leicester vs Everton (Sat 7 May 17.30)
What can we say? The most unlikely Champions ever. Close to relegation last season it’s amazing what a year can do – and indeed one night in a Thai brothel. Apparently. Cast your minds back to October when Claudio Ranieri was offering to get the pizzas in if his defence would only keep a clean sheet. Since then his back line has been solid, his keeper inspirational and it is only now, despite all the public denials that Ranieri now confesses that he sat his team down at Christmas, realising what a decent position they were in and said to them, “let’s have a real go at this. No one is expecting us to win the league – we have nothing to lose.” Saturday evening gives Ranieri and his Foxes the perfect opportunity to showcase themselves in front of their adoring public, with the tension gone and the celebrations in full swing. Spare a thought for Ranieri – he spent Monday flying to and from Italy to take his 96-year old Mum out for lunch. What a top geezer! Let the accolades roll in, the awards have already started arriving – and now Jamie Vardy is having that party! Well done Leicester.

The champagne was flowing at Ranieri’s presser – and quite rightly so. The mad Italian received a standing ovation as he walked in and shook every journalist by the hand. When asked if he watched the Spurs draw at Chelsea Ranieri answered: “I watched the match. Half-time I made dinner. Relaxed until the second Chelsea goal. After, I jump.” Lovely. Just don’t ask ‘Bry from twitter’ where all this actually happened… Anyway, back to this weekend and Vardy returns from suspension, likely still pissed. Danny Drinkwater and Robert Huth are both banned though, while Matty James, who has been injured all season, may feature vs Everton.

Roberto Martinez says there is an outside chance that Gareth Barry and Seamus Coleman could be fit for the weekend trip to Leicester. Gerard Deulofeu is likely to miss the final three matches of the season with a knee injury, but the manager is hopeful that Phil Jagielka may be able to play vs Norwich in GW38. There are no fresh injuries in the camp. Joel Robles will be in goal for both matches this week with Tim Howard to play vs Norwich at Goodison as he says goodbye (again) to the fans.

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Spurs vs Southampton (Sun 8 May 13.30)
Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Now I’ve never really understood the hatred towards Spurs. Sure, I recognise the local rivalry that exists between them, Arsenal, West Ham and to an extent Chelsea. But they are universally disliked. There was even a tweet going backwards and forwards between Arsenal and Chelsea fans with the two clubs’ badges intertwined as Chelsea met Spurs on Monday. Of course, Spurs did little to endear themselves to anyone that night – strolling at 2-0 they took it amongst themselves to react and fight and get involved in all things unnecessary. None of which should take away from what has been a fantastic season for them. They’ll come up this week vs a Southampton side who have remembered how to score – three vs Liverpool and Newcastle in recent weeks, four vs Villa (obviously) and City last week and Spurs will not be having the relaxed game they will likely be wishing for. And how the Saints’ fans will enjoy singing to ex-manager Mauricio Pochettino!

Maurcio Pochettino says Nabil Bentaleb is the only player who is injured, meaning Toby Alderweireld and Danny Rose have made miraculous recoveries from Monday’s fiery encounter with Chelsea. Mousa Dembele has accepted an FA charge of violent conduct and joins Dele Alli on the naughty step in the stand.

Ronald Koeman reports a fully fit squad for the weekend and could well name an unchanged side after last weekend’s impressive thrashing of Man City. This would mean no place again for Graziano Pelle who is rumoured to be leaving the club in the summer. A win for the Saints would equal their best ever points tally in the Premier League.

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Liverpool vs Watford (Sun 8 May 16.00)
How we all got excited when the double game-weeks were announced. “Must get Liverpool coverage, probably three as they have two home matches vs Watford and a sh** Chelsea.” Little did we imagine that Jurgen Klopp would inspire his team to Europa victory over Dortmund and as a result play havoc with team selection either side of a European tie. And now they’ve only gone and reached the final, meaning any Liverpool cover in your squads is playing with fire as Klopp is sure to continue to prioritise the Europa League, with a win bringing Champions League football back to the club. Liverpool will still fancy themselves to win on Sunday mind you, although two wins out of three for the Hornets may just inspire some competition from a side with nothing to play for and with rumours that their boss is about to get the boot. Watford did of course beat Liverpool 3-0 when the teams met at Vicarage Road in December – those were the days when Ighalo and Deeney were proving “must-haves” – much has changed since then for both sides, though at least Watford managed to scrape past Villa last week.

Not surprisingly, Klopp gave little away at his presser in terms of specific names. He said that he has not yet thought about the line-up for Sunday, though he did say there would be a “few changes.” At the same time he said it wouldn’t be necessary to rest his players on Sunday for the Europa final as that is still over 10 days away, but the intensity of Thursday’s win over Villareal will mean he will need to check his squad to see who needs to sit out the visit of Watford. Klopp said it is not acceptable to be so poor for two league games in a row and he also recounted the team’s loss to Watford earlier in the season. So nothing concrete I’m afraid, though from what he has said I would expect a “slightly” stronger team that was put out at Swansea. Jordan Henderson, Divock Origi and Danny Ings remain sidelined while Mamadou Sakho and Brad Smith are suspended.

QSF is unlikely to make many changes for the trip to Anfield following the team’s victory over Villa last weekend. Etienne Capoue and Tommie Hoban are definite absentees, Joel Ekstrand is a major doubt, while Valon Behrami will not play again this season after sustaining a rib injury in training.

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Man City vs Arsenal (Sun 8 May 16.00)
4th meets 3rd at the Etihad with City needing a victory if they are to have a realistic chance of pipping Arsenal for 3rd place. It’s not actually impossible for either of these two to finish 2nd if Spurs completely fold like they did at Chelsea, but let’s concentrate on the battle here. Arsenal know that avoiding defeat here should be enough to hold off City as the Gunners entertain Villa in GW38 with a win pretty much guaranteed. Much may well depend on how City react to their midweek Champions League exit to Real Madrid. Looking at the fixture form then Arsenal will be favourites for they have won three and drawn the other two of their last five battles with City including a 2-0 win at the Etihad last season and a 2-1 victory at the Emirates in December. Olivier Giroud scored in both matches – sadly for the French adonis he has failed to score in his last 15 league matches.

Manuel Pellegrini says he and his team are fully motivated to beat Arsenal and Swansea and guarantee Champions League football for City and Pep next season. There will have to face the Gooners without David Silva, Pablo Zabaleta, Aleksandar Kolarov and Vincent Kompany, but after failing to score a goal in either leg vs Madrid, Pellegrini says he is confident his team will recover their attacking potential – starting on Sunday.

The Gooners go into the crucial final two games without the hamstrung Per Mertesacker, which is clearly good news for those Gabriel owners. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has suffered a knee injury in training and will be out for 6-8 weeks, not only ruling him out of the rest of the season, but also meaning his faint chances of going to the Euros have disappeared. Arsene Wenger says that everyone else is fit and that his team has not given up on second place – Santi Cazorla played again for the U21s in the week and has said he is keen to feature in the next couple of games. Danny Welbeck will clearly be chomping at the bit to start after being the hero off the bench vs Norwich, while Giroud will be highlighting to Wenger his recent scoring record vs City. Sadly for him, everyone else in the dressing room will likely be highlighting his recent scoring record vs everyone else.

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And then onto the doubles. Obviously team news is impossible given that all the teams playing twice will have played at the weekend.

West Ham vs Man Utd (Tues 10 May 19.45)
Upton Park is guaranteed to be rocking for it’s last ever competitive match before the Hammers move to the Olympic Stadium. Depending on weekend results, these two could still be battling for 5th place and you can rest assured that Bilic will have his Hammers motivated for the match. They will need to be as they have failed to beat United in any of their last 12 meetings and fresh on their minds will be the home exit to United in the FA Cup replay last month. Marouane Fellaini (suspension) and Bastian Schweinsteiger and Luke Shaw (injuries) remain unavailable.

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Norwich vs Watford (Weds 11 May 19.45)
Every match is a must win for the Canaries but the midweek visit of Watford should provide the best chance of three points. Having fallen 2-0 to the Hornets in December revenge will be sweet for Alex Neil’s men and a bare minimum if they are to have an chance of staying in the top flight – they will fancy their chances against a Watford team with nothing but pride and league position to play for.

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Sunderland vs Everton (Weds 11 May 19.45)
The second home match in four days for the Black Cats and they should go into the game confident and with much more to play for than the holiday-bound Toffees. This of course is Sunderland’s game in hand over Newcastle and to go into the last match of the season buzzing they will want to secure the three points to leave their destiny in their own hands. Everton won the reverse fixture 6-2 in November though a repeat of that looks a long way off given Sunderland’s better organised defence and Everton’s apparent disinterest in anything bar boarding that plane.

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Liverpool vs Chelsea (Weds 11 May 20.00)
Our double game-week comes to a conclusion up at Anfield. Let’s not even discuss team news, except to guesstimate that those that Klopp rested on Sunday have a decent chance of appearing at the final home game of the season. A Philippe Coutinho brace helped Liverpool win 3-1 at the Bridge in October although Chelsea are unbeaten in their last four visits to Anfield. Full back Brad Smith will be available again after suspension.

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Suspension Report for Game-week 37

Those players suspended this week are:

Aly Cissoko (Aston Villa)
Ramiro Funes Mori (Everton)
Danny Drinkwater (Leicester)
Robert Huth (Leicester)
Brad Smith (Liverpool)
Marouane Fellaini (Man Utd)
Dele Alli (Spurs)
Mousa Dembele (Spurs)

Please note that a player will not now be suspended for receiving 10 yellow cards – the next limit is 15 yellow cards which is valid until the end of the season.

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Thanks for reading Team Talk Fantasy Football Game-week 37. This article was written by Cookie

Follow @SteveCook9

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