Captain Picks Fantasy Football Game-week 10

Captain Picks Fantasy Football Game-week 10 – Fantasy Premier League 2015/16

Greetings from Australia, home of the most feared species on the planet: the Wallaby. In fact, I could be excused for thinking we were in July, being the time of year when the Southern Hemisphere’s Rugby Championship is played. I thought this was a World Cup?
Anyhow, when I last presented to you (Gameweek 3), the earth stood on the precipice. Fantasy Football was in meltdown. FF247 was on its knees. Cookie Monsters and chickens (and other strange species) seemed destined to end up back at Sesame Street. The only remaining sensible approach to Fantasy Football was to delete your team, create a new profile, hit “autocomplete”, and sit back and watch the bargain basement likes of Mahrez, Ighalo, Vardy, Wilson etc… tear up the likes of Aguero, Sanchez, Rooney, Ramsey. Letters of demand were issued to the editors of FF247, and class action seemed inevitable.
But then, the rain stopped and the sun shone. Sanchez repaid our faith with a hat-trick in GW7, and Aguero proceeded to cast the first stone in the execution of the institution formerly known as Newcastle FC in GW8. The world didn’t end. Birds began to chirp; suddenly the air smelled fresh; food and drink tasted sweet; and life seemed normal again. Indeed, our overall rankings started to bear some resemblance of normality (if you call inside the top 2 million “normal”).
Or so we thought…
Fate in the form of the dreaded International Break intervened to destroy the hopes and dreams once again of 3.5 million unsuspecting victims, and suddenly the mental and physiological scars of the opening few weeks cast a looming shadow over GW9, as we witnessed in quick succession the likes of Aguero, Silva, Kolarov etc… go down, and the game’s form player, Mahrez once again having to start from the bench. I swear, Mother Nature’s got nothing on Fantasy Football! Heck, I even drafted this week’s captaincy picks three weeks ago, on the pre-emptive assumption that this piece would soon face redundancy because Aguero was clearly going to be the sole option.
So, once again, it is incumbent on me to issue the call to arms. Time to pick up the pieces, and soldier on. Once again, we curse, we mourn, we activate the wildcard, we spit chips, we play chips, we burn effigies (I’m not looking at you Claudio!), we threaten to walk away (some of us have indeed walked away!), but – to use a Rugby analogy (I’ll speak slowly for our UK readers) – we line up the conversion, hold our breath, and put the boot through the ball. And so, without further ado, I present this week’s captaincy picks. Hopefully it stirs a bit of debate and banter – it can’t always be about City players. Let me know that you think.

[divider_1px]

1. Wayne Rooney (home vs Manchester City)
[three_fourth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]

[/three_fourth]Rooney? Yes, Wayne Rooney. Yes, he hasn’t (and is no longer expected to) hit the heights expected of him in 2015/16. And, yes, Rooney has been a fantasy disappointment. But he scored last week. And history tells us he likes to score his goals in bunches, particularly this time of year. If you look at all his matches during October-November 2014 (both league and international), you’ll see that Rooney scored 8 goals in 10 matches, only failing three times to get on the scoresheet in that period.
And of course it’s the Manchester derby this weekend, pitting Rooney against a club for which his record is without peer. Nobody has scored more Manchester derby goals than Rooney – 11 in 24 matches, representing just about a goal every 2 games. It is particularly noteworthy that he hasn’t scored in the last few derbies, so the law of averages suggests he’ll be back on the scoresheet this weekend. Those who still hold him are either inactive fantasy teams, or those searching for that all-important differential. The latter category could do worse than Rooney this weekend. I’m expecting a high scoring derby, too, which augers well for the talisman.

Prediction: United 2 City 2

[divider_1px]

2. Jamie Vardy (home vs Crystal Palace)
[three_fourth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]

[/three_fourth]This is surely bordering on the ridiculous. Jamie Vardy? Who the heck is Jamie Vardy? Wasn’t he playing non-league football recently? When I read that three seasons ago he was playing in the Conference for Fleetwood, I genuinely thought he was part of Fleetwood Mac. Now he’s earned an England call-up (for whatever that’s worth) and sits atop the Premier League scorers, with little signs that the tide will stall.
9 goals in 9 matches, scoring or assisting in 8 of those. Surely that elevates him to “must have” status? And for 6.9m! The one thing I learned very early in this game is that if that there is an obvious bandwagon, do whatever you need to do to get on board. Too often fantasy players, feeling they’ve “missed the boat”, or otherwise assuming that the run won’t continue, drown in the sorrow of red arrows and H2H losses. And before they know it, their target has been priced out of sight. Think Ramsey and Yaya Toure in recent seasons. Some bandwagons simply don’t end. This one won’t. Get him in. Vardy is your “set and forget” for season 2015/16. Heck, even ‘Arry Redknapp’s talking him up for the Golden Boot.

Prediction: Leicester 3 Palace 2

[divider_1px]

3. Alexis Sanchez (home vs Everton)
[three_fourth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]

[/three_fourth]Le Professeur was much displeased (much to our pleasure) when Alexis returned from international duty last week, having played 180 minutes for Chile. So with some trepidation the fantasy masses resisted giving him the armband, expecting either a rest or a cameo appearance. Well, fool us. Alexis scored and picked up 2 bonus points in another double digit performance, making it a hat-trick of double-digits, and indeed 46 points in three matches. Including Champions League and international fixtures, Alexis has scored in his last 6 matches, amassing 10 goals in the process! There is no better case for the armband, especially at home. With Aguero once again occupying the injury table, Sanchez has emerged as the leading premium player in the game – by definition, therefore, he is a “must-have”. Expect him to lead the renaissance to fantasy footballing normality!

Prediction: Arsenal 3 Everton 0

[divider_1px]

4. Dimitri Payet (home vs Chelsea)
[three_fourth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]

[/three_fourth]Ahead of GW3, I wrote that “Payet has shown early signs that he may well become the mid-priced purchase of the season.” I may be spot on for a change! In fact, he’s the leading overall fantasy scorer this season to date. His stats speak for themselves: 5 goals and 3 assists so far this season. More importantly, he has scored or assisted in his last 5 league matches, and has failed to do either only twice this season.
This should come as no surprise given Payet’s credentials. In 2014/15, Payet created more chances (135) than any other player across Europe’s top five leagues last year, and led Ligue 1 in assists (17), whilst helping himself to 7 goals in the process. Payet also led Ligue 1 for key passes, 40 more than any other player. The 135 chances basically meant that he set up a team mate every 23 minutes. Payet also attempted more shots from outside the area (58) than any other Ligue 1 midfielder in 2014/15.
The “Assist Master” is indeed living up to his tag. Now priced at 8.1m (and rising), expect him to maintain his consistency against a Chelsea team which will hold no fears for the bubble-blowers. And one only has to observe West Ham’s record against the bigger teams this season to suggest that the fixture shouldn’t put you off. What is becoming abundantly clear in season 2015/16 is that a “template” of regular scorers is emerging (and they’re pulling away from their peers), which is manifesting itself into what now appears for the most part a template team on FF247 and related sites: such a team includes Payet.
However, there is one glaring statistic to consider: West Ham have not scored in their last 5 Premier League matches against Chelsea. Some would say to forget Payet on this basis alone; others would say that in view of the way season 2015/16 has progressed thus far, that is all the more reason to get behind him. Either way, don’t say you weren’t warned!

Prediction: West Ham 2 Chelsea 2

[divider_1px]

5. Diego Costa (away vs West Ham)
[three_fourth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]

[/three_fourth]It’s not often that a captaincy pick lists players on opposing sides. Having earlier listed Payet, I now turn to his opponents. With a three-match suspension under his belt and no international activity to speak of during the most recent break, Diego Costa arrived at Stamford Bridge last weekend fresh as a daisy, and promptly proceeded to put Villa to the sword, scoring and assisting (and picking up 3 bonus points) in a fine double-digit haul. Now if only his looks could match his freshness. One miracle at a time I guess…
In the above section, I highlighted that Chelsea have not conceded in their last 5 Premier League matches against West Ham. They’ve scored 8 during that time. Incredibly, Chelsea have only lost once in their past 18 Premier League matches against the Hammers (with 14 victories), making this fixture as historically one-sided as they come. The statistics suggest the result to be a mere formality, with Costa likely to be the main beneficiary (well, who else is there? Hazard? Remy? Pedro? Errr Falcao?).
But then again, this is 2015/16, so expect the unexpected.

Prediction: West Ham 2 Chelsea 2

Best of luck to all.

[divider_1px]

Triple Captain Chip
Just a quick word on the new feature this season. It pretty much does what it says on the tin and trebles your points for your captain on whichever game-week you choose to deploy it. We shall touch on this as and when we feel the opportunity presents itself to use it effectively but this in all likelihood is one to save for when we encounter double game-weeks later on in the season.

[divider_1px]

Thanks for reading Captain Picks Fantasy Football Game-week 10. This article was written by blue_moon

Follow @Yazbeckistan

[divider_1px_dashed]
[row][span6]

Vote on our Captain Poll Now

[/span6][span6]

Fixture Tracker

[/span6][/row]

[divider_1px]

FANTEAM.COM – FANTASY BETTING

It’s time for your fantasy manager job to finally pay off.
Gather your friends and foes and see who has the best strategic skills in fantasy football!