Captain Picks Fantasy Football Game-week 4 – Fantasy Premier League 2015/16
If you captained Yaya Toure in Gameweek 1, Romelu Lukaku in Gameweek 2, Callum Wilson in Gameweek 3 or Riyad Mahrez in any of these weeks, congratulations! You are succeeding more than most. Some of us are holding on to Rooney’s “assist” in Gameweek 1 as the only time we got it sort of right.
So on to the next chance we have – and I’m writing this off the back of two 4 point captain shows – so you may want to look away now, stick your fingers in your ears and pretend you never caught sight of this.
I jest. Like the most optimistic (or sadistic) FPL players, I’m back for more. And this week I’m going to crack it.
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Gameweek 4 – The Fixtures
Newcastle United v Arsenal
Aston Villa v Sunderland
Bournemouth v Leicester City
Chelsea v Crystal Palace
Liverpool v West Ham United
Manchester City v Watford
Stoke City v West Bromwich Albion
Tottenham Hotspur v Everton
Southampton v Norwich City
Swansea City v Manchester United
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My Five (actually seven):
Callum Wilson
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[/three_fourth]There was a debate pre-season regarding the price of Wilson and his fellow promoted striker – Watford’s Troy Deeney. Each priced at £5.5mln, each playing in the Premier League after brilliant Championship seasons and each with claims for that difficult “third” striker slot. Well the Coventrian has made light work of finding his way to the top of the striker charts, even if it is at a very early stage. OK so his points were mainly hauled in one game at Upton Park where he bagged his first Premier League hat-trick but Wilson owners would happily have taken a goal a game at this stage so three in one, is of no concern.
So his backers or those purchasing him this week might consider that the armband goes to him – the man is in form after all and Bournemouth as a whole are playing some great passing football. They are very incisive and direct and a hallmark of their promotion-winning side from last season.
Leicester have started brilliantly but consider that they are yet to record a clean sheet and even Sunderland stuck two past them and you might just look twice at the Bournemouth penalty taker.
Although, as we’ll come to later, there are superstars with attractive fixtures this week, looking at Rooney, Aguero and Hazard all being two-pointers recently, maybe taking a chance on a lesser light might just be the way to go. And Wilson will hardly be short of confidence.
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Riyad Mahrez
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[/three_fourth]In the same match, the man of the season so far, Algerian Riyad Mahrez, will be aiming to take Charlie Daniels to the cleaners at Dean Court on Saturday.
Three matches, four goals and a clean sweep of all nine bonus points before him, has the winger as the top midfield point scorer. He has also stuck away the Foxes’ only penalty so far and would be lined up again one would assume, should another fall their way.
At the very least, this man should be in your squad, captaining him may take a bit of bottle but maybe that is the way to go. You could hardly be backing him at a better time.
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Pedro
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[/three_fourth]The Spaniard will find his way in to many teams this week and the good news is that his price should be protected until after the deadline. Many will see Hazard to Pedro and banking some £1.9mln as a worry free move and I have to agree. I think if both fit, Pedro might just match Hazard’s point tally this season. He introduced himself to the Blues’ fans with a goal and an assist in his first start to send Chelsea to their first victory of the season at The Hawthorns and send himself to the 3 bonus points – couldn’t have asked for more from his debut.
A home match against Crystal Palace won’t be easy but you would have to expect Chelsea should win even if it is to keep up with Manchester City (and Leicester). The Barcelona academy product has gone for a reported £21mln, which to me could well be the signing of the summer.
I’d add Diego Costa in here as well – Pedro could be the perfect supply line for the granddad of the Chelsea team. Costa scored his first double-digit haul in the West Brom match and that could be him off and running for the season.
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Christian Benteke
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[/three_fourth]Many will argue that the Belgian is still awaiting his first ‘goal’ in front of the Kop due to the clear infringement of the offside rule which should have resulted in his goal being disallowed. Thankfully moral decisions don’t apply in the fantasy world and the £32.5mln summer signing managed to mark his Anfield debut with 9 fantasy points courtesy of his goal and the 3 bonus to leave Monday Night Captainers rejoicing! He also hit the crossbar in the second half so it could have been more.
Truthfully he should also have added another against Arsenal on Monday evening. Where the plaudits will go to Petr Cech for a fine save, Benteke shouldn’t have given him the chance of a save. What is encouraging, however, is the understanding being shown clearly between Benteke and Coutinho. One can see Benteke having many laid on for him by the Brazilian in the coming weeks especially in the matches at home where Liverpool will see lots of the ball. Next up are out-of-sorts West Ham so there is definite scope there for more goals.
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Sergio Aguero
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[/three_fourth]Home game. Yep. Home to a promoted team. Yep. City playing well. Yep (three in three with +8 goal difference). Already scored this season. Yep.
All the signs are pointing to an Aguero Armband this weekend.
Depending where you are in the overall standings or your own private mini-league, you’ll know if you can take a chance by moving away from Aguero. Common sense tells you that those with him (28.2%) will make him their man so to either stay with the leaders or hold off those challengers, you really shouldn’t be looking any further than your top striker.
This is also the beginning of six decent fixtures for City, so I’d imagine many will be loading up on their players and it also makes sense to captain one of them being as they are in by far and away, the best attacking team in the league.
This leads me on nicely to David Silva, a differential of sorts owing to the expected Aguero love this weekend. Three assists, three clean sheets and two bonus points so far and he should/could have been on the score sheet at West Brom in Gameweek 1. The first goal is around the corner and could come this weekend. As usual, playing in between the lines of the opposition, the little Spaniard is never far from the attacking points. You could do a lot worse than side with him this weekend.
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As usual, here are the traffic lights . . .
RED (Take a punt if you have him): Callum Wilson
AMBER (Proceed with caution): Christian Benteke
GREEN (If you have him, armband him): Sergio Aguero
A final thought:
This is the last Gameweek before both the transfer window closes and for the hiatus for international football so the next round of matches, Gameweek 5, isn’t until 12 September.
Usually this is the worst time to have a stinker of a Gameweek because you have what seems like an eternity to wait to get back on track. For those of you who have wildcarded, I’d imagine and hope your squad is in good enough shape to bank this week’s free transfer and have two to use come the return in GW5. For those still with the wildcard, then I should imagine many will be activated once this week’s deadline has passed to benefit from that two week period of tinkering and to take advantage of the transfer business still to be completed.
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.
For those wishing to use it before such a double Gameweek, I’d imagine that Aguero at home to Watford is as enticing as a single match gets.
Whatever you do, go with your instinct and have a great Gameweek 4!
Enjoy your football.
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Thanks for reading Captain Picks Fantasy Football Game-week 4. This article was written by The Gallant Pioneer
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Fixture Tracker
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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!
Guys, below is my team
Depay – pedro
Payet – redmond
Ighalo – wilson
2FT
Take a hit or pick just two
I would pick just 2, I think.
Pedro and Wilson moves look good Labyrinth. I was after doing Depay to Pedro myself but think I’ll hang onto the former a while longer and see what he can do. I also like the look of Payet too much to be giving him up yet.
Hey Calvin and LaByRiNtH, with Zarate, Valencia, and now Sakho injured does that lesson Payet’s appeal for you? I have him too and he could’ve easily had 2 assists last weekend. But there aren’t too many more strikers left at the club to knock his crosses in! lol
I read that Andy Carroll is training with the 1st team now and should be back soon though, so that’s good news at least.
I guess it does a tad, but it could also give him more license to have a few more pops at goal himself like against Leicester.
That’s a good point Calvin. And Payet does have some sweet looking fixtures after Liverpool. Damn, this is a tough one, not sure what to do. Guess I’ll sit tight and see what happens over the next couple of days. Maybe something will happen during training that’ll make our choices much clearer.
Hey Romero/Darmian/Shaw owners, are you planning on keeping your United defenders through their upcoming difficult fixtures? I have Darmian and I’m not sure if I should keep him or move him on to raise some funds.
From what I’ve seen tonight it’s a bloody miracle United haven’t conceded yet. It’s a matter of time, if you ask me.
Thanks Raz. I need to raise .5 to get Pedro and I’m looking at Kompany, Darmian, and Hoolahan as candidates to do it. Hoolahan rides the bench most weeks so I was thinking he could go, but United have some pretty tough matches coming up. Maybe Darmian to a 5.1 or less defender would be better. I like having a halfway decent 1st sub.
Holding on for now mate, though partly because I don’t want to move him out for a hit.
After our chat the other day I’ve decided to not make any moves this GW in the end as it’s just too much like chasing points.
I actually had a pretty decent team before activating my wc, lmao.
6 home players and so on. Aah whatever, let the teamvalue rise and I like the fact I will now have a strong(-er) base.
Sounds good Raz.
Yeah, I’m in a holding pattern for now too Calvin. But I may still grab Pedro before the deadline. He’s obviously a quality player and in the current Champion’s side, and I have zero Chelsea cover right now. I think going without a West Ham player will be less risky than having no Chelsea, but I don’t really want to take a hit for it.
Anyone know how accurate TotalFPL is for price rises?
FFF and fplstatistics don’t say Wilson will go up tonight but TFPL says he’s at 150% which seems absurd!
Want to sleep on my transfer but don’t want to lose out on £0.1m because of it.
TotalFPL is completely off, FFF and FPLStats are more accurate.
Cheers Raz, I’ll sleep on it and blame you when he goes to £5.6m 😉
It’s very close on all of them, I wouldn’t risk it if it’s your last opportunity to get him.
If you know you will make the move tomorrow why not do it now just in case AT? He’s already gone up 0.1 this GW. Fix is probably the most accurate for me, but they’re all prone to errors.
CC, I’m not sure I will make the move. Still deciding between Wilson, Diouf and a Leicester striker and even making the move at all!
But you’d be making it if you knew he was going up tonight? 😛
I was where you are now earlier in the week before his first rise, and am now glad I sat it out. Not sure I will be after he plays though!
When I was playing the price rises with my WC last week I noticed that FPL Stats would reset each night, so players like Silva that they predicted to go up with like 103.5% or something (but didn’t rise) would drop back down to 94% or whatever once they recalculated everything. While players on FFF would just keep going up and up and up each day.
I’d say FPL Stats is way more accurate, but all the WCs being played has made the predictions more difficult for everybody.
The nice thing about FFF is it shows you which players are rising the fastest, so that’s helpful to see the trends each day.
Absolutely. I just go by the percentage rise per hour now, as last season (before I stopped playing!) I was bit too often by not getting in a player because he was only on 96% or something, only to have him rise anyway. If he’s rising 1% or more an hour consistently then I’ll just get him in early if I know I want him.
It’s good how you say FPL Stats seemingly is constantly readjusting their formulas; hopefully they’ll have it fairly spot on soon enough.
Yeah, I think they will Calvin. There was a thing on FPL Stats to enter your team ID # if you were on a WC, which I did. They were using that info to help them calculate what was going on with all the WC’s being played. It’s still accurate enough that you can see what’s going on and make good moves. And worst case scenario you may grab someone thinking they’ll rise but they don’t until the next day or something like that. However if money is really tight and a player is getting up there, it’s probably good to grab them while you can if a rise will price you out of it!
am I set forthe week?
Courtois
Cedric Coates Francis
Yaya Sterling Mahrez Pedro
Aguero(c) Defoe Pelle
bench- Hennessey Milner Mertesacker Oxford
Assuming you brought in Pedro this GW and have no more FTs then yeah I’d say you’re set Nishant. Milner is expensive to be wasting away on the bench though, so would downgrade him in future to bolster your defence.
Kevin De Bruyne now to Man City?!? Didn’t Chelski just release hime like a year ago? How’s he gonna fit in? Instead of Navas on the wing? In the hole? And no chance Arsene is bringing anyone in, eh? While other teams strengthen in excess!!
I reckon Raheem will start wide right with De Bruyne on the left cutting in even more to allow Kolarov basically play left wing. The thoughts of Sterling, Silva & KDB inter-changing during the match is frighting and any three could end up in any of the ‘attacking mid’ spots during a game.
True, that sounds terrifying. Barring big injuries, I don’t see anyone coming close to City this season. And we’re only 3 matches in!!
Streets ahead! Have 3 City and can see it staying that way for a while. How’s your season Sanchez?
Slow start as always, Calvin!! Haha. Already played WC last week, and it has helped a lot! Just trying to figure out which mids are the keepers? So many to choose from cheap mid-priced and expensive. How about yourself?
Sounds eerily similar to me so far mate. WC bumped me up a few 100K so here’s hoping we stay on the same trajectory.
As for the mids.. man what a minefield. Have gone 3-5-2 and even then there’s still a couple more I want. Thinking Gradel could turn out to be a great option, and has a few good games coming up. Can’t see me dropping Payet or Depay for him though :-/
Gradel should have scored as well last weekend. Bournemouth do have some decent fixtures coming up and w/ Wilson gaining confidence, they might just do well!!
Not United Sanchez, we need a strong CB and could do with a right winger too. We should get Walcott, Wenger clearly has no use for him!
I wonder if Theo is regretting signing that new deal by now. He could have gone to lots of clubs who would have loved to put him in their starting 11. I was really hoping Liverpool would go after him!
Yeah, don’t get why Wally isn’t getting much game time. We all know he can score goals. Too many to choose from in midfield where several are playing out of position as well! C’mon Wenger, figure it out already!
True. United prolly need just a couple more players to fill out their squad and Rojo to come back from injury. Mata’s playing well. Januzaj also. Blind is fantastic as ever. Smalling is stepping it up. Just waiting on / a matter of time before Memphis and good old Rooney start scoring…
CL games seem to be working for both of them though!
Cheeky punt on Bojan anyone?
Please not again. We did this last year ha.