Fantasy Football Fixture Analysis Gameweek 10

Welcome to Fantasy Football Fixture Analysis Gameweek 10. Well if this week’s article isn’t just a joy to write. Trying to project out the next three rounds of games with CL play and a Carabao Cup round sandwiched in between everything is quite a good time. Essentially, due to the increased minutes for players – and the inevitable rotations that we’ll see – you can’t really trust a word I’m about to say here. And in some ways that’s a major win for me. I love being the unreliable narrator. It’s a bit of a lazy trope to outright tell your audience that nothing you say is to be believed, but when it works it works.

So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to pretend that non-essential players will be rested for the Carabao Cup. And I’m also going to pretend that key players will play ‘just enough’ in their CL matches to not hurt their Premier League minutes. All of this I’ll do whilst telling you that every player will remain fully fit for the duration of this time. Also, George Strait told me to tell you that he has some ocean front property in Arizona…

Side note: in preparation for this article, I finally found out that the brand Carabao is an energy drink from Thailand. Maybe this was common knowledge, but I didn’t know. And for some odd reason, a Thai energy drink with a distinctly American Old West logo sponsoring an English football cup makes me chuckle.

Best Bets

Liverpool – CAR (H), ARS (A), FUL (H)
Liverpool do have to contend with Champions League play here in this schedule, but they’re going up against Red Star Belgrade twice. Red Star Belgrade are top of their league, but their roster reads like a list of Football Manager regens. I don’t think that Veljko Simic and Nenad Krsticic should pose much of a threat to Salah and Co. This is the same Belgrade team that got demolished by PSG with a score of 1-6. This pair of games shouldn’t be a worry for the Reds, and Liverpool were also smart in bowing out of the Carabao Cup in the last round. So really, once Klopp secures a lead big enough to be comfortable with in CL, all this team has to do is worry about getting 9 points from Cardiff, Arsenal and Fulham.

The Cardiff game is a layup. And the Fulham game shouldn’t be a worry either (Cardiff and Fulham sit in 17th and 18th place, respectively). That really just leaves Arsenal away to worry about. Arsenal have only allowed a single goal in their last 3 PL games whilst also putting up 9 goals of their own. They’re in form – but with this schedule that Liverpool have, Klopp can really just focus in on this one game. I imagine he’ll have some extra time for prep as the first leg against Belgrade is being played.

Watford – HUD (H), NEW (A), SOU (A)

Watford smartly lost out in the Carabao Cup against Spurs – and they also smartly avoided any Europa League and CL play this year, which makes them an easy selection for me. In case anybody has missed this fact…Watford are kind of good. I mean, at least they look good against the right level of opponent. And when you consider the league table in regards to these teams (Huddersfield 19th, Newcastle 20th and Southampton 16th), these are definitely the right level of opponents for Watford to shine. Watford are sitting in 7th place right now with 16 points, so it’s definitely possible to see them hit Top 5, even Top 4, if they secure 9 points of their own and get some help. Also, a while back I did a Tips article here and tipped a Watford striker. I won’t say any names, but some of you laughed at that suggestion. So let me now respond with the obligatory: “Who’s laughing now?”

Bournemouth – FUL (A), MNU (H), NEW (A)

Sounds strange to think that as good as Watford have done for themselves recently, Bournemouth have done even better. It’s now proper Autumn outside and Bournemouth sit in 6th place. I’ll be fair, they haven’t been tested with a tough schedule yet, but Fulham and Newcastle, as I’ve said above, hardly constitute a tough schedule. And as far as United go? United would love to be in the spot that Bournemouth are in now. Hell, United would love to even trade with Everton in the league table right now. Such is the magic of the Chosen One. Don’t worry, it’s all part of his grand plan, right? Right.

I should add the caveat that Bournemouth are the only team I’m selecting here that do have to play in the Carabao Cup, but they’ll be playing Norwich – so they can safely rotate a bit and not have to worry too much win or lose in this tie. Another crazy stat in case you think I’ve completely lost my mind: Bournemouth are tied for 4th in the league in the goals scored category (16). Only City, Chelsea and Arsenal have scored more than they have.

Three to avoid

Manchester United – EVE (H), BOU (A), MNC (A)

For the duration of this section, I will only refer to this team as Manchester United. I’ll not call them United, Man U, Man United, The U…none of that here in this section. All Manchester United have to hold onto at this point are their proper name. They’ve got nothing else. So far be it from me to disparage this great and storied club with anything less than their full and proper name.

Let’s face facts, they have Jose Mourinho as their coach. And it’s going just like we all knew it would. They sit in 10th place in the table with a NEGATIVE GOAL DIFFERENTIAL. And their schedule is about to get even more difficult than they can handle. First off, Manchester United will play against Juventus twice in this stretch. This should see them bounced from CL competition in short order (if not bounced mathematically, at least in spirit) – and playing in Italy will undoubtedly make Lukaku call up his agent to get the process going to get into a real team again. Nothing good comes from this. But we’ll all watch for the ‘lols’.

Add to the CL games a visit from Everton, a club that have found their winning ways again. And then Manchester United go away to Bournemouth (see above). And the cherry on top? They’ll have to drive across town to play the league leaders. If you have Manchester United players, this is the time to begin the fire sale.

Crystal Palace – ARS (H), CHE (A), TOT (H)

Where’s the bright spot here? The fact that they have a pair of games at home? Maybe. Palace also haven’t done themselves any favours by not dropping out of the Carabao Cup yet – and knowing them, they might actually go for the Cup win to offset all of the losses they’re about to accumulate. It’s not fair having this schedule. They’ll not see a single point here until late November / early December. How’s that Wan-Bissaka cheap defender now for you all? I hope he likes the third bench spot – because that’s where he’s sitting for me personally.

Wolverhampton – BHA (A), TOT (H), ARS (A)

I wanted to put several teams here in this last spot. But in the end I went with Wolves because several of their players are owned in fairly decent amounts globally. And so with this schedule, and after their performance yesterday, changing out a Wolves players is probably something people would be ok with.

The Brighton game here for me is a toss-up. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it go 2-0 either way with any score line in between. But Spurs and Arsenal will be looking at their turn at Wolves as one of those must-win gimme games. It’s possible to see Wolves get 3 points out of this run, but I’m honestly thinking a single point is all they’ll get from this schedule.

And there you have it, folks. Maybe this whole scenario I painted for you is spot on. Maybe it’s complete rubbish. And obvious apologies to those die-hard Manchester United fans out there. It’s not that I go out of my way to make fun of them, but the material writes itself. Now, the question you have to ask yourself is this: Does the unreliable narrator really feel bad for Manchester United? Or is he just putting in a faux apology here to shine us on? The answer is yes, of course.

The all important FPL FIXTURE TRACKER itself…

BONUS SECTION – FANTASY CHAMPIONS LEAGUE!

It returns with a bang on Tuesday and so we just thought we would throw this is in as a quick reminder as the reaction and participation when it launched a few weeks back was fantastic.

We won’t have a regular article on it, as being quite frank, it just feels like way too much research! However, the key (basic) points that you need to know in terms of actually playing it this week are as follows along with Mito’s great little Fixture Tracker for it all…

Deadline: Tuesday 23rd October @ 5.55pm UK time. It’s an early one but get used to it as this is how it will be every week, annoying as it is!

Transfers: You get 2 Free Transfers this week to use before the above deadline.

Order your subs correctly: Don’t forget that you get to sub in any players who haven’t played on Tuesday for those who did, but who you didn’t much like the score from. Stick your Wednesday players on the bench basically, and make sure there are no Tuesday ones on there or else they’ll be staying there.

Captain Tuesday: Same principle here; you get two stabs at it so make sure your deadline captain plays on Tuesday and if he fails then you get to switch him for a Wednesday player.

Wednesday Deadline: Again it’s early doors at 5.55pm UK time so make sure you do all of the above subs / capo changes prior to this.

Back to back games in GW’s 3 & 4…
All we mean by this is that we are at that point when the fixtures flip over and so whatever fixtures occur in GW3 repeat themselves in reverse in GW4. The only real reason for pointing this out is that some people often take this as a cue to play their Wildcard and chase after those teams with the best back to back fixtures.

Fixture Tracker

CL Set-piece takers

*this hasn’t been updated since MD1 but should still be a very relevant guide.

Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Fixture Analysis Gameweek 10. This article was written by FootyFantastic (Guy Sanchez)

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