Fantasy Football Fixture Analysis Gameweek 24

Fantasy Football Fixture Analysis Gameweek 24

Welcome to Fantasy Football Fixture Analysis Gameweek 24. After Pancho went off on an unexpected (even to him, apparently!) tangent with a great and different style Fixtures article last week we are back with a more bread and butter version this week with the teams who have the best and worst fixtures over the next few weeks analysed.

Cookie and Init are in the hot seat this week. And you may well be seeing this combo a lot more in the weeks ahead. It’s a proven tag team which works because they enjoy writing together and feed off each other nicely. But possibly shouldn’t, for many reasons. And so before we proceed we thought we would give you a bit of an insight into their subtle differences!

One (Init) is very much a bog standard family man who lives the typical English life – wife of 15 years, 2.5 kids, 3 bed-semi in suburbia. Regular job. Rarely goes out partying. Just about as mundane and peaceful a life as you could imagine.

The other (Cookie) lives the high life as a stockbroker in Monaco! Think Wolf Of Wall Street. And multiply it. He has a luxury flat overlooking the GP circuit and harbour. When the Monaco GP hits town he’s at it and in his element like you wouldn’t believe. We won’t slander him but some of the videos we have seen are just obscene! (Lawyer: think you may have just slandered him!). He’s on his 2nd marriage and has more kids than an orphanage. He regularly enjoys ‘liquid lunches’ as he entertains clients from all around the world. As some of his Friday afternoon articles may suggest! Whether he actually tosses dwarfs or not we don’t know… (Lawyer : Enough!).

One (Cookie) is essentially an archetypal English Gent – he wears suits to work, he says ‘Good Morning’ on all chats each day before speaking, he calls the last meal of the day ‘dinner’.

The other (Init) wears trainers and jeans to work, he often begins the day with a two footed insult on social media and calls ‘dinner’ – ‘tea’! And definitely doesn’t toss dwarfs.

One of them (Init) thinks he’s a bit hip and trendy still. And acts like he’s still in his 20’s.

The other (Cookie) knows he isn’t and submits to it. And acts like he’s in his 60’s.

And yet, when all said and done there’s little difference in their (middle aged) ages!

Basically, on the face of it, they are chalk and cheese. However, scratch the surface a bit and beneath it all they are the same. They share the same work ethic, the same family situation, the same desires and the same sense of humour. And they get along like a house on fire. Sort of… just don’t mention Chris Rock!

Here’s your fixtures article for GW24….

The All Important Fixture Tracker…

Gameweek Tracker GW24-29

Favourable Fixtures

Man City – Newcastle (h), West Brom (h), Burnley (a)
Their unbeaten run may be over but that may not necessarily be the worst thing for City. One can bet that Pep will spend the week getting his boys re-fired up and as history has shown us, great teams are at their most dangerous after a defeat. Think Liverpool of the 80’s and United of the 90’s and 2000’s – they bounced back from a defeat more often than not and much of that was down to the manager.

The response starts with the visit of Newcastle this weekend – bear in mind that City haven’t lost at home to Toon since 2003 and the last five meetings have ended up with scores in City’s favour (obviously) of 6-1, 5-0, 4-0, 4-0, 3-1. Rafa will cajole his team by reminding them that they have somehow won their last two away matches, albeit at Stoke and West Ham. However, only one result looks probable here and it may just be a case of how many. City then host West Brom before a slightly trickier trip to Burnley, but in all honesty nine points out of nine looks the most likely outcome. Oh and then Leicester come to the Etihad, so make that 12 points out of 12 in all likelihood and the loss at Anfield will be a distant memory.

Liverpool – Swansea (a), Huddersfield (a), Spurs (h)
Life post Coutinho hasn’t started too bad eh? The weekend defeat of City will undoubtedly inspire confidence around the Kop camp that the Brazilian will not be missed that much. The short term outlook for Liverpool looks pretty tasty starting with a trip to bottom club Swansea. This seems ripe for the likes of Salah, Firmino and Mane to carry on their form and the bigger problem may lie with choosing your captain this week with City playing Toon making the likes of Kun, Sterling and KdB seemingly as good a choice as your Liverpool representative.

Another away trip follows, this time to Huddersfield meaning that no-one will be selling their Liverpool assets anytime soon. Indeed with Liverpool and City’s matches looking so attractive the double up on both seems not only sensible but potentially imperative if one wants to climb the rankings. The hosting of Spurs follows in GW26 and while this may be the toughest looking of the fixtures, bear in mind that Spurs haven’t won any of their last seven matches at Anfield, losing five.

The fixtures scream more goals for Klopp’s men and there is a possibility, albeit small that a clean sheet may also appear in the next two – especially if they can get Van Dijk fit.

West Ham – Bournemouth (h), Crystal Palace (h), Brighton (a)
It’s just one defeat in eight for Moyesies Boysies and all hail the Ginge. Moyes I mean, not James Collins, although the other Ginger’s return to the team has clearly given the team a boost. It’s true what they say about Duracell. Where am I going with this? Dunno really, but there’s a load of waffle about not a lot. But you’ve all come to expect that. Ah the fixtures, yes! It’s Bournemouth at home this week in a match that should produce goals seeing that neither side seems capable of a clean sheet and are relatively free scoring right now. The Hammers have scored in all of there last five while the Cherries have scored nine in their last four. The two met on the south coast in GW20 with the match ending 3-3. The story here is clearly to hold onto Arnie or Lanzini if you still have them hanging about after their DGW.

Palace then visit the Olympic Stadium and the Hammers are unbeaten in the last five meetings with the Eagles, winning three of those. Moyes then takes them down to Brighton which could potentially be a tighter affair – but fear not, because Watford then visit and they are an open game ripe for all comers right now.

Chelsea – Brighton (a), Bournemouth (h), Watford (a)
I’ve included Chelsea here, somewhat reluctantly, but their fixtures convinced me it would be remiss of me to omit them. However, I am overly conscious that the form of Hazard and Morata (coupled with the form of Kane, Firmino, Kun, Liverpool & City mids etc) dictate that Chelsea attackers don’t offer great FPL value right now. With Hazard that could change quickly as we know, but the value with the Blues looks undoubtedly at the back with Alonso and Azpilicueta.

With Alonso looking as dangerous going forward as anyone in a blue shirt his current form makes him incredible value – in the last seven gameweeks the Spaniard has scored 6, 14, 6, 14, 6, 7 and 8 (61pts) – he and Azpi are no’s 1&2 in the defenders charts and a double up for the next four matches looks a low-risk, high-reward plan especially as West Brom are the visitors to follow the next three above mentioned matches.

Unfavourable Fixtures
Burnley – Man United (H), Newcastle (A), Man City (H)
Most of us probably own Burnley defensive assets of some sort in the hope of playing them at home every other week but occasionally there comes a period when this method comes unstuck. And it has just arrived. Their next two home games see them welcome the powers of Manchester. If you feel that they can resist them both then carry on as you were, but they won’t.

Burnley may have built their success on not conceding many with just 0.7 goals conceded per game at home so far but the Mancs have scored 49 goals between them away from home this season. Which is exactly an average of 2.13 per game. EVERY GAME! Well ok, not every game, because it’s an average, but you know what me mean 😉

If you can bench your asset for those 2 then fine as you may get away with playing him at Newcastle inbetween and it’s Swansea and Saints up next after City.

Basically, if you have them, bench them. If you don’t have them then even better and don’t go buying them!

Spurs – Southampton (A), Man United (H), Liverpool (A)
Come again?

Spurs?!

Yep.

Ok, so maybe you have a weeks grace here as it is Southampton away up next and Spurs did for them royally just recently (5-2), but beyond that that they may have issues. It’s Man United and Liverpool in the immediacy but then it’s also Arsenal after that. And Spurs have a woeful record against the top teams as of late. They may shrug it off and continue but it’s certainly worth noting that their fixtures ahead aren’t against the weaker teams who they like to beat up easily.

West Brom – Everton (A), Man City (A), Southampton (H)
Beware of false prophets! A year and a season ago we were all over West Brom centre backs as they were keeping the odd clean sheet and scoring for fun. And this past weekend they did just that. We like to refer to it as the era of #GMac But don’t be fooled into buying them. They have Everton and Man City away next and then Chelsea away after the Saints game. It’s a wretched run. They may well get some corners, and who knows the odd CB goal from them, but there won’t be many clean sheets in that lot. Don’t be fooled, stay away.

Swansea – Liverpool (H), Arsenal (H), Leicester (A)
Look, we’re not stupid. Good fixtures or bad, nobody is willingly buying a Swansea player. We just felt duty bound to point them out,given the fixtures and given the point of the article!

Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Fixture Analysis Gameweek 24. This article was written by Cookie and Init

Follow @AdamalcockFF247

Follow @SteveCook9