Fantasy Football Fixture Analysis Gameweek 3
Welcome to Fantasy Football Fixture Analysis Gameweek 3. GW2 FPL 2018/19 may now forever more be remembered as Jamie Jackson Week. There’s a fair to middling chance that prior to about 4.25pm on Friday many (most) of you will never have even heard of Jamie Jackson before. Yeah sure enough, he’s got a hallowed ‘blue tick’ on his twitter page and he’s a ‘journalist’ for The Guardian but we aren’t talking Henry Winter or Neil Custis levels of notoriety here. I’ll freely admit I didn’t have a scooby who he was either. I do now though! He’s just about the most hated person on twitter within FPL circles as we speak. Even Ben Crellin blushed. Bobby Madley’s publicist was perhaps the only person to benefit from the whole debacle, in a Tony Blair style ‘good week to bury bad news’ style.
We digress (before we get sued!)… On to this weeks Fixtures article –
My much younger, less good looking and much smaller (than Rosco, who isn’t?!) predecessor AT (don’t worry he’s not dead!) spent last week telling you all about the bleeding obvious. Gems such as ‘Man City and Liverpool are good, Newcastle are bad’ fell from his expert fantasy hands onto the keyboard. And he was correct to do so. I’ll not be so lazy though, rest assured. Maybe…
To be fair to our young whipper snapper he gave you Man City who spanked Huddersfield, Everton who were also victorious, just, and Liverpool who limped home, in a grey fashion….
Unfortunately he also advised you avoid both Newcastle and Brighton like the plague. And both went and got (relatively) positive results. Which is quite fitting really given as the mantra ‘Bloody AT’ was almost trending on site after GW1! I’m not entirely sure why it was but it seems he may have spent pre-season systematically destroying peoples teams one by one like some demented FPL version of T-1000.
I’m sure it was just a quirk of the scheduling calendar that meant I could follow up next after his every fixtures article….
Favourable Fixtures
Manchester City – Wolves (A), Newcastle (H), Fulham (H) There was a benign early passage of play, way before City even opened the scoring, it involved Ederson and Stones playing it across their own goal line, virtually. If you love football you’ll have seen it and smiled wryly as I did. It was almost Pep eating himself, such was it’s audacity and daring. The whole thing took a matter of seconds, but probably encapsulated Pep’s whole philosophy, maybe to an n’th degree that even he didn’t daren’t envisage. But it also then ballooned a while later into Ederson himself making a pinpoint through ball, an 80 yard one, for Kun’s opener. Surely the best and most deliberate assist we’ve ever seen from a keeper?
Does it really matter who they play next? Probably not, they’re streets ahead of anyone. Your main difficulty is of course second guessing which players will actually play. Fortunately that’s not our job here on Fixtures, we just point you at the correct teams! I will however give you a steer as to my own thinking on this, as a bonus (!), I have Ederson and Kun currently and I’m fixing to add Mendy to those. I’m ignoring the mids for now as it’s clearly a mine field. Mendy thinks he’s a mid anyway, so that’s good enough for me.
Arsenal – West Ham (H), Cardiff (A), Newcastle (A)
Wenger out! Oh no, hang on… we went there, did that and he left. Eventually…. Emery out?! Not quite yet. Yeah ok the first two results haven’t quite been perfect but then again neither were the fixtures. The next ones will probably tell us far more as they’re all ‘winnable’ on paper. And it’s not just the next 3 either, Emery and co go all the way until GW11 now until they next meet one of the Big 6. They have a clear run now, as such. Make of it what you will but GW’s 3 to 10 will be definitive for them and also perhaps Emery himself.
West Ham at home is probably just the tonic they need right now as Pellegrini’s men have shipped 6 in 2 games and only scored 1 in response, and that was from the penalty spot. A couple of away trips follow but neither looks particularly daunting.
If you deliberately swerved the Gunners for their opening couple of games then that was probably wise but you can start to look at them as viable options from here on in. Certainly from an attacking point of view anyway. Personally I’d take a rain check on their defenders for now, until they all get their heads around this playing out from the back thing, or at least until Cech does finally stick one in his own net and is inevitably forced to pick up his walking stick and wander off into the distance like Grandpa from The Simpsons, muttering ‘bloody kids’ under his breath.
Chelsea – Newcastle (A), Bournemouth (H), Cardiff (H)
Would Sir like sauce on that? Sometimes the devil is in the detail. Or so it seems in football management. Seemingly, something as simple as reintroducing ketchup to the lunch service can reinvigorate an entire squadron of men these days. I’m being slightly facetious of course but ketchup is the new word for ‘fun’ in modern football management parlance. If the manager allows it he’s perceived as the relaxed type, if he doesn’t then he’s a disciplinarian. And so cyclical are these things that replacing the ‘no sauce’ Conte with the more ‘saucy’ Sarri was the logical step.
Whether it is indeed sauce, or simply the fresh approach from a manager known for his attacking style, the players certainly seem to have embraced it and they have 2 wins out of 2 under their belts now and 3 goals in each game. Even Morata has scored. Miracle sauce?
If you’re looking for cheap options who play for a top side then you could do worse than look at the likes of Luiz and Pedro right now. Alonso carries a more premium label but if the hype is to be believed then he’s more than likely going to score a lot more than most mids or even forwards who cost the same. You’d have to imagine that Hazard may just embrace playing in a free flowing Sarri side too.
Best of the rest
Crystal Palace – Watford (A), Southampton (H), Huddersfield (A)
This is just a heads up really that you have 6 weeks of Palace bliss, if you choose to accept it, and then 5 weeks of hell. Well ok, probably not hell, but it’s all relative. After the above 3 games Woy also leads his twoops into games against Newcastle, Bournemouth and Wolves. And then things get potentially more wocky, albeit gradually so, with Everton, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs and Man United being their next 5.
Richarlison – Bournemouth (A), Huddersfield (H), West Ham (H)
Fun fact, our young Brazilliant hero has never scored a professional goal without Marco Silva being tucked into his left sock and operating him by remote control. Ok, so that may not be strictly true but it doesn’t feel that far removed from the reality of his career in England thus far. Robot Rich has a decent run of games ahead of him. The ones noted above are punctuated by a trip to Arsenal but even after that he gets a go at Fulham, Leicester and Palace.
Unfavourable Fixtures
Cardiff – Huddersfield (A), Arsenal (H), Chelsea (A)
When you need a 97th minute penalty save to get a point in a 0-0 at home to Newcastle you probably know it’s going to be a long season. Huddersfield away next is the proverbial 40 pointer. Beyond that classic it’s Arsenal, Chelsea and Man City on the bounce and then Spurs and Liverpool in 2 of the following 4. Sell! Sell! Sell! Or rather, slap yourself hard in the face for buying in the first place.
Spurs – Man United (A), Watford (A), Liverpool (H)
Take a pic. It’s not often you find Spurs hidden down here. It’s more cautionary than anything though as we know they can perform in any given game, from an attacking perspective. I probably just wouldn’t bank on any of their defenders for a few weeks, that’s all really.
Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Fixture Analysis Gameweek 3. This article was written by Inittowinit
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Many thanks Init. Mentioned a couple I’m looking at there so will be on later at some point with my transfer thoughts – whic have just changed with the Obi-Wan red card :cuss:
Thanks Robbo. Suffered the same here I suppose but he was always just a scrub for me. He can sit his ban out on my bench.
Oh, he’ll be doing the same for me but having watched him tonight I was very seriously considering playing him as part of my 4-4-2 in place of one of the premium defs. With any luck it will be rescinded as Salah had lost control of the ball just before he fouled him – though it was tight.
Robbo
I thought he was very impressive tonight. I’ll let you in to a secret, he remains in my Tips article this week, that’s just how impressed I was with him.
That and laziness from me.
Haha – absolutely GP – he looked very dangerous going forward. A cheaper PVA, with some actual defensive skills to boot
Nice write up, summary, forward thinking article. Great stuff.
Thank you Sir. Did you get my email?
Oh blimey no, will have a look.
Please do. It was nothing bad!
Great read here Init. I particularly like the AT ribbing…. never liked that fella. 😉
Definitely want to make some changes here. Had to use an FT last week to get rid of KDB and in a bit of a drunken state I convinced myself to make the swap to Pererya instead of Mane. Why you ask? So do I! What would you do here with 1 ft and 3.9 itb. One move Jota to Mane. Got no one of worth on my bench though or should I take a hit and sort something else out?
Dunno, don’t care.
D*ck
Haha Love you babe <3
congrats AT. 198 across 2 weeks.. superb
He’s coming of age. Now just need to stop him ruining everybody else’s teams!
true innit. cant believe i was sucked in to get iheanacho thanks to 1 of his drafts lol.
Pfffffft. Iheanacho will come good :lurker:
ill treat you to a double scoop ice cream AT if he gets a brace this weekend 😉
Great. Mint choc chip please.
awsm.. thats one of my fav. glad to find someone who likes mint
That was more your fault than his to be fair!
shhh lol
shhh lol.
jota to mane or chalobah to mkhi matt
Cheers Eresh which would you say is the most urgent?
i would say mane my friend.
Cheers mate
The Jota dispatch seems fine.
Cheers Kralin.
Do Jota to Mané while you still can before price changes
That’s what I’m thinking too. It’s only reason why I stuck this up now. Cheers mate
No idea who suggested Pereyra to you Matt (!), probably AT I’d imagine, but wasn’t that move supposed to be in conjunction with another?
Don’t drag me into this. I had no input!
Why not?! You should have been ‘helping’ him 😉 #itwasme #sorryMatt
I vaguely remember a big red bird somewhere nearby.
Haha it was with Bobby for a hit or just Mane and in the end I just went with Pererya and not take the hit. Atleast Mane and Bobby didn’t go off on one.
Be grand there is still 36 games left. I’m off to make up some numbers for that comp you think I actually look at. 😉
Right you are about Jamie Jackson, will not be surprised if he deletes his Twitter account
Time to start ruining a perfectly good team. My plan was to do Daniels & Firmino > Alonso & Arnie but I’m not looking to get Mané in.
I can make that happen with a hit like so:
Shaw, Bilva & Firmino > Alonso, Mane & Ings. Not sure it’s worth it though. What do y’all think?
Current team:
This a -4?
Got 2FT so the second option would be. Have a little cash spare to make either move later in the week if needed
I think Ings for Firmino is ushing your luck a bit. If (when) Kun is given a breather that would leave you Zaha and Ings up front. Could work, but…If you’re going to remove Firmino then I think you need to consider Mane.
Also no need to remove B Silva, is there?
Your team looks pretty well set up for this weekend.
‘pushing’
My original plan was just to get Alonso in and use Firmino as the funds to do that. I then thought I should get Mané (despite typing ‘not’ instead of ‘now’ in the first comment).
As one transfer to another I think they work.
Shaw > Alonso. Shaw will lose his spot soon and doesn’t carry the same goal threat
Bilva > Mane. Mané is scoring plenty and Bilva was pushed to wing back
Firmino > Ings. Need the funds and will have Mané as my 3rd Pool player.
Does that all seem like wishful thinking?
No, it sounds fine. Though I’m firmly in the 3 City, 3 Liverpool camp at the moment.
Hopefully Alonso will help cover that absence a bit.
I don’t suppose dropping Kenedy to a 4.5 would give you funds to upgrade Shaw?
So I am still a little hung up on tonight’s game. I went for vvd over Robertson as I though with out Robertson attacking returns he would be ment bonus points. Look at vvd tonight, loads of clearances and pass wind man of the match and missed out…. :/ don’t get how it works at all.
Well Robertson is my goto defender for Liverpool. He never disappoints
It’s a bit of a mystery, but Robertson would have got a good number of points for at least 1 big chance created plus his other attacking play. I think centre backs get the points when the team keeps a clean sheet having been on the back foot, full backs when it’s been mostly attack.