Fantasy Football Fixtures Game-week 13

Fantasy Football Fixtures Game-week 13

One thing they don’t teach you in fantasy football school is to have a good sense of humour but boy do you need one sometimes and no more so than when the International Breaks come around. The last one decimated many a previously healthy squad. We are of course still in the middle of the current one and await to see what ‘joys’ it will bestow upon us but with the likes of Payet and Bony getting themselves injured, even before it began, most will be hoping for better news this time around. Even barring any more major injury scares we already have Wenger associating Sanchez with phrases like ‘burn-out’ and ‘red zone’ and current golden boy Jamie Vardy giving the FA a headache over ‘finger-gate’. So should anyone still have any players left for GW13 here are the fixtures, for better or worse, for this week and beyond…

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The Tracker…
We have rated each teams fixtures on a sliding scale. Remember that this is just our opinion and you may feel differently but if nothing else it gives you a nice easy visual aid as to each teams upcoming games…

We do have a comprehensive library of other useful trackers including the all singing, all dancing interactive one from Calvin Clyne and you can find them all here – Fixture Trackers

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FAVOURABLE FIXTURES
Arsenal – West Brom (A), Norwich (A), Sunderland (H)
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[/three_fourth]Regardless of what state Chile send Sanchez back in, the Gunners sit in 2nd place and will be viewing the next four games as their chance to take top spot as they are all winnable and current leaders Man City have a markedly tougher run ahead of them before the pair clash in GW17 in a game which may decide which of them takes this year’s Christmas No1. Two of the next three games are on the road but that may not be a bad thing for Arsenal as we shall explain. They have won five out of six away games so far, the only defeat being that controversial one to Chelsea. No other team has scored more away goals this season as 14 of their 22 have been on their travels. If the league table was based soley on away games Arsenal would be top by two points with a goal difference of +9 (the best in that particular table).

Conversely if the league table was based soley on home games then West Brom would actually be 19th! With a goal difference of -5 (the worst in that particular table). That alone makes this weeks encounter look fairly one-sided in favour of Arsenal. It’s then a trip down to Norwich in GW14 and despite them not being quite as bad as West Brom at home (they’d be 13th) it’s still a game you would expect Arsenal to win fairly comfortably.

Arsenal have fared slightly worse at home but still not terribly and they’d be 5th in a home league table having won three, drawn two and lost one. The surprising thing is perhaps the lack of goals as they have only managed 8 in those 6 games. That statistic will be severely challenged in GW15 though as the visitors are Sunderland! No prizes for guessing who would be bottom in an away form league. No prizes for guessing who’s conceded the most away from home (18!). No prizes for guessing who will win this one.

Beyond the featured games, Arsenal travel to Villa, which makes it four attractive games on the bounce, before things get challenging as it’s then that Man City clash we mentioned earlier followed by a trip to Southampton.

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Crystal Palace – Sunderland (H), Newcastle (H), Everton (A)
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[/three_fourth]Palace are another team that show contrasting fortunes home and away. Only Arsenal (5) have won more games away from home than Palace (4) and last week’s win at Anfield was the icing on the cake for Pardew and he certainly milked it for all it was worth! The bad news here is that they are better away than they are at home and the next two games are at Selhurst Park. The good news is that the opponents for the forthcoming two home games are Sunderland and Newcastle! The North East’s finest have managed just one victory away from home between them in twelve games, conceding a whopping 31 goals combined. They’ve only managed to score 8 between them as well and Sunderland account for 6 of those. There will be a temptation to load up on Palace ahead of these two games and rightly so. Just be aware though that their main man Cabaye is just one yellow card away from a ban.

Palace then go to Everton, which is of course is a different challenge all together, but with their away form being what it is we wouldn’t be afraid to field any Palace players in that one. Southampton at home is next in another difficult game but if you can keep the faith through those two then Stoke and Bournemouth lie in wait to get Pardewed and to help matters along both are at their favoured destinations – the other team’s ground!

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Everton – Aston Villa (H), Bournemouth (A), Crystal Palace (A)
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[/three_fourth]Don’t say you weren’t warned! If you jumped on Lukaku or Deulofeu a couple of weeks back when their fixtures suddenly turned for the better then we salute you. If you somehow jumped on Kone then we would be amazed. And still question your judgement in equal measure! After being handed an opening fixture list from hell Everton somehow weathered that storm and left themselves in decent shape, all things considered. The fixtures turned in GW11 with Sunderland at home and they duly delivered. The tricky one was always West Ham away but a point gained along with more Lukaku joy will have cheered up many. Their next six games sees them face four of the current bottom six. Everton were simply delicious in that Sunderland destruction. Whether that was more them being great or ‘Big Sam’s latest problem’ just being poor, we aren’t sure – it was probably a little of both. Either way that was Everton at their best and looking at the fixtures we can see at least three games in the next six where they may be allowed to showcase that again.

GW13 is certainly one of those as Villa come to Goodison without a win in their last eleven, and nine of those were defeats. They’ve conceded 13 in their last 5 away games and sit 18th in the away league table. They have scored 6 in those though so perhaps whilst an Everton attacker is wise, a defender may be riskier. After that it’s Bournemouth away who aren’t quite as porous at home but have still shipped 9 in 6 and sit 18th in the home table having won just 1 in 6 at Dean Court.

The third game is Palace at home and we mentioned earlier Pardew et al like a road game but equally Everton are averaging two goals a game at home this season so don’t be put off the potential here. Their next three aren’t the worst either with trips to Norwich and Newcastle and a home game with Leicester sandwiched in between those.

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Chelsea – Norwich (H), Spurs (A), Bournemouth (H)
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[/three_fourth]Chelsea!!! Hmmmmmmm. Not sure even Jose himself would put them in this, the favourable category. We have though! Why? Because they have four home games in the next six and all are against teams you would ordinarily expect them to not only win against but make mincemeat of. Making mincemeat of anyone may be a distant memory for Chelsea, but seriously, given the talent at their disposal, if they can’t dispatch of Norwich, Bournemouth, Sunderland and Watford at home, then Joses’s time really is up.

Within their next six games there are two away and they are both troublesome indeed being trips to Leicester and Spurs. Those two are 3rd and 4th in the home table whilst Chelsea languish in 16th in the away one. Clearly the home games represent the opportunity then but we’d still play any Chelsea attackers at Leicester as they have conceded the 2nd most goals at home in the league with 11 against. So that’s five games in six that we’d maybe / perhaps trust a Chelsea asset. Do you feel lucky, well do you, punk? You’d probably have to.

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Southampton – Stoke (H), Man City (A), Villa (H)
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[/three_fourth]If ever there was a case for a ‘middle of the road’ section in our fixtures article then Southampton would probably fill it this time as they feature here due to two of the next three being both at home and favourable but the future also looks bleak or at least challenging at best! Much has been made of the Saints being home birds but the reality is that they have 20 points so far and 10 have been gained at home.

Regardless of perception or reality you’d have to fancy them against Stoke and Villa at home and those two may be enough to hold any Southampton coverage for now, despite the tricky looking trip to Man City in between. Beyond that may be of more concern though as they then face Palace, Spurs and Arsenal on the bounce. No easy ones there.

BE WARY OF…
Bournemouth – Swansea (A), Everton (H), Chelsea (A)
Nobody will be looking to bring a Bournemouth player in anytime soon so this is perhaps just a reminder to anybody saddled with one already that they can let them go if they so wish. Things aren’t going great and they’ve lost the last four. They’ve conceded 16 since they last won at the back end of September. Three of the next four are Everton, Chelsea and Man United. Yeah, we’d sell.

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Newcastle – Leicester (H), Crystal Palace (A), Liverpool (H)
Likewise nobody is looking to buy but some may have the odd Wijnaldum as a hangover from his 4 goal promise of things to come. A promise unfulfilled.  It’s leaky Leicester at home this week so keep him as a differential for this one by all means but be aware that the fixtures beyond that aren’t great. They also face Spurs and Everton in two of the next three after this lot.

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Norwich – Chelsea (A), Arsenal (H), Watford (A)
If the word was cautionary for the previous two then the word here simply is ‘DON’T’. If the above three aren’t bad enough then consider that they then face Everton, Man United and Spurs on the bounce. As we said….

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Man City – Liverpool (H), Southampton (H), Stoke (A)
Much like Southampton they probably shouldn’t really be in this section, they should be floating in the middle somewhere but given as many either own a City player or two, or will at least be considering adding a certain forward in the near future, we thought it’d be wise to at least mention them as at least three of their next six may be tricky and at least two of them the complete opposite! City are of course the league’s top scorers with 26 goals so when we say tricky we probably simply mean that they aren’t games that they would be expected to rack up a cricket score in! The ones which fall into this category are the three highlighted above as well as a trip to Arsenal in GW17. You can however pencil in a Brian Lara style performance for GW’s 16 and 18 as they face Swansea and Sunderland and both are at home.

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One Week Wonders
Let’s chase goals! This is our weekly ‘punt’ where we attempt to pinpoint any games or teams where we feel there may be a high chance of goals and therefore fantasy points on offer…

1) Everton v Aston Villa
Everton proved recently against Sunderland just what they can do to a poor team and luckily enough another one of those rocks up to Goodison this week. Away from home Villa have conceded over 2 goals on average per game. Unless new boss Remi has a magic wand we wouldn’t bet against that average being pushed higher this weekend by Lukaku and co.

2) Newcastle v Leicester
Newcastle may have only scored 13 goals this season but no team outside of the top eight has scored more at home (11) than them. Leicester like a goal too, as we know, and have an average of two per game on the road. Both teams also don’t mind conceding a few! Newcastle have let 9 past them at home whilst Leicester have conceded the most away of any team in the top thirteen having also conceded 9. There should be a few on offer in this one.

3) Crystal Palace v Sunderland
As we said earlier, Palace have been no great shakes at home but we can finally throw the stats book out of the window as Sunderland arrive this week having conceded… (*goes outside and picks stat book back up)… 18 away from home. 18. Palace could have a field day here if it clicks for them.

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Fixture Fun
It is of course the International break and so many of your players will be scattered far and wide and will still have games to play this week. There are too many to mention but as ever be sure to check on their health and availability once they start filtering back to their clubs and be sure to check on the manager’s press conferences from Thursday onwards and Cookie will be around on Friday as usual with the all important round up.

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Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Fixtures Game-week 13 – Fantasy Premier League 2015-16. This article was written by Inittowinit

Follow @AdamalcockFF247