Fantasy Football Fixtures Game-week 26

Fantasy Football Fixtures Game-week 26

Twenty-five down, thirteen to go and most of us are still wondering just what the flip is going on in the Premier League this season! Easily one of the hardest to predict, it has at the very least been an even bigger challenge than usual and the actual footie itself, well, it’s been entertaining to say the least! This time last year we were looking at Nigel Pearson’s Leicester as nothing more than cannon fodder, destined for a return to the second tier. However, these past twelve months have seen a remarkable turn around in fortunes as evidenced by the dismantling of Manchester City last weekend, moving them five points clear of nearest rivals, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal. Has this crazy turnaround had a knock on effect in the league? Maybe, but with just a few droplets of normality seeping back in we’re still far from a position of comfort. Here at FF247 towers we will plug away though, as we attempt to bring you the best FPL tips we can during this rocky season. The blanks and doubles are almost upon us so, at the very least, we’ve got a few opportunities to crawl our way back into the top 100k(!) and with a bit of luck use our chips a lot more effectively than those who played them early in the season. As ever, the fixture schedule for all teams remains a key aspect of our plans – even more so with the key game-weeks ahead. So, without further ado, lets have a butchers at what sorry bunches to avoid over the coming weeks, and of course those teams who we will need to consider for the long journey back to respectability. Whether we reach our goals or not, we’ll keep fighting until the end! Now, some nice fixtures to get us started; sounds good? Lets do this…

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
Chelsea – Newcastle (H), Southampton (A), Norwich (A)
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After a lengthy slumber and what seemed, shockingly, like a one way ticket to the Championship under ex-legend Jose Mourinho, Chelsea are finally showing a few signs of the team that were crowned champions last summer. Still far from their best but the defeats have at least dried up. The previous six league outings have brought four draws and two wins and a few clean sheets; not all that bad for a ‘team in transition’. How on earth that is the case when we’re talking about the current champions is beyond us! But, it is what it is. Looking ahead, a pair of juicy fixtures sandwich a tricky one but all in all we see a decent amount of points here for the likes of Thibaut Courtois who managed to get himself five points last week, despite failing to notch a clean-sheet, Branislav Ivanovic, Willian or berserker striker, Diego Costa. In the absence of last seasons man-of-the-moment the latter two have been left to run the show and we expect them to continue to pick up points in our featured games. Right, lets talk fixtures…

What an easy start. There’s nothing quite like a home tie with Newcastle. Okay, so there’s Villa and Sunderland, but hey, this lot aren’t much better after all. A handful of decent transfers this month sees the Toon Army in better, at least on paper, shape than they have been so far this season but even a half empty Chelsea should brush them aside. There’s great potential in this game for Diego Costa and anyone who brings him in, or indeed already has him, and you might be well served with a cheeky capo shout this weekend. Just pray that he has taken his anger out on team-mates during the week in training! Now on to the tricky game we mentioned, Southampton. All it took was a return to fitness of man-mountain Fraser Forster, with the help of his brother Niles, for the Saints to get right back on track. The big man has only played five games this season but has managed to keep five clean-sheets, amassing a very nifty thirty-six points in the process. So, how do we call this game? It’s not that easy to be fair but looking at Chelsea’s games against more difficult opposition recently it suggests a draw is the likely outcome. Whether that’s a 0-0 or a 3-3 we will have to wait and see but either way, there’s some points to be had there, from both teams perhaps. Lastly, another tasty fixture. This time it’s Alex Neil’s low flying Canaries, who are on a run of five straight defeats and have only the powers of Cameron Jerome and Steven I’m great for five minutes then forget ’bout it” Naismith to call upon. If Norwich get any sort of result here then we may as well throw our hat at this tips malarkey. Banker away win if ever there was one and another game where the bruiser could easily bag a big haul.

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West Ham – Norwich (A), Sunderland (H), Tottenham (H)
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It’s funny how things go, or at least how they are going this season! A few weeks ago it was all about Dimitri Payet and jumping on his wagon while he was still a differential. Well, he’s no longer a differential and he’s been doing naff all other than hit the woodwork and generally drawing tears from us fantasy folk. All is not lost, however, as we can find West Ham in a decent seventh place in the form table with just the one bad result from the last six (we wont count the Saints loss as bad, as they’re good!) against low lying Newcastle in game-week twenty-two but other than that, form has been pretty good and the aforementioned Payet has hit the woodwork once and come very close to scoring on a few other occasions, too. Our first two featured fixtures present a nice opportunity at both ends of the field for West Ham with goals and clean-sheets surely there for the taking before we round off with a big derby and a game that could be a good watch for the neutral. Lets get cracking with the easy ones then…

The second appearance for Norwich already; says it all about where they’re headed over the coming weeks! Five defeats on the bounce as we said before, this weekend should really have no other outcome than three points for West Ham with attacking talents Michail Antonio, Dimitri Payet and Enner Valencia proving way too much for a team who has shipped sixteen in their last five outings. No joke, sixteen times! If Payet fails against this lot then we may as well throw our hat a…. oh dear. Moving swiftly on, big Sam’s Black Cats make the long trip to London in Game-week twenty-seven, the dreaded Blank Week, for another encounter that should be all one sided. Sammy may still have a bitter taste in his mouth, although that could easily be the Northern Cuisine, about how things ended for him at the Boleyn but, is there any way of pulling off a big result here? Knowing this season, probably, but we just cant see it so we’re going for a comfortable home win in this one. Now, the tricky game; Spurs have been fantastic this season. All season, which is something that cant be said about previous campaigns. With Kane leading the line and Bamidele Alli and Christian Eriksen in behind running amok, the Lilywhites are probably the favorites for this game but with it being a derby, you just never know. Recent history shows an almost perfect split, with West Ham having won three on the spin vs Spurs before failing to win any of the last three, losing twice and picking up a draw. 3-2-1 then. Make of that what you will but it does, to us at least, suggest that it will be a close game and one that will be almost guaranteed to have goals for both teams.

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Stoke – Bournemouth (A), Aston Villa (H), Newcastle (H)
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What on earth is going on at the Brittania? It seems like only yesterday that Sparky Hughes had stumbled upon the perfect formula. Half decent defence + brilliant goalkeeper + smorgasbord of dodgy attackers = solid team. That’s how it was for a good few months and it did seem to be working a treat, but in recent weeks Stoke have been found out a bit. Well, a lot actually. Just the one win from six, no goals scored in four and 3x three-nil beatdowns from Everton, Manchester United and Leicester later and the mass exodus of Orcs from fantasy teams around the globe is well and truly under way. As usual, though, said masses do miss the odd trick and we feel like Stoke may, may just be one of them. Woeful results behind, the next three outings provide the perfect opportunity to get back on track and, without a doubt, Stoke have the softest fixtures of the teams we will cover this week. Question is; are they good enough for us to put the recent collapse to the back of our minds and stick with them? There’s only one way to find out…

An away day at Bournemouth gets us started; not exactly a fixture that will have Stoke, or any other team, quaking in their boots over. The Cherries have shown a bit of life recently, picking up some decent results but they are by no means consistent and we feel that Stoke should get three points here. It might be an idea for Sparky to have a cardboard cutout of Ryan Shawcross on the pitch, in an attempt to fool the other defenders into thinking the beanpole is actually fit and playing. A life-sized piece of cardboard would probably be more effective than Muniesa anyway. Now, it has taken a while but we’ve got there eventually; a fixture against Villa! Lovely, just what the doctor ordered. A couple of draws and an actual, real life win last week against Norwich sees Villa move out of the home they made for themselves at the bottom of the form table, but, we’re not getting blinded by this slight upturn. Villa are a shambles and it’s only a matter of time before they have their asses handed to them again. Liverpool get first crack at them this weekend and even they should bang a few away, “softening” them up for their trip to the Brittania. Only a handful of teams are capable of losing to Villa and we just cant see Stoke being one of those teams. Even on an off day. Having dispatched the sorry Villans, home advantage remains for Game-week twenty-eight as the Potters welcome Newcastle for another outing that should go well for the home side. Earlier, we had an almost perfect split over six fixtures with the Spuds and West Spam; Stoke and Newcastle are evenly split though with two wins each and a pair of draws. However, in the last four meetings Stoke have only conceded once to Newcastle (only scored three as well, mind) and are unbeaten in that time. All signs lead to a home win here but if recent history is anything to go by then this might not be the massive-haul-bringing fixture we desire, but there are certainly good points on the go.

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Leicester – Arsenal (A), Norwich (H), West Brom (H)
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To think, we here at FF247 towers had the cheek, the audacity, the absolute stupidity to have this lot in an unfavorable section recently. What on earth was that about? (Oi!, cheeky – ed). Well, no more as the Foxes are now officially legitimate title contenders having rocked up to the Etihad last weekend and dished out a right spanking and moved back to the summit of the form table with two draws and four wins from the last six. It’s amazing to see this team develop. Earlier in the season, it was gung-ho every week with no thought for defence whatsoever; you scored three?… yeah, good luck, we’ve got five and we’re gunning for more! Every week it was attacking madness and Ranieri’s men managed to pull off the results. Then, things quietened down up front and out of nowhere that leaky defence started keeping shutout’s all over the place, making Leicester a very hard team to predict for the opposition. It has all come together now though as the cleanies are still there, and the goals are well and truly back. Twenty-six points in three weeks from Riyad Mahrez and twenty-two from top scorer, Jamie Vardy, has left those of us who sold one, or both of them scratching our heads and wondering why, why on earth we did such silly things. Last weeks fixture was an unsavoury one, or so we thought, and they walked it, so no worries this weekend then, right? Who cares, they’re on fire and will get points anywhere by the look of things, however frustrating it may be. That’s enough waffle now, lets get on to some fixtures so we can all move away from this painful bunch…

There is pretty much no point in trying to predict the outcome of this one but, one thing is for sure; it’s going to be one hell of a game and there should be juicy hauls available from both attacks and little chance of a clean-sheet for either. Leicester will be keen to keep their title march going, obviously, and this game is their chance to overturn the spanking Arsenal gave them in the first league meeting of this season when the once bullet-proof Chilean, Alexis Sanchez, made a show of them by scoring a hat-trick in a 5-2 mauling. That scoreline says it all. 5-2. Attackers at the ready, this one is going to be a barnstormer! Next up is a, well, gift of a fixture having played City and Arsenal, away, on the bounce. A return to the King Power of course and a visit of Norwich. We’ve gone in on Norwich already so we’ll leave them be in this section and just say that if Leicester fail to win this game then we might as well throw ou…. sigh. You catch the drift. Lastly, and rounding out this weeks favorable fixtures we’ve got another home game for Claudio and his merry men, this time against Leicester’s polar opposite, West Bromwich Albion. The flair and creativity of Leicester vs the dullness of West Brom. To be fair, the Baggies could learn a thing or two about defending from Leicester just now; who ever saw that one coming? A 3-2 at the Hawthorns all the way back in game-week eleven is a decent indication of how we see this next meeting going. Except this time there may be a zero involved, rather than a two. N’Golo Kante and Danny Drinkwater should boss the midfield in this one with minimum fuss, allowing the other two to do their thing as usual and break the Baggies defence, as many times as they wish. Full steam ahead for the next three then. If they get nine points then we may well be looking at the most unlikely, most deserving and downright fun champions elect the Premier League has seen. Lets hope they can do it as it would be great for football as a whole.

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BE WARY OF
Norwich – West Ham (H), Leicester (A), Chelsea (H)
Predictably, seeing as how we’ve covered these woeful games already, Norwich are the first team we suggest you run a mile from. Unless we’re talking about some sort of last gasp necessity backup defender or goalkeeper that can rot away on the subs bench then all things Canaries should, if they haven’t already, be flying out of your squads. Terrible form, terrible fixtures and with just the previously mentioned attacking lightweights to fall back on we cant see Norwich scraping even a single point from these next three. Sixteen conceded and one scored from the last five; do we need to go any further? Lets not. It’s actually depressing writing / thinking about something that there is nothing good to say about. Tiring, too. Delia might want to put some steroids in the half time scones, or whatever the hell they’re eating over there. Other than losses of course.

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Swansea – Southampton (H), Tottenham (A), Arsenal (A)
Just when the Swans find a bit of form and consistency, they’re handed this lot! Typical. In previous seasons, Gylfi Sigurdsson has, at times, been FPL gold with consistent points for us all to feast on and the weekly lure of set-piece duty. Having been deployed all over the shop this season, Gylfi has started to find then net again in recent weeks, prompting FPL’ers the world over to jump on that old reliable Siggy wagon. He / they may still do okay for themselves here and there but the next three are not the kind of games we like to attack, usually. Back-in-business Southampton this weekend then, which wont be easy at all, followed by back-to-back trips to London for ties against Spurs and the Gooners. Might there be a couple of points in here for that guy who now manages them? He’s so boring that we’ve forgotten his name but, as for points, unlikely. Note: after these three toughies Swansea have a handful of really favorable games so having a Swan parked off on your bench might not be the worst idea, especially if the new striker who’s name we cant spell is plying decently by that time.

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West Brom – Everton (A), Crystal Palace (H), Leicester (A)
Not that they’re as popular with us FPL folk as would usually be the case with a Pulis run team, the Baggies have some awful, awful, awful games ahead. We mentioned recently that the Pulis code may have finally been cracked and that does not bode well for what lies ahead. Everton away this weekend could go horribly wrong and that’s followed by what is actually an okay game at home to Palace. They might win that one actually as Palace have a bad injury list. The fun stops there though as it’s then off to the King Power for an absolute battering at the hands of Leicesterlona. Not much to aim at there and when considering they follow on from Leicester with ties against United and Arsenal, it’s hard to see where West Brom players will fit in our squads. The future is bleak, the future is quite possibly the Championship.

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Newcastle – Chelsea (A), BLANK, Southampton (A)
A few decent signings and the eye is back on Newcastle a wee bit. Jonjo Shelvey and Andros Townsend are two good players on their day and are certainly far superior than the drivel already on offer at Newcastle. Add Doumbia in there with Wijnaldum and you’d be forgiven for thinking it a nifty little team now. They’re still managed by the most confused looking man on the planet though so it remains to be seen whether ‘ol Umbrella Steve can get anything out of them. For the next three weeks that doesn’t look likely anyway and Toon are part of the blank week in twenty-seven and have two rough games either side of it. Chelsea this weekend and we’ve covered that. No chance there and then lastly it’s away again, this time at St Mary’s for another very difficult afternoons work.

We might as well add in the other teams who have no game in game-week twenty-seven here, even though it’s been well documented but worth another mention nonetheless. Manchester City, Everton and Liverpool all miss out also so be aware that any more than three players from these clubs in our current squads will result in ten, or less, players to field for the blank. Stash some good ones, by all means, but be extra vigilant about squad structure over these next couple of weeks.

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ONE WEEK WONDERS
Aston Villa v Liverpool
Okay, so we’ve literally just said to be careful with players from the blank week and to try to limit the number of empty spaces for game-week twenty-seven. However, we also said to stash the better players if you can and one of those players may happen to be Roberto Firmino. A sweet fixture this weekend for Liverpool, although they’ll probably draw it, and another weak team for Firmino to pick on. We don’t care to even contemplate pondering where the Scousers next clean-sheet will come from but Villa is as good a shout as any and at the other end, well, there may be big points available once again. Liverpool are at least scoring goals under Klopp and with hauls of 13, 18 and another 13 in recent weeks young Roberto could well be a great shout this week again.

Sunderland v Manchester United
United are such a weird team. One minute they cant score for diamonds and keep regular clean sheets and the next they’re scoring all the time and keeping very few cleanies. A mixed bag if ever there was one but we feel like this weekends game against Sunderland could be one that goes well at both ends. The Black Cats aren’t exactly solid and with United’s recent upturn in attacking threat (is it even still Louis fully in charge, or is Giggs now getting more influence?) we feel like any one of Anthony Martial, Wayne Rooney or young Jessie Lingard could go well in this one. At the other end there really should still be enough, even though the backline is down to scraps, to handle Sunderland and keep them at bay. Good potential here but maybe stick to the attack if possible. United’s attack that is.

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Fixture Fun

The game-week 26 DEADLINE is SATURDAY 13TH Feb at 11.45am GMT

There are a few FA Cup replays this midweek to contend with and the PL teams involved are as follows –
Liverpool
West Ham
West Brom

Be sure to check on your players once these have concluded. Any suspensions or cards incurred do count toward the league.

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Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Fixtures Game-week 26 – Fantasy Premier League 2015-16. This article was written by NIN

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