Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 10

Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 10 – Fantasy Premier League 2014

Well for most of us GW9 wasn’t much fun was it? The Costa will he, won’t he fun carried on right up until the last minute. The answer in the end was he wouldn’t but let’s face it even his likely replacements such as Aguero barely did much better than the man himself in his absence. Charlie Austin stuck his oar in for consideration this evening with a brace but we would stay away from him for now as we will explain later. The one real shining light, for the 13% odd that owned him anyway, and one to consider if you don’t, was Alexis Sanchez who was gifted a couple of goals by a beleaguered Sunderland defence. So let’s put GW9 behind us and see if we can identify the Sanchez of GW10 as we have a look at who has some great fixtures coming up and who has a nightmare run in front of them.

Before we examine the fixtures ahead, here is a reminder of a couple of essential Fantasy Football tools that you may wish to refer back to.

Mito produced some both outstanding and detailed analysis on the best rotation pairs for the season which can be found here –
Rotation Analysis Home and Away and Favourable fixtures

Calvin Clyne devised an ingenious interactive fixture tracker which can be found here –
Fixture Tracker – Fantasy Premier League 2014-15

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And so onto the teams and fixture themselves. Let’s begin with a very straightforward fixture tracker…

We have colour coded the fixtures in a simple fashion to allow you to judge your transfer and team selection plans accordingly:

[highlight_green]Green[/highlight_green] – We deem these to be winnable fixtures for the given team and should, in theory at least (!), harvest good fantasy points for you in the opening games. Aim to have a good nucleus of these players in your squad.

[highlight_yellow]Yellow[/highlight_yellow] – These are the fixtures that could go either way and do not stand out as being either particularly good or poor. If you have a player from a team in this category then do not be afraid to play them but take a considered view that it may or may not not be an explosive week for them.

[highlight_red]Red[/highlight_red]- These are the teams that we consider to have a difficult fixture and as such may be best avoided from a fantasy perspective. Aim to minimise any players that have a run of reds in the opening games.

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FAVOURABLE FIXTURES
Manchester City – Man Utd (h), QPR (a), Swansea (h)

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[/three_fourth]Ok so they lost at West Ham but don’t panic. Every team loses now and then. West Ham were heroic on the day and were epitomised by ex-Gooner Alex Song with an all round display that quite frankly put Fernando and/or Fernandinho (delete as appropriate) and Yaya to shame. We spoke last week of Silva being on the verge of points and he duly delivered with a magnificent goal but only after having been moved to a central ‘No 10’ role late on. We do despair with these managers at times. Silva, Mata and Ozil are all fine examples of classic ‘No 10’s’ who are oft shifted out wide to begin with and subsequently fail to produce until it’s desperation time and they get moved into the critical area at the latter stages and hey presto, guess what, they score and create goals. Genius.

City begin this little sequence with their nearest and dearest at home. This would usually go down as a tight game that could go either way. It still could we guess but we expect City’s attacking gusto, especially at home, will shine through here given that Utd have been so poor at the back as of late. They follow that with a trip to bottom club QPR who quite frankly look like a Championship team fighting above their weight which bodes well for next season. Swansea is next which in theory is tougher but frankly it’s at home and we trust City to put on a show at the Etihad against most teams.

Aguero was probably the main reason that most people’s dogs got a good kicking this past weekend as he really should have rewarded his ‘captainers’ with at least a goal if not two given the chances he squandered. Fear not, he looked dangerous when he woke up in the second half. He fluffed two stabs at a one on one and hit the bar from 6 yards with an open goal. Usually they are bread and butter chances for him and go in with minimal fuss but either way at least he made contact with the ball on both occasions. It’s all relative eh, Mario.

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Everton – Swansea (h), Sunderland (a), West Ham (h)

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A routine victory at Burnley probably only just produced disappointment for those with Everton exposure as their interest lay in clean sheets for Baines and/or Coleman. Sadly they couldn’t record their third clean sheet in a row, though Baines provided another assist and picked up two bonus points for his performance. Eto’o was the surprise star, contributing a brace and only the post stopped him from completing a hat-trick late on.

This week sees Swansea arrive at Goodison – the Swans have never won at Goodison, in fact they have never beaten the Toffees in the league! With no Europa Cup or Capital One Cup to distract them this week, we would expect a routine victory for the Blues. And then Roberto Martinez takes his troops to Sunderland – and frankly if they don’t win that one they should never appear in this article again this season! West Ham are the visitors in GW12 and while we would expect a decent game between these two, it’s worth noting that West Ham’s record vs Everton is not good – they haven’t beaten the Toffees since 2007 and haven’t come away from Goodison with three points since 2005. This is a different West Ham this season though and we would expect a proper test for the Toffees – if Everton can record three wins out of three and make it five in a row in the league, they will be back challenging for a European spot.

Coleman and Baines continue to be the main fantasy focus, but young Ross Barkley may well come into people’s thoughts, especially with the injury to Siggy at the weekend. Barkley was benched at the weekend, but he had played 90mins in Lille on Thursday and it wasn’t the biggest surprise he was rested vs Burnley. However, we would expect his game time to increase and hence his FPL ownership levels rise. Lukaku chipped in with his fourth goal of the season at Burnley and may attract some, while Antolin Alcaraz seems to have won the battle with Sylvain Distin for John Stones place at the back and at 4.3mln he could be a useful short term acquisition. Eto’o at £5.6m may well interest managers looking for an alternative as a cheap striker.

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Chelsea – QPR (h), Liverpool (a), West Brom (h)

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OK, so they failed to again hold onto a one goal lead in Manchester, but in all fairness with only an aged Didier Drogba available to play 90mins up front, even the best team in the land can run out of energy! The return of Diego Costa is awaited with huge expectation and excitement by many an FPL manager, though it may well be another week of smoke and mirrors until we find some definite news. Despite the weekend draw at Old Trafford the Blues still find themselves four points clear at the top and now enter a run of games that may well see them increase that gap further.

Saturday’s visit of QPR should not worry anyone at Stamford Bridge and it’s likely that they could call on Bobby Tambling to play up front and still win – just imagine the destruction that could take place if Costa is fit and plays. Next up is a trip to Anfield, which on current evidence is as scary as an episode of Scooby Doo. And then it’s West Brom which shouldn’t cause too many sleepless nights for Jose we imagine!

Coverage of Chelsea players continues to focus predominantly on Fabregas and Costa and in fairness there is little that is likely to change here, although Hazard has seen some recent investment of late as managers look for a differential to Cesc. Worth noting that Fabregas is on four yellow cards, while Ivanovic will be suspended for the midweek Carling Cup fixture and will therefore be available for the visit of QPR.

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Southampton – Hull (a), Leicester (h), Aston Villa (a)
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[/three_fourth]And so they march on. Not quite as convincingly as last week but hey, you don’t get the gift that is Sunderland every week do you. The Saints are in second and are looking full value for it. Anyone else thinking Athletico Madrid just yet? It feels outlandish to even suggest it but with everyone else bar Chelsea stuttering then you just never know…

The next three are crucial for them and all look winnable. We should put the ‘crucial’ part in context. After facing Burnley, Leicester and Villa they then have three very tough games on the bounce – Chelsea, Man City and Liverpool. Ok, we jest about the Liverpool one but you get what we mean. Leicester at home feels like a definite win and despite the Burnley and Sunderland ones being away from home we would still expect a positive result for such a form team as the Saints are.

Tadic and Pelle were not quite the double trouble for Stoke as they were the week previous for Sunderland but that was a freak result and we still expect they will cause havoc in the coming weeks between them. The star this week was a player we have waxed lyrical about for a while now in the shape of Saido Mane. He’s cheaper than Tadic, perhaps more explosive, maybe less consistent. His international duties are a concern too but when he is here and available we feel he may be a great route into this Southampton attacking force, on the cheap as well, which is always a bonus. With Siggy potentially out for a few weeks Mane feels like a more than adequate replacement in that price range, he’s currently just 6.9mmln.

As for their defence this looks a solid bet too. Clyne and Bertrand are racking up clean sheets with that ever present potential for an assist here and there and are grabbing valuable bonus points. If you need a more budget friendly route than Alderweireld is about 0.4-0.5mln cheaper and well overdue a goal given his previous stats.

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LESS FAVOURABLE FIXTURES

QPR – Chelsea (a), Man City (h), Newcastle (a)
QPR picked up a very valuable three points this evening with a 2-0 victory over Aston Villa coutesy of two goals from Charlie Austin. That’s four for the season now from the £5.7m man and he is beginning to look like he belongs in this league but before you get too excited by the him let’s just consider two things. Firstly he plays for QPR. Secondly QPR now play Chelsea and Man City back to back. So for the short term we still consider them a no-go. It’s worth noting that their fixtures do pick up beyond these next two as they have Leicester and Burnly at home in GW’s 13 and 15 but until then we wouldn’t bother as they should by rights get hammered by both Chelsea and City.

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Manchester United – Man City (a), Crystal Palace (h), Arsenal (a)
While a draw with Chelsea will probably be seen as a decent result, the fact remains it is another 2pts dropped at home for the Reds. Defensive frailties as well as numerous injuries, particularly at the back, continue to hamper United and an unsettled defence is unlikely to provide the consistency needed to get the Reds back to where they want to be. It’s pretty difficult to identify value United cover aside from Di Maria – and even he had a quiet game at the weekend.

A trip to the noisy neighbours is likely to give Rojo, Smalling, Rafael and Shaw a few nightmares this week – just the thought of Aguero, Silva et al looking to unpick the United backline is a pretty scary thought for most United fans, although they will be confident of breaching the City defence which has proved anything but solid thus far.

The visit of Crystal Palace will likely be a must win and one would expect three points in this one and then United travel to Arsenal in GW12, which in reality could go either way – and may well hinge on which players have returned from the treatment table for both clubs. Walcott should definitely be back by then and if he and Sanchez can form a partnership which their potential suggests then it could be another bleak away day for LVG. Not forgetting Welbeck, who would surely love to score vs the manager who told him he was only 5th choice for United.

So avoid United defence, the midfield shows little value at this moment except from Di Maria, while Rooney’s return this weekend may well inject some fire and pace back into United and is not good news for Mata or his followers.

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Swansea – Everton (a), Arsenal (h), Man City (a)
The Swans have done well so far and are well and truly on their way to securing a top half finish, maybe even competing for the Europa places. Their next three games are tough though, visiting Everton initially where they have never won, hosting Arsenal and then going to the champions Man City. That’s a tough run for any team. Siggy limping off doesn’t help and we await news on him as he has been very consistent given his price and if he is out for a few weeks he will pose some testing questions as many will have had him from the start and will stand to lose money on him if they sell with a view to buying back in a few weeks once he is fit again. The problem is that he is probably just that little bit too expensive to bench for a few weeks whilst also being so budget friendly when he’s fit. Double edged sword indeed.

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FIXTURE FUN
The Milk Cup returns this week and so we see a whole host of Premier League teams in cup action. Whether or not they field anything like a full team is another matter but it’s best to keep an eye on the following as they do indeed play regardless –

Chelsea
West Brom
Liverpool
Swansea
Man City
Newcastle
Stoke
Southampton
Spurs

Be sure to check out the availability of your fantasy players once these ties are over and eveybody has returned home, hopefully in full health.

Good luck this week everyone!

Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 10 – Fantasy Premier League 2014-15. This article was written by Inittowinit

Follow @Inittowinit

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