Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 14

Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 14

We hope you had a prosperous GW13. If you were one of the unfortunate ones who didn’t you are still in the right place as there are always managers around happy to acknowledge that they didn’t either. All you need to do is find them and you can sit and hold hands and console each other as you stare wistfully into the fantasy wilderness while those around you celebrate and pat each other on the back for a job well done. Either way that ones behind us now and we have to move swiftly on as GW14 begins in less than 48 hours. To compound the rush and confusion, GW15 begins a little over 61 hours after GW14 ends, so it’s sure to be quite a week for fantasy managers with tears of joy or desperation aplenty!

Many went into GW13 with a bit of a mini injury / suspension crisis and many may have left it much worse off! Those yellow and red flags are building up fast as the likes of Di Maria limped off and Costa finally and inevitably picked up his 5th yellow card which means he will sit out Wednesday nights game against Spurs. Some big decisions and maybe some even bigger hits will have to be made this week as managers assess the carnage…

Fixture pile up!
As we alluded to in the intro there is a quick turnaround this week but let’s put some flesh on those bones just so you are completely clear as to the schedule and the relevant dates, times and deadlines this week.

GW14 is a midweek schedule taking place this Tuesday and Wednesday. The deadline for transfers is Tuesday 2nd December at 19.30 UK time. The beauty of this one is that you will see all of the line-ups for all six of the Tuesday games ahead of the deadline. Be sure to use this to your advantage.

GW15 is Saturday 6th December which is next weekend and the deadline is as per usual for a weekend program at 11.30 UK time.

GW19 is where the current fixture tracker below ends and is the 28th December. We will talk you through the days, dates and deadlines of the Christmas schedule nearer the time.

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Just 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 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

Chelsea –  Spurs (h), Newcastle (a), Hull (h)

A draw. A blank. Costa suspended. Panic!!! No. Don’t. It happens…

Credit Sunderland for parking the Spurs bus right in front of the Chelsea goal. The odd blip will happen, it always does but they’re still unbeaten and fixture wise nothing will scare Chelsea given the mood they are in at the moment and certainly not Spurs at home who have a terrible record against the big teams and Chelsea in particular.  They then travel to Pardew and his improving bunch in the North East at the weekend. Newcastle have been pretty decent at home losing just once so far but their issue is a lack of goals as they have scored just the eight at home whereas Chelsea have almost doubled that amount on their travels with fifteen. Hull at home in GW16 is a banker and will see any ‘Costa sellers’ scrambling to get him back for that one.

Fabregas is still just one booking away from a one game suspension and it will happen at some point, as inevitably as the Costa one did, but just be thankful it didn’t occur on the same week if you own both. What you do with Costa for GW14 is another matter altogether. Benching him is possibly wise but that depends on the strength of your bench as he’s a weighty proposition at £11.1m.

A straight switch to Rooney may be on the cards for many given that Man Utd have a potentially tasty fixture at home to Stoke. Some will even consider whether he’s actually worth the hassle of an almost weekly hokey cokey and just decide to move on altogether. There’s certainly an argument for that approach too if you can find the right replacement such as an in-form Bony or Austin. The money that such a move could release is enough to significantly strengthen elsewhere too. Brave man that ditches him. Braver man still that ditches him with no view to getting him back. But as they say, in theory ‘fortune favours the brave’. In theory.

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Man City –  Sunderland (a), Everton (h), Leicester (a)
City finally moved up into second spot by reminding Southampton that the young pretenders still have much to learn if they seriously want to mix it with the big boys. Yaya Toure made it two goals in two games to give some food for thought especially for those that have to replace Di Maria in their team. At £10.6m he’s an expensive gamble but if he is going to go on a run and show anything like last seasons form once more then it may be one worth taking. Aguero somehow didn’t manage to score as he wasted a couple of glorious chances but he kept the fantasy points ticking over nicely with two assists.

Chelsea discovered on Saturday that the Stadium of Light can indeed be a tough place to visit at times and City follow in their steps on Wednesday evening. They will be encouraged by the fact that they have just visited the team with the best defensive record in the league and knocked three past them. City also now have the best away league goals record in the division with sixteen on their travels. Despite Sunderland’s resilience you have to feel City will win that one. They then welcome Everton on Saturday evening. There was a spell from around 2007 to 2011 that Everton held a bit of an Indian sign over City but they seem to have broken that and did the double over them last season. The third game sees them go to bottom club Leicester in a game in which you would expect City to come away with the win relatively easily.

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Swansea – QPR (h), West Ham (a), Spurs (h)
Swansea were much fancied this week and in particular the likes Bony and Sigurdsson were touted as a potential gem of a double partnership. They duly delivered on that promise but perhaps not to the extent that many hoped. Bony scored, as he does and Siggy assisted, as he does. Probably fairly inevitable in all honesty. If you have the duo then sit tight and be assured that the pattern will probably be repeated many times in the weeks ahead as their fixtures are good for a long stretch ahead. They could and should have had more and really should have killed Palace off in the first twenty minutes but they didn’t and the visitors held strong for a 1-1 draw.

This week sees the visit of QPR on Tuesday and then they face a more difficult trek to West Ham on Sunday. QPR at home is generally an invitation to do whatever you want. QPR have played six, lost six and conceded the most goals (15) away from home. As we say West Ham will be a challenge in GW15 but also that is arguably Swansea’s toughest one until the GW19 trip to Anfield between Xmas and New Year. GW16 sees them host Spurs which is ostensibly tougher but the visitors will have been in Europa action the Thursday prior and despite them already having qualified and probably fielding a completely different XI we all know by now that such an occurrence throws Spurs, as a club, for six. For some reason.

Beyond the above fixtures the Swans have Hull (a) and Villa (h) which again look pretty good. If you have Swansea coverage then you need to hold it and if you are looking at adding some then do so as their fixtures are good for the long haul.

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LESS FAVOURABLE FIXTURES

Stoke Man Utd (a), Arsenal (h), Crystal Palace (a)

So, so close to a clean sheet at Liverpool. Close but no cigar unfortunately though and a loss at Liverpool these days is no badge of honour as the scousers would struggle to fight themselves out of a paper bag at the moment. Things don’t look too much rosier for Stoke as they have to go to Old Trafford on Tuesday and Utd will be looking to continue where they left off against Hull at the weekend.

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Sunderland Man City (h), Liverpool (a), West Ham (h)
A brilliantly hard fought point at home to Chelsea is a performance they may have to hope they can mirror a lot this week as City come to town and then they travel to Anfield on Saturday. West Ham at home the following week will be equally tough as they are going great guns at the moment. We can’t see them scoring many during this run so don’t go investing in them and if you have the odd defender then perhaps the best you can hope for is a repeat of that Chelsea performance but don’t hold your breath on that one.

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Southampton – Arsenal (a), Man Utd (h), Burnley (a)
We’ve been saying for a couple of weeks that things were about to get sticky for the Saints and City proved that point by beating them 0-3. Another tough test awaits them on Wednesday with a trip to Arsenal. That one may be a fairer fight than the City game was though. They then face Utd at home in GW15 which could be a cracker. GW16 sees the fixtures ease up and a little light relief with an eminently more winnable game away at Burnley. It’s worth noting though that beyond that they still have to face Everton and Chelsea in the following three weeks.

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Hull – Everton (a), West Brom (h), Chelsea (a)
Hull are a team on the crest of a slump and were thumped 3-0 at Old Trafford this week. That’s a thumping at Old Trafford these days. Things don’t get any easier for them either as they have to visit both Everton and Chelsea in the next three games and you wouldn’t realistically expect much from those. West Brom at home next weekend may be their only hope but you wouldn’t want to be buying any Hull players with Chelsea away as the next game anyway.

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Newcastle – Burnley (a), Chelsea (h), Arsenal (a)
Newcastle’s bubble was burst a bit this weekend with a narrow 0-1 defeat at West Ham but they have being on a great run prior to that. If you have any Newcastle players then play them this week by all means as they have Burnley away but then perhaps hide them away for a few weeks as they then go to Chelsea and host Arsenal in the next two.

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FIXTURE FUN
Not sure if we mentioned it but there are midweek Premier League fixtures this week…

Just as a heads up and to compound the fixture pile up our six European representatives are back in action straight after GW15 with Champions League and Europa fixtures next week starting on Tuesday 9th December. The good news is that both Chelsea and Arsenal are already safely through so the prize assets such as Costa, Fabregas, Hazard and Sanchez should, in theory, be handed much needed rests. Liverpool and Man City on the other hand both have it all to play for so the prize assets from those two such as Aguero…. yeah just Aguero… will probably have to play. Everton and Spurs feature on the Thursday 11th December but both are also through so should field weakened teams.

Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 14 – Fantasy Premier League 2014-15. This article was written by Inittowinit

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