Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 18

Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 18

GW17 was a tough one to call and saw a big divide between those that had the likes of Austin, Silva and erm… Yoshida and those that didn’t. If you were brave, clever or lucky enough to indeed captain one of the above then well done and congratulations on a probable huge rise in your overall ranking. With the fixtures coming thick and fast over the Christmas period we are going to take a look at which teams we feel will enjoy themselves and which teams may be wishing it was 2015 already.

Deadline reminder
Of all the information we are about to give you this is perhaps the most important as all the planning and preparation in the world will be of no use if you go and miss the actual deadlines themselves. There are three game-weeks in 7 days and to confuse matters further none of them are on a Saturday so pay close attention and set yourselves some reminders about the schedule –

GW18 is Friday 26th December and the deadline is 11.30am

GW19 is Sunday 28th December and the deadline is 11.30am

GW20 is Thursday 1st January and the deadline is 11.30am

In GW19 Spurs host Man Utd at 12pm so this is a rare opportunity to see the line-ups prior to the deadline if you have or are indeed considering any players from those two teams.

January Wildcard
After the above are done and dusted the Premier League takes a backseat for a week as the first weekend in January is taken up by the FA Cup 3rd round and GW21 isn’t until January 10th by which point your January wildcard will be in operation –

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And so onto the teams and fixtures 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

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Man City – West Brom (a), Burnley (h), Sunderland (h)
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[/three_fourth]No strikers, no problem, evidently. City shrugged off the issue with ease to canter to a 3-0 victory over Palace at the weekend. Big Yaya took the cantering a bit too literally though and still looked half asleep as he thundered in his 4th goal in 6 games to kill the game off late on but it was his little mate Silva that took the main plaudits with an earlier brace. Milner assumed the forward position but was little more than distraction value as he dragged the defence out of position time and again to allow the likes of Silva and Nasri to run into the space that he created. Silva was clearly the main beneficiary on the day and we would expect that trend may continue as City have by far and away the best run of fixtures over the Christmas period. Nasri was probably their best palyer on the day but as ever he was just that and in fantasy terms he failed to register any meaningful points again. With just 3 assists all season, no goals and just one bonus point he’s an enigma worth ignoring we feel despite his on the pitch contribution.

City go to West Brom on Boxing Day in what will surely be their 7th victory on the road this season before having home comforts against Burnley and Sunderland. Burnley arrive at the Etihad having lost their last two away from home and with just 5 goals scored away from home all season. Sunderland will probably attempt their usual ‘park the bus, smash ‘n grab’ approach. All in all we would fancy City to grab at least 7-9 points from this lot and there aren’t too many other teams you could say that about over the Christmas period as most have a mixed bag of goodies.

We’ve touched on City’s ‘attack’, which is essentially now just their midfield and whereas Silva is very obvious it’s much tougher to predict their defence as rest and rotation will come into the equation for sure. Clichy was given the day off on Saturday and Kolarov was rolled out for his first game in 8 weeks and came up with an assist and a good performance to further muddy the waters. On the other side of the pitch Zabaleta was in fine form and also chipped in with his 3rd assist of the season and a total of 11 points thanks to 2 bonus points and a clean-sheet. The Argentine is City’s costliest currently available defender at £6.4m but also the one likliest to produce any attacking returns. Bacary Sagna is always waiting in the wings should Zaba be afforded a rest but with Kompany out we would expect Pellegrini will most likely want his most trusted defenders on the pitch in his absence and Zaba certainly comes into that category.

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Man Utd – Newcastle (h), Spurs (a), Stoke (a)
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[/three_fourth]Much was expected of a resurgent Utd against a generally poor and depleted Villa but a disappointing 1-1 draw was all they could muster and left many a fantasy manager scratching their heads as to why they decided that Robin van Persie was their best Aguero replacement. Form (4 goals and 2 assists prior to Villa in 4 games) and fixtures (Newcastle at home next) is probably why and whilst it may have been a bad decision in hindsight we see no reason why it won’t be a good one in the long run. Maybe. LvG has turned them around quickly and to such an extent that they sit 3rd in the table and there have even been mutterings of them actually being in the title race. Games and results like 1-1 away at Villa probably illustrate why that isn’t quite so but at least the seeds are there.

Prior to the Villa blip Utd had won 6 on the bounce and so Newcastle at home is perhaps a great opportunity to get back on the form train as Pardew’s men are without a win in their last 4 away games and have scored just twice in those. Spurs and stoke away are perhaps not ideal but neither are exactly ripping it up at home with both having lost as many as they have won at home.

The one thing Utd seemed to lack at Villa was any creativity so perhaps the 30 minute cameo from Angel Di Maria was a blessing and certainly an indication as to the way forward for them as he’s clearly a class above anything else they have to offer in that department and his return will only help the likes of RvP, who ironically he replaced on Saturday.

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QPR – Arsenal (a), Crystal Palace (h), Swansea (h)
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[/three_fourth]Ok so when we say QPR we clearly mean Charlie Austin as there is little else to like or own in their ranks and this has been evident for a while now but was hammered home at the weekend as the big man himself grabbed a hat-trick. The problem with QPR is that they are great at home and absolutely awful away. How awful? 0-8 awful. 3 goals scored awful (the least), 20 goals conceded awful (the most). And they’re away next at a team in the top 6 who have won more games at home than QPR have won all season. So why on earth are they in the favourable section?! Well because two of the next three are at home and we wouldn’t bet against Charlie being able to breach the Arsenal defence in all honesty despite the above stats.

The real reason for them being in this section lies in their home form and the two games after Arsenal are both at home and also against two teams with very poor away records. Palace have won just once on the road and scored only 4 goals away from home all season whilst Swansea have won just twice and scored only 6. Mr QPR himself has 11 goals this season and 9 of those have been at home. If you already own him we would probably play him this week regardless but if you don’t then maybe hang fire but certainly buy him ahead of GW19.

As for any other QPR players than perhaps have a look at Leroy Fer as a differential at a budget friendly £5.5m as he has a couple of goals and 4 assists but beyond that we wouldn’t bother!

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Liverpool – Burnley (a), Swansea (h), Leicester (h)
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[/three_fourth]Liverpool have failed to score more times than they have kept a clean-sheet this season. We have no idea as to what that means but it’s a fact. Possibly a useless one but a fact to consider none the less. Whilst you ponder over that nugget we shall tell you that Liverpool have a decent run ahead. You will in turn tell us ‘so what, they’re useless’. You’d be right. Possibly. They were much better in the first half against Arsenal than they have been all season though and showed flashes of the verve and passing game that very nearly took them to the title last season.

If they can replicate that then Burnley away will be no problem at all. IF. If they can replicate that then Swansea and Leicester at home will be no problem either. IF. Lot’s of IF’S, and there in lies the issue with Liverpool – we just don’t know. Sterling is a midfielder playing up top. That’s about the best we can offer you and even that comes with a warning sign – he hasn’t scored since GW5. Stay away from their defence as ever and perhaps stay away from their midfield too as nobody is putting up any consistent numbers. We’d say stay away from their attack too but they, like City, haven’t got one to speak of.
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LESS FAVOURABLE FIXTURES

Burnley – Liverpool (h), Man City (a), Newcastle (a)
In the bottom three and they probably will be come the end of the season. They almost certainly will be come 2015 in any regard given their fixture list, We can’t see them getting much from any of those games in all honesty but then again we didn’t expect George Boyd to come up with an assist at Spurs and he did just that to adorn many a bench.

West Ham – Chelsea (a), Arsenal (h), West Brom (a)
Downing has been a revelation as of late and if only he had the fixtures to go with it, he doesn’t. He’s got a realtive stinker. Away at Chelsea and then home to Arsenal, he’s got a couple of hard fixtures ahead but we wouldn’t go rushing to take him out as this isn’t West Ham of old this is a West Ham that find themselves competing at the higher end of the league and there is a reason for that. We would expect them to take the attitude of ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’ into these two fixtures as they did so successfully against City earlier on in the season. Two games they would perhaps expect to lose so you may just see them go for it and see what happens. The third one they would expect to win against West Brom so that’s probably the one they’ll lose. That’s football!

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GW18 Tips!
With Kop putting his feet up for Christmas we thought we would give you a quick run down on who has the best fixtures for GW18 in isolation and simply throw a few names out there as to who you may want to consider.

Arsenal (QPR, h)
Alexis Sanchez – has been a revelation this season both in reality and fantasy and leads the points total with 109 and 9 goals and 5 assists. QPR are awful away from home and we’d be surprised if Sanchez didn’t top the captains poll this week.

Also consider –
Olivier Giroud

Chelsea (West Ham, h)
Cesc Fabregas – Cesc went away to Barca as a fine footballer and seemingly came back an even better one. He may have just the 2 goals to his name but that’s backed up with 12 assists to put him on 98 points so far. We wouldn’t bet against him adding to that at home to West Ham as Chelsea are turning into a bit of a machine and we would back them against anyone at the moment.

Also consider –
Diego Costa

Everton (Stoke, h)
Leighton Baines – ! Yes we will start off this one with a big fat ‘!’. Mainly because Leighton has frustrated as of late and has retured just 6 points in his last 5 outings. Not really what you pay £7.3m for. He can seem brilliant value when he’s posting scores like 12, 10, 15 and 11 as he has done this season but they all seem a distant memory now. Perhaps Stoke at home will be an opportunity to return to that sort of form and it may be his last hurrah for many if he doesn’t but we would give him this one at least to try and change your mind.

Also consider –
Ross Barkley

Man City (West Brom, a)
David Silva – as we said above he seemed to be the main beneficiary of City’s lack of an actual srtiker and he looked to be getting into the box a lot. He’s a fine technician and has never lacked composure so if the chances keep falling to him we would fully expect he will keep taking them.

Also consider –
Yaya Toure

Man Utd (Newcastle, h)
Robin van Persie – He may have disappointed at Villa after such a fine showing against Liverpool but a home game against Newcastle feels like a Robin sort of fixture and we would expect he will be back with a bang in this one. Being on penalties also helps.

Also consider –
Angel Di Maria

Swansea (Aston Villa, H)
Wilfried Bony – An unexpected rest last time out killed many a fantasy managers spirit and upset many a well laid plan but we would expect he will be back and probably firing for this one. Perhaps and hopefully that was his ‘rest’ and he will likely play all 3 games over the Christmas period before he departs for the ACON.

Also consider –
Gylfi Sigurdsson

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GW18 Podcast

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WooFBet
Over on the WooFBet website the exclusive FF247 league is back for GW18 and has an enhanced Christmas bonanza prize pool of €247 and it is free to enter so get yourselves over there sharpish!

To enter, visit woofbet.com and sign up (no card details required). Navigate to the Tournament section and click participate on the ‘FF247 – €150 FREEROLL’ tab.

Isn’t it time your fantasy manager job finally paid off!

Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 17 – Fantasy Premier League 2014-15. This article was written by Inittowinit

Follow @Inittowinit