Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 21
Welcome to 2015 everyone and a Happy New Year from all of us at FF247! The Christmas period promised so much after the bonanza that was Boxing Day but in truth the next couple of GW’s after that flatered to decieve somewhat with relatively low average scores for both GW’s 19 and 20. Worry not though as the January wildcard is in full swing and so we will begin the year with an eye on that and try to guide you through the next set of fixtures to help you decide which teams are worth investing in, which players have the best and worst runs ahead and hopefully help you decide when best to deploy the bad boy.
January Wildcard
As we have alluded to it is now active but just to clarify the rules –
– So any transfers or hits you incur in any given week will be wiped out if you play your WC in the same week.
– You can play it whenever prior to GW24 and it’ll be active for the start of GW’s 21, 22, 23 or 24. It’s available now and can be deployed for any week up until GW24 but not after that. Use it or lose it basically.
– It does not impact on your ‘season long’ wildcard, that will still be available if you haven’t played it yet.
All basic stuff but worth going over we feel.
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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 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
Chelsea – Newcastle (h), Swansea (a), Man City (h)
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[/three_fourth]So we begin this year’s favourable fixtures with a team that’s fresh off the back off a 5-3 hammering! Yes it looks bad and wasn’t overly pretty but we wouldn’t put too much weight behind that result though and we would actually look to the take the positives from it more than the negatives – namely Eden Hazard. If ever a player shone in a 5-3 defeat it was him. He was majestic and scored his eigth goal of the season to make it three goals and three assists in his last five games and scores of 14, 7, 6, 10 and 7 speak volumes for his consistency and form. We doubt there will be many wildcard teams that don’t have him in there and that goal saw him overtake Alexis Sanchez as the games overall top points scorer so far. Hard to bet against him remaining there the way he’s playing.
Talking of consistency the rugged one notched again to make it just the 14 for the season for Mr Costa. Hard to argue against that record despite the lack of bonus points and the obvious propensity to get both yellow carded and / or injured with equal consistency. Speaking of ’14’, you’ll be equally less surprised if we tell you who assisted Hazard. Yes it was Fabregas again and we could see many a manager opt for the whole holy trinity in their wildcards and we couldn’t blame you as we are looking at three players who are all playing for the potential champions and all arguably at the top of their games.
Another Mr Consistency at the moment is John Terry as he got his third goal in four games. Now we aren’t suggesting that will continue forthwith but he’s their top point scoring defender and he’s played every game so far and isn’t likely to be dropped or rotated any time soon which is more than you can say for the left backs and certainly more than you can say for any defender plying their trade at Man City.
Fixture wise it’s all looking healthy for Chelsea with newly managerless Newcastle up at home next followed by a trip to Swansea. City at home is obviously the sticky one but beyond that it’s Villa, Everton and Burnley. We would have no hesitation in taking in a full compliment of Chelsea players in any wildcard with that fixture list.
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Man Utd – Southampton (h), QPR (a), Leicester (h)
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[/three_fourth]A few away draws recently have halted what has otherwise been a fantastic turn around in Utd’s fortunes and results as of late and even those were at Stoke and Spurs, where Arsenal and Chelsea have recently come unstuck in spectacular fashion, so perhaps that puts those results into perspective as decent points gained. At home they’ve won their last five games and two of the next three are at home and even the home game after that is against Burnley. The away game in the next three is hardly a shocker either as it’s QPR away.
We wouldn’t shy away from a couple of Utd players at least for these upcoming fixtures as they are generally kind for quite some time to come and in fact you could foreseeably say that’s the case up until around the middle of March when they meet Spurs and Liverpool again.
At the back Utd have the 4th best defensive record in the league and are particularly strong at home having only lost one and conceded just seven goals. David de Gea will no doubt make his way into many a WC team due to the fixtures and also some fantastic form as of late. 80 points sees him sit as the 2nd highest in the keeper section so we can see the attraction. Maybe a more frugal punt on Phil Jones at £0.6m cheaper wouldn’t be the worst shout either as he’s now started the last five games. He does have a tendency to stumble, literally, from one injury or disaster stricken gurn to the next though.
Up top it’s a tough one as they all seem to be taking points from each other at the moment. One game Rooney’s the flavour, the next it’s RvP and even Falcao looks to be settling in better now he’s been starting finally. Rooney is occupying a deeper role in midfield but it’s one he looks like he’s relishing and it isn’t stunting his ability to get forward either. We would be very tempted to take one of them, we’ve just no idea which! It’s a bit of the luck of the draw with those three and probably highlights the beauty of Aguero when he’s fit as he just hoovers up all the points for himself, more on him later…
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Spurs – Crystal Palace (a), Sunderland (h), West Brom (a)
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[/three_fourth]Harry Kane. That’s all that’s on everyone’s lips after the last few weeks and that hammering of Chelsea in particular. Some had him, played him and reaped the rewards. Many more actually had him, benched him and cried for the next few days. Many more didn’t even have him and probably shrugged it off in the knowledge that they probably soon will. His fixtures ahead certainly warrant the investment especially when you consider his price tag of £5.5m and rising rapidly. Either way it’s still fantastic value for someone who has amassed 48 points in the last five GW’s. That includes five goals, an assist and ten bonus points. Buy, buy, buy!
Having done that to Chelsea you would imagine confidence will be sky high and so they will be licking their lips at the prospect of Palace, Sunderland and West Brom in the next three.
There is a small caveat with Spurs though as we look beyond those three they have Arsenal, Liverpool and West Ham which is an altogether tougher run than the initial three games. The moral here may be go Spurs, go Kane and maybe even Chadli or Eriksen for now but just be aware of those other games on the horizon and limit it to that if you can.
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Burnley – QPR (h), Crystal Palace (h), Sunderland (a)
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[/three_fourth]Burnley? But they’re second bottom. Are you mad? Well yeah maybe, a little, but let us explain. They’ve managed five goals in their last two games in two thrilling draws and George Boyd has stood out in particular with two goals in those. Which had many fantasy managers praying for one of their starting eleven to not make it on both occasions probably as he’s your perennial sub in all likelihood given that he’s just £4.6m and plays for Burnley. Prior to those two games they’ve actually kept things fairly tight and are often the source for the odd unexpected but welcome clean sheet too.
The point here really isn’t that you should load up on Burnley as a priority by any means but if you need some cheap squad fillers they are certainly a viable option with the odd goal from Boyd, Danny Ings is showing glimpses at £5.6m and most of their defence is cheap as chips still, with keeper Heaton at £4.6m being only eight points off being the top scorer in the GK section.
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LESS FAVOURABLE FIXTURES
Man City – Everton (a), Arsenal (h), Chelsea (a)
Most teams will likely include a City player or two at the moment. If it’s Yaya then you need to be shipping him regardless as he’s off the the ACON this week. If it’s Silva then you have decisions to make ahead of the next few weeks especially if you are wildcarding as there are possibly better options with better fixtures. That said once the Chelsea game is out of the way City will be firmly back in the ‘favourable’ section as they then have Hull (h), Stoke (a) and Newcastle (h) so you need to consider that too. The good news is that Aguero should be back by then and if you are playing a late wildcard that could be perfect timing for you and if you are playing an early one we would recommend you be careful to leave room for manoeuvre in order to bring him in should you so wish and let’s face it most will.
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Everton Man City (h), West Brom (h), Crystal palace (a)
This isn’t perhaps so much about the opposition as it is about Everton themselves. Rumours of dressing room unrest never bode well and they’ve lost their last four on the bounce which included a home game against Stoke and an away game at Hull. You really wouldn’t expect much against City at home then and the next two are against teams with new managers and with it a whole host of players with plenty to prove to their respective new bosses. We expect any wildcard trends regarding Everton players will be strictly one way – to the exit door. While Baines and Coleman once felt like cheap ‘midfielders with clean sheet potential’, they now just feel like mid priced ones with none.
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QPR – Burnley (a), Man Utd (h), Stoke (a)
They’re strong at home they said, only play them at home they said. That was the theory! Well two relatively enticing home games produced two relatively dull draws with star man Charlie Austin returning a massively disappointing four points from the pair. Well the bad news then is that two of the next three are on the road and the one at home is Man Utd. Trips to Burnley and Stoke are on the ‘could be worse, could be better’ scale. You’ll probably only have Austin anyway and surely if anyone’s going to do anything for them it’ll be him so we wouldn’t be overly concerned but if you are wildcarding then perhaps there are better options to consider given their fixtures.
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Fixture Fun
It’s FA Cup weekend or indeed FA Cup week due to the TV’s insistence on playing it over five days so pretty much all of your players teams will be involved at some point this week so keep an eye on the news to make sure they have survived unscathed. Team Talk will be back this Friday as normal to give you all of the latest.
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Anyone thought on My WC Team
Heaton
Terry,Debuchy,Wasilewski
Silva,Di Maria,Sanchez,Hazard – (C)
Kane,Ings,Van Persie
Bench : Pantilimon,Boyd,Davies,Alderweireld
fab for silva?i assume rvp will become aguero?
Yep Fab for Silva sounds good but I’ve think ive need some City Coverage cheers for the reply.
Wildcard team:
Pants – Mannone
Clyne – Kompany – Terry – Hutton – Duff
Sanchez – Walcott – Hazard – Di Maria – Boyd
Kun – Kane – Austin
Sound alright?
Nice team! especially gks duff not injured still though?
Not on wildcard yet. Think this might be the team I want in a week or 2/3. If Wally is a starter I might get someone else instead of Sanchez, Silva or Fabs.
Morning Raz back to the real world of work this is a very good team not sure I would go with two Ars MF when you activating it & have you any cash left after it
A lot can and will change in a few weeks, this is a team which is in my reach. I’ll have 104m or more SV on my team in a few weeks so I can afford something amazing. :dance:
Agreed on the double Arsenal coverage. Might get some cheap defender and upgrade Austin to Costa.
Just had a play about with WC team what do you all thk
Hart
Wisdom ,Clichy ,van Aanholt ,Terry ,Hutton
Sánchez ,Ward-Prowse ,Downing ,Hazard ,Di María
Costa ,Agüero ,Kane
Hey NIN how are we take a look @ my WC team below missed Hamer only Problem is cash if players start going up might have to make some changes I know I have two City Def so could change Clichy to Cylne any other suggestions appreciated
Howdy, Silverback. I was just looking at your team there mate. Everything looks above board bar the double City defence but that’s easily sorted. Hart -> De Gea/Courtois if you want a premium GK, for me. Clyne/Bertrand in for Clichy is a good move too i think.
Thanks NIN was thinking Clichy > Cylne but also toying with De Gea & Boyd to leave approx. .5m in bank Kane would be a bit of a risk but he dos get better service than Austin if he keeps his place Not sure when I will play WC depends on price changes , have you activated your WC
Yeah i played mine already mate. Couple of final touches to be made but that’s about it now. I’m trying to squeeze a Southampton defender in just now but might have to wait a few GW’s before doing it.
Forward line is a bit on the budget side, for me. I would also be wary of being stuck with Sunderland’s GK, despite their favorable fixtures which start in a few GW’s.
Raz,
Im preferring fab rather than wally.
Def looked solid.
Man City have bad fixtures coming up is it worth having City Coverage over the next couple of weeks until Aguero is back ? Silva,Jovetic,ect
Aguero will be enough coverage for me.Their defence is like musical chairs!
I’m not too bothered about having no City players for a few weeks. However, once Aguero is back he will again be essential so i would suggest leaving money aside for him if you’re on a wildcard, or devise a plan to get him back even if not on a wildcard.
City can always score plenty of goals almost regardless of opposition. Everton are in poor form and Arsenal aren’t great defensively, even though we have a tendency to struggle against them. Still, City is essentially a fixture proof team, the only match where we should be epected to struggle offensively is against Chelsea. I’m keeping Silva for now, but he’ll most likely need replacing when the strikers are back as he might be pushed wide.
Do we thk ,Van Aanholt will get his place back
I didn’t even notice that he hadn’t been playing. I see he’s been out of the team since GW 10 so it doesn’t look good, to be fair. Has he been injured?
He dislocated his shoulder, he’ll probably still have a fight on to regain his place for now.
Coolabula :thumbup: Adam Johnson looks a decent punt at 6m, i thought. Not sure he’s a better option than Chadli, even though i have Kane. Thoughts?
He’s definitely penciled into mine NIN. Seems to have woken up again finally as he did this time last season. Sunderland have a nice run of games from GW23 onwards.
Yeah, the fixtures are really good aren’t they? Even this week against Liverpool is okay and Spurs next week ain’t bad either. Hmm. Going with him instead of Chadli actually sorts an issue or two i’ve been having with the auld WC squad. Hmmmmm, interesting.
Alright NIN, hows the WC going?
Howdy Alex. Unlucky for the Owls last night eh? Sickener. Fair play for running them close though :thumbup:
I think i may have just finalized my WC squad. Just weighing up one or two things as we speak but i think this could be the one. I stress, ‘could’ be
Alright NIN, ok a couple of questions; did you worry about rotating defenders/keepers? And which Chelsea/City coverage did you go for?
NZ – Re rotating GK’s/Def’s, yep, i have taken it into account but not exactly perfect rotations for the defenders, more along the lines of defenders that fit well together. FFF have a fixture rotation tab on their site in the ‘assistant manager’ drop-down. It’s very good, i must say. Big help. For GK’s, i like Burnley/Hull rotation as it picks up great fixtures for most of the rest of the season.
For Chelsea cover i’ve got Azpilicueta, Hazard and Costa with a few bob left aside for Costa -> Aguero, straight swap. I’ll be rolling with no City players until Kun returns.
NIN, good plan stan. Is your team a guarded secret or can I take a butchers?
NZ – No secrets here matey 😉
NIN, nice mate! I like a lot. Couple of quickies; Why Rooney over Falcao (or Austin for that matter!)? and Why Lescott over Wisdom? Im looking at both but have been confused by who to get. Also not keen on Hutton?
NZ – I had actually decided to avoid United strikers but late last night i changed my mind a wee bit. Basically, Falcao isn’t getting 90 minutes regularly yet. He keeps being subbed around 60-80th minute and Rooney seems to have taken over the majority, if not all set pieces (a fully fit Di Maria might change that). As for Austin, i think Kane gives much better value, form and plays for a better side. I don’t think Charlie is a weak pick by any means but Kane gives more as a 3rd striker i think. Re Lescott, 0.9% ownership + Pulis as their new manager, really appeals to me. If he doesn’t produce like i think he will then there are plenty of other options at 4.9m or less that fit in with my other defenders. A calculated risk, if you will.
Nin, interesting mate. I’ve always had 3 big forwards throughout my Fpl time and currently I have Kane, Costa and austin which feels wrong! having only two (plus Kane) feels slightly wrong so I think austin may have to go as Kane is too good an option. Rooney, Costa (and one too augero) maybe the go but not sure what I think on Rooney. I like your thinking on Lescott, he is somone I was looking at closely and appeals more than wisdom (who would cost 4.4 as haven’t had before). Your defence is very similar to mine but I’m struggling to leave out Hutton as seems good value at 4.3 as opposed to a 3.9 bench filler. Not keen on fab/Haz double up?
NZ – I’m not against the Hazard/Cesc double up by any means, but i do like the look/potential of Sanchez, Di Maria and Hazard, i must say. Hutton is good value at 4.3m but he doesn’t really fit in with my other defenders. I haven’t had Hutton at all so far but did have Cissokho, who did me well. I’ve come to the conclusion that United’s next 7 fixtures make Rooney a worthy punt (it took me a while to come to this conclusion, mind). I have no idea what to expect from him though. Could be 10+ every GW, could be zippo with a bunch of cards.
NIN, I do like your thinking and you’ve certainly given me some food for thought, thanks mate. certainly starting to clear my thinking.
:thumbup:
Been injured just back scored in FA Cup last night so not sure if he will start
Good afternoon gentlemen! Hope everyone is enjoying the Cup matches and all you early wildcarders are having fun tinkering away. Thanks for another great Fixtures article Init, my WC is active so looking ahead at the fixtures has been key for me in finalizing my team.
Cheers Red, no probs at all mate.
Afternoon Red. Still tinkering, or are you settled?
Hey NIN. I think I’m pretty settled baring any last minute injuries. Whattya think?
Pants Mannone
Terry Bertrand Hutton Wisdom Wasilewski
Hazard Sanchez Silva Chadli Boyd
Costa Rooney Kane
Money left over to do Rooney/Costa to Aguero, Silva to ADM once he’s back starting, and also Chadli to Siggy/Downing/Hendo/Johnson once Spurs fixtures get tougher. Double Sunderland keepers is not everyone’s cup of tea, but it saves money and selection headaches. Hoping for a couple save points even when they get beat.
Welcome to the Pantsu + Mannone gang! Think we’re 3 on here, anyone else wanna join?
Nice team, maybe Bertrand -> Alder and Wisdom -> ManU defense?
Cracking team mate. I’m not a big fan of the Sunderland GK route but if it going that way sorts other areas then yeah, probably worth it actually. Very strong squad here :thumbup:
Hey Tekno and NIN, just wanted to say thanks for the comments and suggestions. Had to run some errands so I’m just getting back online for a minute before heading into work. Much appreciated fellas.
:thumbup:
For those who don’t know; David “Braveheart” Moysies’ Real Sociedad beat Barcelona 1-0 yesterday. Impressive!
Awful result for Barca. Great achievement for Sociedad to keep a CS though. Moyes is still a twat though