Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 23

Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 23

Welcome back after a brief interlude due to the FA Cup ‘weekend’, we’d say it felt like a week but it nearly was once again as the TV companies have their say and dictate the fixture schedule. Even as we speak there are games ongoing and Stoke still have a game tomorrow night. As for GW22, many a moon ago, a couple of forwards at very different ends of the scale in every way imaginable were the stand out performers as Costa and Gayle managed 16 points each whilst Oscar and Cazorla eclipsed their more popular midfield team mates once more and a new star was perhaps born over at Southampton in the shape of one Eljiro George Rinaldo Elia. Let’s go and take a look at which teams and players we feel have the best fixtures ahead of them and who you may want to avoid for the next three weeks…

January Wildcard
In case you hadn’t noticed(!), it is now active, but just to clarify the rules –

– It’s available now and can be deployed for any week up until GW24 but not after that. Use it or lose it basically and that has to be this week (GW23) or prior to the next one (GW24).

– It does not impact on your ‘season long’ wildcard, that will still be available if you haven’t played it yet.

– Any transfers or hits you incur in any given week will be wiped out if you play your WC in the same week.

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

Arsenal – Aston Villa (h), Spurs (a), Leicester (h)
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[/three_fourth]Against all perceived wisdom Arsenal somehow managed to go to the Etihad and not only win but keep City and Aguero at bay for a clean sheet with an impressive 0-2 victory. To add to the surprise Sanchez wasn’t involved in either goal this week and was in fact eclipsed by Santi Cazorla with his 3rd double digit score in the last seven weeks. A goal and an assist helped Santi to 14 points this week and being on penalties will surely heighten his appeal. He’s scored five goals now this season and they have all come in the last eight weeks. Add in a couple of assists and 11 bonus points and you have a man in form. He’s currently £3.3m less than Alexis but it’d be a brave man (or woman) that replaced the Sanchez machine with him in all honesty, but if you could fit both in then that might not be the worst plan ever. Olivier Giroud was the grateful recipient of Santi’s creativity to deliver the killer second and that’s the French lothario’s 4th goal in the last five games he has started and that includes the QPR game where he didn’t last the 90 due to his stupid head-butting antics.

Fixture wise Arsenal have it pretty good for a while now so it may not be the worst time to finally look beyond just Sanchez and maybe add another Gunner to your ranks. Two home games against Villa and Leicester are very inviting and should offer opportunities for both attacking and defensive returns. There is the small matter of a London derby with arch rivals Spurs in the middle which at the moment looks like a cracker and will probably have lots of goals (in theory) so maybe plan any Arsenal defensive coverage around GW23 and 25 and make sure you have bench cover for that one.

On the defensive side of things Hector Bellerin came on early doors to replace the injured Debuchy in GW21 against Stoke and hasn’t looked back since with two clean sheets to his credit since then and at £4.4m looks excellent value if he can nail down that right back slot. IF. That’s the problem at the moment, we just don’t know but we would imagine that Arsene would be reluctant to change any back line that mangaged to keep a clean sheet away at City so he should be safe for this week at the very least. Add in that his main competition Chambers has looked less than assured so far – his yellow card count tells that story on it’s own – and you may have a mini bargain on your hands. It’s not often you get to pick up a ‘top 4’ defender for so little money and one that has such a favourable run of fixtures.

Beyond the three games mentioned it’s worth pointing out that Arsenal also face Palace, Everton and QPR in their next three which again is hardly the worst run so you can rest assured that if you do go ‘beyond Sanchez’ any picks are good for a while.

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Chelsea – Man City (h), Aston Villa (a), Everton (h)
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[/three_fourth]Swansea was a real test they said. A team playing well that had conceded just 8 goals at home. An upset was on the cards they said. Well Chelsea must have had their Weetabix on Saturday as Oscar scored within a minute of the start and 35 minutes later they were 4-0 up. That it finished at just 5-o was mainly down to Willian hitting the woodwork on a number of occasions when it seemed easier to score and Costa somehow spurning a one on one having gone round the prone Fabianski. It really could have been 10. Really. And that was just in the first half.

Their next game is City at home and this one may depend on Jose’s approach. He knows a draw is a great result now having already extended their lead at the top to five points after City lost to Arsenal. He certainly knows how to execute such a plan, as we know. It could turn into a free for all slug fest which we hope it does from a fantasy perspective, but we very much doubt it! Beyond GW23 though Chelsea have it in their own hands to go and build an unassailable lead at the top if they are able to capitalise on fixtures that include Villa, Everton, Burnley and Leicester. Which they should be able to do.

The question isn’t so much how many Chelsea players to have for this run of games, more which three. Costa, Hazard, Fabregas and Terry are the obvious choices but Oscar and Cahill are perhaps screaming out as more budget friendly options. Oscar’s problem seems to be getting consistent game time but when he does play his results are very consistent as 6 goals and 7 assists would suggest. Prior to GW21 his minutes on the pitch read 60, 77, 0, 82, 0 and 45. He’s started the last two games and produced scores of 13 and 15 with 3 goals and an assist. If you can stomach the odd day off then he’s a relative snip at £8.3m, a whopping £2.4m less than Hazard. With a fairly heavy schedule which includes the imminent return of the Champions League though we would weigh that one up with some degree of caution as he doesn’t tend to play twice in a week.

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Man Utd – Leicester (h), West Ham (a), Burnley (h)
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[/three_fourth]A fairly routine 0-2 victory over QPR last time out sees United very much still in the hunt for the Champions League place that alluded them last season and is surely the minimum, and quite possibly the maximum, the club and fans expect from LvG’s first campaign. The upcoming fixtures should allow them the opportunity to cement that place for now at least as they face two of the bottom four sides beginning with 20th placed Leicester this week. The reverse fixture was of course one of the highlights of the season so far (maybe not for Utd fans so much!) and saw an 8 goal thriller from which Leicester emerged 5-3 victors. That won’t happen this time we promise you. United were still finding their feet back then, to put it politely, but Leicester will find a team this time that may not be there 100% just yet but certainly one that’s a darn sight closer than it was back in September.

Their other home game is just as enticing really as Burnley have won just once away from home and conceded the second most away goals in the league. The away fixture between those two home games is a much trickier trip to West Ham who have won 7 of their 12 home games. It’s United’s away form that has been their achilles heel really so far with way too many draws (6), having won just 3 but at the same time having only lost 2. They are however unbeaten in their last 6 away games which suggests they are getting there slowly.

Those two home games in particular then will see much interest at both ends of the park for United players as they are 3rd best in the league when it comes to both home goals scored (22) and home goals conceded (8). David de Gea is probably your safest bet at the back as he’s scored twice as many fantasy points (89) as any United defender has! The return of Angel di Maria will at the very least be monitored closely by fantasy managers and a goal / assist or two will probably see many a midfield being carved up to reintegrate him.  Robin van Persie missed out against QPR due to injury but should return this week to reignite the age old debate of where the heck do you spend any of your forward money should you wish to on a United attacker as him, Rooney and Falcao are not only battling for the same places but also your fantasy points alike.

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Sunderland – Burnley (h), Swansea (a), QPR (h)
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[/three_fourth]It’s been suggested by some, ok many, that there might not actually be such a thing as a ‘good’ fixture for Sunderland. And they might be right as they top a lot of charts in the league for a number of things, none of which are particularly good. They’ve managed just three wins all season which is the worst in the league. They’ve scored just 19 as well which is the second worst. They’ve also managed to concede the joint most goals at home along with registering just one win which is… yep you’ve guessed it, the worst in the league. The fact that those stats don’t translate into them being in relegation zone is mainly down to their propensity for a draw, of which they have 11, again the most in the league.

So why the cause for optimism here? Well sometimes it’s the small things and sometimes it’s just a feeling coupled with a few changes in personnel. The small things are that they’ve kept 7 clean sheets so far including ones against the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool and Swansea. As bad as Sunderland have been at home the next two visitors to the Stadium of Light are actually as bad if not worse on the road as Burnley and QPR have managed just a solitary victory between them on their travels, scoring just 15 and yes that’s between them. They also sit first and second in most away goals conceded with 20 and 24 respectively.

Now if only Sunderland had someone who could put the ball in the back of the net and capitalise on those games we’d be in business. Maybe someone with an exact 1 in 2 career goal record (266/532). Enter a one Jermain Colin Defoe. Yes now we appreciate he’s had a year off counting his cash in Toronto but he still managed to score 11 in 19 for them. Quite why he chose Toronto over the favoured haunts of LA or New York for retiring PL players is anybody’s guess. Either geography isn’t his strongest point or it was just down to the money. We couldn’t possibly say. Either way he’s back and he opened his fantasy account with the assist for Seb Larsson’s goal and generally looked lively. Poyet has admitted that they have changed their style of play to accommodate him and they created some glorious chances on Saturday but unfortunately they fell for the hapless figures of Fletcher and Graham who both managed to miss from 6 yards out. Defoe gets those chances, Defoe scores.(Editor – so hopes the author’s wildcard prayers).

The other personnel change is Patrick van Aaanholt or PvA who returned from injury in GW21. He’s no game changer but the attacking full back will certainly add more verve to their play down the left and he chipped in with a couple of assists early on before his season was curtailed back in GW10. At just £4.2m he’s the cheapest route into the Sunderland defence and with QPR and Burnley being so lame on the road it could be a shrewd move. Of the 7 clean sheets we alluded to it’s worth pointing out that 5 of those were away from home as well which suggests they can keep things tight when they need to and we wouldn’t be afraid of playing PvA away from home either on that basis.

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LESS FAVOURABLE FIXTURES

Aston Villa – Arsenal (a), Chelsea (h), Hull (a)

Derby County currently hold the record for least goals scored in a PL season (20) and Villa are currently on track to break that unenviable record with exactly 1 in 2 (19), pro rata. The moral here is obvious, if you still somehow have, even unexpectantly, any Villa attacking coverage, you need to slap yourself in the face now. Very hard.

If you have any Villa defensive coverage then we will let you off as despite the lack of any attack whatsoever they have obviously been concentrating on not conceding as Villa actually have the best defensive record outside of the top 8. The caveat here though is that you will be needing to bench any such defensive cover until GW26 at least as the next two games are against Arsenal and Chelsea. The third is against Hull away so that’s maybe not so bad.

Stoke, Newcastle and West Brom are their next three beyond that so maybe you could make an argument for benching a Hutton, for example, for the next two in the hope that he could be of some use down the line.

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Everton – Crystal Palace (a), Liverpool (h), Chelsea (a)
Another game dominated, another game without maximum points. ‘Frustrating’ just about sums Everton up at the moment. If we learned nothing new about Everton, other than that Kevin Mirallas won’t be on penalty duties ever again, we at least learned that West Brom have quickly embraced the Pulis spirit of Palace from last season and will surely frustrate into submission many more teams this season in the same fashion.

We doubt many fantasy managers have many, if any, Everton players left. There will probably be a few stragglers with the remnants of either Baines or Coleman. Yes, you got a bonus with a rare clean sheet from them last week if you stayed faithful but maybe now is the time to bid farewell, finally. They just aren’t getting the attacking returns that made them both a must have last season. Given the fixtures they probably won’t return too many defensive points either which makes their respective price tags of £7.1m and £6.8m seem an extravagance too far.

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Leicester – Man Utd (a), Crystal Palace (h), Arsenal (a)
There’s nothing outstandingly bad about Leicester. They score a few and they concede an average amount for a bottom half club. The problem is they lose. A lot. 13 times in fact which sees them sit bottom of the table. With away games at both Arsenal and Man United that trend is likely to continue. Even Palace at home is a different proposition now it seems.

Much like the team none of their players particularly stand out which is just as well as we wouldn’t particularly recommend having any of them! Curiously the unpronouncible Marcin Wasilewski has been a name almost on the tip of many a fantasy managers tongue during the January wildcard and this was only down to him being the cheapest playing defender available at £3.9m but such has been his popularity, as such, he’s not even that anymore as he’s gone up to £4.0m. Some teams and players are just not good at anything, even at being the worst.

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QPR – Stoke (a), Southampton (h), Sunderland (a)
As we’ve mentioned earlier QPR are useless on their travels and 2 of the next 3 are away and neither Stoke or Sunderland are pretty places to visit. In any sense of the word. 10 games away, 10 defeats and just 5 goals scored tells you all you need to know really. They do fare much better at home but even that one is against a resurgent Southampton who have conceded the fewest goals away from home in the league (9) and have won their last 3 away games.

As ever QPR are all about one man and one man only and that’s Charlie Austin. Of the forwards only Diego Costa has more points and at £6.5m he’s probably still the best value forward in the league with his 13 goals and 3 assists which means he’s been involved in 16 of QPR’s 23 goals so far.

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West Ham – Liverpool (a), Man Utd (h), Southampton (a)
Anyone with the likes of Downing and Carroll in their ranks will be facing a dilemma here. Both bang in form, both with something to prove this week in particular at their former residence of Anfield. Take the three fixtures overall though and it’s hard to argue their case for continued inclusion. They’re still in the hunt for a European place and whether that ambition is genuine will be severely tested over the coming weeks.

Downing is the darling here with a hefty 116 points so far. His 5 goals and 7 assists have helped to become the 5th highest fantasy scorer so far this season, only behind much higher profile and higher priced company in the shape of Sanchez, Hazard, Fabregas and Costa. If you’ve had him from the start then it’ll be a wrench to let him go. It’s probably worth pointing out then that 2 of the next 3 beyond these are also against Spurs and Chelsea. All in all then that’s a pretty poor run of games.

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Fixture Fun
There are FA Cup matches going on all this weekend and there are too many to mention, suffice to say the majority of Premier League clubs are in action so keep your eyes and ears open for any news on injuries or suspensions that may occur.

Tuesday and Wednesday also see the conlusion of the League Cup semi-finals and so Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs are all in action.

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Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 23 – Fantasy Premier League 2014-15. This article was written by Inittowinit

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