Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 30
So you are a diligent fantasy manager. You check the fixtures out, you plan ahead. You trawl the fantasy sites for tips for the week ahead. You spend countless hours pouring over your captain choice in your mind. You check the team news for injuries and generally scour the internet for any little morsel that could hand you an advantage. You post your team for feedback and ponder over the answers. You’ve pretty much done all you possibly can to prepare for the week ahead. And then you log on to check your score on Saturday evening. The average is 12 points. You’ve beaten it! By 2. You check your mini-league and all the top boys are in the same doo-doo and then you scan down and find that loser who quit after 12 weeks. He’s got 43 points! Yep, Saturday was just one of those days. For those paying attention and playing regularly it was bad news after bad news…
Palace were 3-0 up by half-time so you’d be forgiven for logging in to check just how many assists Puncheon had racked up. None. He then went down injured and got subbed prior to even completing the mandatory 60 minutes for a miserly 1 point. We all probably should have known at that stage we were in for one of those strange weeks! Fast forward a few hours and Cazorla gets benched, Sunderland concede 4 to Villa, West Brom grab a clean-sheet and Foster gets injured after 56 minutes yet WBA go on and get his colleagues a clean sheet. Hurting yet? No? Ok, well at least City would kick start the week in the late one with an easy game against Burnley. Clean sheet, check. Silva goal and assist, check. Aguero at the double, check. Surely? Errrmmm…
Not to worry, Sunday looked promising…
Southampton clean sheet gone after 11mins and the Chelsea one evaporated before we even hit 20mins. Yep we all got that Puncheon feeling again! Sure enough the day got weirder and weirder as Kane and co blanked, Man United played well and even Everton won. Even Everton. Really, really just one of those weeks.
But alas, Monday Night Football was here to save the day. Swansea and Liverpool just had to break the mould. Surely some Coutinho magic, a Sturridge goal, a Sterling assist, a Siggy anything. Yep we were clutching at straws at this point, clearly. Anyway, sure enough, it took a ridiculously fluky goal from Henderson to win it which seemed ooooh so fitting. More so if your rival owned him. Sturridge probably summed the week up best by hitting the post with 30 seconds to go.
Now listen up GW29, we didn’t like you very much from the get-go and you’ve outstayed your welcome. Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out. Heck, who are we kidding, we hope you fall down the stairs too.
Welcome, oh glorious GW30!!!…
Dates for your diary…
We have DGW’s galore on the horizon. We just have no idea when they will be! We laid out the possibilities early last week after we sent Mito off to investigate and just in case you missed it here are his musings on who may play and when…
https://fantasyfootball247.co.uk/fixtures-double-gameweeks-blanks/
Given as we can only play with what we know as fact for now here are the GW’s that you need to keep an eye on for planning your moves…
GW30 – Nothing of note here, everybody plays and all do so just the once. This week is a usual Saturday deadline at 11.30am GMT.
GW33 – The following teams have a blank game-week in 33 –
Arsenal
Aston Villa
QPR
Sunderland
Liverpool and Hull will also both miss out on GW33 should Liverpool win their FA Cup replay with Blackburn on the 8th April.
GW34 – The only DGW that has actually been confirmed so far and it sees both Leicester and Chelsea feature twice –
Leicester play Burnley (a) & Chelsea (h)
Chelsea play Arsenal (a) & Leicester (a)
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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_blue]Blue[/highlight_blue] – These teams have either a double or a blank game-week to consider.
[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
Spurs – Leicester (h), Burnley (a), Aston Villa (h)
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[/three_fourth]Was it Spurs just having an off day or were Man United really that good? Maybe a bit of both in reality but either way they need to dust themselves down and get back on the horse as they now sit 7th and are six points off those coveted Champions League spots. Defeats away at rivals Liverpool and Man United have been damaging to their hopes of catching either but that United match really was a 6-pointer as had they won they would have been level on points but only one team played like they realised the game’s significance and it wasn’t Spurs.
The good news for Spurs is that 7 of their remaining 9 fixtures are against sides below them in the league with only GW’s 34 and 35 looking like anything like a hurdle as they face Southampton away and Man City at home in those. Many managers will still have a good few Spurs players in their squads since the last DGW and the good news is that certainly up until the aforementioned games the next 4 look promising so you can probably hang onto them for now at least and 2 of the next 3 are at home.
Next up for Spurs is bottom side Leicester at home. You would fully expect a Spurs victory here against a team who have lost 11 out of their 13 fixtures away from home and are without a win in their last 7 games. Outside of the top 4 teams Spurs have the joint best home goals record with 25 to their name. So whilst scoring shouldn’t be an issue their goals against at home (19) is more akin to a team at the bottom end of the league. Expect goals just don’t be shocked if they concede in the process.
A trip to Burnley would not normally look too concerning a prospect but The Clarets just pulled off one of the shocks of the season by managing to keep Aguero, Silva and co at bay to record a tremendous 1-0 home win over City. On the face of it that makes this a tricky trip so let’s dig a bit deeper to see whether this was a freak result or part of a pattern indicating a Burnley revival. Prior to said victory, Burnley’s last victory in any competition was way back on the 10th January when they beat QPR at home. And everybody does that. Since then they hadn’t won in 8 games up until Saturday, a run that included a 2-4 spanking by Spurs in the League Cup at Turf Moor. Perhaps keep an eye on how they fare against Southampton this weekend but that smacks of a freak result to us.
The 3rd game in the sequence should be a cracker as good old Tim returns to White Hart Lane with his now resurgent Villans. And yes it’s Villans not Villains, apparently. You learn something new every day. Either way both teams will be up for this one given the history and the only real question mark is should Adebayor somehow get on and score will he salute Tim again?
Managers with Harry Kane (everybody) will of course hold him and quite possibly captain him this week and maybe even next. The bigger question mark hangs over Christian Eriksen. Since scoring in successive games back in GW’s 21 and 22 the Dane’s points tally looks like this 2, 1, 1, 5, 2 and 2. His only contribution since January has been a solitary assist. At £8.4m there are contenders elsewhere such as Coutinho making a far better case for that valuable midfield spot in your team. Perhaps keep him this week given the easier fixture but if he blanks again you’d better keep an eye on FFFix as he will be dropping like a stone!
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Chelsea – Hull (a), Stoke (h), QPR (a)
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[/three_fourth]With the two strongest defences in the league on show a low scoring 1-1 draw probably wasn’t the biggest surprise on Sunday but the truth is that but for some smart goalkeeping at both ends, and from Frasier Forster in particular, this one could have been a goal-fest but in keeping with the rest of the week it yielded little more than a goal each for Costa and Tadic and assists for Mane and Ivanovic. In light of City’s defeat the point earned puts Chelsea six clear now with a game in hand. With this now being the only competition they are left in we expect to see Chelsea power on and probably just importantly from a fantasy point of view any risk of rotation will be minimal.
They begin the run-in with three games they should and probably will win. It’s a trip to Hull first who have actually managed to grab 7 out of a possible 9 points in their last three home games albeit against Sunderland, QPR and Villa. A 0-0 draw at Leicester probably tells you all you need to know though as they limp slowly towards safety as they always do at this time of the season. Chelsea should have enough to see them off before they then host old boy Mark Hughes and his increasingly inconsistent Stoke side. A poor 0-1 defeat at West Brom was preceded by three wins on the bounce which in turn was preceded by two consecutive 4-1 hammerings by Blackburn and Man City. Regardless of which Stoke turns up this is Chelsea at home – 14 games undefeated, 28 scored and just 6 conceded. Home win.
It’s then a short trip to QPR who are on the crest of a slump. They are bottom of the form table with just one win in their last 10 games and perhaps more significantly the other 9 games were all defeats. The myth that they are good at home has imploded as they have lost their last 5 at Loftus Road in all competitions scoring just 2 goals in that run. Away win.
So having just handed Chelsea 9 easy points what lies beyond those? Well GW33 is shaping up to be tasty as an improving Man United pay a visit but it’s GW34 that really grabs the attention here as it’s a hallowed DGW. It’s a DGW with games at either end of spectrum too. Both are away from home but one is against Leicester and the other is against Arsenal. Assuming everybody is fit and suspension free (yes Mr Costa, we are looking at you) then you will most likely be looking to gradually increase your Chelsea coverage to the maximum of 3 for that week.
That Costa goal was his first in the league since a double against Sawnsea back in GW22 but to be fair to him he missed three of those due to suspension. Again. Prior to that it was 6 goals and 2 assists in 7 games so he may be about to embark on a little run again to add to his 18 scored so far. We keep mentioning suspensions here as he is currently sat on 8 yellows – 2 away from triggering another 2 game ban. There is a cut-off of the 2nd Sunday in April for this which is effectively GW32. So if he makes it beyond this still on 8 or 9 yellows then he would have to get to 15 in order to trigger a ban. We guess he’ll just take the 15 as a fresh challenge! The nightmare scenario here is that he goes into GW32 on 9 and picks up his 10th, ruling him out of not only GW33 but also reducing his DGW34 down to the second game only. Well we say nightmare, it’s perfect if you don’t own him and have no intention of buying him.
Eden Hazard came up with all of 2 points from GW29 but worry not as he was in fine form and could have had at least a goal and an assist on another day. He’s 43 points ahead of Costa overall despite having scored 8 goals less and this is in part to having more assists (7 vs 2) but also down to his ability to attract bonus points which Costa seemingly struggles with. In fact Costa has had 8 games this season where he has scored and not picked up a single bonus point whereas this has happened to Hazard just the once.
As for the defence everybody should probably have some Chelsea coverage in this department. At just £4.7m Kurt Zouma caught the eye as a potential budget gem by playing 90 mins in three games in a row prior to last weekend, picking up two clean sheets in the process. Doubt has been cast over his inclusion now though as it was interesting to note that Cahill got the nod ahead of him in the Champions League game last week against PSG – a game in which Jose presumably would have defaulted to whatever he felt was his strongest line-up. Similarly Cahill was preferred at the weekend against Southampton. Probably best to look elsewhere then if you can afford it. Ivanovic and Terry have played every single minute of this league campaign so far helping themselves to 13 clean sheets in the process. Ivanovic is fast becoming this seasons Leighton Baines. The only notable differences between the pair this season being that the big Serb scores, assists, plays and gets clean sheets.
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Man City – West Brom (h), Crystal Palace (a), Man Utd (a)
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[/three_fourth]Who’s that you can hear laughing? Oh that’ll be Barca coach Luis Enrique. He’s just put the tape down. The Burnley game was supposed to be a warm-up of sorts ahead of going to the Nou Camp on Wednesday evening. You know, a game to lift spirits and confidence, knock in a few goals, take off a few stars early once the job is done. Quite what getting beaten by a team in the relegation zone does to your confidence we shall find out soon but Manuel may well be dusting off his old psychology text books to read on the plane.
The good news is that should City succumb to the inevitable on Wednesday then like Chelsea they will only have the league left to play for and even if that begins to look a more distant hope as the weeks pass they will surely have to win every game from here on in if they are to stand any chance at all of capitalising on any Chelsea slip-ups. Just as importantly is the need to secure 2nd spot should they not quite catch Chelsea as Arsenal, Man United and even Liverpool are all within touching distance of them.
The run-in itself isn’t too bad and starts with a home game against West Brom this weekend who have won just 2 out of 14 away games this season. It’s then two away trips to Palace and down the road to United but City’s away form has been good. They are the leagues top scorers away from home with 31 which is 3 more than they’ve managed at home! Eight away wins is rivalled only by Chelsea. The United game will be the most difficult of course as they themselves are home birds having won more at Old Trafford (12) than any other team has at home.
Assuming City are still in the race after the United game then they have two good looking home fixtures on the bounce against West Ham and Villa. A tricky trip to Spurs is then followed by every teams favourite fixture – QPR at home.
Aguero owners may be forgiven for sitting a little uncomfortably right now as the little man made it three games without a goal. That two of those games were against Leicester and Burnley is almost unfathomable. Take comfort knowing that when that happens it happens to almost everybody though such is his ownership amongst live teams. He’s not really one you would ever want to switch out either as he can potentially go nuts in any game and there aren’t many players you can say that about and it is this explosiveness that sees him as a potential captain almost every week. When all’s said and done he’s still the main striker for the team with the best attacking record in the league with 59 goals and is on penalties for good measure.
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LESS FAVOURABLE FIXTURES
Newcastle – Arsenal (h), Sunderland (a), Liverpool (a)
March is a great time to be a travel agent in Newcastle. Every year at about this time you get a steady succession of multi-millionaire footballers showing up at your door to book their early season breaks sporting some sort of fake injury or long suspension note. Cisse started it last week and Coloccini duly booked his on Sunday. Expect many others to soon follow suit as Newcastle aren’t going down and refuse to go above 10th usually for fear of the Europa League. If ever a result said “see you in August”, a 0-3 defeat to Everton was it. We rather suspect that Tim Krul was simply practicing lying down on his sun lounger just as James McCarthy shot. We hope so anyway otherwise somebody best call the gambling commission.
Their fixtures are poor too, so best just avoiding them wherever possible.
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Burnley – Southampton (a), Spurs (h), Arsenal (h)
If Burnley are to get out this mess then they will have to hope they have plenty more shock City results up their sleeves as the fixtures are relentless for them at the moment. The three listed above are followed by a trip to Everton. The good news for them is that from GW34 onwards their run-in is infinitely kinder with the likes of Leicester, Hull and Villa on the agenda.
As if GW29 wasn’t going badly enough everybody’s favourite 5th midfielder George Boyd stepped up to kick a host of beleaguered managers in the nuts with 11 points waving at them from the bench. Ouch!
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HULL – Chelsea (h), Swansea (a), Southampton (a)
This week will obviously be tough for Hull as they host Chelsea and then they face two tricky away games at Swansea and Southampton. With just two wins away from home and six draws Hull’s philosophy is clearly to keep it tight and nick an away point. They will be looking to pick up the wins at home you would assume then but after Chelsea their next two at the KC are Liverpool* and Arsenal.
*The Liverpool game will be off if the Reds progress in the FA Cup.
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Leicester – Spurs (a), West Ham (h), West Brom (a)
We’ve snuck Leicester in here mainly because they will be on managers radars due to them having a DGW ahead and their players being cheap as chips. The likes of Schlupp, Mahrez, Cambiasso and Kramaric could come in handy if you need to downgrade here or there safe in the knowledge that they have no blank weeks and that handy DGW34 ahead.
The fixtures aren’t the best but they rarely are when you are stuck to the bottom of the league! The double itself is very mixed with Burnley and Chelsea on the agenda. Grab one if you need to but don’t go beyond that as there are better options elsewhere even for DGW34.
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Fixture Fun
Arsenal, Everton and Man City fly the flag in Europe this week.
Tuesday sees Arsenal go to Monaco in an attempt to salvage their Champions League campaign having being humbled at home by Berbatov and his cigar complete with smoking jacket.
On Wednesday Man City go to Barcelona who will no doubt be quaking in their boots having just put down the video of City’s lame outing at Burnley.
Thursday completes the week as Everton travel to Kiev to try and defend a slim 2-1 lead and probably be the only club left in Europe by this point if they manage it.
Be sure to keep an eye out for any injuries that may arise as a result of these games. Any suspensions or yellow cards that occur in these European games do not count toward the Premier League.
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****BREAKING NEWS!!!****
A DGW31 has now been announced for both Aston Villa and QPR…
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Thanks Init! Just got a chance to read it, excellent stuff as always.