Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 31

Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 31

That was more like it! If GW29 left you feeling like a cold, lonely and stranded damsel in distress, GW30 soon arrived dressed as Prince Charming to whisk you away on a bed of fantasy points once more. It took a while to warm up though as Dopey (Aguero) blanked again in the early game leaving many wondering if GW29 had actually hung around. Bashful (Silva) looked just that as he finally got things going with the slightest of touches to register his 4th goal in 5 games. Sleepy and Sneezy at Southampton (Clyne and Bertrand) helped matters along with an assist, a clean sheet and bonus points for each, whilst Happy (Cazorla) helped Prince Charming pretender (Giroud) grab a brace up at Newcastle. On Sunday Doc (Hazard) got things off to a flier with an early srtike at Hull but Grumpy (Rooney) threatened to spoil the party with a penalty miss. The star of the show was the true Prince Harry though as his hat-trick was the kiss of life that ensured GW30 wasn’t to be a drab showing like the one which went before. So which teams will yield your Snow White in the coming weeks and which ones will be the Wicked Queen, let’s go take a look…

Dates for your diary… DGW31

We have DGW’s galore on the horizon. Unfortunately at this point they are all spread out! No bumper bonanza for those with a wildcard to really make hay and the only hope in that respect is if Liverpool win their FA Cup replay and have their GW33 fixture with Hull shifted to GW37 which would be more enticing for the lucky few as it would be the only game-week of the season to have more than two teams involved with double fixtures.

This is how things shape up this week…

GW31 – The second double game-week of the season but in truth it may be a sheep in wolf’s clothing as it involves Aston Villa and QPR. We took a close look at the two teams involved in an article last week so in case you missed it please check out DGW31 Analysis If you can’t be bothered reading all that then here it is in a nutshell…

Aston Villa – Man United (a), QPR (h)

QPR – West Brom (a), Aston Villa (a)

Basically the conclusion from both the article itself and the subsequent community discussion that followed was that it isn’t really a DGW worth chasing. If you have some players from either Villa or QPR already then play them of course but if not then perhaps only really Austin or one of Agbonlahor or Benteke are worth transferring in. Maybe Sinclair or Phillips (Matty not Shawn Wright-) if you are seeking a cheeky and cheap differential.

Beyond those it’s difficult to see any value plus you’d have to either transfer out or bench some of your established players and there are plenty of teams with good fixtures this week – Arsenal, Man United and Chelsea are all at home while Spurs and Man City have decent enough games even though both are away.

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Future DGW’s and blanks
And these are the future ones to look out for…

GW33 – If you do decide to pick up any Villa or QPR ‘stars’ then please be aware of the fact that they both have a blank in two weeks time along with Arsenal and Sunderland so check your numbers before jumping in.

The 4 teams who have a blank game-week in 33 are –
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 next confirmed DGW sees both Leicester and Chelsea feature twice –

Leicester play Burnley (a) & Chelsea (h)
Chelsea play Arsenal (a) & Leicester (a)

GW37 – Arsenal and Sunderland go into the penultimate game-week of the season with a double –

Arsenal play Man United (a) & Sunderland (h)
Sunderland play Leicester (h) & Arsenal (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
And so onto our usual analysis of which teams we feel have the best run of fixtures ahead of them…

Spurs – Burnley (a), Aston Villa (h), Newcastle (a)
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[/three_fourth]So you may be wondering how long we can get into a Spurs commentary before we mention the man of the moment. Nay, the man of the season. Screw it. Kane. That’s what this is all about after all. Yeah sure, some, many or most will also have Eriksen but if you haven’t got Kane by now then you either aren’t paying attention or you are playing some very risky strategy. And almost certainly losing. So how does Harry’s schedule look? Pretty good, in all honesty. We aren’t the Captains article so we will let those guys tell you later in the week whether or not he is a viable option for the armband against Burnley. Who are in 18th place. With a defensive record that boasts 49 goals conceded – a total only surpassed by QPR. A team who Spurs have already scored 7 goals against this season in all competitions. Oh and for good measure he continued his quest to make everything he touches turn to gold by climbing off the England bench for his debut and scoring after 80 seconds. Yep, we’ve no idea whether he’s a good shout for that honour or not….!

Burnley aside, Spurs’ good run continues with the small matter of Tim the Gilet returning to the scene of his success as he led Spurs to the Premier League title, The FA Cup and the Champions League* Delete as appropriate, we aren’t sure which he thinks he won but judging by his arrogance and self-belief it must have been one of them. We are of course purely neutral here at FF247 but let’s just say that at 3pm on the 11th April, for once and once only, we will be in full Spurs kit with a tub of jellied eels by our side as we don the Gregory Pecks to hopefully witness the Willy Wonka get well and truly Melvyn Bragged.

Once Spurs are done with Villa they have a trip to play Newcastle which by then may involve a flight to Ibiza or Magaluf. You catch our drift. In fact our drift here is that we expect Spurs to win all three games and probably score a few in the process. They will of course also concede a few as that’s what they do. Spurs have the worst defensive record in the top 10 having conceded 45 goals – more than twice as many as Southampton who are on the same points and lie just one place above them in 6th, due to goal difference. Obviously.

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Chelsea – Stoke (h), QPR (a), Man United (h), DGW34 – Arsenal (a), Leicester (a)
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[/three_fourth]With a six point lead and a game in hand the title is surely now Chelsea’s to throw away which ironically they nearly made a good fist of doing at Hull last week. Seemingly cruising with a 0-2 lead, Courtois and Ivanovic contrived to allow Hull back into the game and it needed a late winner from Loic Remy to spare their blushes and keep the title charge on track. With Stoke and QPR up next it’s difficult to see them slipping up before they host Man United in GW33 ahead of their DGW34 which sees them play twice away at both Arsenal and Leicester.

Stock piling Chelsea players ahead of the DGW will be a trend for certain and will probably include a defender, a Hazard and a.n other. The latter may depend largely on the extent of Costa’s latest injury. In many respects the game at Hull was just typical Costa as he scored again only to limp off clutching his now infamous hamstring once more. His near 40% of owners won’t have cared too much at that stage though as a rare assist and all 3 bonus points meant he bagged them a very tidy 12 point haul. The skeptics were out in full force suggesting it was a ruse to avoid international duty once again but surely at 2-2 even Jose wouldn’t go pulling that stunt. We do suspect he’ll be fine and dandy come the weekend though.

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Liverpool – Arsenal (a), Newcastle (h), Hull (a)*
*Hull in GW33 will be moved if Liverpool beat Blackburn in their FA Cup replay on April 8th
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[/three_fourth]Hyped up, psyched up and ready for wilin’… We won’t pepper you with an array of ‘Gone in 38 seconds’ jokes as quite frankly the great man doesn’t deserve it. In the words of Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince he was simply just too tightly strung, wanted to stamp his authority on the game (sorry) and got caught up in the moment. He stood up and apologised after the game and that just about says it all about the incident and him in general. Move on. And Liverpool surely will as their fixtures between now and the end of the season are very good indeed.

Arsenal away this week is about as tricky as it gets for them other than GW36 (Chelsea away) as they have Newcastle at home and Hull away (in theory), as well as games against West Brom, QPR, Palace and Stoke. If the Hull game is in indeed moved then that will be the only reason that fantasy managers will wait before adding in some Liverpool cover. In fact if it is moved, then from GW34 onwards, we feel there may be a rush to include them as they will have a good combination of decent fixtures AND a DGW (probably GW37).

The downside to Sturridge looking like he may face yet another spell on the injury table is that Raheem Sterling could be pushed up top again and will certainly see his popularity increase once more. Young Raheem was supposed to flourish after Sturridge returned to the action. Or at least that was the theory, but the reality is that his last 3 games have yielded scores of 3, 2 and 2 which coincide with Sturridge playing properly since GW28. Prior to that he scored a 9 and an 8 with 2 assists against Man City and a goal against Southampton so perhaps he is best suited to going it alone as such.

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Southampton – Everton (a), Hull (h), Stoke (a)
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[/three_fourth]With one of the games great international defenders at the helm it probably shouldn’t have come as so much of a surprise really that Southampton have the best defensive record in the league. To have conceded just 21 goals in 30 games is ridiculous really and had we all known that would happen then the clamor for double or even treble Saints defenders would have happened back in August rather than in March but the reality is that they were pegged as relegation candidates back then with the heart of the team all jumping on the nearest money train headed up North. With varying degrees of failure.

Let’s give you some simple stats and see if you can guess who the player involved is – 685 appearances, 239 goals. Or a goal in every 2.8 games. Got to be a forward or at the very least an attacking midfielder on penalties right? Wrong. They’re the career stats for a certain center half. For those younger listeners who perhaps are unaware of the great man, Koeman actually had an extraordinary career at the pinnacle of European football playing for Ajax, PSV, Barcelona and of course Holland and clearly he had an eye for goal from the back! Much maligned in the British press for his part in the infamous Graham Taylor ‘Hey, hey, tell your pal (the referee) he’s just cost me my job’ game when he went unpunished for dragging down David Platt when he was through on goal and then of course went up the other end minutes later and scored a free-kick to effectively end England’s chances of qualifying for USA94.

Anyway, mindless trivia aside Southampton have every chance to build upon that fabulous defensive record in the coming weeks. This coming week may test your bottle to double up on them though as they face a tricky trip to Everton who finally seem to have woken up and smelt the coffee with a couple of back to back wins to ease themselves away from Martinezs’ seemingly preferred position in any league table – the bottom 3.  The Toffees have actually scored 11 goals in their last 4 home fixtures in all competitions so think carefully before deploying more than one defender in this one. Beyond that the Saints welcome Hull before travelling north again to Stoke and so whilst that is 2 of the 3 on the road they have only let in 11 in 14 games on their travels.

For anyone with Fraser Forster in their team we give you a gentle reminder that he has unfortunately been ruled out long term as he suffered a fractured knee cap during the Burnley game. Initial reports are suggesting anything upwards of 8 months out. That’s the bad news of course and we wish the big man a speedy recovery but the good news is that his likely replacement is much cheaper! Kelvin Davis is the man likely to get the nod and is priced at just £4.4m making him the cheapest route into the Saints defence out of those likely to start.

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West Brom – QPR (h), Leicester (h), Palace (a)
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[/three_fourth]West Brom get a rare outing in the ‘favourable’ section this week and it’s mainly due to a combination of good recent home form allied to welcoming the two bottom clubs to the Hawthorns in their next two games. Their last 4 home games in all competitions have yielded 4 wins, 8 goals scored and none conceded. Or in other words ‘The Pulis Effect’. For those unaware of this particular phenomenon it’s a phrase that was coined last season after the capped one rode into Crystal Palace who were rock bottom and seemingly destined for the Championship. Fortress Selhurst quickly ensued and such was his effect that many fantasy managers were doing the unthinkable and actually doubling up on Palace defenders such was their renewed defensive resolve. We all kind of expected something like this would happen once Pulis had taken over and perhaps it’s finally coming together at West Brom.

Now we aren’t necessarily suggesting you go out and double up on Baggies defenders but if you have any then play them in the next two for sure but perhaps another injured goalkeeper in the shape of Ben Foster actually opens the door for an even cheaper alternative to the aforementioned Davis in Boaz Myhill at just £4.0m. Despite conceding 3 at Man City last time out Myhill racked up an impressive 13 saves to end up on an improbable 5 points. Clean sheets will be more on the agenda in the two you would imagine.

So whilst they are featuring here on the basis of their next two home fixtures we wouldn’t get too carried away beyond that. It’s Palace away in GW33 and the Baggies have lost their last three on the road and haven’t won in ten.  The two games after that are Liverpool and Man United so you may want to pay attention to how you can rotate any defensive assets.

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Swansea – Hull (h), Everton (h), Leicester (a)
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[/three_fourth]Another team who haven’t featured here for a while now, Swansea have quietly gone about their business and sit in a healthy 8th spot in the league. Much like West Brom it is the home fixtures that catch the eye here with three of their next five games at the Liberty. Having been very unlucky to lose to a late Liverpool goal in their last home game they beat Burnley and Man United in the two prior to that. Hull and Everton are the next two visitors followed by a trip to bottom club Leicester.

Since Bony boarded the money train up to Manchester the Swans aren’t exactly flush with star names. Former fantasy stud Gylfi Sigurdsson is perhaps the biggest of those left but he’s been sporadic at best having missed most of February. He is however still their top fantasy points scorer with 5 goals, 8 assists and 118 points to his name. Coming up on the rails is Sung-yeung Ki at a budget friendly £5.2m. The South Korean has scored 3 goals in 7 games since returning from Asian Cup duty taking his total to 6 for the season with a handy 107 points in the bank.

If you feel Swansea could offer up some clean sheets during this decent run of fixtures then perhaps take a look down their FPL page a bit. Williams stands out at the top with 107 points but at a full £1.0m cheaper than him and at just £4.3m Kyle Naughton may be overlooked as he only has 31 points to his name. This is because he barely featured prior to February but he has played all but 8 minutes of every game now since GW23.

LESS FAVOURABLE FIXTURES

Arsenal – Liverpool (h), Burnley (a), NO GAME
Arsenal are a team in form, they’ve won their last 6 in all competitions, they’ve won their last 8 home league games and their last 3 away. They’ve taken 27 out of the last available 30 points on offer. Whichever way you care to splice it up you’d think they’d be taking center stage in the ‘favourable’ section but the fact that they now have a run that involves games against Liverpool, Chelsea and have a blank in GW33 means it’ll be a strange few weeks for fantasy managers and their relationship with their Arsenal players.

To add to the confusion they come out of this tricky spell with two decent fixtures in GW’s 35 and 36 against Hull and Swansea before their DGW37 which is away at Man United and home to Sunderland. Welcome to the Arsenal version of the Hokey Cokey. You put your best Sanchez in, your best Sanchez out…

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Burnley – Spurs (h), Arsenal (h), Everton (a)
That home win against Man City is starting to look more and more worryingly like the fluke we suspected it may have been as it’s their only victory in their last 9 games of which they drew 2 and lost the other 6. The fixtures suggest that those stats may well get worse before they get better as it’s Spurs up next followed by Arsenal and then a trip to Everton.

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Hull – Swansea (a), Southampton (a), Liverpool (h)
Hull have gone and got themselves in a right pickle. They are 3 points above the drop zone currently but their run-in includes games against Southampton, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and Man United. That’s 5 of the top 7. That will place even more emphasis and pressure on them to get a result away at Swansea this week as their only other remaining games outside of these are a trip to Palace in GW34 and a home game against Burnley in GW36.

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Newcastle – Sunderland (a), Liverpool (a), Spurs (h)
They went on holiday at the beginning of March, they were on holiday last week, they’re still on holiday this week and they’ve got the ‘out of office’ sign up until August. No wins in their last three. Enough said. Three points anyone?

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Fixture Fun
Not so much fixture fun as fantasy torture as the international break continues this week before we FINALLY resume on Saturday lunchtime.

We could go on and list who’s playing and where and when but we honestly haven’t got the time, space or inclination! Suffice to say some or all of your players will be playing somewhere this week be that in a crucial qualifier or a pointless money making friendly at various points of the week at various locations across the globe. Cross your fingers then and hope they all come back in rude health.

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Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 31 – Fantasy Premier League 2014-15. This article was written by Inittowinit

Follow @Inittowinit