Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 38

Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 38

And so there was one! Wow. It seems like only yesterday that we wrote this with 38 glorious weeks ahead of us. And glorious they were. The up’s and down’s we’ve all been through. We’ve lived it together. Sometimes in good humour, other times in glorious technicolour with expletives at the ready! There’s 1 left though and it could prove crucial to many a mini-league. It’s ‘squeaky bum time’ as someone famously said. If you’re home and hosed already then well done but spare a thought for those that aren’t! It’ll be an excruciating experience as they kick every ball on the final day in the hope of squeezing out those last few pivotal points to see them over the line. As ever we are here to try and help in that pursuit and as such we will look at those teams that we feel warrant your attention this week.

Let’s begin with a very straightforward and short 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 this to be winnable fixtures for the given team and should, in theory at least, harvest good fantasy points for you in their game. 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 this week and as such may be best avoided from a fantasy perspective.

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GW38
Let’s take a look at those teams that do still need to actually win. Last week we spoke about perhaps jumping on teams that had ‘something to play for’ as opposed to those ‘already on the beach’…

Southampton – Man City (a)
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[/three_fourth]Well, Southampton vs Aston Villa put paid to that theory and then some! Villa ‘needed’ to win but somehow still managed to secure their Premier League status by getting hammered 6-1. Teflon Tim truly can do no wrong! That must be a record of some sort in itself but we aren’t sure what. One things for certain – Tim will let us know if it is, loud and proud. Whilst most other teams seem to be attempting to avoid the Europa League that message clearly got lost in translation during the Southampton team talk as Sadio Mane had a mental 3 minutes to break all sorts of records with a quick fire hat-trick. Fortunately it barely registered on the FPL radar due to his low 1.5% ownership. Had that been Silva or Sterling the ripples would still be being felt now!

So Southampton go into the final game with 5th place still being a possibility depending on how Spurs and Liverpool fare. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it’s away at a buoyant Man City who have won 5 straight, scoring 16 in the process. City may still require a victory to secure 2nd place should Arsenal beat Sunderland so we’d expect them to be going for it on Sunday.

Conclusion
If you have any Saints attackers we would play them but defenders may be another matter as the likelihood here is that City will score given their recent care free exploits.

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Sunderland – Chelsea (a)
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[/three_fourth]As well as Villa, Leicester also secured their place amongst the elite with a bore draw at Sunderland but one that triggered many a clean sheet for owners of both teams. Possibly the most predictable result since ‘The Disgrace of Gijon’ but to be fair to Sunderland they did try and win it. Sort of. That result leaves them needing a point from their final two games. They may well be safe come Sunday then if they can keep Arsenal quiet on Wednesday evening. If they lose that then they face a nervy end with a trip to to Chelsea and will probably be left hoping for results elsewhere to go their way.

Jose has been quoted as saying he will field his full ‘champions’ side for this fixture. Whether they all have their ‘champions’ head on is a different matter but at least he’s respecting the integrity of the competition.

Conclusion
On the basis that they have something to play for we would say perhaps play your Sunderland boys but maybe do so in hope rather than expectation! They’ll almost certainly concede at Chelsea – most teams do. Scratch that, everybody does. Chelsea have scored in every home game this season in the league. It’s equally as difficult scoring at Stamford Bridge – only 7 teams have done so out of the 18 that have tried and only Swansea managed to get more than one.

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Hull – Man Utd (h)
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[/three_fourth]If Hull don’t beat Man United on Sunday everything else is irrelevant and it will be they who will be playing in the Championship next season. It’s as simple as that for them. Whether their opponents will still have anything to play for depends on how Arsenal fare on Wednesday evening. A win for the Gunners and United can’t catch them and so will finish 4th regardless. That’s the ideal scenario for Hull so they’ll all be cheering on Arsenal this week! If Arsenal lose then United will go into the game knowing that a victory could still see them pip 3rd spot. A draw will make it mathematically unlikely but United will still give it a go.

As for Hull themselves only three teams have scored less at home and they average just over a goal a game at the KC which they will surely have to somehow suddenly improve on if they hope to stay up. Despite last weekends defeat at Spurs the general consensus was that Hull were the better team but as ever they just didn’t convert their chances.

Conclusion
Clearly they will have to score so perhaps a punt on a Hull striker may be worth a gamble. Top scorer (8 goals) Nikica Jelavic returned to the starting 11 at Spurs and was ably assisted by fellow striker Dame N’Doye in missing everything. Hull’s highest fantasy point scorer by some distance is Ahmed Elmohamady with 111. The Egyptian has sent over the 2nd most crosses in the league this season, it’s just a shame the guys he’s aiming at are so useless. He has 5 assists and a couple of goals to his name so he may be worth a look if you need a cheap midfielder with a decent track record (£5.0m).

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Newcastle – West Ham (h)
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[/three_fourth]We thought it might come down to this and so it has. Newcastle effectively have to better or match Hull’s result in order to stay up. They cannot really afford a draw either though as their goal difference is vastly inferior and such an outcome combined with a Hull victory will probably send them down. With this is mind then they really need to go and do something that they haven’t achieved since GW27 – WIN! Yes that was way back in February and they’ve scored a shockingly low 6 goals since then, conceding 21 in the same period.

There’s good and bad news about their opponents this week. The good news is that West Ham are on the brink of qualifying for the Europa League via FIFA’s Fair Play League so you could argue that the tackles won’t exactly be flying in. The bad news however is twofold and involves a certain Sam Allardyce. Given that Big Sam probably knows he won’t be at the Hammers next season just ask yourselves this – would he prefer to execute the biggest revenge mission ever on his ex-employers by relegating them or qualify for something that he will not even be involved in? Yes. We are thinking the same. Good luck Newcastle!

Conclusion
Given their distinct lack of goals recently it’s difficult to argue a case for grabbing one of their forwards even for a game in which they desperately need to score! It’s a shame Papiss Cisse has featured so little of late as when he does play he tends to score. He’s got 11 this season despite his total number of minutes actually equating to less than 12 games. He may be their final roll of the dice though so keep tuned to what Carver has to say about him this week. The alternative is Ayoze Perez who has scored 2 in the last 4 games and at just £4.3m could be a bargain punt this week. As for the rest of the sorry mess we’d just stay away!

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Arsenal – West Brom (h)
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[/three_fourth]So as you may have gathered the fate and fortunes of many others may rest upon Arsenal’s result on Wednesday but in actuality they themselves should in theory still have something to play for on Sunday regardless of the result. The only scenario in which they won’t is if it’s a draw and they assume that Man United can’t or won’t overturn a goal difference of 7 on the final day. If this is the case then we may see one or two rested ahead of the Cup Final but assuming they still require a result then we would expect a full strength team to at least begin the match with one or two disappearing later on if the game’s in the bag.

Speaking of bag’s, the opposition are West Brom who have been very poor on the road this season having scored just 13 goals away from home, the joint worst in the league. And that was when they had to try and score and win, this week they don’t so Arsenal could have their merry way with them here.

Conclusion
Keep an eye on how Wednesday’s result may affect Arsenal’s approach to this one but we’d expect them to win and win comfortably regardless, so we’d have no issue rolling those DGW assets over to GW38.

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Best of the rest…
As we’ve touched on above both Man City and Man United may have something to play for depending on how Arsenal do on Wednesday. If City do need a win then Silva and Aguero will probably be the guys to provide it.

Spurs are embroiled in a Europa League battle but one which we aren’t sure they actually want to win! Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they do. They travel to Everton who will no doubt kick lumps out of them in an attempt to avoid said Europa via the Fair Play League. Expect Everton to be down to about 8 men by the end.

Leicester may be safe but mad manager Pearson was quite adamant that they would look to finish off in style and there’s no better fixture to do so than QPR at home. If you have Foxes then play them. In fact if you don’t we’d even consider buying some!

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Dead Rubbers!
The final day can produce some strange results and some equally strange team selections so just be aware that the likes of Crystal Palace, Swansea, Leicester, QPR, Stoke and Liverpool all feature in games that literally have nothing riding on them. Liverpool may want to give Stevie G a final curtain call to remember but that was the plan last weekend at Anfield too and look at how that ended up!

A special mention to Aston Villa with them being safe and having a Cup Final to concentrate on the week after we would probably avoid them just in case they rest a few stars ahead of the big day. Their opponents Burnley likewise have nothing to play for having already been relegated.

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Final Word
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[/three_fourth]As this is the final Fixtures article of the season I just wanted to say a few brief words of thanks to three groups of people in particular. Firstly to our wonderful team of writers who provide you with the likes of Captains Picks and the ad-hoc stuff both on here and on Fantasy Football Fix and that includes Potty for his weekly comps and Bench for providing us with access to his wonderfully well run Banterbury Leagues. I won’t name everyone but they know who they are and I’m sure the official ‘Thank You’ article will do just that. We are truly blessed with some fantastic writers from all around the world and it’s a pleasure to read their work but they’re also a cracking set of lads to have around ‘behind the scenes’ and make the whole thing enjoyable and fun.

Secondly I’d like to thank the site members who contribute to the boards. Without you we wouldn’t do this and I personally value every comment made on here. It’s a pleasure to be a part of such a wonderful community – polite, funny, helpful, knowledgeable and most of all I consider you all to be friends!

The final thank you is reserved for a special group of people who I hold dear to my heart. My fellow ‘weekly’ writers. It takes a certain will, dedication and determination to write an article every single week. It takes a special skill to keep them fresh and relevant. I will name check them as they also run the site from top top to bottom and we live and breathe this together every single day and it’s a pleasure to work with them – Cookie, Kop and Mito. (And Rich. Although he doesn’t write anything, he does hang out with us). Thanks boys.

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Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 38 – Fantasy Premier League 2014-15. This article was written by inittowinit

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