Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 5

Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 5 – Fantasy Premier League 2014

One man grabbed all the headlines on Saturday with a stunning hat-trick to stake his claim as the number one ‘must-have’ fantasy pick this season. Deigo Costa racked up a whopping 17 points. If you captained him then even better and well done but that number was down a bit due to his ‘will he, won’t he play?’ status. On Sunday, the stage was left free for the new look Man United team to remind us that they were back and that they possibly have a few fantasy gems to be reckoned with once more. Lets take a look at the fixtures ahead for the next six weeks and see whether any of these or indeed others are worthy of your attention and look at who to perhaps avoid for a while.

Before we examine the fixtures for GW5-GW10, 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 fixture 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 initial 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 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
Southampton – Swansea (a), QPR (h), Tottenham (a), Sunderland (h), Stoke (h), Hull (a)
So much for the doom-mongers who had Southampton all but relegated before a ball was even kicked. Seemingly not a day passed in the summer without yet another Saints player exiting stage left and this was on top of their manager doing likewise. Fast forward a few weeks and all is looking rosy as the Saints currently sit fourth whilst simultaneously counting the cash gleaned from up north and peering down the league table at those who gave it to them. It often takes a while for new signings to settle in but the likes of Tadic and Pelle look like they’ve been there all along while Alderweireld slotted seamlessly into a back four that is beginning to look very solid indeed. And lets not forget that they still have Jay Rodriguez to return at some point and new siging Sadio Mane comes armed with some amazing stats that he and Saints fans alike hope he will be able to replicate in the Premier League and will only add to what is looking like an exciting team in the making and one that could make last seasons ‘golden generation’ nothing but a distant memory.

As for their fixtures they don’t look too daunting at all. It’s Swansea away this week and while this won’t be easy it does have all the makings of a great game and we wouldn’t be surprised to see quite a few goals in this one. Beyond that you would have to fancy that the Saints would be favourites at home against all of QPR, Sunderland and Stoke in their current form. They have two other games on the road namely Hull, where they should do well and the much anticipated first meeting with their old manager Pochettino at Spurs. We expect they will be well up for that one!

Stoke – QPR (a), Newcastle (h), Sunderland (a), Swansea (h), Southampton (a), West Ham (h)
Stoke caused a huge upset in GW3 with that victory at the Etihad over City but as is often the case in this league it counts for very little if you cannot then beat say Leicester at home the following week. Basically Leicester did to Stoke what Stoke did to Man City which was a bit of an old fashioned smash and grab. Stoke are usually resilient, especially so at home, but this is what can happen when you thrive on narrow victories and don’t take your chances when you are on top. On the face of it this 0-1 result suggests that Stoke were poor but they weren’t, they just lacked that killer instinct. Fortress Britannia has now witnessed successive home defeats but we are backing them to do well in the weeks ahead given their fixtures.

They don’t face any of last seasons top seven sides in the upcoming fixtures and the next two are against teams bang out of form and who suffered heavy defeats this past weekend. QPR up first and then Newcastle at home are probably the two fixtures right now that any team would hand pick to get themselves back to winning ways. After that The Swansea and Southampton games will be a little tougher but they will probably fanct themselves to get something at Sunderland and at home to West Ham. Whilst we would probably say avoid their attack, if you have Stoke defenders then the next couple of weeks should be a good time to roll them out.

Manchester United – Leicester (a), West Ham (h), Everton (h), West Brom (a), Chelsea (h), Man City (a)
They’re back! Well ok it was only QPR at home but the shoots of recovery certainly spouted on Sunday. Optimism abound with all of the new signings finally in place and ready to play and they duly delivered with a 4-0 thumping of a QPR side that look in deep trouble but this is all about LVG and his brand spanking new, dollar encrusted millionaires. Angel Di Maria was undoubtedly the star of the show with a goal and an assist, an overall performance that suggested he is indeed the real deal and could be coming to a fantasy team near you very soon! He wasn’t the only one to shine though. Many were eagerly awaiting the team sheets with the names of Mata and Falcao their priority. Falcao was rather inevitably on the bench but this allowed Mata to not only play but also grab a goal for his faithful. Where we go from here with him is anybody’s guess though. As and when Falcao is fit and ready to start then Mata seems the likely fall guy but if he keeps performing and scoring then he will be hard to drop. From a fantasy perspective we would be concerned week in week out as to whether he starts and given his price £8.8m we would want a definite starter. Daley Blind and Marcos Rojo both also made impressive debuts. Again from a fantasy perspective we would maybe stay away though. Blind is a defensive midfielder in this set up and whilst Rojo got a clean sheet, better teams than QPR would have scored so maybe wait and see on any Utd defenders for now. Ander Herrera was another debutante who shone with a goal and an assist to boot and may be one to watch. Initial thoughts were that he would assume the Blind role but in this formation he looks like he will be utilised as per Di Maria as a box to box midfielder and so that goal may be a sign of things to come.

Fixture wise Utd are certainly ok for the next four weeks we feel. They face Leicester, West Ham and West Brom in three of those that all look winnable if the latest showing is anything to go by. Everton at home is the toughest one in GW7. Tough decisions may need to be made come GW9 and GW10 though as the fixture list toughens up somewhat with Chelsea and Man City on the agenda but deal with those when the time arises as the short term looks rosy.

Liverpool – West Ham (a), Everton (h), WBA (h), QPR (a), Hull (h), Newcastle (a)
Oh dear Brendan. Since he arrived at Anfield he’s done little wrong to be fair to him and his decisions have rarely been questioned – if ever. This was one though. The main feature of Liverpool’s attacking play last season was the way they cut teams to ribbons with their pace and movement. This was mainly provided by Suarez, Sturridge and Sterling. Luis has obviously gone and Sturridge was unavoidable due to injury so surely he had to play his remaining one? Well much to the surprise (even despite ‘Bib-gate’) and chargrin of many, many fantasy managers he decided to bench Sterling. He cited rest and his tender age. Both valid points and had Liverpool sauntered to a victory of any sort it would never have been mentioned. Fact is though that they lost and looked labored in the process, with no cutting edge that was so much their identity last season. Many speculated that Champions League football would dent their title credentials this time out and perhaps this was evidenced at the first hurdle here. Sterling will almost certainly be back mid-week for their opener in that one but we imagine most Liverpool fans would rather have seen him start against Villa, wrap up the points and take an early bath. Everyone’s allowed an ‘err or two and hopefully he learns from this one.

That said, Liverpool’s fixtures are still looking promising for them and all look winnable on paper should that Villa game prove to be an aberration and they return to the form that saw them demolish Spurs only a week earlier. Their toughest looking game is against Everton but even that’s at home and they destroyed their neighbours in the corresponding fixture last season.

LESS FAVOURABLE FIXTURES
Aston Villa – Arsenal (h), Chelsea (a), Man City (h), Everton (a), QPR (a), Spurs (h)
We told you last week that Villa have an horrendous run of fixtures on the horizon and that hasn’t really changed much as they still face five of last seasons top six teams over the course of the next six games. What we, or anybody for that matter, really didn’t expect was that Villa would go to Anfield last week and actually win. Granted, Liverpool were poor as we alluded to above, but it was a great performance from Villa none the less. Well great in the sense that they came out quick, grabbed a goal and then smothered Liverpool for the remainder. Pretty much a perfect away performance in that regard. Whether they can repeat that at the likes of Chelsea and Everton we shall see and judging by the fantastically high standard on display at the Emirates at the weekend they will have their work cut out to contain either Arsenal or Man City like they did to an under-strength Liverpool.

West Ham – Liverpool (h), Man Utd (a), QPR (h), Burnley (a), Man City (h), Stoke (a)
West Ham are without a home win this season which will not be endearing Big Sam to the Hammers faithful and he wasn’t on the best of terms to begin with. Home games against Liverpool and Man City won’t help and so perhaps his only escape route will be the one against QPR but even that’s a London derby and could go either way. Their only points have come away from home with a win at Palace and tonight’s point at Hull so perhaps they will be eyeing the trips to Burnley and Stoke as a source of returns but even those two will be difficult. Their other away trip is to Old Trafford so you wouldn’t be expecting much from that if Utd can build on the QPR game.

If you have West Ham players we aren’t quite sure why that would be, but if you do then perhaps the next few games aren’t the best time to be fielding any. Perhaps that home game with QPR but other than that we would stay away from them. Having conceded two again at Hull that’s now just 1 clean-sheet in the last 16 Premier League games for the Hammers.

Hull – Newcastle (a), Man City (h), Crystal Palace (h), Arsenal (a), Liverpool (a), Southampton (h)
Hull are bang average. They aren’t bad, they aren’t great. They’ll win some, they’ll lose some. They’ll probably draw even more. Tonight’s 2-2 draw with west Ham sees them rise quite aptly to 10th in the league which pretty much sums them up really. The will finish the season in 10th. You can bookmark that! Two of the next four fixtures look ok – namely Newcastle and Palace. Newcastle is away this week but we rather suspect the inevitable poisonous atmosphere at St James’, directed at Pardew, may work against the Magpies. The problems we foresee with Hull are the other four games. Man City and Southampton will be difficult and you can see the visitors scoring in both of those which is unfortunate as most fantasy assets from Hull will be defensive ones we imagine, with the odd sprinkling of Jelavic. Their other two away games are at Arsenal and Liverpool and all things being equal they won’t get much out of either of those.

Worryingly, for owners of the ever popular and budget friendly, sometime goal scoring defender James Chester, he was benched tonight as Bruce reverted to a 4-4-2 preferring to partner Dawson and Davies as the pair, the latter scoring an unfortunate own goal. Record signing Abel Hernandez began to pay back a chunk of that fee though as he notched a debut goal with a fine header. If you have Hull players then just pick carefully as and when to play them. As we say they aren’t bad and will get points but perhaps best to avoid at least three if not four of those above fixtures.

FIXTURE FUN
This midweek sees the return of the Champions League and the start of the UEFA Cup proper (we know, Europa League). This means that Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Man City and Spurs all have big games ahead of GW5. Our general advise would be to plan your transfers now but don’t pull the trigger until Friday if you can help it so as to give yourself the best chance of fielding the best possible team next week and the chance to plan around any injuries that may arise as a result of these games.

Good luck everyone!

Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Fixtures GW5 – Fantasy Premier League 2014-15. This article was written by Inittowinit

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