Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 7

Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 7 – Fantasy Premier League 2014

Well that was a strangely quiet week wasn’t it. Man Utd just about got over the line despite Rooney’s moment of madness, Costa grabbed yet another goal but didn’t quite hit the heights many had hoped for and the two big derbies petered out into fairly drab 1 -1 stalemates. Rooney’s lunacy and yet another Ramsey injury have caused a few problems for many a fantasy manager this week. If you are among those that are unlucky enough to own one of those, or indeed the pair, then we sympathise with your plight and you have some tough decisions to make for replacements. Let’s help ease those woes as we take a look ahead at who has good fixtures in the next few weeks and who may struggle…

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 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 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
Southampton – Tottenham (a), Sunderland (h), Stoke (h)
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[/three_fourth]Southampton have been the surprise package so far. We suspected that they may well have struggled this season given the exodus of both players and manager alike but they have pretty much carried on as if nothing has happened. Given the changes they almost certainly wouldn’t have expected to be sitting in 2nd place at this stage but that’s where they are and deservedly so.

If he wasn’t already then Graziano Pelle should be a name that is is on everybody’s wish list. He came into FPL with a fantastic recent stats record. Whether that would translate with the step up from Dutch football to the Premier League was the main issue but he’s taken to it like a duck to water and four goals and an assist in six games is testament to that. Whenever you pick up a striker in that mid-price range you just want consistency and he seems to have replaced Rickie Lambert perfectly in that respect. Much was expected of Dusan Tadic and he too has been fairly consistent if not explosive so far with three assists to his name. He’s actually been overshadowed by team-mate Morgan Schneiderlin so far who at £5.8m has proved fantastic value for his owners having grabbed three goals. Whether that continues is a different matter as he has already beaten his tally for last season which was just the two. We were pleased to see the exciting Sadio Mane finally take his FPL bow this weekend and he got himself an assist too before he was subbed off on 67 minutes. He is definitely one to watch as a mid price option at £6.9m as we feel he will be getting goals and assists regularly once he has bedded in.

Fixture wise Southampton have a bit of a tricky away trip to face their former boss Mauricio Pochettino and his Spurs team this week but they should be up for this one and then they have two relatively kind home fixtures. Unbeaten at home and having scored six goals you would expect them to fancy their chances against both Sunderland and Stoke.

Liverpool WBA (h), QPR (a), Hull (h)
Liverpool surely thought they had the Merseyside derby wrapped up, along with a handy and welcome clean-sheet, until Phil Jagielka struck a worldy in injury time. They will feel that they deserved the victory and the fact that they came so close to a clean-sheet will be encouragement for owners of the likes of Moreno and Lovren as they haven’t looked solid recently but did so on Saturday. The next three games look promising as two are at home against West Brom and Hull, teams you would expect Liverpool to beat, and they are split with a trip to QPR where again Liverpool will be strong favourites surely.

Daniel Sturridge was absent again at the weekend but the news on him is encouraging and he may well be back for this weekend. And boy do they need him. They have sorely missed his pace and movement in recent weeks and have had to rely on Mario Balotelli but in truth the enigmatic Italian seems more interested in drawing fouls and getting into petty arguments with opposition players and referees than he does in the game itself. When presented with a golden opportunity to the wrap up the derby at 1-0 he managed to fluff his lines and volley straight at Howard from six yards out with the goal at his mercy.

If you have Liverpool defenders then play them with the schedule ahead. If you have Sterling or Gerrard then likewise. If you have Balotelli then we just don’t know! We would probably look elsewhere despite theses games to be honest. If Sturridge does indeed return then perhaps that’s your answer if you really feel the need for Liverpool attacking coverage.

Manchester City – Aston Villa (a), Spurs (h), West Ham (a)
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[/three_fourth]Having knocked four past Hull this weekend and seven past Sheffield Wednesday in midweek in the Capital One Cup City seem to be getting into their stride finally. They’ve eased into 3rd place and are looking like the main challengers to Chelsea for the title this season.

With Aguero now seemingly fit and doing what he does the next three games will be difficult to watch for those that don’t own him but for those that do it could be delightful. If you can’t quite stretch to Aguero given his price then perhaps have a look at Edin Dzeko at £8.4m. The Bosnian got two goals last time out and will be subject to much transfer activity this week we feel on the back of that. David Silva has been quiet since his opening day goal against Newcastle but awakened this week with two assists. At £9.0m he could be a popular Ramsey replacement.

It’s Villa up next and despite some great early results for them their resolve looks to have cracked somewhat with six goals conceded in the last two games to Arsenal and Chelsea in consecutive 3-0 defeats. You would have to fancy City will be looking at something similar. The next two see Spurs at home and West Ham away. We fancy City will take maximum points from these three games with plenty of goals on the cards.

Other notable fixtures this week
Leicester will fancy their chances at home to a Burnley side who are rooted to the foot of the table and have scored just the one goal so far. We would happily field a Leicester defender this week. At the other end Leicester have scored 8 at home in 3 games so the likes of Ulloa and Vardy look attractive for this one.

Swansea have slowed up somewhat and are without a league win in 3 having won all 3 of their opening fixtures prior to this. A home game against Newcastle this week may be just what they need to get themselves back on track. Their fantasy points have come predominantly from the midfield and the likes of Sigurdsson and Dyer are good picks this week while at the back the likes of Williams and Taylor will fancy a clean-sheet in this one.

LESS FAVOURABLE FIXTURES
Hull – Crystal Palace (h), Arsenal (a), Liverpool (a)
Hull’s last domestic win was way back in August on the opening day away at QPR and they are clearly struggling for any sort of form. It’s Palace up next at home which they desperately need to get a result from as after that they travel to Arsenal and Liverpool.

If you have any Hull players then perhaps chance them this week but beyond that we would suggest you sell or bench them as those two away trips won’t produce much, if anything.

West Brom – Liverpool (a), Man Utd (h), Crystal Palace (h)
A fantastic 4-0 drubbing of Burnley was just what the doctor ordered and that is their third straight win in a row if you include the Capital One cup game. It sees West Brom into a respectable 10th place on 8 points. We wouldn’t get too excited though if you own any West Brom players. An away trip up next to Anfield will be tough. It’s then Man Utd at home followed by Palace who have been looking good so far.

Saido Berahino is looking great value at just £5.5m having notched four goals so far. He could be worth a punt come the Palace game but maybe not for the next two. Many managers will have Andre Wisdom on their roster. It’s worth noting that he is ineligible this week against his parent club Liverpool. Cristian Gamboa will probably get the nod to replace him then and Wisdom managers will be hoping that Gamboa doesn’t do too well and grab his spot permanently.

Manchester United – Everton (h), West Brom (a), Chelsea (h)
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[/three_fourth]We just don’t know what to expect from Utd at the moment. Having gone into an early 2-0 lead against West Ham thoughts drifted back to the previous weekend at Leicester and certainly when West Ham pulled one back the signs of a repeat collapse looked ominous. Wayne Rooney, who had earlier delighted his owners with a goal, then went and undid all of that good work with a moment of madness. He now faces a three match suspension which could actually play into the hands of anyone who still has Juan Mata in their squad. Falcao grabbed an assist and it still feels like he is a huge goal bubble just waiting to burst at a moments notice. Once he gets one the floodgates may open.

It’s Everton up next which will be a stern test for Utd and it is both this and that Chelsea game in GW9 which have prompted us to slip Utd into this section. West Brom away in GW8 feels like it has goals in it despite Utd being yet to win on the road whereas the other two may see both Everton and Chelsea arrive with a will to halt Utd scoring and both will feel that they can score at the other end given Utd’s porous defence.

FIXTURE FUN
This week sees a number of teams in European action as both the Champions League and the Mickey Mouse Europa League return. Chelsea and Man City play on Tuesday, Arsenal and Liverpool on Wednesday, Everton and Spurs on Thursday. As ever check your teams players and their injury status after these games prior to making any transfers if you can.

It is also worth noting that after GW7 there is an international break again (boo) which means that there is a two week gap between this and GW8.

Good luck this week everyone! (not you Bry 😉 )

Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Fixtures GW7 – Fantasy Premier League 2014-15. This article was written by Inittowinit

Follow @Inittowinit

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