Fantasy Football Tips Game-week 27 – Fantasy Premier League 2015/16
“Well, it’s Tips, Jim, but not as we know it, not as we know it, not as we know it; it’s tips, Jim, but not as we know it, not as we know it, Captain”. If you somehow missed our guide to DGW’s and blanks last week then we forgive you as many took a well earned FPL break, but you may need to catch up if you did so, as we are about to enter a period of unprecedented uncertainty and only those armed with the necessary info will emerge unscathed. Here it is https://fantasyfootball247.co.uk/planning-ahead-dgws-blanks-etc/ If you don’t then pretty soon you can expect to hear “It’s worse than that, he’s dead, Jim, dead, Jim, dead, Jim; It’s worse than that, he’s dead, Jim, dead, Jim, dead”. So listen up, tune in and get loaded with knowledge. You really, really do need to know what’s what over the next few weeks or you will be left wondering why you need to take four hits just to field an X1 in GW30 or why everyone else is screaming “There’s Klingons on the starboard bow, starboard bow, starboard bow, scrape ’em off Jim”. It’s all about to get a bit complex but worry not as we have your back. Here’s your tips for this week, Jim.
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And so on to what you really, really need to know…
Kop’s not here again this week unfortunately as he’s having to move house, unexpectedly. Quite how one moves house ‘unexpectedly’ is another matter but let’s just say his attention to detail outside of anything football or sport related is lacking to say the least! That’s the bad news, the good news is that it means Init can waffle on a bit more about DGW’s and BGW’s and planning in general and bring us right up to speed with what we know so far…
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First off let’s take a look at a few key GW’s that have been affected by the fixture changes…
GW27
The following teams miss this week due to the League Cup Final-
Everton
Liverpool
Man City
Newcastle
GW27 therefore looks like this –
West Ham v Sunderland
Leicester v Norwich
Southampton v Chelsea
Stoke v Aston Villa
Norwich v Bournemouth
West Brom v Crystal Palace
Man Utd v Arsenal
Spurs v Swansea
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Given the FA Cup results, GW30 now looks like this…
Norwich vs Man City – 100% PLAYING
Aston Villa vs Spurs – 100% PLAYING
Bournemouth vs Swansea – 100% PLAYING
Stoke v Southampton – 100% PLAYING
Leicester v Newcastle – 100% PLAYING
Man Utd vs Crystal Palace – OFF!
Sunderland v Everton – OFF!
West Ham vs Watford – OFF!
Liverpool vs Chelsea – OFF!
Arsenal vs West Brom – off if Arsenal win their replay (v Hull)
The following teams will miss GW30 then –
Chelsea
Crystal Palace
Everton
Liverpool
Man United
Sunderland
Watford
West Ham
All this put together means that Merseyside may be a dangerous place to be for the next few weeks. More so than normal in fact! Both Everton and Liverpool have blanks in GW’s 27 and 30, so that’s only two games for that pair in the next four. The caveat to that is that they will then feature heavily in the DGW’s as they catch up on their fixtures.
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A note on GW35
This may be classed as planning ahead in the extreme but GW35 is also FA Cup semi-final weekend and so there are fixtures at risk depending on the results of the quarter finals and one game is already off which is West Ham v Man United because by coincidence they were set to play each other that week but given as they meet in the quarter finals then one of them is guaranteed to be in the semi-finals, therefore cancelling their fixture.
The other games at risk that week are –
Bournemouth v Chelsea
Crystal Palace v Everton
One of the above will be off depending on who wins the Everton v Chelsea quarter-final.
Norwich v Watford
Sunderland v Arsenal
One of these will be off assuming Arsenal beat Hull in their replay. If they don’t then their game will be on and only the NOR v WAT game will be at risk.
All of that means that GW35 will consist of 7 or 8 games.
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DGW’s in waiting
The games definitely off so far and that need to be rescheduled, probably for a DGW in 34 or 37, are as follows –
Everton v Liverpool
Man City v Newcastle
Man United v Crystal Palace
West Ham v Watford
Liverpool v Chelsea
Sunderland v Everton
West Ham v Man United
So add that to the possibles from GW35 above and we are looking at Everton having 2 carried over somewhere (maybe even 3!), Liverpool 2, West Ham 2 and Man United 2. As well as possibly Arsenal, Watford, Palace and Sunderland with 2. Plenty to go at then, as and when they start announcing them officially, and the sooner the better!
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The Fixture Tracker
Possibly the easiest way to display what we know right now is our good old fixture tracker –
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TIPS!
We guess we’d also better point you in the direction of some actual players before Kop has a coronary! Given the potential mess above we thought it may be good to isolate the player tips themselves down to just those teams who do not have any blanks for the next few game-weeks. Most managers will have a cluster of players who have at least one blank ahead and so will be looking to replace some of those with players who have a clean run ahead of them. Taking in both GW27 and 30 that leaves us with just 10 teams. Let’s assume Arsenal beat Hull (they probably will), that leaves us with just 8. Given as 1 of those is Villa that leaves us with just 7. Here’s how we feel about those, good and bad…
Bournemouth
After a fruitful January gave the Cherries some hope it’s been a cruel February so far with three losses on the bounce in all competitions but the FA Cup exit last weekend may be a blessing in disguise in the long run. As for tipping their players let’s just say that to not recommend something is just as much a ‘tip’ as to do so. We did warn you that this was tips ‘with a difference’! There was a clamour to buy Charlie Daniels a few weeks back because he got a couple of penalties, one of which coincided with an assist and a clean sheet resulting in a monster haul. Let’s be brutally honest here, he’s had one such haul all season and he’s highly unlikely to see another. If we were forced to buy one Bournemouth player he would probably be the one given his penalty duties but even that is open for debate now after he had one saved last weekend in the Cup. He’ll probably retain them but who knows. If you have him or indeed any other Bournemouth players then we would certainly keep them as their run of fixtures isn’t too bad. Whether we would play them would depend on who else you had and they’d be prioritised toward the back of that list anyway. As for actively buying, it’ be a no from us.
Leicester
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes and yes. No, we haven’t having a Meg Ryan moment. Although Leicester fans just might in the very near future. With no other competitions to worry about it’s full steam ahead for the Foxes in the league now and it’s all played out perfectly for them really. A point at the Emirates would have been ideal but it’s hardly the end of the world. Whilst all of their nearest rivals have been competing against Europe’s finest Leicester have had their feet up. Literally. Good old Claudio sent them on holiday to recharge their batteries and come back refreshed. They come back to a dream fixture schedule as well which includes the likes of Norwich, West Brom and Newcastle at home in the next four weeks. Happy days, Foxes fans. Happy days for Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez too. We don’t really need to sell you these two, if you don’t have them already then you really need to. Vardy has 19 goals and 5 assists, Mahrez has 14 and 10, that’s 48 goals and assists combined. Leicester have scored 48 goals this season. Spooky. Just buy them, basically.
And it’s no longer just up top that we would recommend some Leicester coverage for as their defence has improved as the season has gone on. Prior to their last two games (Man City & Arsenal) they had been on a run of 5 clean sheets in 6 games with just the 1 conceded in those. They’d only managed 3 all season prior to that. As such we would have no hesitation in recommending you invest in the likes of Schmeichel, Huth, Fuchs or Morgan. Not much separates them all really, Huth has marginally more points overall (92) than Schmeichel (91), Fuchs is hardly trailing far behind (87), whereas Morgan is 0.5 cheaper than the most expensive of the others for not that many points less (74).
Norwich
We won’t waste our breathe here, for Norwich you can read Bournemouth, sans any Charlie Chancer character. They’ve lost 6 of their last 7 and conceded 21 in those. Don’t bother going there.
Southampton
Southampton are THE form team in the league, unbeaten in their last 6 overall, they have won their last 4 at home, they’re unbeaten in their last 3 away from home, and most importantly here they have 6 clean sheets in their last 6 games. Pertinently though they’ve scored only 8 in those despite winning 6 of them. All this leads us of course into backing their defence, big time. The renaissance started with the return of Fraser Forster and he’d be our pick if you had to select just one and that would be based upon surety of starting and price. Jose Fonte and Virgil van Dijk would be our picks if it had to be a defender, and not a keeper, but they are both 0.5 more than Forster. There are cheaper options at full back but they’ve been rotated so much we would feel safer with one of this pair.
Stoke
There often comes a point in most seasons when one team reveals themselves as being so bad that fantasy managers make a bee-line for their next opponents. Villa have achieved that status and this weeks beneficiaries are Stoke. Given that the Potters then follow this up with a home game against Newcastle makes them look like a very attractive ‘two week punt’. And punt away we say as they have no blanks ahead and they have some very good ‘budget friendly’ options to pick from. At the back Jack Butland is the second highest scoring keeper in the game, has 9 clean sheets to his name and is averaging over 1 bonus point per game in terms of saves. That last stat may be challenged given his next couple of opponents but it should lead to some clean sheets.
In attack they’ve been fairly lame recently. Sure enough they got 3 last time out against Bournemouth but they also failed to score in the 3 prior to that. This all comes back to Villa then, and their ability to capitulate at a moments notice. If Marko Arnautovic is passed fit then he’s your go to guy for Stoke attacking points. He’s streets ahead of his compatriats and at just 6.3m is excellent value for money, especially given his next two games are against two of the bottom three who have conceded 95 against them this season combined.
Swansea
Two visits to the Capital are up next, in the shape of Spurs and Arsenal, and this alone makes us preclude Swansea players from being a viable pick for the next few games. They have a fairly decent run beyond those two but for now we would stay away and possibly not even play any of them, even if we already owned them.
Spurs
Harry Kane is currently at the plastic surgeons. Depending on what he asks for he may or may not be ok for Sunday. ‘Same again’ shouldn’t be a issue, just slap it back on, any which way, and we should be good to go. Unless he asks for a Brad Pitt then Harry will be one of the main picks this week and rightly so. He’s back in some sort of consistent form and with a title to aim for we’d expect a strong finish from both him and Spurs. Christian Eriksen is hardly a surprise but it may surprise some that he is now Spurs top scoring midfielder, second overall only to Kane himself and ahead of headline hogger Alli by 8 points. He’s owned by a relatively low 10% (Alli is 30%) and so if you want a differential of sorts who’s bang in form and has everything to play for then Eriksen is your man.
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Extra Reference!
Mito produced a table a few weeks ago that is a more than handy guide for reference when looking at how things will possibly pan out over the coming weeks in relation to DGW’s so we thought we would pop a reminder of that on here –
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Good luck this week everyone and just in case the intro went over anyone’s head then here is what the heck the we were referring to, enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCARADb9asE
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Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Tips Game-week 27. This article was written by Inittowinit
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Vote on our Captain Poll Now
Fixture Tracker
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How’s it looking? I have one free transfer and 1.3 in the bank? Already done Lukaku to Vardy. Anything else required
Here it is
Smash you’re ok as long as Kane plays – hopefully we’ll hear something from Pochettino tomorrow.
Smash, in second thoughts I
would use your other free transfer on Moreno to Wollscheid. And bench Lingard or Daniels.
You’re unlucky with Simpson there.
Thanks Cookie. Yeah I think Kane will be ok. Players always tend to play worse with those stupid masks on though. Moreno to Wolf is on my mind.
Awesome article guys. Just noticed Schlupp is fit again, afer Simpson returs it looks like Fuchs wil be rested every now and then;
Can’t see it. Schlupp ain’t played LB since September
Wait and see. People tend to forget how good Schlupp was. Give it a few weeks.
When he was good he was on the LW
Evening all!!
Vardy or payet as cappo?
Nah
What you thinking cookie?
Was only joking you mate, those 2 are excellent options. I’m tempted with Mahrez though.
Martial injured in the warm up
United injury curse. ^_^
My team for this gw, what do you think about it?
Looks good to me Wafflez
Hi Wafflez, I think I’d be finding a place for Nyom in there. Not been too shabby at home, only 11 conceded and only 3 other teams conceded less. Last few games against similar opposition to Bournemouth have seen clean sheets (Norwich, Chelsea and Liverpool :popcorn: ).
United brilliant tonight – we’re gonna smash those sorry Gooners on Sunday.
Hey Cookie, congratulations on the result tonight. It was close for a little while but they totally blew them away by the end. Any early thoughts on DDG playing this weekend? I had planned on ditching Ighalo for Vardy with my FT. But if DDG is a doubt I’ll probably grab Schmeichel for the non-playing Myhill instead and start him for the next, well, for the rest of the season probably.
Hey Red how you doin?
I was being a tad flippant but from a fans point of view it was great to see those kids come in and do the job. I don’t care how bad the oppo were, we had our only world class player (DDG) out, our best defender (Smalling) out and our only two senior strikers out. As well as all the other injuries. 15 in total I think!!
We’ve always been a team of bringing the kids through so it’s particularly satisfying.
We’ll have to wait for LVG tomorrow for news of DDG mate, but I’d be tempted to get Schmeichel in anyway cos if that is our defence vs Arsenal, they should smash us, with or without DDG!
Ighalo isn’t a bad bet for this weekend and Vardy is only 80% fit.
I’m doing well, thanks for asking. Haven’t been around much this past week as I’ve been using the FPL downtime to build up some points with the wife and stay off the computer! Haha, how are things with you?? You looking OK for the weekend? Got enough players to field a decent side?
I’ll be playing a 4-4-2 or 3-5-1, but I have enough players and even a couple of subs if needed. Sounds like Schmeichel is the smart play then, I can get Vardy in next week if nothing else comes up.
Doh, I mean 3-5-2! Only Aguero is out since I slowly replaced my Everton players in preparation for this week (and because they were doing f*ck all for me!).
I think I’m all good Red – I sold Lukaku and Firmino for Mahrez and Vardy straight after GW26 and haven’t logged in since!
And Cookie, no need to be flippant my man! They went out and got the job done and the young players did themselves proud. The only ones who should be feeling bad after that match are Mata and any of the supporters who want to see the back of LVG, as this result may prolong things a bit. On that note, do you think Mourinho will be coming in if/when LVG goes? I have a personal theory that Sir Alex doesn’t want him (and didn’t want him when he first stepped down) because he was afraid he would do a really good job and take some of the shine off Ferguson.
Red, there are so many theories doing the rounds. One is Fergie & Bobby Charlton are massively anti-Mourinho. We know for a fact that Charlton is but Fergie always got on with Mourinho. I don’t subscribe to the theory that Fergie didn’t want Jose to outdo him.
The other theory is that United won’t sack LVG until they mathematically can’t qualify for CL as it will cost them more of a pay out contractually. Just like Moyes.
Dunno really mate – the whole thing is boring.
Bottom line is United have been rubbish but at least LVG gives the kids a go. And my main issue with Mourinho is that he wouldn’t as he never has anywhere else.
Well, it will be interesting to see what happens. I’d really like to see them go for someone other than Mourinho if LVG leaves, just because Mourinho thinks he’s entitled to the job and I’m over his shtick and bad attitude at this point. But I’m not sure that Giggs is ready to take over on his own yet either.
And on an unrelated to ManU note, I really hope Carneiro wins in court and soaks Mourinho for loads of money. The way he scapegoated and treated her was terrible IMO.
Red / Cookie – I’m a bit biased here because I think he’s the best manager out there who sometimes goes over the edge a bit. Still, when he does that he’s usualy out to protect the players etc.
Anyway what I wanted to say here is that when coaching a big team with a big stadium and great supporters, like porto, inter and unlike chelsea, madrid (their supporters suck) he tends to play attractive football. If Utd is really interested In him , which I doubt, he will surely do that , except when against Guardiola’s City of course.
Apologies lads, my boy woke up during this and I ended up kipping in his room!!
I have no issue with Mourinho as long as the development of the kids is continued and they are given a decent chance in the first team – that has been what United have been about for decades (on the whole) and I would hate to see that changed. In fairness to LVG, he trimmed the senior squad down to implement the kids transition and fair play to him for that.
Re style of play – anyone who thinks Mourinho always just parked the bus is wrong as you have said DMC – no issue at all with his tactics or style.
We’ll see I guess – it may never happen, but i’m sure it’ll be a fun ride if it did and would spice up the Premier League next season for sure! Especially with Pep just down the road.