Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 4

Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 4 – Fantasy Premier League 2014

Aaaaand breathe out….. FPL returns this coming weekend after being rudely interrupted so early on in proceedings by the international break just so that we could be reminded that the future of English football is about as bleak and bland as the past was. Anyway don’t get us started on that little lot as it’s time to re-focus on the main attraction as we take a look at the fixtures for Gameweek 4 and beyond and we analyse which teams have a decent run ahead of them as well as pointing out those that you may want to give a wide berth to for the time being.

Before we appraise the fixtures for GW4-GW9, here is a reminder of a couple of essential Fantasy Football tools that you may wish to refer back to.

MLS star Mito produced some outstanding, detailed analysis on the best rotation pairs for the season.
Rotation Analysis Home and Away and Favourable fixtures

Podcast star Calvin Clyne devised an ingenious interactive fixture tracker. Use it before he starts charging subscription fees.
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 – Newcastle (h), Swansea (a), QPR (h), Tottenham (a), Sunderland (h), Stoke (h)
Having recorded their first win of the season last time out at West Ham and having invested wisely and relatively heavily in the transfer window it looks like Koeman’s men may be gelling finally and their run of fixtures looks too kind to ignore. Four home games in the next six and all look promising, their two away trips may be more tricky at in form Swansea and also Spurs but even beyond the sequence above they still have good fixtures right up until GW12.

We would recommend a Southampton player or two over this period. Quite which one we aren’t actually sure as there are a great number of options. With manager Ronald Koeman having been a defender of some distinction he will doubtless be looking at ensuring his team are solid at the back and difficult to score against first and foremost. Nathaniel Clyne seems the choice option here with a goal, an assist and a clean sheet to his name already. In midfield Morgan Schneirdelin jumps out having scored two last time out although he won’t do that every week to be fair. James Ward Prowse is another in that budget bracket who will probably deliver value over the course of the season. If you have a bit more money to spend then Dusan Tadic has looked the real deal from what we have seen and just needs to convert his obvious class into some fantasy points. New signing Sadio Mane has great stats from midfield but we would forgive you for seeing how he fits in / settles prior to investing. Up top Graziano Pelle grabbed a goal against West Ham and if this ignites him then he could be a great 3rd srtiker option.

Stoke – Leicester (h), QPR (a), Newcastle (h), Sunderland (a), Swansea (h), Southampton (a)
Nobody expected Stoke to go to Man City and come away with a 0-1 victory but that’s exactly what they did last time out and it does boost their appeal somewhat but regardless of that their fixtures ahead are fairly kind anyway. Two of the newly promoted sides are up next and the other four are against sides in and around their ‘level’, certainly no guarantees but also no top six clubs on horizon suggests that the odd Stoke defender may be worth their place in your squad.

Certainly the likes of Ryan Shawcross and Erik Pieters will come into consideration with the first being a goal threat and the second being an assist magnet in the making with his marauding runs forward. Ahead of them it could be a bit of a fantasy mine-field unfortunately as they had a lot of options to begin with but further muddied the waters with the purchases / loans of the likes of Victor Moses and Oussama Assaidi meaning that it may be best to take a back seat and view how they line-up in attack for a few weeks.

Manchester United – QPR (h), Leicester (a), West Ham (h), Everton (h), West Brom (a), Chelsea (h)
We keep putting them on a pedestal and they keep falling off. If we told you that they would go to newly promoted Burnley with the likes of Di Maria, Mata, Rooney and Van Persie all playing, but fail to score, we’d have been laughed out of here but that’s exactly what they did. Ok, so LVG did warn us it would take time to sort the Moyes shaped mess out and he’s been proved right but surely now with addition of none other than Falcao and a home game against QPR and a trip to fellow new boys Leicester this is their time to move on and click. Surely. With a new manager, a new formation, so many new players and a distinct lack of cohesion we aren’t yet convinced but there is the feeling that they are one good result or performance away from kicking on and so we include them here once more but lose to QPR at home and we may as well all give up!

Angel Di Maria took the international break to remind us all of his massive talent, scoring one and assisting three in Argentina’s emphatic mauling 4-2 of Germany last week. That performance would have given him 19 FPL points. Now ok he won’t do that every week but if he’s supplying the bullets for a front three or some combination of Rooney, RVP and Falcao then anythings possible. Juan Mata may be left wondering where this all leaves him, we are too Juan to be fair. The additions of Rojo and Blind will hopefully see United tighten up defensively too. Well they can’t be any worse than the accident’s waiting to happen that are Jones and Smalling anyway.

Liverpool – Aston Villa (h), West Ham (a), Everton (h), WBA (h), QPR (a), Hull (h)
Raheem Sterling. We were tempted to leave it at that to be honest but we won’t. Although we could probably have been forgiven for doing so as he’s the man on everbody’s lips and wish lists alike after some brilliant early season performances and a few goals to boot. Daniel Sturridge was the other main giver of points but he’s been struck down again and could be out for a few weeks. His absence actually makes Mad Mario more of an attractive proposition as he will be the main man now without a doubt but whether he can deliver without blowing up remains to be seen. Gerrard continues to defy his years and marches on regardless and could be a great differential shout as he still has most set-pieces in the locker including the all important penalties despite a cheeky request from Mario (nice try, jog on Mario!). Moreno grabbed many peoples attention with a superb solo goal against Spurs and looks like he has the potential to solve Liverpool’s lingering left back problem and if that goal and overall marauding performance is a taster of things to come then he could be fantasy gold.

The fixtures speak for themselves really. The only one that jumps out as an issue is rivals Everton in GW6 but even that’s at home and Liverpool ripped them a new one last season in the corresponding fixture. The rest are winnable to say the least and we expect they will do so if that showing at Spurs last time out was anything to go by.

LESS FAVOURABLE FIXTURES
Aston Villa – Liverpool (a), Arsenal (h), Chelsea (a), Man City (h), Everton (a), QPR (a)
Villa are sitting pretty in 3rd place with 7 points, 2 wins and are unbeaten thus far. This may lull some into a false sense of security on any Villa assets but a quick look at their forthcoming schedule should dull that interest somewhat as their next five games are tough to say the least. If they keep a clean sheet in any of those then they’ve done well. They base their game on counter attacking football so don’t be surprised to see the odd goal but we wouldn’t bank on it. Stay away from Villa for a bit would be our advice.

West Ham – Hull (a), Liverpool (h), Man Utd (a), QPR (h), Burnley (a), Man City (h)
Three games against north-west powerhouses interspersed with three games that all scream 0-0 bore draws if Big Sam has his way. He probably won’t though, he rarely does. Having kept his job on the proviso that he produces better ‘football entertainment’, the board and fans alike may be wishing they had kept their opinions to themselves should the Hammers slip down the league into the Championship on the back of trying to play it the ‘West Ham’ way. If you want to stay in the league by any means necessary then Sam is your man. If you want pretty football then the guy renowned for Bolton style kick and rush probably isn’t. If you’ve got a West Ham player then pick and choose when to field him but if you don’t then breathe easy and look elsewhere for transfers in.

FIXTURE FUN
International fixtures continue this week so we suggest you keep a close eye on proceedings as most of your FPL players will be away and featuring for their respective countries this week and we have already seen a few casualties fall by the wayside as a result in the shape of Sturridge and maybe, possibly, ok probably not, Costa. Ok we admit – we are secretly praying he’s definitely ruled out as last time he was he scored 2 goals the next day!

Good luck everyone!

Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Fixtures GW4 – Fantasy Premier League 2014-15. This article was written by Inittowinit

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