Fulham 2-0 Aston Villa
The lunch time kick-off saw Fulham face Aston Villa, who had Christian Benteke back in their starting eleven. After a recent poor run of form Dimitar Berbatov had a point to prove to his doubters and Fulham’s new Boss Rene Meulensteen was looking to put an end to a run of six straight losses for “The Lilywhites”. Both sides came out in attacking mode and Villa’s goalkeeper, Brad Guzan, was forced into action early, producing a fine save from a Berbatov header who then had a penalty appeal turned down following a weak challenge from Ciaran Clark. Not to be outdone, Benteke, who looked desperate for a goal, forced Maarten Stekelenberg to parry an effort away. The deadlock was broken in the 21st minute when former Villain Steve Sidwell squeezed in a fine effort following good work from Ashkan Dejagah. Fulham were now full of confidence and continued to press forward and the lead was doubled on 30 minutes when Alex Kacaniklic was brought down by Leandro Bacuna and the resulting penalty was nonchalantly dispatched by Berbatov. Following the re-start, Villa brought on Aleksandar Tonev for the disappointing Karim El Ahmadi, but Fulham continued to dominate the play with John-Arne Riise, Philippe Senderos and Scott Parker all stepping up to the plate and Riise was only denied when he sent a header crashing off the bar. Villa’s Chris Herd let the dominance of Fulham get to him with a reckless challenge that earned him a yellow card and manager Paul Lambert replaced him shortly afterwards, but Villa could just not break Fulham down and when the home supporters started chanting “How bad must you be, were winning at home” he knew it wasn’t going to be Villas day.
So this was a first win for Meulensteen, who was hugely respected when he was a member of the coaching staff at Old Trafford under the tutelage of Sir Alex Ferguson and judging by today’s result, he might just be the man to turn Fulham’s season around. Todays result showed what confidence can do to a side – Fulham bossed the play but on the flip side Aston Villa looked devoid of ideas, hitting long balls to the out of sorts Benteke.
Bonus points: Sidwell (3) Riether (2) Berbatov & Senderos (1)
Arsenal 1-1 Everton
Next up was a trip to The Emirates as the league leaders entertained an Everton side who have been playing well under Roberto Martinez. Both sides had their young England midfield stars on display, namely Jack Wilshere and Ross Barkley and both sets of players set about with a determination to take the three points. The first half was a frantic, high tempo battle. The Toffees started at pace with attacking moves down each flank with Seamus Coleman and Brian Oviedo testing the Gunners defence. Arsenal were sharp with their passing, aware that a win would take them seven points clear of their rivals. To their credit Everton were not in awe of their opponents and Kevin Mirallas fired high after great work from Barkley. It was Arsenal though that had some of the best chances of the half, Santi Cazorla played in a lovely driven cross for Kieran Gibbs which the Arsenal man just failed to connect with and Tim Howard produced two great saves at the feet of Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey. The second half was a feisty affair and Referee Howard Webb had to be on his toes. Everton’s James McCarthy went into the book following a high challenge on Ramsey and will miss GW16 through suspension. Arsene Wenger decided to ring in the changes on 67 minutes in an effort to win the game, when a triple substitution saw the arrival of Mathieu Flamini, Thomas Rosicky and Theo Walcott for Cazorla, Ramsey and Wilshere. Everton responded with the arrival of Leon Osman for Steven Pienaar and Gerard Deulofeu for Miralles. It was the Gunners though that struck first in the 80th minute when Mesut Ozil converted a Walcott assist, but just four minutes later Romelu Lukaku was adjudged to have got the slightest touch to an Oviedo cross and the ball ran onto Deulofeu, who was on hand to smash it into the net. The final few minutes were frantic and Olivier Giroud nearly won it for the Gunners with a rasping 30 yard effort that had Tim Howard well beaten, but not the crossbar. All in all this was a fantastic game of football and both sides will surely look back at it and agree that a draw was a fair result.
Predicted Bonus points: Ozil (3) Deulofeu (2) Jagielka (1), Distin (1), Oviedo (1)
This article was written by Eddy
Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert has revealed that he is optimistic over Ron Vlaar’s latest injury.
The Villa captain, 28, has missed the team’s last two games in the Premier League due to a calf strain.
Despite spending two months on the sidelines with a similar problem last season, Lambert believes that the Dutch defender will return to action sooner rather than later.
“I don’t know how long Ron is going to be out,” the Scot told the Birmingham Mail. “It’s hard to say, but it’s not as bad as his last one was last year. Things are a lot more positive. I don’t think it’ll be months.”
could I have your opinion guys..
Vorm (Harper)
Shaw Dawson Coleman (Clyne Dummett)
Ramsey Hazard Gerrard Ravel (Whittingham)
Suarez Aguero Lukaku
As Xmas is the season of rotation I think I might need use of my 5th defender and shift Dummett.
Im thinking either of Jags/ Distin>>Dummett
Im also undecided on who to replace Gerrard with, but might weight on mid week games??
I’ve got 3m in bank after downgrading Rooney last GW>
Im going wait it out for Gerrard see if he is out for a while Silva looks like replacement after price drop and after Arsenal fixture….
See how Michu does in midweek. Could be a good differential and replacement of Gerrard. Other obvious choices would be Coutinho/Silva.
Shotts- looks like you have plenty of cash to make your moves.
How about Dummett > Distin and Gerrard > Yaya?
Thanks guys..
Silva is not the type of player that needs to find form, he was bang at it when he came back from his last injury in Sept I think it was. But it is a straight toss up between him and YYT.
Unless there’s a hidden Gem out there, I’m unsure on Wally to?
Guys what do you think the chances are of gerrard playing this weekend?
Lets say that the chance of SAF coming out of retirement to save ManUtd is higher than Gerrard playing.
lol
Any comments on this team would be much appreciated.
http://fantasy.premierleague.com/entry/28844/event-history/15/
This is for a friend, I will post my own comment also, but would love opinions on it from some of you fellas also.
I dont really know how he is surviving without Suarez and Aguero. But he has covered up ManCity and Liverpool somehow with midfielders, which is good.
With Gerrard injured, i think it would make sense if he could do:
Gerrard>Mirallas
Giroud>Suarez
This way he retains Liverpool coverage in attack and adds solid midfielder as well.
Mito.. Is this the guy who set up that Fresh Start league ? To be fair his team isn’t that bad at all, just looks like he had a bit of a shitter this week. It happens (to me especially).
I honestly think that one of Suarez / Aguero is a must have at the minute. I see he has Roo also.
Obviously not all in oone week, but I’d probs look to downgrade Gerrard, Boruc and see if I could raise enough to swap Giroud for either of them.
Yeah Demsie, it was his son that set it up, but he helped it build up. It is killing me watching him do bad. I want him to start scoring well. Although he is a great sport about it, so he provides good banter on Twitter. Just a terrible run of luck.
@ Pathetico, I think instead of looking for an equal in points and value to Gerrard you should consider a big downgrade. Say Gerrard out for Fer or someone even cheaper so you can upgrade Giroud to Suarez/Kun.
Obviously Fer does not get you there without a further hit, so I would connsider going for anyone in the 5.0 bracket. You cannot continue to take such heavy punishment from Suarez not being in your team in particular, but definetly not from both him and Kun.
Roon and Lukaku have a good schedule and are scoring so keeping them seems ok, but Giroud has a tough one and is nowhere near Suarez/Kun in terms of production.
If you just wanted to replace Gerrard for a mid, your best options are Probably teammates of other mids already on your team. Which would mean you be doubling up in the midfield. for example Silva, Oscar, Ozil so I stay away from them. With losing Gerrard it makes sense to me that you replace him with Suarez if possible. One to avoid getting hurt by him weekly and two it provides you the Liverpool cover you have now lost with Gerrard being out.
Mito/Demise/The B, Thank you for all your support and advice, I’ve never known a FPL season like this before, I’ve had a bad run of luck and every time I try and change things for the better w/ a transfer I get smacked in the gob with an injury or four. Suarez & Aguero have killed my season dead, their run in the past few weeks have destroyed my team. I fell behind very quickly and instead of trying to buy Aguero or Suarez or even both I tried to counter the unstoppable duo in the beginning with the purchases of both Sturridge and Silva, they were my differentials and yes they both got bloody injured. Rooney was brought in too and is doing okay apart for the one match ban, but we all know that our players have to serve these bans from time to time. I brought Gerrard in hoping for a few assists and penalties and the odd screamer but he lasted 2 games and now he is injured for 6 weeks it seems. My modus operandi is usually very safe and pragmatic, I am not a ‘he who dares wins’ manager and thus I feel this has let me down big time this season. If I took a few gambles here and there I might not be now 200 Points or more behind the leading pack. So enough moaning from me, I have read your comments & advice, which you all kindly offered me above, the question now is what am I going to do about it? Should I take a few hits and take some gambles? well this is not really my style. I think differentials will help me as well as a run of good captain decisions. It’s a long road but I could just do it if I get me self some luck. I’m not going to win the FPL but I want to move up the league. First of all I’ll sell Gerrard and buy a decent midfielder who will hopefully bring me some huge point scores, Silva or Walcott (differentials) would be my first choices for Gerrard’ s midfield berth but it might not be the right time to buy either. Giroud will be sold in the next month or so as soon as Sturridge (differential) is fit again, Rooney (Differential) will stay & Lukaku will stay too. All are subject to change but I now have an idea and I need to execute it. Once again thanks for all your input. Wish me luck me & you can see how I get on in the next month or so by looking at the Banterbury Championship season ll table which I am currently sitting at the bottom, there is only way I can go now. Thanks.
Pathetico.
I see Howards ownership is rising rapidly
Can you give us a quick run down of what you think of him as a person ? In one short paragraph
I cant. I can only tell you what he is as a player in 1 word… Improving
I hope he gets a YC this weekend.