Team Talk Fantasy Football Game-week 15

Team Talk Fantasy Football GW15

The countdown to Christmas begins with the first weekend of Advent – trees will be erected, decorations hunted for in the cupboards, cards starting to be written and maybe even presents purchased. Exciting times – but as exciting as a 3-day game-week? Of course not!! Our week kicks off at Stoke as table topping City come to town. We then have a busy afternoon with six 3pm matches – Big Sam takes his Black Cats to Arsenal, United welcome West Ham, Southampton host Villa, the struggling Swans battle it out with the Foxes, Norwich travel to Watford and Spurs go to West Brom. The evening sees Bournemouth take the trip to Chelsea, with some predicting a Blue revival. Sunday sees just one match as Newcastle, now back in the relegation zone, host Liverpool. And to finish we have a Monday night special up at Goodison as the Lord takes the Palace to battle the Toffees.

Let’s Go Around the Grounds to see what mischief the managers have tried to hoodwink us with this week.

Stoke vs Man City (Sat 5 Dec 12.45)
Having struggled back to the top of the league last weekend, City will be keen to push on and they have the chance to lay a marker as they kick off the game-week at Stoke. Normally of course this would be seen as a touch match, no-one likes going to Stoke they say, the crowd will be the twelth man for the home side, Mark Hughes will have his team fired up for a nasty battle with the big boys. Well, this is the same Stoke who were beaten soundly by Sunderland last week. Ouch, that must hurt. Well, hurts Stoke fans but amuses the rest of us. So Hughes will be after a reaction, though it must be said that going to Stoke on a Saturday lunchtime is a damn sight less scary then being there under the cover of darkness. Last time City visited, they won 4-1 with Sergio Aguero grabbing a brace and it would be no surprise to see a similar outcome at the weekend.

Mame Diouf is likely to be recalled to the Stoke attack after missing the midweek Cup win over Sheffield Wednesday due to his wife being in labour. One man who won’t be involved is Peter Crouch, who suffered a hamstring injury just 15mins into only his third start of the season and will miss 3-4 weeks. Glen Johnson is expected to be fit after being withdrawn as a precaution in the week, if he doesn’t make it Phil Bardsley will play, while Ryan Shawcross comes back into the side after serving his ban vs Wednesday.

No Sergio Aguero! The striker has been ruled out with his ankle injury, with Manuel Pellegrini hopeful he will be fit for the Champions League next week. Ouch – not a good fortnight for those who wasted no time in buying Kun back. As crucially, captain Vincent Kompany also continues to be sidelined as does Pablo Zabaleta, while Yaya Toure has picked up a knock and is ruled out. The better news is that David Silva came through the midweek Cup win over Hull successfully, Eliaquim Mangala is suspended while keeper Joe Hart returned to training on Thursday and will be in the squad and will likely start unless he suffers a late setback. Fernando and Jesus Navas are fit.

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Arsenal vs Sunderland (Sat 5 Dec 15.00)
Home win, goals and more goals and load up on the Gooners, if you can find a fit one, they all said. Well one team go into the game having taken just two points in three games while the other has won two on the bounce. However, it is Sunderland, not Arsenal, showing decent form and they have climbed out of the relegation zone with wins over Palace and Stoke and are now significantly closer to Chelsea than the bottom of the league. So can Big Sam organise his Black Cats to a third successive clean sheet and keep the likes of Mesut Ozil and errrr, Mesut Ozil at bay? The odds say ‘no’, but fixture form is interesting with three of the last five meetings between the two at the Emirates resulting in 0-0 draws. A win would be the basis of the Goonies relaunching their title bid and would be a great tonic to take to Olympiacos in the week. But Big Sam will have other ideas.

Now my Goonie friends, I hope you’re sitting down – or at least have a stiff drink in your hand. Mitro, I said a stiff DRINK, control yourself. Things have deteriorated for Arsene – just in time for a not so happy Christmas. Now, let me ask you a question. If, hypothetically of course, your best player was struggling with a hamstring injury and is due for a small break, would you a) rest him or b) play him ? Well, le Professuer, in his wisdom, chose answer b for Alexis Sanchez at Norwich last week. And guess what Goonies? Alexis is now injured, out for maybe a month with a, yep you’ve guessed, hamstring injury. D’oh. Not a great start. As Oscar Wilde once said “To lose one parent may be regarded as misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.” Ah. Same match, same midfield, different player – Santi Cazorla – poor guy who Wenger said “ended the match on one leg”. Now, I’ll ask another question. Imagine this scenario: You manage a club which has a reputation for picking up a number of injuries and at the moment your midfield is particularly suffering. Your other defensive midfielder has already been ruled out for 4 months. You have, just 20mins or so ago, seen your best player pull up with the most predictable injury since Jack Wilshire welcomed Danny Welbeck to the club with the words, “fancy a kickabout?”. Your remaining defensive midfielder is running around “on one leg”. But you have already used all your substitutions. Do you a) pull off Santi Cazorla (substitute I mean) or b) leave Long John Silver on the field to try and force the win but risk further injury to an already depleted midfield? Well, I don’t know what your answer was, but Monsieur Wenger again chose answer b!! And guess what – Cazorla is now out for around three months. Oh this is too much.
And we go on…but still in midfield for now. Mikel Arteta is out, with Wenger having no idea when he’ll be back. Francis Coquelin is out for a similar time as “one-leg Cazorla”. Jack Wilshire and Tomas Rosicky out. So what can Wenger do with his midfield, apart from have them all put down and start again? Well Calum Chambers played in a defensive midfield position for the reserves in the week and could play there as could Mathieu “Hot shot” Flamini. Wenger has also implied that it’s a good opportunity for Aaron Ramsey. Some Gooners reckon Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain could also play there. Hmmm. There is some positive news. Honest. Kieran Gibbs, the second choice left back is fit again – great news when you need midfielders. The masterful one will make late checks on Saturday on Laurent Koscielny and Theo Walcott, with Wenger saying Koscielny “could play” and Theo “might be back”. The aforementioned Welbeck is still out of course.

Phew – I need a lie down. Just like most of the Gooner midfield, it would seem.

Just when there was hope for the Black Cats with the Arsenal midfield comedy injury situation, Big Sam has also been hit by the news that Seb Larsson has suffered a medial knee ligament injury. Jack Rodwell, an obvious replacement for Larsson, is also injured, but has returned to training! This is going to be like a reserve match! Jermain Defoe is also crocked – he’s done his hamstring, so young Duncan Watmore, who replaced Defoe last week and scored…and then had the honour of being tipped by Kop, should see more gametime. As a result of the injuries to Larsson and Defoe, Big Sam said he will tweak slightly the system which has worked well over the last two games, but he will persevere with three centre-halves.

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Man Utd vs West Ham (Sat 5 Dec 15.00)
It’s difficult to get too excited about anything ‘United’ right now, despite them sitting in third place and just a single point behind the leaders. The whole pantomime is fairly predictable – the Reds will dominate possession, attempt a record number of sideways passes, maybe nick a goal. or even two but no more, and likely concede nothing despite Andy Carroll doing his best to rocket launch himself into David de Gea. The Hammers haven’t won in four and have slid down to 8th – still not a bad return for Slaven Bilic who would have bitten your hand off if offered that position at the start of the season. However, their form is a concern and to compound this, they haven’t won any of the last thirteen meetings with United, losing the last seven at Old Trafford.

Brilliant news for United as Wayne Rooney has been ruled out with an ankle injury that LVG describes as “more heavy than we thought” – he certainly is that Louis. Marcos Rojo has injured his shoulder in training and misses out as do Phil Jones and Ander Herrera, but Jesse Lingard is fit to return. One would assume then that Daley Blind will play left back while Paddy McNair will partner Chris Smalling in the middle with Matteo Darmian completing the set at right back.

The Hammers have certainly reduced the number of injuries in their squad – the negative news is that the players who are now injured are all vital to Bilic. Dimitri Payet is obviously ruled out for the medium term, while Diafra Sakho has now joined him – the striker picked up a thigh injury last week, will endergo surgery at the weekend and will be missing for around 3 months. Enner Valencia completes the injured trio – he is making good progress and could be back in a couple of weeks. Bilic says Carroll has lifted the Hammers when he’s come on for the last 20 or 30mins and now “he needs to do that from the start”.

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Southampton vs Aston Villa (Sat 5 Dec 15.00)
Two successive defeats have certainly put the brakes on Southampton’s march towards Europa qualification, so they’ll be glad to see that Villa are their guests this week. Bottom of the table with just one win all season. The ‘new manager syndrome’ lasted about 5mins before losses at Everton and then home to Watford ensuring a long painful Christmas for Remi Garde and his family, who must be so glad that he has dragged them all over to Birmingham. Ronald Koeman will be looking for a repeat of last season’s fun when a three minute hat-trick from Sadio Mane saw Villa get crushed 6-1 – even Graziano Pelle scored that day, the grease ball. Villa have conceded 15 goals on their last five outings on the road this season and keeping Pelle, Mane and co down to three may be the best they can hope for.

Talking of 6-1, that’s exactly what happened to the Saints on Wednesday as they suffered a right royal Klopping. Koeman will be desperate for a reaction to the midweek embarrassment. There is some good news for the Saints as Koeman reports that Jose Fonte trained today and could be involved vs Villa – how he was missed on Wednesday as he will surely tighten up the defence. Then again it is only Villa. The manager says he has full belief in his team and how they play but feels the way his side press can improve.

Just when things couldn’t get much worse for Villa, Garde now reports that Micah Richards is a major doubt for Saturday – the defender has failed to train all week with a knee injury. Oh and Ciaran Clark is suspended, so we may see Joleon Lescott and Jores Okore appear together at the back. Line up your Saints attackers lads and lasses – this could trun into shooting practice. Tiago Ilori and Jose Angel Crespo are still unavailable, while Jack Grealish is still training with the U21s – presumably in a bar in Magaluf – and won’t feature this weekend. At least Gabby Agbonlahor is available.

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Swansea vs Leicester (Sat 5 Dec 15.00)
Another loss for Swansea has certainly not helped Garry Monk’s cause, though the loss at Liverpool was certainly controversial at best – however, a loss is a loss and it’s those decisions that go against you when things are not going your way. The Swans have won just one in ten matches and only Villa have picked up less points in that time – even Chelsea are above them now. They haven’t kept a clean sheet since GW6, while the free scoring Foxes have scored in every match this season. Meanwhile, Leicester plod on but they were transfixed by the United possession juggernaut last week – however they stay second in the league and only trail City on goal difference. Jamie Vardy will be confident of another game, another goal while Swansea will be hopeful of continuing their 100% home record vs the Foxes in the Premier League – bear in mind they’ve only played at the Liberty once before, but a stat is a stat!! Another Leicester away win will see the story of the season continue and could well lead to Garry Monk selling Christmas trees for some seasonal employment.

Garry Monk’s only injury concern is left back Franck Tabanou, who has picked up a thigh strain and will be missing for several weeks. Jonjo Shelvey is welcomed back from suspension as the manager admits he is expecting a difficult game against a team in great form.

Claudio Ranieri says that defender Ritchie de Laet has been ruled out for a month after picking up an ankle injury in training, while Nathan Dyer is ineligible to face his parent club. Matty James has shown a good reaction to playing in a reserve match with the manager hoping to have him available for first team duty soon. The Tinkerman says everyone else is ok and have trained well.

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Watford vs Norwich (Sat 5 Dec 15.00)
The Hornets go into the weekend in fine fettle, fresh off their 3-2 win at Villa last week, which sees them rise to half way in the table and looking good, at this stage at least, to survive the season and maintain their top flight status. Norwich meanwhile will take heart from their battling draw with the Gunners and will want to push on and gain their first point on the road since drawing at West Ham in GW7. It’s been a struggle for the Canaries this season and they will need to find a run of form if they are to ease the pressure on themselves and climb away from the relegation zone. Watford’s recent home record vs Norwich is poor, losing two and drawing the other in recent years, but with Troy Deeney now starting to form an effective partnership with Odion Ighalo they will be looking to push on while the fixtures suit them to get the points on the board.

Watford will make a late decision on whether keeper Heurelho Gomes can play vs the Canaries. Gomes was stretchered off with a neck injury at Villa and although scans revealed that no damage had occurred, he missed training early this week and medical staff will assess him before the game. Valon Behrami and Sebastian Prodl will definitely miss out though, while Adlene Guedioura is a slight doubt but should make the squad. There is good news of defenders Joel Ekstrand and Tommie Hoban who have both resumed light training.

Norwich boss Alex Neill says Alex Tettey is back in the squad after the midfielder successfully returned to training this week. There are no new injuries for the squad, though Matt Jarvis remains a long-term absentee.

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West Brom vs Spurs (Sat 5 Dec 15.00)
Things are all hunky dory down at the Lane these days as it appears that Mauricio Pochettino has managed to build some confidence and indeed some consistency into the Spurs. This has pleased all except the local Conservative Club who have only one booking for an end of season party for this Christmas – then again I’m sure Jack Wilshere will make up for it in bar takings, whilst the local suppliers should also be well compensated. Local suppliers of salt beef I mean, not sure what you were all thinking. Sniff, sniff. Excuse me there, bit of a head cold. Time of the year, you understand. The Baggies hover between halfway and above the drop zone and face their third London side in a row following a win over the Goonies and a draw last week with the Hammers. Spurs will be looking forward to the weekend, they sit proud in 5th, unbeaten since the opening day and love going to the Hawthorns where they are unbeaten in the last five, winning three and scoring three goals in three of the last four there. A lot of three’s there and I’ve got one more for you – Harry Kane has scored three goals in his last two visits to West Brom, while Christian Eriksen has scored a goal in both of those matches.

This is becoming boringly predictable from Tony Pulis. “We will continue to monitor one or two niggles.” Can’t even be arsed slagging the idiot off this week, apologies if you were looking forward to that. Claudio Yacob will miss out as he is suspended, while Chris Brunt returns from his ban. The rest? Who knows – blame Pulis if your FPL Baggie doesn’t play.

Spurs welcome back Dele Alli who missed last week’s draw with Chelsea through suspension, but fellow midfielder Ryan Mason misses out with an ankle injury. Nabil Bentaleb, Nacer Chadli and Alex Pritchard all continue to sit on the sidelines.

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Chelsea vs Bournemouth (Sat 5 Dec 17.30)
Chelsea now enter a run of games in which they will look to push on, maybe even to the heights of halfway if they play their cards right. Bournemouth are the visitors to the Bridge this weekend and let’s face it, if Jose’s men can’t win this one then the Russian snipers really will be out for him. We’ve gone from Eva-gate to Bib-gate with Diego Costa now the one with the hump, all is clearly not well within the camp, despite Mourinho’s insistence that the dressing room is together and happy. Bournemouth meanwhile continue to slide down, down, deeper and down – despite battling back to scrape a draw vs Everton it’s now eight games without a win with only Newcastle and Villa below them.

It’s not looking good for owners of Asmir Begovic as Jose confirms that Thibaut Courtois is 100% fit and went on to emphasise how fundamental he was to Chelsea last season – however, he refused to confirm if Courtois would actually start tomorrow for sure, but did say, “if Courtois doesn’t play vs Bournemouth he will play vs Porto” – so maybe Begovic gets one more match. John Terry, Ramires and Radamel Falcao remain sidelined, while Mourinho says Diego Costa has trained very well this week but refused to confirm whether the Spaniard would return to a starting role. On media reports of certain players, including Costa, being photographed “staggering out of a nightclub” midweek, the manager said it was a free night out for the players and it was agreed they would all go out, which is what happened. So, and this is for you Red before you ask, Kurt Zouma will start this week alongside Gary Cahill!! Loic Remy is also available after missing the draw at Spurs to attend the birth of his child as is Nemanja Matic who has a double fracture in the nose area but will play in a mask, if selected.

Injuries have of course blighted Bournemouth’s season with captain Tommy Elphick, Tyrone Mings, Max Gradel and Callum Wilson all being ruled out for the long term. Now they have a keeper crisis – Adam Federici misses out with an ankle injury, while Eddie Howe didn’t talk of Artur Boruc who has been missing since the end of October with a groin injury, but the speculation is that he is still injured. “My stance is to not to say anything on our goalkeeper situation so we will try to leave it unknown.” Noooooooo, he’s morphing into Pulis – don’t do it Eddie. Midfielder Marc Pugh also misses out but could be back next week. Not great when you are due to visit the Champions, but Howe suggests, “from our perspective, we are meeting Chelsea at a good time.” Ok Ed, let’s revisit that though Saturday night, my friend.

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Newcastle vs Liverpool (Sun 6 Dec 16.00)
If things were bleak for Bournemouth then they are arguably worse for Newcastle, for while no-one would have been surprised to see the Cherries down the bottom, more should have been expected of the Toon under the new management of Steve McClaren. Statements such as “I read them the riot act” or “I pulled them in for extra training on their day off” don’t seem to be having much of an effect as rumours of dressing room discontent grow. Dressing room unhappiness in not an issue at Liverpool with Jurgen Klopp hugging anyone he can get near, but it’s working with the scousers now in 6th place having won three out of four, everyone happy and most of the crowd now staying to the end of the match. Progress it is – poor old Brenda must be looking on wondering why he spent all those evenings studying training methods and journals on good character when all the lads needed was a smile and a cuddle. This fixture stinks of goals as do most Toon matches these days!! All is maybe not lost for Newcastle for they have won one and drawn the other of the last two vs Liverpool at home. Sadly, for them, that was with Brenda at the helm – with Klopp leading the love charge this is likely to be another depressing day for Macca and the Toon.

Poor old Macca says he only has 18 players available for the weekend, which involves a couple of kids. Mike Williamson has been recalled from his loan spell and has picked up a hamstring injury. Hahaha. Sorry, couldn’t help that. Under fire captain Fabricio Coloccini is likely to retain his place with Lamal Lascelles also picking up a hamstring injury. Tim Krul, Chieck Tiote, Massadio Haidara, Steven Taylor, Gabriel Obertan and Rolando Aarons all remain out on what could be another painful afternoon for the Toon.

You’ll Never Walk Alone has been replaced by Lennon and McCartney’s All You Need Is Love around Liverpool these days and the momentum is growing and growing and only getting stronger after Wednesday’s demolition of Southampton. Daniel Sturridge and Divock Origi are the latest players to have benefited from Klopp’s healing powers while even Dejan Lovren has looked a different player of late. The bloke truly is a miracle worker. Well Herr Klopp needs a bit more practice with Philippe Coutino as he admits he was too optimistic about the Brazilian, who he admits “can train nearly normally, but doesn’t feel totally comfortable. We can wait for him to be available”, therefore unlikely to be risked, in my opinion. Jordan Henderson “feels good”, while James Milner is likely to come back into the team after being rested vs Southampton, but Emre Can is suspended. Klopp suggests that Wednesday to Sunday is fine for recovery and implies a very similar team to that which won so impressively at St Mary’s.

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Everton vs Crystal Palace (Mon 7 Dec 20.00)
An evening under the lights at Goodison is always a good place to be – the locals will be in good voice cheering their team on and hoping for a third home win on the spin. The Lord will naturally be confident, probably expectant, that his team will win and win well – and indeed Palace have won the last two at Everton by three goals to two. So clean sheets look to be at a premium here – Everton have scored ten in the last two home games and three last week at Bournemouth, while Palace slapped five past the hapless Toon last time out. There are plenty of players to look out for – Gerard Deulofeu, Ross Barkley, Yannick Bolasie to name but three, though it may just be the night of the Rom, for Lukaku has scored in each of the last two matches vs Palace. Enjoy, it should be a fun end to the game-week.

Roberto Martinez is expecting a tough night vs Palace and may be without James McCarthy who picked up a knock vs Bournemouth – the midfielder will be checked over the weekend. Leighton Baines will also be assessed to see how he responded to featuring in the Capital Cup win at Boro, but Martinez did praise the performances of Brendan Galloway, implying that Baines won’t be rushed back into the starting XI. The manager praised the pairing of Ramiro Funes Mori and John Stones in the absence of captain Phil Jagielka who remains unavailable.

Buoyed from last week’s home result, Palace go to Everton full of confidence – what else should one expect from a team managed by the Lord? However, they will travel without the suspended Wilfried Zaha and the injured Bakary Sako. Dwight Gayle and Marouane Chamakh are both fit to travel for Monday evening’s match, while Pardew singled Connor Wickham out for special praise after the striker impressed vs Newcastle.

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Suspension Report

Those players who are suspended for GW15 are as follows:

Ciaran Clark (Aston Villa)
Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace)
Emre Can (Liverpool)
Eliaquim Mangala (Man City)
Claudio Yacob (West Brom)

It’s worth being aware that any player who receives five yellow cards before 31st December will receive an automatic one match ban. Those players currently sitting on four yellows are:

Daniel Gosling (Bournemouth)
Matt Ritchie (Bournemouth)
Yohan Cabaye (Crystal Palace)
James McCarthy (Everton)
Robert Huth (Leicester)
Nathaniel Clyne (Liverpool)
Cheik Tiote (Newcastle)
Sebastian Bassong (Norwich)
Oriol Romeu (Southampton)
Jan Vertonghen (Spurs)
Kyle Walker (Spurs)
Charlie Adam (Stoke)
Glenn Whelan (Stoke)
Ashley Williams (Swansea)
Matthew Connolly (Watford)
Allan-Romeo Nyom (Watford)

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Thanks for reading Team Talk Fantasy Football Game-week 15. This article was written by Cookie

Follow @SteveCook9

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