Team Talk Fantasy Football Game-week 30

Team Talk Fantasy Football Game-week 30

Welcome to GW30 and I have to ask – “Why can’t every gameweek be like this?” Just five matches and ten pressers makes life so much easier. Well when I say easier, I mean easier to write up, not necessarily to plan for or negotiate from a FPL point of view. So, despite there only being five matches, our gameweek is still spread over three days!! We kick off in Norfolk as Man City visit Norwich. Just two 3pm kick offs follow as Bournemouth host Swansea and Stoke welcome Southampton. Fast forward then onto Sunday and 4pm for our only match that day as Spurs look to bounce back from last week’s draw as they take on the doomed Villans. Then fast forward again, this time to Monday evening as our gameweek is wrapped up by leaders Leicester as they entertain the hapless Newcastle.
Let’s go Around the Grounds to see what our ten managers have had to say.

Norwich vs Man City (Sat 12 Mar 12.45)
Eight defeats in their last nine matches has seen the Canaries drop into the relegation zone and with form like that they won’t be getting out of it. They do have to play rivals Newcastle and Sunderland in the next few weeks, games that will have huge significance as to who goes down with the Villa. But every match is a chance of a win and while no-one is expecting anything but an away win here, City have shown in recent weeks that they are not the City of old. They did see off Villa easily enough last week however, though that was at home and one thing Norwich and the home crowd will do is make life uncomfortable. City have only won two of their last ten league matches on the road and face the 2nd leg of their Champions League tie vs Dynamo Kyiv on Tuesday.

Norwich boss Alex Neil says that Robbie Brady, Sebastien Bassong and Steven Naismith will all undergo late fitness tests in front of Saturday’s lunchtime clash. Defender Andre Wisdom who has been suffering with a knee injury since mid-December is finally ready to return as the manager confidently declares, “It’s not out of our capabilities to get a result.”

Yaya Toure has been ruled out of the trip to Norwich with a heel injury, which could also keeping him out the game vs Kyiv. There is some positive news though as Manuel Pellegrini says that Kevin de Bruyne, Samir Nasri and Fabian Delph will all be back after the international break (ie for GW32). The manager says he and the team are fully focused on Saturday’s game and a strong team will be played despite the Champions League return on Tuesday.

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Bournemouth vs Swansea (Sat 12 Mar 15.00)
Despite sitting in 16th place, two wins on the bounce has put some clear daylight between the Swans and those staring relegation in the face. Those two wins, against Arsenal and Norwich were achieved in the absence of manager Francesco Guidolin, who has been hospitalised with a chest infection. Guido has now been released from hospital but will not be at Bournemouth on Saturday, under doctor’s orders. Guido says he wasn’t able to watch Swansea’s two wins as he was in bed with his wife…what a geezer!! And what a wife – sneaking into the hospital for a bit of “under the covers fun” – I’m liking this chap. Mrs G and her talents are clearly a good luck charm for the Swans and so we have no doubt what our new favourite manager will be doing Saturday afternoon. Bournemouth continue to march on – they have also won two in a row and are two points ahead of their visitors. Both teams have kept things fairly tight of late and it wouldn’t be a big shock to see a tight close encounter – the teams drew 2-2 at the Liberty earlier in the season.

Eddie Howe is looking for his team to continue their good form and get closer to guaranteed safety, but at the same time took the time to wish Guidolin “all the best”. What a nice chap. Harry Arter is suffering from an Achilles injury and a late decision will be made on him, while Josh King is also carrying a knock, which Howe said is “being managed”. Junior Stanislas remains out, as of course do Tyrone Mings and Callum Wilson.

Guido said he has asked his players for a “strong finish” – jeez you couldn’t make this up. This bloke should be on stage. Of course, he was referring to a strong finish to a season which has been, up until a couple of weeks ago, very disappointing. The Swans have no new injuries for the trip to the South coast, but midfielder Sung-yeung Ki will be assessed before travelling.

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Stoke vs Southampton (Sat 12 Mar 15.00)
Well, if the game above is going to be tight, then this one may be completely mind-numbing. The Saints haven’t scored more than one goal in any of their last seven matches while Stoke have scored just seven in their last eight. Unsurprisingly, there was only one goal when the teams met in November, when young Bojan scored the winner at St Mary’s. Stoke fought back to grab a deserved draw at Chelsea last week, while Southampton did the same, albeit they were at home to Sunderland. With little now to play for, I am really struggling to find anything interesting or exciting to say about this game of nothingness.

Good news for Stoke as Ryan Shawcross has finally returned to full training, which has left manager Mark Hughes with a big decision as to whether to throw his captain straight back into the starting XI. Erik Pieters has picked up a little problem with his calf and will be monitored over the next 24 hours or so while Glen Johnson, Marc Wilson and Phil Bardsley are long term absentees. Charlie Adam has returned to light training but is short of match fitness.

The Saints will be without the suspended Jose Fonte who joins the perma-ban Victor Wanyama on the naughty step following his sending off vs Sunderland. Charlie Austin also misses out through injury and likely won’t be back until after the international break, but there is good news of Shane Long who has trained all week without any problems and is available. Ronald Koeman says that Jay Rodriguez will play for the U21s next week as he steps up his recovery.

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Aston Villa vs Spurs (Sun 13 Mar 16.00)
Roast lamb for lunch today? Or maybe roast beef is your fancy. For the Spurs, they will be feasting on roast Villa, with all the trimmings, accompanied by a bottle of vintage Chateau Margaux and if they play their cards right, the likes of Harry Kane and Dele Alli will be feet up on the bench, donned in their smoking jackets puffing on a large Cuban each while the match peters out to a comfortable away win. That is the script that Mauricio Pochettino would like his team to follow. And the chances are that Villa will allow them to do whatever they wish, like an old dirty cheap escort hanging out of a shop window in Amsterdam. It won’t surprise you to learn that Spurs have won on each of their last four visits to Villa Park and they may as well go and make it five as they won’t be going there for a while after this season.

Remi Garde has maybe been secretly bingeing on the Margaux, or something stronger. “We can survive. Why can’t we?” Oh Remi, don’t do this to yourself man. Our French optimist expects to go into the Spurs game with the same squad as last week, which let’s face it isn’t a great start. Jordan Amavi, Carlos Sanchez, Jack Grealish, Adama Traore and Libor Kozak remain out. And Villa remain helpless.

Spurs were given a proper roasting themselves in Dortmund on Thursday, but the good news for FPL managers is that Harry Kane only played the last 15mins, so will be fresh for Sunday. Eric Dier and Danny Rose didn’t travel to Germany – Dier was given a rest and Rose was suffering from cramp from the derby while Dele Alli missed the match through suspension. Mousa Dembele and Erik Lamela were both introduced in the second half in Dortmund like Kane, while Kyle Walker was an un-used sub. Jan Vertonghen and Clinton N’Jie both remain unavailable.

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Leicester vs Newcastle (Mon 14 Mar 20.00)
Ah, a bit of Monday night football. We all love it. Well, nearly all. Steve McClaren won’t of course. He’s been sacked after a comedy week at Newcastle, which saw them openly chase Rafa Benitez while letting the media write Macca’s obituary. The club has apologised that it took so long to sack our favourite wally – it was plainly obvious he was offski after Bournemouth won at the Toon last weekend and it’s pretty clear that they were waiting to tie up Rafa before letting McClaren go. So Rafa is back and after starting the season at Real Madrid, he now has a relegation fight on his hands with his new galacticos.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, most of us love a bit of Monday night action – football I mean, not Guidolin-like action, though both would be nice. Leicester will go into Monday’s game at the top, whatever Spurs do at Villa. And they’ll be confident, as they should be. And they’ll be playing Newcastle, who are making Sunderland look half-decent. The Toon have lost their last six matches on the road . The Foxes won 3-0 at St James Park earlier in the season, yeah yeah Vardy scored and Mahrez assisted – Leicester also won 3-0 at home to the Toon last season. See the pattern?

The Foxes has no new injury problems for Monday’s tussle with the Toon. Claudio Ranieri says that Riyad Mahrez is in “good condition”, allaying fears after the midfielder limped off at Watford. Matty James has finally returned to training this week, but is unlikely to feature for a while. Ranieri is expecting a tough match on Monday – I’m not sure why, guess he’s just being polite. He says that Newcastle have good players and fantastic fans. What a lovely chap Claudio is.

With the absence of a presser, it’s clearly impossible to know what team the fat Spanish waiter will serve up – or indeed who is available to him. What we do know is that Fabricio Coloccini has at least returned to training but Tim Krul, Massadio Haidara, Paul Dummett and Gabriel Obertan are definite absentees while Chancel Mbemba, Andros Townsend, Yoan Gouffran and Papiss Cisse are all doubts. If Mbemba and Coloccini don’t make it then one has to fear for the Toon defence with Vardy and Mahrez waiting to pounce, while the long-suffering Newcastle fans will be (desperately) hoping that the “new manager syndrome” has some sort of positive effect.

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Suspension Report for Game-week 30

Those players suspended this week are:
Kevin Mirallas (Everton)
James Milner (Liverpool)
Juan Mata (Man Utd)
Jose Fonte (Southampton)
Victor Wanyama (Southampton)

Players who earn 10 yellow cards by the second Sunday in April will receive a 2-match ban.

Those players one booking away:

Jack Colback (Newcastle)
Eric Dier (Spurs)
Claudio Yacob (West Brom)

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Thanks for reading Team Talk Fantasy Football Game-week 30. This article was written by Cookie

Follow @SteveCook9

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