Team Talk Fantasy Football Game-week 4

Team Talk Fantasy Football GW4

Three weeks in and we can start to see how some teams will shake out this season. Some teams have started hot while the performances of some suggest they might not know the season has actually begun. Reinforcements have started to gel (or not) with their new teammates. Some managers have shown us their preferred starting XI.
We’ve seen a number of GW1 big hitter differentials flame out and a few who have suggested they can contribute on a weekly basis. Rosters will be finalized in a matter of days. Take in as much football as you can this weekend, lads – a needless international break looms on the horizon once GW4 is in the books.
For those of you who have held onto your wildcard, will you play it once the transfer deadline passes? Have you jumped on the Pedro bandwagon? Will you drop Hazard? Will Saido Berahino move to Spurs and, if so, will Charlie Austin join the Baggies as his replacement? How will Jose Mourinho organise his midfield once everyone is healthy? How many strikers will Arsenal be linked with on Deadline Day? No doubt a number of teams will look different by the time we talk next. As always, we’ll help you survive Deadline Day by providing all the latest rumours and news you can stomach.
In the meantime, GW4 is approaching fast, so let’s go Around the Grounds for the latest team news.

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Newcastle vs Arsenal (Sat 29 Aug 12.45)

For Newcastle it’s been the same story, different season: another poor start has them looming near the bottom of the table. Things don’t get better this week. The Magpies have lost their last seven against Arsenal. In fact, Newcastle has beaten Arsenal just twice since 2002. Have I jinxed them enough? Did I mention the Gunners have kept a clean sheet in three of their last five against Newcastle? If you’re looking for a differential in this game, look no further than Arsenal front man Olivier Giroud. He’s bagged eight goals in just six matches against Newcastle.

Toon boss Steve McClaren wants his team to build on last week’s resolute defensive display at Old Trafford as he welcomes the Goonies into town. Newcastle have few injury worries for the first time in a long time and even Moussa Sissoko has an outside chance of playing. Daryl Janmaat returns from suspension.

Encouragement for the Toon as Arsene Wenger says that Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny are both doubts for the game. Mertesacker is still struggling to shrug off his illness while the manager says Koscielny has more chance of playing, but will face a late fitness test before the squad travels and did train Friday morning. In other news, Tomas Rosicky, Danny Welbeck and yes, you’ve guessed it, Jack Wilshere all remain out – Welbeck is expected to return after the international break while Wilshere is hoping to return to training at a similar time.

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Aston Villa vs Sunderland (Sat 29 Aug 15.00)

Both of these teams are bad. Perhaps even worse than we suspected when the season began. Aston Villa’s goal-scoring problems have carried over from last season – they’ve scored just twice in three games. Sunderland have become the league’s punch bag, allowing a league worst eight goals so far this season. Aston Villa are undefeated in their last eight against Sunderland (four wins, four draws), keeping six clean sheets and outscoring the Black Cats 14-3. Gabriel Agbonlahor has five career goals against Sunderland. Just sayin’…

Villa have been hit by a sickness bug this week which has disrupted training and put a number of players in doubt for the weekend. Tim Sherwood didn’t confirm who had been affected, but my Sherlock-type investigation has suggested (not confirmed) that the players worst affected are Gabby Agbonlahor, Joe Cole, Alan Hutton, Nathan Baker, Kieran Richardson and Charles N’Zogbia. So basically no-one anyone cares about. Although Agbonlahor’s “absence” could give midweek hat-trick hero Scott Sinclair a chance to impress in the Premier League. Young winger Adama Traore has not trained all week since limping out of the midweek Cup win over Notts County and although Sherwood confirmed he won’t train before the weekend the manager hasn’t given up hope of selecting Traore for the match.

Sunderland chief Dick Advocaat has been talking up the qualities of Younes Kaboul and suggested he is quicker and sharper than John O’Shea and Sebastien Coates. Jeez, he is clutching at straws big time now. The Dick also said the defending of O’Shea and Coates was not good enough on Tuesday night in the 6-3 victory over Exeter. Exeter. Oh dear. It’s Exeter. Exeter ffs !!!! Unfortunately for Dick, and Younes, the powerhouse of the Black Cats defence has been ruled out of this weekend. I could go on all day here, but I should move on. Billy Jones and Jermain Lens should return to the weekend line up after being left out of the Exeter game, Steven Fletcher has recovered from a knock but Adam Matthews hasn’t. Duncan Watmore and Lynden Gooch could keep their places on the bench after impressing off the bench. Against Exeter. Dick is finally catching on though as he said, “Both did well, but then there is a big difference between Exeter and Aston Villa.” Doesn’t bode well for an away win does it? New loan signing Ola Toivonen likely to be on the bench.

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Bournemouth vs Leicester (Sat 29 Aug 15.00)

After a pair of 1-0 losses to start the season Bournemouth finally showed signs of the team that scored a Championship-best 98 goals last season. Was the 4-3 win over West Ham an anomaly or will the Cherries continue to pop in goals? Leicester… what? You took that to mean… not our fault you have a dirty mind! Back to football – Leicester sit a surprising second-place and they will certainly fancy continuing their hot streak in this one. Not a lot of history between these two sides – Leicester won both matches when the two squared off in the 2013-14 Football League Championship season. Fun fact: in the nine all-time matches between these two there has never been a draw.

Bournemouth fielded a much changed line up for their midweek match at Hartlepool meaning Eddie Howe has no new injuries to his preferred starting squad. The manager did admit his Capital One squad picked up a couple of minor knocks but nothing serious, leaving just Harry Arter as the only definite absentee for the Cherries for what could be one of the more attractive games of the weekend.

Leicester have no new injuries as they look to continue their impressive start to the season. Just Matty James continues to miss out. Claudio Ranieri is keeping his feet on the ground and saying their aim is to get to 40pts as soon as possible. He did however express his concern about his teams failure to keep a clean sheet so far and joked he would give each of his players “a tenner” when they keep one! Not that generous really. Ranieri then went all Mike Bassett on us and started quoting Kipling – never a dull presser with the Tinkerman about!

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Chelsea vs Crystal Palace (Sat 29 Aug 15.00)

This won’t be how Jose Mourinho envisioned the season starting. After taking just one point from their first two matches Pedro was signed from Barcelona. While the win was less than convincing the former Barca man was the difference. Still, Eden Hazard’s lack of involvement must be concerning. At times last weekend he looked simply uninterested. Chelsea have beaten Palace three of the four times they’ve played since Palace returned to top-flight football in 2013-14. Palace, however, have won seven of their last nine road games since Alan Pardew became boss. Crystal Palace are on good form and, if ever there was a time to get one over on Mourinho’s men, it is now.

Chelsea will be missing captain John Terry as he starts his suspension following last week’s red card at West Brom. Expect Kurt Zouma to partner Gary Cahill at the back. Oscar and Victor Moses are both still injured, while Pedro will make his home debut.

Palace have been boosted by the news that Yannick Bolasie will return to the squad after missing the win over Villa due to the death of his father, while Connor Wickham should be fine for the short trip to Chelsea after recovering from a rib injury. Mile Jedinak however has been ruled out for 2-3 weeks after suffering a hamstring strain in the Capital One Cup, Marouane Chamakh is unlikely to be available and Patrick Bamford is ineligible to face his parent club. There is better news of keeper Julian Speroni, who is making good progress and targeting a return to training in the next week or so. Not good for Alex McCarthy owners – or will Speroni struggle to regain his place once fit?

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Liverpool vs West Ham (Sat 29 Aug 15.00)

The arrival of Christian Benteke was supposed to solve Liverpool’s goal-scoring woes. It hasn’t. The Reds have found the back of the net just twice this season and haven’t looked a real threat in the final third. It’s not all bad news for Liverpool, though as they haven’t conceded yet this season and their backline looks the best it has in several seasons. Since 2008 Liverpool have won nine of 14 against the Hammers, who have prevailed just three times. Liverpool have kept eight clean sheets during that span. Interesting note – no player on the pitch Saturday has scored more than one goal against the opposing side.

Despite the Hammers collapse at home to Bournemouth last week, Brendan Rodgers says Saturday will be Liverpool’s toughest game of the season yet. The berk. The idiot then went on to praise full backs Nathaniel Clyne and Joe Gomez – no doubt they have shown great character. Onto slightly more interesting things, Daniel Sturridge is back at Liverpool, that’s good of him – but Rodgers didn’t/couldn’t give any idea on when the striker will be back playing – “We are taking it a week at a time”. OK. Mario Balotelli has rejoined AC Milan on a season long loan and Lazar Markovic will go to Fenerbahce on the same arrangement. Adam Lallana and Jordan Henderson are thought to be set to miss out again as Rodgers says the squad will be very similar to the one that played at Arsenal on Monday.

Slaven Bilic is confident that Diafra Sakho will be fit for the weekend – the striker faces a late fitness test after suffering a minor groin injury which has kept him out of training for most of the week – looks like his mrs has been fighting back. The most amazing news of the week is that Andy Carroll has returned to training and is injury free, just not match fit yet, obviously. Bilic is hopeful that Carroll will participate in the GW5 fixture vs his hometown club, Newcastle. Kevin Nolan has left the club, Adrian and Carl Jenkinson are suspended and Mauro Zarate and Enner Valencia both remain sidelined.

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Man City vs Watford (Sat 29 Aug 15.00)

City have started the season with three straight clean sheet victories, so naturally they go out and buy… a centre-back. For £32m. To replace the £31.8m centre-back they bought last year. £64m in two years on two players who play the same position and will compete with each other for playing time. West Brom have spent just more than that… in the last five years. Watford come in on the backs of three straight draws to open the season. While they’ve taken points from their first three, Quique Sanchez Flores will be concerned that his team haven’t scored since the opening day. The only two Premier League matches between these two have ended in draws. This one will not.

Good news for fretting Aguero owners as Wilfried Bony has picked up a nasty 6-7cm cut on his leg and has been ruled out until after the international break. He joins Pablo Zabaleta and Fernando on the treatment table. Great news for Kolarov owners as Gael Clichy has been ruled out for 6-7 weeks! Manager Manuel Pellegrini remained tight lipped on Kevin de Bruyne but at the time of writing it seems the deal is very close to completion.

The Hornets have no new injury worries for the trip to the Etihad and hoping for a third consecutive clean sheet. Good luck with that one lads! Defender Miguel Britos is suspended after being sent off at Preston in midweek and Joel Ekstrand remains sidelined, but expect little changes.

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Stoke vs West Brom (Sat 29 Aug 15.00)

Urbandictionary.com defines a “git” as: “1. A completely ignorant, childish person with no manners; 2. A person who feels justified in their callow behavior.” I can think of no better description for West Brom’s tracksuit-wearing w****r. This week he returns to the Stoke Rugby Grounds to face the Merry Band of Legsnappers he once coached. Stoke enter with just two points from their first three and we’ll all keep our fingers crossed this is the season Stoke finally go down. West Brom have gotten the better of the Orcs lately, winning seven and earning three draws in the last 12 between the teams. West Brom have seven clean sheets during that span.

Mark Hughes says his squad has a couple of bumps and bruises from midweek but nothing serious that will impact selection. Sparky said that he was impressed with Xherdan Shaqiri last weekend and though he was tired towards the end of the game, he will be involved tomorrow. Only Ryan Shawcross and Peter Odemwingie are definitely ruled out.

The Baggies boss will make late assessments on Chris Brunt and Callum McManaman. Saido Berahino has been told by the club that he won’t be sold in this transfer window – Pulis must now decide whether the striker is in the right frame of mind to play – with West Brom bottom of the table, the striker would be well advised to sort himself out before he alienates himself further from the fans.

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Spurs vs Everton (Sat 29 Aug 17.30)

Samwise Gamgee (Pochettino) continues to find life at White Hart Lane difficult. Erik Lamela continues to look lost, Christian Eriksen can’t find anyone to pass to and is crocked and the Spurs’ only real goal-scoring threat, Harry Kane, has scored just one goal in his last 720 minutes on the pitch. Romelu Lukaku has shown flashes of the player Roberto Martinez broke the bank to purchase. Now it’s time for him to show he can do it against a mediocre team. Fun fact – the Spurs boast a league-worst -£11.8mln net spending average over the last five years, sustaining a net loss of £58.7m over that time.

Spurs look to kick start their season after a loss and two successive draws. But they will have to do it without the aforementioned Eriksen who misses out with an ongoing foot injury. Scant consolation I know, but manager Mauricio Pochettino says winger Andros Townsend has recovered from his multiple injuries, returned to training this week and could feature Saturday evening.

Roberto Martinez says John Stones is ready to play at the weekend and is in “the perfect environment” despite the club rejecting his transfer request on Thursday. Bryan Oviedo came through 120mins of Capital One Cup action in midweek and is now ready for Premier League football, but defender Brendan Galloway remains a doubt with a knee injury. Leighton Baines, Tony Hibbert, Steven Pienaar and Darron Gibson remain absent. The manager also said the Toffees are hoping to confirm deals for defender Ramiro Funes Mori and Uruguayan striker Leandro Rodriguez very soon.

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Southampton vs Norwich (Sun 30 Aug 13.30)

Poor Ronald Koeman. The well at the fabled Soton Academy has finally run dry. It turns out you can’t continue to sell all your best players and still compete in the Premier League. Despite generating a massive £152mln in player sales over the last two years, the club has reinvested just £80mln of that in replacement players. Nathan Redmond leads the Canaries into this one with two goals and an assist in their first matches. The last four played between these sides have produced two draws and a win for each side.

Koeman will hope to have Sadio Mane available as the Saints try and recover from their European exit on Thursday night and a winless start in the league. Mane has been struggling with a hip injury and failed to make it off the bench despite the Saints chasing the match in the week. Victor Wanyama is also struggling, he’s ill bless him – ill in this case means his agent is trying to arrange a nice signing on fee. Gaston Ramirez, Fraser Forster, Ryan Bertrand, Florin Gardos and Jordy Clasie all remain unavailable for Koeman.

Norwich boss Alex Neil says his team were buoyed by their previous trip away from Carrow Road, when they won at Sunderland and will be looking to continue that away day form going at Southampton. There are no new injuries and Martin Olsson is close to a return to the first team and will step up his recovery by playing an U21s match on Friday evening. Fellow defender Michael Turner has left the Canaries to become an Owl on a season long loan while striker Lewis Grabbon has been suspended by the club until next Tuesday after refusing to be named on the bench for the Capital One Cup in midweek. Midfielder Youssouf Mulumbu continues to miss out with a foot injury.

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Swansea vs Man Utd (Sun 30 Aug 16.00)

Two goals in three games. One goal every 135 minutes. That’s simply unacceptable for a club like United. If the transfer window closes without United signing a striker Louis Van Gaal may find life difficult at Old Trafford going forward, just like his team. Despite the ongoing transfer drama with Real Madrid and the Goalkeeper-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, the club seem to have found a defensive formula that works. Three straight clean sheets suggest Sergio Romero is more than capable of minding the goal should the team relent and sell Teen Wolf to Real. Interesting note – the Swans won both fixtures last season, each by a 2-1 margin.

The Swans have no new injuries for the weekend and have the added bonus of welcoming back Ki Sung-yeung who came through the midweek Capital One Cup win over York. Ki, who was arguably Swansea’s best player last season will have to dislodge either Jack Cork or Jonjo Shelvey, who have both impressed so far this season.

United come into the game after a morale-boosting 4-0 CL victory over Brugge in midweek, with the previously goal-shy Wayne Rooney grabbing a hat-trick. LVG commented before that match that Marouane Fellaini will be used primarily as a no.9 & 10 this season and he is available again for league duty after completing his suspension. Adnan Januzaj picked up an injury in Brugge and will miss Sunday’s visit to the valleys, which will give an opportunity to Ander Herrera, Ashley Young or indeed Fellaini. Marcos Rojo stepped up his fitness by playing an hour of an U21s friendly on Thursday night so for now the defence will stay the same. Phil Jones remains out.

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Thanks for reading Team Talk Fantasy Football Game-week 4. This article was written by LawDogg and Cookie

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