Team Talk Fantasy Football Gameweek 15

Team Talk Fantasy Football GW15

Some weeks bite you, some weeks turn out great. But whether GW14 was a hit or a miss for you, it’s now time to move on and regroup and begin your planning for what is a very hectic few weeks on the horizon. Having gone from the start of GW13 to the end of GW14 within just five days, we have a more relaxed feel about GW15, its a 3-dayer ending on Monday.
We kick off Saturday lunchtime in the north-east as table topping and unbeaten Chelsea travel to Newcastle. We then have five 3pm matches as Hull entertain West Brom, Liverpool host Sunderland, QPR welcome Burnley, Palace cross the river to go to Tottenham and Arsenal visit Stoke. Then in the evening we are at the Etihad as Man City take on Everton. Onto Sunday and at lunchtime we’re down in the east end as the Hammers meet Swansea before moving north to the Midlands as Leicester take the short trip to Aston Villa. Our gameweek concludes on Monday evening down on the south coast with an all Dutch affair as Ronald Koeman’s Southampton take on LVG’s United.
With injury concerns mounting and the yellow card count growing, let’s go Around the Grounds to see the latest team news.

Newcastle vs Chelsea (Sat 6 Dec 12.45)
Top of the league, six points clear, unbeaten, unbeatable? Chelsea travel up to Newcastle in good spirits, fresh off another win against Spurs and all set for a very Happy Christmas with even Jose Mourinho shouting “Ho, ho, ho” instead of “Bah Humbug”. Newcastle are stumbling somewhat and have derailed from a great run to a couple of drab performances, but in fairness they have been hampered by an injury list that Arsene Wenger would be proud of. The Toon, amazingly, have good recent memories of this fixture, having won the last two at home to the Blues – a hat trick would be great for the league, but bad for the bookies. Interestingly, the Special One has never won at St James Park in four visits with Chelsea, while contrastingly Eden Hazard has scored four goals in three matches vs Newcastle.

Jose says defender Gary Cahill has recovered from the knock on his head he took against Spurs and is fine for the match. The Blues have no new injuries, Ramires may miss out again and Nemanja Matic is suspended after collecting his fifth yellow card on Wednesday. Diego Costa obviously returns from suspension and Mourinho says he will return to the starting line up, while Loic Remy will be keen for a chance to score against his former club. He and Didier Drogba impressed in the week as cover for Costa and will be hoping for more game time over the next few weeks.

Alan Pardew has said that Fabricio Coloccini has returned to training but he is doubtful whether he will be match fit. There was little regarding an update on injuries as the arrogant one said the players had mostly rested and not trained much since Tuesday night’s match at Burnley. However, Moussa Sissoko and Jack Colback are both available again after serving their suspensions, with Sissoko particularly important for the Toon. Tim Krul, Gabriel Obertan, Ryan Taylor, Davide Santon, Siem de Jong and Jonas Gutierrez are definitely out, while Rolando Aarons will need a late as will Sammy Amoebi who picked up a knock at Burnley.

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Hull vs West Brom (Sat 6 Dec 15.00)
Some games are just so difficult to get interested in and this one is definitely right up there. Joined by the hip tantalisingly above the drop zone, if either team can grab the three points it’ll do their survival hopes the world of good while the loser will be plunged deeper into trouble. Trying to look for positive points for Hull or West Brom is as tough as searching for an error free game from Simon Mignolet, but Hull will take heart from their battling midweek draw at Everton, while the Baggies will take heart from errrr, let me think, wait there it’ll come to me….got it – they’ll take heart from the fact they’re the second best team in Birmingham. Yeah that’s it. West Brom have never beaten Hull in the Premier League, though they did knock them out of the Capital One Cup in September. There you go, they can take heart from that. Saying that, they have lost their last four matches and a loss here will put manager Alan Irvine under big pressure.

Hull midfielder Mohamed Diame is likely to miss around 2-3 weeks after limping off at Goodison with a recurrence of his knee injury, but David Meyler should be ok after suffering a cut in the game. Gaston Ramirez is suspended, Robert Snodgrass remains out. There is some good news and that is Abel Hernandez will be back in the squad for the weekend after returning from the birth of his child.

Irvine says that Baggies defender Sebastien Pocognoli and midfielder James Morrison have both returned to training and should be available, but Chris Brunt will miss out with a hamstring strain. Claudio Yacob is suspended and Jonas Olsson remains ruled out until the New Year. Silvestre Varela may have to make do with another cameo from the bench, despite impressing as a sub on Tuesday.

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Liverpool vs Sunderland (Sat 6 Dec 15.00)
Liverpool, dear Liverpool. The gift that just keeps on giving. Whether it’s the aforementioned Mignolet, who looks as comfortable in goal as Mario Balotelli in a United Nations peace summit. Or Glen Johnson, who has overtaken Kolo Toure as head of “defensive entertainment” at the club. And then we have the enigmatic Black Cats, who contained and nearly beat Costa and co and then are taken to the cleaners four days later by Aguero and friends. This all makes predicting this one pretty tricky. Liverpool of course should win and probably will. Probably. Definitely maybe anyway. Sunderland haven’t won at Anfield since 1983 when Bruce Grobelaar allowed the Black Cats a winner. So it’s not a happy hunting ground for them and with Brendan Rodgers eulogising after Liverpool’s midweek win at Leicester, they’ll be hopeful of a second consecutive win.

Gus Poyet says he will freshen the team up after having battled both Chelsea and City in less than a week. One enforced change will be Wes Brown back in for Sebastian Coates, who is is ineligible to face his parent club. Own goal and red card alert!! Adam Johnson has passed a fitness test and will make the squad, but Emanuele Giaccherini will continue to miss out with an ankle injury and Patrick van Aanholt and Billy Jones remain unavailable. Steven Fletcher has missed training but will be included in the matchday squad.

Rodgers hopes to have both Philippe Coutinho and Jose Enrique back for the weekend. Coutinho has been nursing a small knock on his knee while Enrique has returned to training this week. Balotelli and Daniel Sturridge both remain sidelined, as does Jon Flanagan.

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QPR vs Burnley (Sat 6 Dec 15.00)
Rangers welcome Burnley to Loftus Road looking to extend their decent run at home and knowing that a victory would propel them out of the relegation zone. Another away day loss in midweek for ‘Arry’s boys makes these home encounters must wins, which should translate into a tough afternoon for Burnley, who in fact won their last away game, at Stoke. These two were promoted together from the Championship last season, but while last season’s match ended in a 3-3 draw, it’s Burnley who have fixture form having won two and drawn three of the last five meetings at the Loft.

‘Arry is hoping to have a relatively unchanged squad to midweek, with Bobby Zamora on course to feature after recovering from injury. Midfielder Sandro, Adel Taarabt and Alejandro Faurlin are the only definite absentees.

Burnley will be without defenders Stephen Ward and Michael Duff. Ward suffered ankle ligament damage in the draw with Newcastle, while Michael Duff is struggling to shake off his calf injury. Matty Taylor and Sam Vokes also remain on the injured list.

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Spurs vs Crystal Palace (Sat 6 Dec 15.00)
Spurs second derby in four days and they’ll be hoping this one turns out better than events at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday. Despite their 3-0 loss, manager Mauricio Pochettino claims that they were the better team and played all the football. Brilliant. You lost 3-0 mate. To Chelsea. You may have had a good 15mins at the start, but that was about it. Of course, he doesn’t really mean all this – he’s just trying to get close to the fans and speak their language. You wait, if they beat Palace, I can picture Poch’s post match presser now, “a great win, best performance of the season. This is going to be our year”. Bore off mate. Let’s move on. Palace and Neil Warnock were disappointed to lose at home to Villa in the week. Disappointed? I’d be slashing my wrists. It’s Villa. They don’t win. You were at home Neil. 79 million years of inconsistency from Spurs makes it impossible to call this a guaranteed home victory, but in all seriousness they should have too much for Palace. But this is Spurs and they did outplay the league leaders in a 3-0 defeat, don’t forget.

Warnock says that Joe Ledley and Dwight Gayle will need late fitness tests before being available for the short trip to Spurs, but defenders Damien Delaney and Adrian Mariappa are likely to miss out.

Spurs will again be without Emmanuel Adebayor while defenders Vlad Chiriches and Kyle Naughton are doubts and will need assessing before the game. Danny Rose could return at the back, while Kyle Walker will continue his comeback by playing for the U21’s this weekend.

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Stoke vs Arsenal (Sat 6 Dec 15.00)
I love this fixture. Arsenal hate it. The rivalry here spices this one up beautifully – the atmosphere will be ferocious and Wenger will be running back to the bus at the end of the game rather than throwing pizzas. For the Gooners get bullied here. Big time. Saying all this, Stoke aren’t the combative, intimidating, generally nasty team they were under Tony Pulis, which in itself is a small surprise as Mark Hughes was hardly a shrinking violet in his day. Hughes also has history with Wenger. Aaron Ramsey has history with Ryan Shawcross. Oh I can’t wait. Due to the Gooners basic lack of bottle, they have not won at Stoke in their last four and much will of course depend on Alexis “Shoulders” Sanchez and whether he has to carry the rest of the team throughout the whole season. Should be a cracker. Altogether now, “My my my Delilah. Why why why Delilah”.

Hughes says that Glenn Whelan remains out with a calf injury, but should be back for GW16, while Stephen Ireland has picked up an illness in the week and is a doubt. Jon Walters is struggling with a knee injury and will need a late assessment, while Robert Huth, Steve Sidwell, Peter Odemwingie and Victor Moses all remain out.

Wenger did say in his presser that Alexis is in the “red zone”. This is not to be confused with the red light district. The red zone indicates when a player is a high injury risk and due to the number of matches Alexis has already played this season. Which suggests a rest is coming sooner rather than later – but before you all start to panic, with Arsenal already qualified from their Champions League group, it may well be that Alexis is rested for next week’s final group game. Or maybe Wenger won’t risk him against those nasty Potters. Haha gotcha, panic away! The Gooner casualty ward remains as busy as ever, but there are some positives as well as bad news. Nacho Monreal has been ruled out of the weekend (that’s the good news), while fellow left back Kieran Gibbs is hoping to return. Laurent Koscielny will need a late assessment, while keeper Wojciech Szczesny has returned to training but may not be quite ready. The same can be said of Mathieu Debuchy, who has also started training again and is being pencilled in for a return in Tuesday’s match versus Galatasaray. Tomas Rosicky and Yaya Sanogo could both also miss out, while Theo Walcott, Mesut Ozil, Mikel Arteta and Jack Wilshire all remain unavailable.

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Man City vs Everton (Sat 6 Dec 17.30)
They’re firing aren’t they? Three goals at Southampton, four at Sunderland, have to fear for the Everton defence here. How can they even hope to keep things quiet when they can’t even keep Hull out. Or Spurs, or West Ham, or Sunderland, or Burnley. You get the idea. The Toffees are stuttering big time, having won once in five matches now and languish just below half way in the league, this could get messy if they don’t sort themselves out by Saturday evening. Sergio Aguero has scored in the last two meetings between the two, but then again so has Romelu Lukaku and with injuries at the heart of the City defence it may well be that Everton would do well to take the game to City rather than just try and keep things tight. That doesn’t work right now with the Champions.

City will again have to cope without captain Vincent Kompany, who has failed to recover from his hamstring injury. Sadly for Manuel Pellegrini, Eliaquim Mangala is available after serving suspension, so will likely accompany Martin Demichelis at the back, with Dedryck Boyata dropping back to the bench. The good news is that Edin Dzeko and Aleksandar Kolarov return to the squad, but Stevan Jovetic has been ruled out and joins David Silva and Matija Nastasic on the sidelines. Yara Toure missed training today, but Pellegrini says it was just a precaution as he will be in the squad for the game.

Everton boss Roberto Martinez says his team is relishing the challenge of going to the Etihad, good luck with that one Robbie. James McCarthy, Steven Naismith and Darron Gibson will all continue to miss out, but Antolin Alacaraz and Arouna Kone are both fit to play, but will likely not start. Kone will start the Europa League match on Thursday. Steven Pienaar is fully fit as is Bryan Oviedo, while Leighton Baines will play despite breaking his nose vs Hull. John Stones is still a few weeks away.

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West Ham vs Swansea (Sun 7 Dec 13.30)
Not many would have predicted at the start of the season that this fixture would pit together fifth vs sixth, which highlights the strong start to the season that both clubs have had. How the Swans cope when Wilfried Bony flies off to the ACON in January remains to be seen, but until then they will aim to get as high as possible, as indeed will the Hammers. Both sides come off midweek wins, but it’ll be the Hammers who go into the game with more confidence having not lost at home since GW3, while Swansea haven’t won on the road since their victory at Old Trafford on the opening day of the season. West Ham’s men haven’t lost at home in the league to Swansea in their last seven – in fact you’ll have to trawl back to 1956 to their last league win at the Boleyn. I only know that cos Elleffcee told me – he was at the game. As a 24 year old.

Big Sam is pleased to report that Diafra Sakho and Alex Song have both resumed training this week and should therefore be available to rejoin the squad for the visit of Swansea. The only doubt is midfielder Mark Noble, who has been suffering with a calf injury that meant he missed the midweek match at West Brom – with Song likely to return, it’s likely that Big Sam will be afforded the luxury of not rushing Noble back this week.

Swansea have no new injuries for the weekend, but will be missing left back Neil Taylor due to suspension. Dwight Tiendalli may step in. Federico Fernandez continues to be unavailable with his calf injury.

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Aston Villa vs Leicester (Sun 7 Dec 16.00)
Rooted down at the bottom of the league, the Foxes are being hunted down by everyone now, they even lost to a team with Simon Mignolet in goal this week. Their manager is arguing with fans, they haven’t won in nine matches and they’ve appointed Emile Heskey as a club ambassador. Freefall springs to mind. That’s all in direct contrast to the Villains, who are now unbeaten in their last four, have parted company with Roy “the Beard” Keane and have Christian Benteke back and firing. These two haven’t met in the league since 2004, but on current form and confidence one would imagine another difficult away day awaits Leicester.

Villa striker Andreas Weimann is suspended for one match after collecting his fifth booking in midweek, while Joe Cole has been ruled out with a hamstring strain. Ron Vlaar will return to training on Saturday, but is unlikely to be risked vs Leicester, while fellow defenders Philippe Senderos and Nathan Baker remain out of action as do midfielder Fabian Delph and forward Libor Kozak, although Delph has begun non contact training. He’ll probably still manage to get booked in that.

Foxes boss Nigel Pearson has to make do without captain Wes Morgan, who was sent off in the midweek defeat. Liam Moore could deputise, another option is Matthew Upson who is close to a recall after recovering from injury. Striker David Nugent faces a late fitness test, while Dean Hammond is expected to miss out again.

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Southampton vs Man Utd (Mon 8 Dec 20.00)
The end of our gameweek, some Monday Night Football fun down at St Marys, sees 3rd place Southampton host 4th placed United. Or that’s how it stands as you read this, by the time the game kicks off both could be out of the top four if results dictate positively for the likes of West Ham and Arsenal. It’s been a contrasting few weeks for both clubs – the Saints have lost their last two and before that drew at Villa, while United have won four in a row and are showing signs of mounting a challenge for a Champions League place. Of course, nothing would make Ronald Koeman happier than for his team to get back to winning ways versus his arch enemy LVG. The pair don’t get on and the reception for van Gaal will be frosty at best, but if United make it five on the bounce, they’ll go above Southampton and those red rosy cheeks of LVG will be spouting from on high more philosophy bollocks to his younger Dutch pretender.

Koeman says that midfielders Morgan Schneiderlin and Jack Cork will both miss the match, while central defender Toby Alderweireld is a big doubt but has not been ruled out yet and will be given every chance, given the day is not until Monday. Alderweireld’s injury is not that serious, just more muscle fatigue. Dusan Tadic is fit, while James Ward-Prowse is expected to start training towards the end of next week.

LVG says that Wayne Rooney is fit and fine for the game, with the striker training this week, but Angel di Maria hasn’t recovered from his slight hamstring strain and will miss out. Daley Blind and Luke Shaw also remain out, but Jonny Evans is ready to return and Phil Jones is nearing a comeback.

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Suspension Report

Players suspended for GW15

Andreas Weimann (Aston Villa)
Nemanja Matic (Chelsea)
Gaston Ramirez (Hull)
Wes Morgan (Leicester)
Neil Taylor (Swansea)
Claudio Yacob (West Brom)

Those players on 4 yellow cards and one booking away from suspension:

Tom Cleverley (Aston Villa)
Dean Marney (Burnley)
Cesc Fabregas (Chelsea)
Gareth Barry (Everton)
Steven Naismith (Everton)
Tom Huddlestone (Hull)
Jake Livermore (Hull)
Andrew Robertson (Hull)
Liam Moore (Leicester)
Martin Skrtel (Liverpool)
Vincent Kompany (Man City)
Daryl Janmaat (Newcastle)
Moussa Sissoko (Newcastle)
Graziano Pelle (Southampton)
Morgan Schneiderlin (Southampton)
Victor Wanyama (Southampton)
Mame Diouf (Stoke)
Ryan Shawcross (Stoke)
Marc Wilson (Stoke)
Ashley Williams (Swansea)
James Tomkins (West Ham)

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Good luck and go big!

Thanks for reading Team Talk Fantasy Football GW15. This article was written by Cookie

Follow @SteveCook9

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WooFBet
Over on the WooFBet website they have a special tournament running from Gameweek 14 to Gameweek 19 called ‘Decembers Best Manager’, which is free to enter and has a whopping €500 up for grabs.

To enter, visit woofbet.com and sign up (no card details required). Navigate to the Tournament section and click participate on the ‘Decembers Best Manager – €500 FREEROLL’.

The exclusive FF247 league is back for GW15 and has a prize pool of €150 and it is free to enter so get yourselves over there sharpish!

Isn’t it time your fantasy manager job finally paid off!

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And don’t forget to enter our Aguero poll. Sorry, Captain Poll….

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