Team Talk Game-week 24 FPL Fantasy Premier League

Team Talk Game-week 24

Welcome to GW24 and its another humdinger in store as we kick off Saturday lunchtime with the big derby in the North-East as Newcastle host Sunderland, which should ensure a lively start to the game-week! At the same time West Ham welcome Swansea to Upton Park. Five 3pm kick-offs follow as Norwich visit Cardiff, Everton entertain Aston Villa, Fulham meet Southampton, Tottenham go to Hull and Stoke host Man Utd. Sunday’s first game sees Liverpool looking for a win over WBA at the Hawthorns, followed by a London derby at the Emirates as Arsenal take on Crystal Palace. And then for the big one Monday evening – Man City vs Chelsea, under the lights at the Etihad, some are calling it a title decider, even at this stage of the season. Bring it on!
Today is, of course, transfer deadline day, so loads going on – and a word of warning to keep your eyes and ears on the newswires up until midnight to stay on top of all the last minute moves.
Let’s get around the grounds and catch up on the latest team news.

Newcastle vs Sunderland (Sat 1 Feb 12.45)
Form often goes out of the window in a derby, not least in this fixture, which is always full of passion and controversy. Sunderland will look back on last season’s fixture fondly as they triumphed 3-0, while Alan Pardew will be looking to reverse a run of just one win in five matches. The Black Cats have lost only two of their last thirteen matches in all competitions.
Newcastle go into the 150th Tyne-Wear derby without their two best players of the season, in Yohan Cabaye and Loic Remy. Cabaye, as we know has moved onto pastures new, while Remy was unsuccessful in his appeal over his red card at Norwich and starts a 3-match suspension. Pardew will be relying on midfield pair Cheick Tiote and Vurnon Anita to win the midfield battle on Saturday and says that Tiote will have the armband and the responsibility will ensure he has no problems disciplinary wise in the derby. Cue that red card. Yoan Gouffran and Papiss Cisse will need to be assessed today, with Cisse the more likely to make the game, but Pardew rates both as doubtful. New signing Luuk De Jong should make the bench while Sammy Ameobi should retain his place, as should Hatem Ben Arfa who has recovered from cramp.
Black Cats keeper Kieran Westwood and defender Carlos Cuellar continue to miss out, but new signing Liam Bridcutt could make the squad. Adam Johnson will be looking to add to his tally of five goals in three games and inflict a third successive derby defeat on the Toon. Phil Bardsley injured his back in the win over Stoke but has been passed fit, striker Steven Fletcher however is a doubt, while Lee Cattermole is out and may well be leaving for Stoke.

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West Ham vs Swansea (Sat 1 Feb 12.45)
An unlikely, but hard-earned point at Chelsea in midweek will have encouraged Big Sam and his boys that they do indeed have the fight and character to climb away from relegation, while Swansea climbed back up to halfway with a resolute 2-0 win over Fulham, yet sit just six points off the bottom spot. The Hammers have failed to win nine of their last ten home matches in the league and have conceded three goals in each of their last three home league matches, making the scoreless draw at Chelsea an even greater achievement.
West Ham defender Joey O’Brien is likely to miss around three months with a shoulder injury and will be replaced by either George McCartney or Razvan Rat, while Mohamed Diame will need to be assessed after getting injured falling over the advertising hoardings at Chelsea. Good news of Winston Reid and Ricardo Vaz Te who are both very close to a return. New signings Marco Borriello and Antonio Nocerino have trained well this week and it is thought that Borriello could make the squad, or even force a start. Joe Cole remains sidelined.

Things are looking somewhat rosier for Michael Laudrup on the injury front – with no new injuries to report, the only members of his first team squad missing are Jose Canas, who is back in training, Michu, who should return to training next week, keeper Michel Vorm, who is unlikely to be risked for at least another week and long term casualty Garry Monk.

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Cardiff City vs Norwich (Sat 1 Feb 15.00)
A massive game in the Welsh capital, with bottom club Cardiff now desperate for a win – 1 point out of a possible 21 has seen them stare the Championship in the face, but they also know a couple of good results changes things completely, which is exactly what has happened to Norwich, who have picked up 4 points out of 6 and relieved the immediate pressure on manager Chris Hughton.
Norwich have no new injuries and have Bradley Johnson available after the midfielder had his midweek red-card overturned. Jonas Gutierrez will also play having been ineligible to face parent club Newcastle in midweek. Michael Turner, Jonny Howson and Elliott Bennett remain out. Midfielder Wes Hoolahan has been trying to engineer a move away from the club and its likely he will be the subject of a last minute transfer.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer this morning confirmed the loan signing of Wilfried Zaha, while other new signings, Fabio and Kenwynne Jones should go straight into the matchday squad. Mark Hudson misses out with a hamstring strain, but Kevin Theophie-Catherine and Jordan Mutch could return.

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Everton vs Aston Villa (Sat 1 Feb 15.00)
The Toffees will be looking to bounce back from their derby trouncing against a Villa team who are threatening to string some performances together and who will be buoyed from their derby win over West Brom. Despite Everton being unbeaten in nineteen of their last twenty home league matches, the last four games between these two have ended in draws and this one may be closer than some expect. For anyone looking for a one-week punt, how about Leon Osman? The Everton midfielder has scored more PL goals against Villa than any other opponent.
Roberto Martinez expects to be without defenders Seamus Coleman and Sylvain Distin for the visit of Villa, but he is hopeful both will be back for the trip to Tottenham in GW24. The same is true of Gerard Deulofeu, who has returned to Goodison after having treatment on his hamstring at parent club, Barcelona. Romelu Lukaku’s ankle injury is not as bad as first feared, but the striker is still likely to miss the next six games or so, while on-loan striker Lacina Traore is not thought to be quite ready to play, meaning Steven Naismith is likely to start up front. Bryan Oviedo, Darron Gibson and Arouna Kone are longer term absentees.
Paul Lambert has no new injuries as Ron Vlaar has recovered from a knock he received in the derby win. Striker Gabby Agbonlahor is still suffering with a foot injury and likely to miss out, while Charles N’Zogbia and Libor Kozak are long-term casualties.

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Fulham vs Southampton (Sat 1 Feb 15.00)
Sorry Fulham meet stuttering Southampton down by the river with the knowledge that wins are now essential if they are to escape relegation. Saints meanwhile will be disappointed with their draw with Arsenal, having outplayed the Gunners for large parts of the game and will see this game as a golden opportunity to get their season back on track. The Cottagers have lost twelve of their last fifteen league games and despite the fact that they have scored in every home game this season, it’s the problems at the other end that are causing most concern.
Saints striker Rickie Lambert is recovering well from his hamstring injury and is expected to be fit to make the squad, but Gaston Ramirez and Dejan Lovren are still sidelined. Combative midfielder Victor Wanyama has recovered from injury and is pushing for a start. Striker Dani Osvaldo, who is currently suspended, is rumoured to be leaving to join Juventus on loan.
The engineer has been on call at Craven Cottage as the rotating doors have been in full swing. There are reports that Dimitar Berbatov was last seen in a helicopter to Monaco for talks, Lewis Holtby has joined the club on loan from Spurs, while Aaron Hughes has left for QPR and we bid a temporary farewell to maverick midfielder Adel Taarabt who has had his loan deal from QPR terminated and has joined AC Milan, on the same arrangement. Strange – not good enough for Fulham, but he’s wanted by the 7-times European Champions – work that one out, or “go figure” as Fulham’s owner would say. The club has also signed forward Konstantinos Mitroglou from Olympiakos. Back to the game and defenders Fernando Amorebieta and John Arne Riise are doubts while fellow backman Matthew Briggs continues to miss out with a hernia – he probably got that just watching everyone come and go today.

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Hull City vs Tottenham (Sat 1 Feb 15.00)
Both managers will be looking for a positive reaction to disappointing midweek defeats, with Spurs just glad they won’t be facing Man City again this season. Hull, meanwhile, are one of those teams caught in the mix in the bottom half and know that these next few game-weeks will go a long way to determining their Premier League prospects. Since knocking six past Fulham, Hull have failed to score in their last four league games and with Spurs winning their last five games on the road, Tim Sherwood will be confident of getting Spurs Champions League ambitions back on track.
Steve Harper will start in goal for Hull in place of the suspended Allan McGregor, while Jake Livermore is to stay at Hull for the season, despite reports Spurs would recall the on-loan midfielder. He is ineligible to play against Spurs, so Stephen Quinn could be in line for a start . Strikers Shane Long and Nikica Jelavic will make their home debuts and Robbie Brady and Maynor Figueroa are fully fit again. Striker Sone Aluko, who has not played since October, starts his road to recovery next week when he is pencilled in for a reserve game.
Sherwood accepts his team were below par and well beaten by City and has vowed they will respond positively at Hull. Erik Lamela and Andros Townsend are still ruled out, but the boss is pleased to announce that quartet Jan Vertonghen, Paulinho, Sandro and Younes Kaboul are all training well and “almost ready to play”. Danny Rose has successfully appealed against his red card vs City and will not serve a suspension, so he should play this weekend.

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Stoke City vs Man Utd (Sat 1 Feb 15.00)
Stoke continue to slide down the table and now find themselves just four points above bottom of the table Cardiff and have lost five of their last six matches in the league, while United, buoyed by the acquisition of Juan Mata and the return of RvP and Wayne Rooney, now have their sights firmly set on a Champions League spot. United have won eleven of their last twelve matches in all competitions and have scored at least two goals vs Stoke in nine of their last meetings vs The Potters.
Stoke defender Robert Huth could return for the visit of the Champions, just in time to cope with RvP, Rooney & Mata! Andy Wilkinson and Matthew Etherington are not quite ready to return and midfielder Steven N’Zonzi is suspended after being red-carded in the loss at Sunderland. Reports are rife that the club are trying to sign Lee Cattermole from Sunderland.
David Moyes says “it’s great to have both RvP & Rooney back”, but fails to get too excited by then adding, “but we have to be careful with them both”. My usual comments applies – read into that what you will. Captain Nemanja Vidic completes his 3-match suspension, while midfielder Marouane Fellaini is closing in on a comeback, but is lacking match practice. Rio Ferdinand remains a doubt and Michael Carrick and Nani are still out.

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West Brom vs Liverpool (Sun 2 Feb 13.30)
If recent results are anything to go by, then this match should see plenty of goals. West Brom were involved in the match of GW23, finally going down 4-3 at Villa while Liverpool’s goal surge shows no sign of letting up – they have now scored 32 in their last 10 league games – Ben Foster and his defence beware, it could be a long afternoon.
Brendan Rodgers has no new injuries to add to the already exhaustive list, but welcomes back Joe Allen into the fold. Still missing are Glen Johnson, Jose Enrique, Daniel Agger, Mamadou Sakho and Lucas. Not really a major problem when all they have to do is give the ball to Suarez and Sturridge and let them do the rest.
West Brom will have to continue with attacking midfielder Stephane Sessegnon, who is recovering from groin surgery, while Liverpool old boy Nicolas Anelka also misses out after he picked up a knee injury late on in the defeat at Villa.

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Arsenal vs Crystal Palace (Sun 2 Feb 16.00)
Despite many saying the Gunners have gone off the boil and City will storm to the title, Arsenal will go back to the top with a win here, though with Palace having won their last two games by the odd goal, Wenger’s men will need to be at their creative best to break down a solid and well-marshalled defence.
Arsenal’s midfield has been left short by the absence of Jack Wilshire, Aaron Ramsey and Mathieu Flamini. Wilshire should return for the GW24 trip to Liverpool, but Ramsey will likely be missing for six weeks after suffering a setback in training. Flamini is suspended for four games following his sending off at Southampton. The good news is Tomas Rosicky returns to the squad following successful nose surgery.
The Eagles have no new major worries leading into the game, though there is a small doubt over defender Danny Gabiddon, who picked up a slight knock in the midweek win – he will need to be assessed before the game, but is expected to play. Jonathan Parr is also hopeful of playing after suffering concussion and a neck injury in the win over Stoke in GW22. Palace have today secured the services of goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey from Wolves, which will provide competition to Julian Speroni between the sticks. Jonny Wilkinson impersonator, Jason Puncheon has had his loan move from Southampton been made into a permanent deal, while at the time of writing there is continued speculation of deals for Tom Ince and Joe Ledley.

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Man City vs Chelsea (Mon 3 Feb 20.00)
The one we’ve all been waiting for as City host Chelsea, knowing a win would give them a six point cushion over their opponents, while Jose Mourinho, having bemoaned West Ham for “parking the bus” in midweek at the Bridge, will surely be employing two strikers, just one holding midfielder and take the fight to City in an open expansive game. Errrr, I think not eh Jose!!
The news of Sergio Aguero is as expected – he will miss the Chelsea game and is likely to be missing for a month with his hamstring injury – for FPL managers, this clearly brings the likes of Edin Dzeko, Alvaro Negredo and maybe even Stevan Jovetic into the equation, in terms of a straight replacement. Samir Nasri and Javi Garcia are still sidelined, though it is thought that Nasri is making good progress and has resumed light training, ahead of schedule. Alexsandar Kolarov is expected to be recalled for Monday’s game, while James Milner is available again for selection.
The Special One will continue with Samuel Eto’o up front as Fernando Torres is still out with a knee injury. Nemanja Matic and Mohammed Salah will be hoping for their first starts for Chelsea, though Mourinho says he will have to monitor the latter’s fitness due to him having not played for a while due to the winter break in Switzerland.

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Hot Topic – What to do with Aguero ?
Following Sergio Aguero’s injury on Wednesday evening, we thought it may be of some help to the masses to ask some managers who own the City striker, whether they plan to hold on to him, or if they decide to sell him, who they plan to replace him with. Here are their responses to this week’s Hot Topic:

Bench: So Aguero is out for 3 or 4 weeks, what do I do? Go with my head and stick with a City striker as they are are scoring for fun? Or go with my gut (that’s pretty big with all the beer I drink), which is telling me to go RvP? City’s fixtures are great after this game-week. To get RvP I need to take a hit, so my gut is telling me to transfer out Coleman to Fabio of Cardiff, who have some decent fixtures coming up. Fabio often played in midfield for QPR last term when fit, and as I understand it Solskjaer likes attacking football so I am hoping he will repay the 4pt hit over the next 4 game-weeks and is only £4.1m , leaving me with £14.7m in the bank. So with United signing Juan Mata, who for me has more talent in his left toe than the rest of the United midfield, I fancy United to have a mini run of form on the back of the Mata honeymoon period. So for me, right now, I’m leaning towards RvP.

Mutley:  I’m not selling Aguero…..yet! I have already used my two free transfers this week, so will sit tight for a week and await news. If he drops by £0.1m it won’t cost me anything anyway.

Kop: First of all I need to decide if I am going to sell him! I bought him as soon as he scored against Blackburn in the Cup so I have money invested in him – in fact if I sell him I won’t be able to buy him back unless his value drops! However I already have Seamus Coleman sat on my bench so I will probably be forced to sell Aguero.
So who will I replace him with? There are a number of players in form such as Adebayor & Benteke and both Spurs & Villa have some decent fixtures coming up. Then there is Rooney & RvP at United, although I can’t afford RvP. However despite all these options I’ll probably replace him with one of his teammates, either Negredo or Dzeko. My first thought was to bring Negredo in but the more I think about it the more I lean towards Dzeko. To be honest I probably won’t decide until Saturday morning.

Floydeth: I will probably bring in Negredo as a straight swap for Aguero – I can’t have a £12m striker sitting on my bench. Although I am known for my indecision, I think, on occasions, so I’m told – I am also massively tempted with RvP – which I could do without a hit also. I wouldn’t put it past myself to go down this route either…..maybe.

Inittowinit: I’m considering three options on this and a lot may depend on the rest of my squad but I am looking at Rooney, RvP or Sturridge this week. I like United’s next two fixtures especially so I may well go with Rooney assuming he is fit. Ideally I would go with RvP but that ties up too much money I feel and would involve a hit. I may leave Sturridge just because I already have Suarez and Liverpool play Arsenal next week whereas United are at home to Fulham. It will leave me without a City striker this week which feels a bit risky but I will have enough left to replace Giroud next week with Negredo or even Dzeko. So Rooney for me, if fit!

Mito: My debate is whether to turn back to Sturridge or replace Kun with a different City striker. The decision I have made is to go with Daniel because of his fixture. So I will wait for City to clear the CFC game and then add Dzeko/Negredo for JRod (my third striker) as a compliment to my S&S combo.

B-Bash: Best laid plans and all that! Wildcard played and after 44 minutes of football, the reason I played the wildcard limped off, not likely to be seen again for several weeks. My plan for this week was to upgrade Johnson to Ramsey! Got that one wrong! Replacing Aguero has to happen and the names that sprang immediately to my mind were Negredo, Sturridge, Rooney and RvP. There are other options I know, but I struggle to see past these 4.
Negredo is the common sense straight swap. That’s what I did in GW17.
Rooney is an option but I fear this is a rash move as RvP will outdo him on points now.  RvP is an exciting thought, but it would take a hit to get him, and that’s risky with the downgrade required elsewhere.
Then there’s Sturridge. 29 points in 3 games since returning. Would have been more had he not been trying to beat Puncheon to the “worst penalty of the season award”. I don’t like doubling up in one area, but his form and next few fixtures (ignoring GW25) are very appealing. Liverpool have no European commitments and they don’t have a blank GW28. If Sturridge is fit…he plays. His form can’t be ignored and SAS may well be worth a punt for the next few weeks! But the common sense straight swap (Negredo) may yet still prevail!

So there you have it – some interesting, although I guess not entirely surprising names in the frame from our panel of experts. We hope the article is of some help and as we approach the last hours leading up to GW24, be sure to get on the boards and share your thoughts on the Aguero conundrum. Do you agree with the views above? Who have you replaced the City striker with? Need a last minute RMT? Just ask away.

Good luck for GW24

This article was written by Cookie.

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