Team Talk Game-week 31 – FPL Fantasy Football Premier League

Well, here we are – Fantasy Christmas Day has arrived, the waiting is over, the preparations are almost complete and we all look forward to the highest scoring FPL game-week ever! Well, let’s hope we’re not disappointed and we all get to celebrate a monster week, although to be fair I thought that last week and it all went pear-shaped. This is the week to cash in those hard-earned brownie points as its Fixturelicious with fifteen matches, ten DGW teams and frankly, no time for DIY, dog walking, baby-sitting or dinner parties, so warn your nearest and dearest right now.
Our game-week kicks off Saturday lunchtime with a rip-snorter of a London derby as Chelsea welcome Arsenal to the Bridge. Then onto 3pm as Liverpool go to Cardiff, nice one for the police that, Swansea go the other way up to Everton, Hull host West Brom, Fulham take the dreaded walk up to Man City, Palace again jet up to the North East, this time to play Newcastle, while Norwich entertain Sunderland. The evening kick off sees Man United fans take the short trip to West Ham.
Sunday sees Spurs take on Southampton and Stoke travel to Villa – forget my earlier comment – Sunday is your jobs day, playing with the kids etc.
And then….Tuesday – three more matches. Arsenal host Swansea, Newcastle welcome Everton and the Manc derby takes place at Old Trafford. Our marathon of a game-week climaxes on Wednesday as West Ham host Hull and Liverpool entertain Sunderland at Anfield.
So, sit back, let’s go around the grounds and see what our esteemed managers…and Moyes, have to say in front of DGW31.

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Chelsea vs Arsenal (Sat 22 March 12.45)
What a game to start us off, first vs third and a win for the visiting Gooners would take them to within a point of their hosts, with a game in hand. Although, how likely is that really as Chelsea have never lost at the Bridge in the Premier League under Jose Mourinho. An amazing record and Chelsea will be confident having seen off Galatasaray in the week, which helped dispel talk of a meltdown after last weekend’s loss at Villa. But Arsenal should also be confident having won at Spurs on Sunday, despite not being at their best – and it will take an equally impressive and resolute performance if they are to win their second London derby on the road in a week. The Blues are unbeaten vs Arsenal in their last five meetings and a tight affair is expected – ideal for Olivier Giroud. Saturday’s match will mark Arsene Wenger’s 1,000th in charge of Arsenal and it’s been a hell of a time for le Professeur since 1996 – 3 League titles, 4 FA Cups, 4 Charity Shields, the Invincibles, rivalry with Fergie, Pizzagate, numerous “I didn’t see eet”, constant frowns and of course, probably his finest achievement – doubling up as Blanche in Corrie. What Wenger hasn’t done, of course, is ever beaten The Special One – will this be his time?

The Gooners still have major problems in midfield with Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshire and Theo Walcott all still out. Tomas Rosicky has been added to that list and is a doubt for the game with an ankle injury but Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has recovered from a slight calf injury and will be available.
The Special One has said that Cashley is still injured and will miss out against his former club. David Luiz is fit again, while Marco van Ginkel begins his comeback for the U21s tonight. Ramires and Will.i.an are both suspended after being red-carded at Villa.

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Cardiff vs Liverpool (Sat 22 March 15.00)
So, most managers’ captain’s pick will start his GW here, down in the Welsh capital. Whether you have chosen Luis Suarez or Daniel Sturridge, prepare to be rewarded, one would imagine. Despite an impressive defensive display at Everton last weekend, Cardiff still conceded two, so I hate to think how many they’ll concede this weekend. One clean sheet in fourteen suggests keeper David Marshall is in for another busy afternoon – so far against the top four teams, the Welshies have conceded 18 goals in six matches and that average is only likely to rise after Saturday. Suarez scored a brace in the reverse fixture in December. But wait, just hold that bus – deeper analysis suggests different as Cardiff have won their last five home league games against Liverpool – it’s irrelevant that the last of these matches was in 1959. Yeah ok – point taken.

Liverpool have no new injuries for the trip and fresh off their win at Old Trafford may well name an unchanged team. Defender Mamadou Sakho is fit again and challenging for a place, while Rodgers has said that Raheem Sterling and Philippe Coutinho will be sharing game time. The manager spent most of his presser praising midfielder Joe Allen, which is all well and good from a scouse point of view, but unfortunately, Allen remains about as interesting FPL investment as Lucas or Fernando Torres.
Cardiff defender Ben Turner has returned to training today, but it remains to be seen if he’ll be ready for the weekend. Andrew Taylor also faces a late fitness test. Captain Mark Hudson has, of course, been ruled out for the season, while manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has again been praising Wilfried Zaha this week, despite only using him sparingly thus far. Expect Cardiff to stick with the 5-man defence that was unlucky to lose at Everton.

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Everton vs Swansea (Sat 22 March 15.00)
The Toffees, with a win here will leapfrog Spurs into fifth and become firm favourites to have their Thursday night’s interrupted by Europa Cup action next season – and it’s tough to see anything but a home win to be honest. Swansea are winless in four, have not won on the road since visiting Fulham in November and last week’s loss at home to West Brom should mean automatic relegation for anyone anyway. Oh hold on, what am I saying? United lost at home to West Brom – if I ever meet that Moyes character….. Anyway, back to Goodison and Everton made tough work of beating Cardiff last week, though they did play well and created chances for Romelu Lukaku – maybe this week he’ll enjoy more luck and they won’t have to rely on a last minute miss hit from their full back to secure the victory. Swansea have never beaten Everton, home or away in any competitive game, ever, anywhere – that’s not likely to change this weekend.

Everton defender Phil Jagielka is rated at just 50/50 for the weekend, while midfielder Steven Pienaar is likely to miss another couple of weeks with a knee injury, according to Martinez. Midfield maestro Gareth Barry has been passed fit. The Toffees remain without Darron Gibson, Arouna Kone and Lacina Traore, though the manager is hopeful all three may feature before the end of the season.
Garry Monk has a fuller squad to choose from this week as Jonjo Shelvey and Nathan Dyer are back in contention after recovering from injury, while Michu has had another week of building up his training and fitness levels. This means only Kyle Bartley will be absent for the game.

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Hull City vs West Brom (Sat 22 March 15.00)
A massive game at the bottom of the table and the first match of Hull’s DGW sees them take on the Baggies, who amazingly won last week, giving Pepe Mel his first win in charge. Hull of course couldn’t penetrate 10-man City, which will be a concern bearing in mind Martin Demichelis was playing. In fact, Hull’s record at home has been awful since they smashed six past Fulham – they’ve played five, managed one solitary point and conceded ten goals, not great form. But this is Albion, who before last week, hadn’t won away since their win at Old Trafford (Moysieeeeeee) in September and if Hull don’t win this, they’ll be in a whole world of trouble. The Baggies have never beaten Hull in the Premier League – then again they’ve only played three times so that stat is pretty worthless.

Hull will be without winger George Boyd, who starts a 3-match suspension for spitting at Joe Hart last weekend. Aside from that, Steve Bruce has no fresh injury concerns, meaning it’s just Paul McShane, Robbie Brady and Joe Dudgeon missing. Striker Shane Long is looking to put one over his old club.
The Baggies travel to Hull without the injured quintet of Chris Brunt, Claudio Yacob, Diego Lugano, Billy Jones and Morgan Amalfitano, while Jonas Olsson misses out through suspension.

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Man City vs Fulham (Sat 22 March 15.00)
As you know I’m a fair man. Of late I have given Fulham a bit of stick for being crap, so it’s only fair that we praise them for last week’s victory over Newcastle – it doesn’t matter that their goal came from a strike that went through the keeper’s fingers and that they were hanging on at the end against a side that never scores when their main (only) striker doesn’t play. Honestly, it doesn’t matter – a win is a win and it put a large smile on Penfold’s face – as they say, better be lucky than good. Well this week sees the Cottagers trundle up to the Etihad with most people expecting a thumping – not a huge shock as Fulham haven’t beaten City in ten games and have conceded at least two goals in all but one of those matches.

Penfold has confirmed that Kostas Mitroglou, Ashkan Dejagah and Dan Burn are all injured and will miss the trip to City – the longer this Mitroglou situation goes on, the more it feels like a conspiracy from Man Utd to get him away from Olympiakos before their CL tie. Scott Parker is also out but may return for the game vs Everton in GW32. Magath has said “if we can stop City scoring, then I think we can create chances to score ourselves”. You really do have to admire his confidence/optimism/sense of humour.
Manuel Pellegrini has said that Sergio Aguero should be back training by the end of next week, therefore ruling him out of the entire DGW. Better news of Stevan Jovetic, who has recovered from a hamstring injury and will be in the squad for the match. However, the news of Matija Nastasic, who is still suffering from a knee injury, is not great as the manager admits the player is no nearer a comeback. Captain Vincent Kompany is suspended.

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Newcastle vs Crystal Palace (Sat 22 March 15.00)
For the insomniacs amongst us, this could be your miracle cure. Tape the game and stick it on repeat and you’ll be off in no time, guaranteed. Palace have scored one goal in four games and just five in their last eleven away from home, while Newcastle haven’t scored once in the six games Loic Remy has missed. With Remy still out, it’s difficult to see where the excitement comes from; we can’t even laugh at Alan Pardew’s natural aggression towards the opposition. Mr Angry is still, of course, serving his stadium ban so will be watching from the comfort of his padded cell just down the road – to be fair, in a good old fashioned fist fight I’d take Tony Pulis over the headcase anyday, so it’s a bit of a shame he won’t be there as he needs a good kicking. Bit like Moyes.

Palace striker Marouane Chamakh is out of the game with a hamstring injury and fellow forward Dwight Gayle is doubtful after picking up an injury on Tuesday. This leaves the Eagles with Glenn Murray and Cameron Jerome as their only fit strikers. Barry Bannan and Danny Gabbidon could both return to the squad after recovering from illness.
As touched on above, Toon leading scorer Remy is missing with a calf injury and defender Mathieu Debuchy remains sidelined with a groin injury. Davide Santon is out with illness but Hatem Ben Arfa returns to the squad following compassionate leave. What is it with Newcastle and compassionate leave? Firstly, its Coloccini (3 times), now Benny Boy – now I’m not unsympathetic or anything, but everyone has bad things to deal with but you don’t hear of Eden Hazard, Stevie G or Wazza missing a game for this reason. I thought these Geordies were meant to be made of sterner stuff. Pffff.

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Norwich vs Sunderland (Sat 22 March 15.00)
Sunderland start their DGW down in Norfolk and in the context of the relegation battle, this game is huge – a win for them would take them to within a point of the Canaries, but a win for Norwich would be a massive boost to Chris Hughton and his men and would take them onto the 32pt mark. In fact, Hughton will be desperate to win this and reach that 40pt mark as soon as possible as their last four fixtures see them pitted against Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal. It’s been a rough three weeks for Sunderland – lost the Capital One Cup final, knocked out of the FA Cup by Hull, losses to Hull and Arsenal in the league and a goalless draw with Palace last week and their record at Norwich isn’t good as they have lost six and drawn three of their last nine league matches there.

Some positive news for Hughton is that Michael Turner played 45mins for the U21s in the week and Elliott Bennett returned to first team training this week after his long term injury. Jonas Gutierrez is also making good progress, but all three are unlikely to be match-fit in time for GW31. Leroy Fer is still a few weeks away from being available.
Sunderland have been hit by the news that striker Steven Fletcher misses out with an ankle injury, but Poyet refuses to rule him out for the season. Fletcher will need scans to determine the seriousness of the injury, but will have to wait until the swelling goes down. The only other absentee for the Black Cats is keeper Keiren Westwood.

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West Ham vs Man Utd (Sat 22 March 17.30)
So, it’s a trip down to London for United to face a West Ham side that have lost their last two games, albeit away from Upton Park – at home they have won their last three, conceding just one goal. But they don’t like playing United as they haven’t beaten the Reds in the league since 2007 and have drawn just one and lost nine of the last ten league meetings between the two. They have to fancy their chances this season though. To be fair to United, they have been better on the road than at home and have won seven out of nine away from Old Trafford against bottom-half teams, but last week’s shocker at home to Liverpool should give any opposition attack confidence. Don’t be misled by United’s victory over Olympiakos, who for long periods outplayed and outpassed United and if they possessed a finisher, would of put the tie out of United’s reach. Unfortunately, it will only serve to give Moyes a stay of execution and he’s spent the week trying to convince all and sundry that all will be ok, with comments such as “It was a tough day (vs Liverpool) for us” (translates to “we were crap and I had no idea how to change it”, “My future has not changed a bit” (correct, “ I’ll still be looking for a new job very soon”), “I know the direction I want to go in” (“preferably back to Everton, but they’ve done better since I left”) and “United will rise again” (“as soon as I have been sacked”). It is understood that even Fergie has grown tired of the clueless eejit and has taken it upon himself to find Moyes’ successor (noooo Fergie, look what happened last time you got involved, stick with the horse racing) – he has apparently interviewed at least 32k candidates with a better reputation and cv than Moyes, with Louis van Gaal, Jurgen Klopp and Fred the Red leading the betting at time of writing. Back to the game and the Hammers will be looking to bully United and David De Gea in the same way as last season, with Andy Carroll the main protagonist again – if he gets away with it as he did then, expect plenty of scraps for that little artful dodger Kevin Nolan to feed off.

West Ham’s only injury concerns are defender Joey O’Brien and striker Marco Borriello, who both remain unavailable. Big Sam is hopeful that Carroll’s goal at Stoke last weekend will be the springboard to end this disappointing season in style, but in his presser he failed to mention if James Collins is in line for a recall after last week’s awful defensive display at Stoke.
Superman has confirmed that RvP has been ruled out of the match at Upton Park with the knee injury he sustained vs Olympiakos – having originally said he thought the injury wasn’t too serious, Moysie now says RvP needs another scan as the first was inconclusive – this in Moyes-speak means, “Robin’s injury is more serious than we thought and he’ll probably spend another six weeks babysitting Young Tom on the sidelines”. Well, this is, at least good news for Juan Mata or Shinji Kagawa, who may get be hopeful of getting a rare chance to play the no.10 role – well, they may be hopeful, but knowing Moyes he’ll likely deploy his love child Marouane Fellaini in the role instead. Chris Smalling and Jonny Evans are hugely unlikely to be fit, so it looks like Rio Ferdinand will have to play his second game in four days, which should push up his insurance premiums nicely. Antonio Valencia is unlikely to play after suffering a nasty eye injury vs the Greeks – maybe Kagawa could play on the wing then? Nah, Adnan Januzaj probably.
On a side note, commenting on the club’s CL draw vs Bayern Munich, Moysie said, and just wait for this, “I have probably drawn the favourites.” I repeat, “I have probably drawn the favourites”. So, Dave, not only do you conduct the draw yourself, but you can’t even fix it (we need FIFA back) properly – is there nothing this clueless loser cannot f*** up?

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Tottenham vs Southampton (Sun 23 March 13.30)
It’s a gone a bit wrong for Tim Sherwood after such a positive start. He’s now turned to throwing his gilet, arguing with opposition managers, slating his players in public, chucking the ball at Bacary Sagna and having a pop at his Chairman. Now I quite like Sherwood, I thought he came across quite well, a bit of honesty in his interviews, but I have little sympathy with him – appointed manager of Spurs? Not exactly great on your cv though is it and puts one in the company of such illustrious names as AvB, Juande Ramos, Christian Gross and Jacques Santini – and for what? You’re given an average, at best, squad, expected to win the World Cup and when you don’t you get booted. Sorry Tim, but you knew what you were you getting into. Well his superstars come into the game on a horrendous run, having won just one of their last nine games and been knocked out of the Europa Cup on Thursday night. The good news for Sherwood is that Spurs have won their last three vs Southampton – the bad news is that they have won just one of their last six following Europa Cup matches. Southampton come into this game on the back of two victories but have not looked at their best in recent weeks and even gifted a couple of goals to Norwich last weekend – interestingly, the Saints have won only one out of ten matches against teams above them in the table – a crumb of comfort for grumpy Sherwood.

Younes Kaboul missed the trip to Benfica with a knee problem but Sherwood thinks he’ll be fit for Sunday, while Emmanuel Adebayor and Moussa Dembele, who also both missed the day trip to Portugal, are expected to be wheeled out for the game. Kyle Walker, Paulinho and Hugo Lloris are all doubtful for the game, but Michael Dawson, Vlad Chiriches, Erik Lamela and Etienne Capoue are all ruled out.
Saints midfielders Victor Wanyama and Jack Cork are again missing due to injury, while Mauricio Pochettino has revealed that Morgan Schneiderlin and Guly do Prado are also doubts for the game. Gaston Ramirez will need a fitness test before the game.

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Aston Villa vs Stoke City (Sun 23 March 16.00)
With both sides on the brink of securing their Premier League status for another season, a win for either here would remove a whole load of pressure. Villa were conquerors of Chelsea last week, while Stoke defeated West Ham so both team come into the game with a sense of confidence. The last three league matches between the two at Villa Park have been drawn, but Stoke did take the spoils in December, with ex-Villain Peter Crouch scoring the winner. The Potters, however, don’t travel well and have failed to win their last thirteen away matches.

For Villa, defender Ryan Bertrand is available again after being ineligible to play vs Chelsea, but Lambert has been talking up Joe Bennett’s performance last weekend and he may keep the shirt. Gaby Agbonlahor and Karim El Ahmadi both picked up a slight knocks last week, but have been passed fit for the weekend. Jores Okore, Chris Herd, Charles N’Zogbia and Libor Kozak remain longer term casualties.
Stoke will again have to do without Charlie Adam and Jon Walters through suspension, while Stephen Ireland is ineligible due to a contractual arrangement negotiated in his permanent transfer from Villa in January. They are also waiting on Oussama Assaidi, who has trained all week, but may struggle to play the full 90mins.

So that’s it for the weekend, but of course we have the following five fixtures in midweek to finish up DGW31.

Arsenal vs Swansea (Tues 25 March 19.45)

Man Utd vs Man City (Tues 25 March 19.45)

Newcastle vs Everton (Tues 25 March 19.45)

West Ham vs Hull City (Wed 26 March 19.45)

Liverpool vs Sunderland (Wed 26 March 20.00)

I wish you the best of luck.

Thanks for reading Team Talk Game-week 31, this article was written by Cookie