Sunday 27 December 2009

Week 17 - Saturday


A tough day in the Premier League, with only 12 goals in 8 games...5 draws, only 3 wins & 7 teams keeping clean sheets.

In such a crazy season it's a bit of a disappointment that Boxing Day was lacking in action, but there are still 2 big games to go today which could help turn things around!

The day started with a nil nil draw between stuttering Chelsea & in form Birmingham, with Joe Hart & Roger Johnson performing superbly. Drogba was disappointing again but he'll get a chance to bounce back tomorrow as Chelsesa received last minute permission from the Ivory Coast for him to delay his departure to the ACN. Malouda was sent off & Daniel Sturridge failed to finish 2 excellent chances on his first league start.

Bolton & Burnley played out an entertaining 1-1 draw, with Matty Taylor's freekick the highlight of the day for me, before Nugent equalised to ruin Steinsson's clean sheet.

Spurs got a bit of a lucky draw at Fulham with Gomes the star of the show - he's increasingly looking like the Wolrd Class 'keeper that we thought we'd bought last summer before his nightmare start. Fulham are a really decent side & a draw was a good result.

Liverpool were poor again before a red card changed the game & allowed them to wrap up a much needed 2-0 victory over Wolves. Gerrard had a much better game, returning 18.5 points but Torres still looks uncomfortable. Before the red card Wolves were well in the game, but perhaps the incident becomes the moment Liverpool got their season back on track.

Man City ran out comfortable winners over Stoke, with Shay Given finally giving me some points! Santa Cruz was absence after picking up an unreported knock in training, but Tevez performed well & Zabeleta also provided great value. Petrov was exceptional & I'm extremely annoyed I missed him on the barndoor. Stoke never got going, but Etherington & Tuncay picked up some points & they now have 2 home games in a row to improve this further.

Sunderland, Everton, Wigan & Blackburn played out predictable 1-1 draws, with another goal a piece for Bent & Rodallega, while the Hammers grabbed a vital win over Portsmouth with Diamanti the star again. O'Hara owners will be gutted that he picked up the dreaded yellow card, ruling him out of the 2nd game.

So there weren't too many goals about yesterday & I'm not very pleased with 46 points despite the fact it pulled me up 200 places in the overall standings. It's not all doom & gloom; I have Arshavin, Vermaelen & Eduardo today followed by another possible 19 fixtures for my players before the end of Week 17, so a good week is still possible.

I had no access to a computer yesterday so I couldn't do any barndoor work at all, but I'm sure a lot of people are in the same situation over the festive period & with another round of fixtures to go prices will still go up & down, so it's not the end of the world.

Let me know how you're getting on so far...who have you got in for Week 18?

Cheers,
AM

25 comments:

Mike B said...

Fairly happy with a 65.5 point haul yesterday.

I'll post my team now as i didn't have a chance to yesterday, what with boxing day fun and all..

Given
Verm, Alexander, Faye
Arsh, Fabs, Mtay, Etherington
RSC, Diamanti, Tuncay

So it was Given, Mtay and Diamanti that did the stuff for me yesterday, with Arsh, Verm and maybe Fabs today.

I think RSC was a mistake in hindsight, i've gotten rid already and brought in Zabaleta, Petrov and Gerard on the barn door.

Now i'm off to see Avatar 3D, but will be following the Arsenal game on my phone in anticipation.


Have a good day everyone!

Anonymous said...

My team has evolved from:

Almunia
Verm/Alexander/Givet
Bily/Arshavin/MTay/Duff
RSC/Klasnic/Zamora

to a week 18 line up of

Almunia
Verm/Alexander/Givet
Bily/Kovac/Gerrard/Chung-Yong
Anelka/Tevez/Rodallega

May change more as week 17 progresses. I didn't realise RSC picked up a knock, thought Mancini just didn't favour him, so I dropped him though I had him at 4. Think I will live to regret that? Wish I had got MPet on the BD but went for Gerrard instead. I may yet change Gerrard and Chung for MPet and Lennon though. A lot can change before week 17 ends.

CJ SHIELDS

Anonymous said...

Will Robinho start many games now?

Bojan said...

*
S. Given
o Man City
o Sell at 5.63(market price 7.44)
*
J. Terry
o Chelsea
o Sell at 9.23(market price 10.38)
*
C. Baird
o Fulham
o Sell at 7.85(market price 8.83)
*
M. Upson
o West Ham
o Sell at 6.07(market price 7.91)
*
P. Zabaleta
o Man City
o Sell at 6.35(market price 7.26)

Midfielders
*
D. Duff
o Fulham
o Sell at 12.49(market price 13.30)
*
M. Petrov
o Man City
o Sell at 9.29(market price 11.76)
*
R. Kovac
o West Ham
o Sell at 3.92(market price 5.78)

*
A. Diamanti
o West Ham
o Sell at 13.01(market price 13.79)
*
D. Bent
o Sunderland
o Sell at 10.93(market price 12.02)
*
C. Tevez
o Man City
o Sell at 13.38(market price 14.56)

Bojan said...

46,50 with eds,arsh and kuschzak to go... 38 places up, 260th now

Naning said...

48 pts...

Picked up Petrov, Given and HROD in the BD. I'm mostly pissed with myself for picking Saha instead of HROD. Cost me 21.5 points so far. But shit happens.

Anonymous said...

50.5 points from 9 players(8 actually since RSC didnt play) with Verm and Arsh to go for the first round. Not that good but considering my team scored 0 goals, I think it's quite a decent score.

Picked up Petrov, Tevez, Upson and Eduardo preupdate

Anonymous said...

Two goals from Fabregas against Villa, what a super sub!

Rgds.
Ajani

Dave said...

Annoying that Fab comes on as a sub, scores twice. Too bad he re-injured himself and had to be subbed off. Typical Wenger and Arsenal - rushing players back from injury too soon. Ugh, and Diaby the donkey scores right at the end. With Villa deflated, he walked through them to rifle home. Not the Gunners players most of us wanted to score :/

At least Arsh & Eduardo had a couple SOTs each and hopefully won some of the 10 corners. Verm should provide a tiody 10-11 points (got an early SOT).

PS - I HATE that ManCity did not report any hint of RSC's injury before the match. Petrov on the BD looks good for 9.xx. He's their best wide left player and Mancini typically favours a 4-4-2, urging them to play the ball out wide. I think Roque will get a run once fit, as playing with 2 midget strikers won't help in crossing into the box LOL.

Bring on the midweek games! LOL

bp9000 said...

Fabregas 2 goals and 25+ fantasy points in 21 minutes of play - amazing! However, looks like he may have re-injured his hammy on that 2nd goal run. Since he's not in my team, I sorta wish he will miss the next 2 games and leave some of the spoils to Arshavin and EdS!

bp9000 said...

@Dave, agree on RSC- at 4+ I have not ditched him yet, as he has 2 weeks to recover from his unreported injury before the next gameweek.

Anonymous said...

I knew it!
I knew fabregas will go on the pitch and make something.
My intituition seems true.
That`s why i never drop him.

EthicalKing said...

finished with 92 points
thanks to diaby gerrard vermaelen

bean said...

really great guide to ACN from fantasyfootballscoutuk: http://www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk/the-african-cup-of-nations/

Afif said...

76.5 points only..hoping my midfield will score some good points next match

Anonymous said...

Berbatov got screwed. He had at least two corners won and another shot-on. This is why skilled fantasy players rubbish the Yahoo game.

richy 'liverpool' said...

92.5 pts, not too shabby, couldnt make mind up on gerrard vs rooney, went rooney and i think it was the right choice.. sadly miss o'hara due to yellow, and santa cruz was frustrating. lots of points from almunia, vermaelen and terry tho :) lets see what happens next!!

Afrikan said...

Anotha awful week. Was able to BD some WH, Citeh, Chelski and Arse-anal players moved from 3-5-2 to 4-3-3:

Given
Verm, RJohnson, Steinsson > Bagna, ACole
Arsh, Reid,(Dempsey, Etherington, Billy) > Belleti
Tuncay, RSC > Bellamy, Franco

Anonymous said...

Cesc wasn't 'suppose' to play. and once he gets on , i knew straight away the arsenal jinx will strike again. And now he is out. luckily i had diaby/arshavin/verm/gallas/eds/denilson only... yawn =)

p.s. now denilson going to get a run, that suits me even better(what is annoying is cesc having great points =( always look on the bright side of life )

rooney was really lucky boy( did alot useless running) too bad hull failed to win and ended losing (which they should with those chances). guess rooney hit his monthly mark, next up, 'goal drought' again!

Hinrik said...

I have:

Almunia
Verm Gallas Sagna
Arshavin Diaby Lee Nasri
SantaCruz Eduardo Klasnic

You have to take the chance. 89.5 pts so far. A bit disappointed about SantaCruz. Finally he performs and he is taken out of the team because of some strange injury. hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Maxer said...

after the first heat... i got a decent 87 points..

good decision:
1.arsh, fab, verm, diaby, mtay.. bassong also with average 6pts..
2.didn't switch diaby for lee chung..
3.dropped drog.. *read sportnews said his international team allowed him to leave for ANC on tuesday, meaning he'll be available tonight against fulham..

not-so-good decision:
1.going 3-5-2 with klasnic (2pts) and rsc (0pts) up front..
2.dropped roon and eds.. but its necessary so i can get mtay and diaby in..

worries..
1.fab fitness for the next 2 games..
2.bassong after that kick in the head.. but sportnews confirm he is ok..

cheersss everybody this fine monday morning.. :p

Maxer

Bradley said...

After the 1st round, 99.5 points. Not bad for getting only 1 goal. Keeping faith with Rooney paid off, but as always I chose the wrong Gunner. The only real regret I have though is picking up RSC. Although he freed up some funds, I had enough left over that I could've swapped him out for the man, the myth, the legend: Tuncay.

Currently I have my highest rank of the season (2846). However, so far I've always done worse in the 2nd round of a DG week, so we'll see how this one goes.

I BDed MPetrov, so I'll drop either him or RSC depending on who's more likely to play next round. Given the match-ups for week 18, most of my current players are still good.

Good luck with round 2 everybody!

Caleb said...

I am very disappointed with the very late released of the news that Drogba is playing tonight. If I knew that Drogba is playing tonight on Sat, I would have gone for Drogba+Tuncay+Almunia, however, I am having Klasnic+J Cole+Given now. Poor me and I hope Drogba won't score so many points tonight, however, home v Fulham, it seems unlikely.....

Anonymous said...

Caleb, in the long run you did the right thing even if Drogba does go off against Fulham. Klasnic and Given should offer plenty of point opportunities and I'd take JoCo over Tungay anyday even though both are wildcards.

Caleb said...

@ Anonymous @ 03:35 GMT

I really hope Klasnic and Cole will do well in the match(es)(1 for Cole and 2 for Klasnic) in this week. I know that at the long run they are better, however, I lost the points for the 3rd match in Alumnia.

For the long run, I can always get Cole in the BD.

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