Week 25 - Saturday
I had 6 players on display across the 2 matches; Fox, Fabregas, Lee, Bendtner, Nani & Berbatov...and it was the latter 2 who did the wrong sort of damage for my team.
The first game to look at is West Ham v Bolton, where I got the prediction of a comfortable Hammers victory badly wrong (as did the bookies - they were odds on for the win). Bolton quickly went 2-0 thanks to Davies and Wilshere, while my possible pick Diamanti popped up with a late consolation - all 3 scored 14(ish) points.
There were good points for me with Lee (12) thanks to an assist & I'm big enough to admit I was wrong regarding Jussi, who picked up 11 points (would've been 20 but for the late West Ham goal).
Next up were Arsenal & Burnley, where the expected thrashing also did not occur, mainly thanks to Nicklas "I'll be the best striker in the world in 5 years" Bendtner added to his extensive collection of dreadful career misses by fluffing 5 sitters. There was disappointment for many managers before kick-off as Fletcher failed to make the squad & Elliot started on the bench.
Arsenal took the lead the through Fabregas, but before the floodgates could open he had to be withdrawn with a hamstring injury & Burnley got back into it through David Nugent. It was then Bendtner's turn to make an arse of himself (although he actually scored a very decent 15 points) before Walcott (top points scorer with 25) & Arshavin (off the bench) wrapped up the win. Fantastic Mr Fox again added another 12.5 & he could prove to be a season keeper for me.
So after the first 2 games I'd had 4 players play & I'd amassed 50 - a great start to the week, surely onwards & upwards from here...?
Nope - the final game at Molineux proved to be a big turning points. I was delighted to hear before the game that both Berbatov & Nani started (while Rooney failed to make the bench), but my delight quickly turned to disappointment as both players flopped to bring me 5 points combined! For an outlay of £22m that is absolutely appalling & I feel very nervous about Yakubu & Gerrard's performances today as they were 2 players that very nearly made my team.
United still ran out 1-0 winners thanks to Paul Scholes, but Sam Vokes missed an unbelievable chance in injury time which would've grabbed Wolves a deserved draw.
So I end Saturday on a poor 55 points, down about 30 places overall, with Gordon, Hutton, Arteta & Torres to go, followed by Fox & Lee in the midweek game. I desperately need Torres to perform today while a Sunderland clean sheet on Tuesday would go some way to saving my week.
Next week it appears Aston Villa & Wigan have a double week, although we need to be careful as a draw for Villa in the FA Cup today would mean a replay & rearrangement of fixtures. Then we have Chelsea home to West Ham, Arsenal at Hull, Liverpool home to Pompey, Man Utd home to Fulham & Spurs home to Blackburn as stand-out single fixtures.
My barndoor team is currently: Kirkland, Bale, Hutton, Fox, Walcott, A Young, Milner, McCarthy, Bendtner, Agbonlahor, Torres...5 double gamers, although I'm not comfortable taking Kirkland & Bendtner could go if he's set to lose his place to Eduardo after his performance yesterday. I still have close to £3m in the bank, so lots of rearranging is still to be done, but I'm obviously concerned by the lack of Rooney or Drogba given their fixtures.
Let me know how your week is going so far...and who has come in through the barndoor?
Cheers
AM
41 comments:
Currently on 81 with Gordon, Hutton, Arteta, Torres, Yakubu, Lee and Fox still to play. Walcott was the man for me.
Currently have Downing, Milner, Kirkland and Young on the barn door.
Gutted that Bendtner fluffed his lines. Not surprised he got subbed in the end.
Second! :-D
Horrible week, 54 pts with 3 to go, and 3 DGers (Lee, Fox and Muamba). I know.. Muamba..
third :D
Villa always let me down, and in truth two away games that won't really suit their style.
It would be scripted for whichever Villa middy, or two I pick the other one grabs the headlines and then the fragile GabbyAggy gets roughed up against Stoke. Someone on here put up a Gabby stat not so long ago the worried me in terms of his goalscoring, but anyway I forget it.
I think I am going to go for broke on Liverpool rather than Villa, Stevie G, Torres and Kuyt, surely they are more lilely to roll Pompey above any other fixture?
What I really need is a Villa cup draw today then it blows out the DG discussion.
The other scraps will be Hilarious in goal, just for shits and giggles
A sprinkling of Bale, Vermaelan and Fox
Mix in with a BD Wilshire (Probably will go) and a Theo but (I need to watch that one) and I may drop Fab4 but he's in at the moment as is Stevie G.
Up top Torres, Kuyt and Bender.
Hilarious (@ 3 - may go Kirk)
Fox
Bale
Vermaelan
Gerrard
Fabregas
Wilkshire
Walcott
Torres
Kuyt
Bender (maybe also time to cut loose)
So next week in summary it's Liverpool for me and will try and keep Villa voices in my head elsewhere but have a leaning towards Spurs, like the match up and I may just return to Burnley v Wolves, they can't burn me twice, right?
Only 40 points for me, with Nani being a huge let down. After taking a gamble and seeing him start i thought he would set me apart from the crowd, but his pathetic performance has annoyed me.
I also took a massive risk on Matty Taylor, i knew it was stupid at the time, but convinced myself Coyle would use his experience in these mega important away games.
Fox was my saviour yet again, he's gonna be in my team for the season now if he keeps his place in the starting line-up. Bale and Fox together are now contributing 20 - 30 points every week for an outlay of just under 9 million. That is outstanding!
As for Bendtner, well he can't finish, he's proven that on many occasions, but i think he's still very important for Arsenal, he has the height and strength they lacked when RVP got injured. He's a target man, which Eduardo isn't. Eduardo still looks scared of a challenge (more than understable), but this doesn't suit the upcoming games against physical opponents. I think Bendtner will continue to start, and will return his value at 5.XX every game.
I have Howard, Hutton, Fox, Arteta, Taylor, Torres and Yakubu still to play.
If everton go big and keep a clean sheet i'll be a happy man, if Taylor gets a start midweek, i'll be a happier man, but i'm not too confident.
On to next week, i wasn't able to barn door at the deadline so missed the Villa players and Hilario before their prices jumped up. Very disappointing as i now can't afford to build a team i like. This is what i have right now...
Hilario
Hutton, Fox, Bale
Walcott, Milner, Gerrard, Wilshire
Bendtner, Torres, Agbonlahor
I still hold Fabs at 18.80M as i've made the mistake of dropping apparently "injured" players, only for them to play and score big, toooooooo many times now, but if Gerrard goes big today, i'll find it hard to ignore him, and will probably save it.
Also if Gerrard goes big, i'll be doubly pissed! As i had the decision of Nani/Taylor to Walcott/Gerrard to make on Friday night, and decided not to make Friday changes haha.
You win some, you lose some. Today i will win some!
I have a feeling my Fox/Walcott/Gerrard combo would have worked a whole lot better than my Hutton/Maxi/Fabregas combo :/
But ofcourse, I was well prepared for a crap week this week.
folks remember that after every arsenal game lately, there has been one or two guys who are under performing. wenger has to go to the press and defend these guys, etc. a few weeks ago, it was arshavin, then clichy, then almunia, then eduardo, then cesc, then denilson, then campbell. don't forget it was walcott last week, not just for arsenal, but for the national team, as well. he had a gastly week and had been written off, so much so that i went with lee instead of walcott at 6.31. lee's double game makes that an easy pick.
i missed all barndoor picks yesterday, although i got to watch most of the whole arsenal game and most of the united game. both teams didn't dominate for there wins. arsenal didn't miss cesc, because nasri stepped right in and took his spot and controlled the match well. if bendtner or walcott put, one each, of there ridiculous chances in the first 50 minutes, arsenal would have dominated. manure didn't miss rooney that much, because it was the midfield who had troubles for once. this is the first time in a few weeks that the manure midfield was played even by another team. wolves are a solid team. they just need one more creative midfielder and a winger and they can play some good football.
i had a surreal moment yesterday. i already had a goal from cesc, a goal from davies, an assist from lee, so i was a little giddy, when i saw the header pass, for burnley, go right to the forward for burnley. i saw the goal and then saw the player get mobbed by his teammates. the first jersey i saw was paterson, i thought he had put it in against my arsenal team. i have him on my fantasy team. alas it was nugent though
"Next week it appears Aston Villa & Wigan have a double week, although we need to be careful as a draw for Villa in the FA Cup today would mean a replay & rearrangement of fixtures."
Now that Spurs and Fulham draw, any idea will their matches be postponed too? Does that mean another blank for Bale?
Sorry, got that wrong.
Spurs/Ful replay 24/3, I think. So it slots in between EPL fixtures.
Jeremy
Fantasy EPL Blog
@Anon 12:42 PM: Fulham are still involved in the Europa Cup, facing Juventus on Thur, Mar 18. So the FA Cup replay could not be played in the same week.
Instead, it is scheduled the following midweek on Wed, Mar 24. Spurs and Fulham have EPL games during the weekend.
24.5 points for me, but only Ricketts, Fabs and Eagles playing.
With Rooney not playing I'll be taking four blanks...Torres, Tuncay, Maxi and Baird to increase my meagre total.
Hope Jeremy wasn't being abusive - re his deleted post, lol.
59.5 with James, Hutton, Arteta, Torres, Carlisle and JVoH still to play.
Carlisle on pace to return his value in Burnley's 2nd game. ;-)
Also, picked up Lee and Hilarious Maximus on the BD. Now I need a very cheap filler (Grella, Belletti, P.B. Diop, Kanu???). Hoping someone decent (not on my side) has a disaster of a game and drops < 2.5.
72.5 for me - see this is where Fantasy Football sucks - Bendtner nearly cost his team the game by being terrible and yet he's the 4th highest scorer at the moment. And he has the same-ish number of points as goal scorers Wilshire and Davies. And Fox got twice as many points that Zat Knight and Verma added together but his team lost. How'd that happen?
next week is looking like:
Hilarious,
Fox Rio Bassong Carlisle
Fletcher D, Downing, AJo
Rooney, Agbonlahor, Moses.
Moses and Carlisle are the two that will probably be changed. Although if Moses starts on Monday I'll keep him. I don't like having two Burnley defenders even if they are good at home and against wolves. And this is dependant on Villa and Wigan playing twice.
An average day, moving up 63 places to 934th. 64.5 points so far, but not really a good prospect - only Heitinga, Pienaar, Torres and Lee with his second game to go.
Almunia did well with 11 points and I believe I'll keep him through the season. Bendtner had an awful game despite getting 15 points, but I don't agree with AM already sending him to the bench. Wenger really showed trust in him after the game in an interview, and I believe he's a better choice than tiny Eduardo, as Arsenal need a lot of power against the physical Hull.
LeeCY is a point machine. Vermaelen got 4 points, but it's really forgiven in light of the entire season he had. I noticed he often gets many points from two reasons - if the opposition doesn't attack a lot he has a great chance for a CS and even a goal, and if the opposition does attack he might concede, but still wins a lot of tackles and blocks shots. Burnley didn't attack a lot and still scored, so it was a brutal one for him. CCole also had 9 points without a goal.
The big dilemma I had was between Arshavin+Nani and Valencia+Eagles, when I finally decided in favour of the first pair on Saturday morning. If Arshavin hadn't scored 10 seconds from the end it would have been 3.5 points from these two, but instead they got me 13.5. Still annoying with the price I paid for them. Valencia+Eagles got 9.5, but Eagles has another game. If he gets under 4 points I'll be happy, if he gets above I'll be sad and if he gets exactly 4 I'll be so angry at myself for overthinking about this decision for several days with it having no meaning at all!
BD team:
Almunia
Vermaelen Bale Kyrgiakos
LeeCY AJohnson Nasri Milner
Bendtner Torres Defoe
Of course I'll drop Milner if Villa don't have a double-week, and Defoe is still a risk. I'm also looking at Fox who seems great so far, and it's weird not having a ManU or Chelsea player with such easy match-ups.
Advices?
SF
80pts w/Hutton, Arteta, StevieG & Donovan to play
My BD team for nxt week w/17mil on the bank:
Jas
Bale~Hutton~Fox~Vidic
StevieG~Wilshere~Walcott~Arteta
Carew~Bendtner
I'm still twicking so i might change Hutton-->Jagielka, Wilshere-->AJohnson and Arteta-->Milner/Downing
What yu all think?
-Afrikan, Rombo, Kilimanjato, Tanzania.
carew with his hatrick in FA Cup..
hows consideration?
any villa fans tell us if carew keeps his starting spot or heskey? i have heskey.
Chung Yong/Maxi for Arteta/Wilshere = Best Friday trade ever!
hai all,
arteta with 2 goals..very impressive. for those who loking for excelent AMf with cheep price, better think about him in yor BD.
-seksekatu.
Currently have
kirkland
vermalean hutton carlisle
arteta nzogbia gerrad malouda
bentdner rodallega agbonlahor
Bentdner will stay, because he his cheap. And i know he should have done better yesterday, but every player have their days. Arteta seasone keeper, rodallega, not really sure but what the hell. Agbonlahor, hope he scores.And the rest better do well.......lol
Exactly as I posted on Friday - everyone was counting on the games going to script:) However, they rarely do, and the gamble on Nani and Berbatov, whilst logical and smart, just was a wash out.
Fortunately I ditched Nani as uncertainty crept in about Utd's midfield, so at least he didn't add to my doldrums that Berbs brought about.
12+ plus points off 4 of my 5 starters with Berbs being the bottom of the barrel with +3. You just know it would have been a different performance had Rooney played.
On to next week, and I cannot get too excited by the double gamers. Villa came from behind today against a Reading side that had a mad 15 minutes in the 2nd half, and lost the tie. Reading are just pathetic at the moment, and more fool you if you take the 'Rod'.
Yes AM there are outstanding fixtures for Chelsea, Utd and others next week, but noneb stands out more than Liverpool agin Pompey. It's SG and FT in the line up for sure.
Arteta is already in my team, and at 7m, and with 2 goals scored today, there is no reason to drop him whatsoever.
With SG and FT, there is little chance to get WR and/or DD, so I'm not going to lose sleep over it. Besides, the real point haulers have been in defense lately with Fox, Vermaelen and Bale leading the charge. Those like me who are taking a blank this week with Bale, smile and be happy you've still got the season keeper.
If RP is fit next week for Spurs, then it's a no brainer with their home game. His price is right for a man on fire, and he's playing like he knows he's secured his move away from London. Get in there and ditch that Swamp Donkey Bendtner. How the hell he missed all those opportunities is a mystery akin to why anyone would find Maggie Thatcher attractive:) Why? Still 'he gots the points'.
Bale, Fox, Arteta, Gerrard, Torres, Lee, and RP are in my team for sure baring any conflicting reports. Will watch RP now that Spurs and Flham have the FA Cup replay.
Congrats to the teams through to the semi of the FA Cup, and in particular Portsmouth. They are in administration, but are IN the semis, and are playing like a team with the weight of the world off their collective shoulders. Maybe Piquionne (spelling) will prove to be a good pick along with O'Hara.
Thanks for the blog AM, and good luck to all of you with your remaining fixtures.
Probably missed something out, but have posted a novel nonetheless:)
I've read a few comments along the lines of what you wrote GTR 34, regarding Pompey. I think they're playing better because certain players know they'll be sold soon and need to appear god enough to play in other clubs, rather than they're not worried about the financial state of the club anymore, which is arguably just as bad as it ever was. Either way picking P'mouth players is a pretty risky move so I'm going to avoid them.
This week has gone like every other. Some upsets where a 'safe' player hasn't returned points and other players have returned well. Sitting on 79.5 and a potential 8 more players to score. When all's done and dusted I'll comment on how my team has performed.
wow, I'm at exactly 100. With 3 DGs to go.
A lot of overlap w/ AM's team (as tends to happen)...
Howard (disappointing, but Hull wasn't taking the shots to be saved & pump his score up)
Verms Rio Fox (Verms @11, so 4 points is a disappointment; 6 from Rio is close to his value; Fox punches way over his weight, and the backline almost pays for itself--and Fox with a game to go)
Lee Pienaar Arteta Valencia Elliott (I think that Valencia's points go hand-in-hand w/ having Rooney to serve to, so his absence makes AV a poor bargain but I almost swapped him for Berbatov @ the last minute, which wouldve been even less; Elliott so low, but hope his 2nd game gets at least a couple to cover his minimal cost; I like the looks of Lee, I have him @9, looking for more in the next game & will keep it for next week's home game w/ Bolton; the Everton pair are wonderful and I'm likely to hold them another week or two, because I think they are really hitting stride)
Rooney Bendtner (have Wazza @16 so happy to hold him; Bendtner still returning but actual form is troubling @5.5 so will probably keep him unless it's certain Eduardo has his place--though I am considering GTR's thoughts above Re: RP)
BD so far:
Cuellar, S Petrov, & Carew in for Rio, Valencia, Elliott. Hoping Carew's hattrick earns him a start in at least one of the 2 games next week--and @6.45 that could be all it takes.
I'd had Bullard briefly, but not convinced by his showing today (though Everton was tough). Pienaar & Howard could go as I look closer at the games.
Good luck everybody!
typo above: Lee (of Bolton) has a home game against Wigan of course. He's also not an 'it'. Not sure where my brain got lost there, but if you see it kick it back ok?
How does a team score 5 goals and only get 87 points? Hutton, James, Carlisle and Torres still to play.
Kicking myself for picking JVoH over Maxi.
related to the interesting discussion some of us had in the chat room this morning about what age players' reach their prime:
"But it will be Fábregas's fitness that preoccupies Wenger in the countdown to kick-off. "You look at the numbers of Fábregas, they are amazing. Fourteen [Premier League] goals, 15 assists. He's a fantastic player, with fantastic attitude and commitment. And what people forget, he has an unbelievable work rate, too. He is everywhere and this season, he has made a big step forward, massive. He played at 16, but at 22 he has matured."
who is JVoH?? anyone??
damn.. due to bad internet connection, i save my team without realizing that rooney is a doubt for the wolves game.. and i dropped davies for torres.. sigh.. currently at 41points with hutton, lee, torres and hopefully diop to play..
Maxer..
>>>who is JVoH?? anyone??
Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink
thanks 'billthegrunt'...
Hi AM,
My comments on your barndoor team for week 26.
You should really find a way to fit in Rodallega, maybe upgrade from Bendtner to Yayga.
Also, i would suggest you upgrade from Walcott to Dunne or Cuellar in Defence or maybe N Zogbia in Midfield instead of Walcott.
Instead of Kirkland, do you want to look at Friedel (expensive) or Jussi (cheap), Bolton have kept a clean sheet at home mostly.
SL
raked in 104 with Lee, Davies, and Elmander to go again!!!!
mine sucks.
the leader in my local league is now 105pts. with fox, steinson, ohara, leecy, kdavies n fletcher yet to play...
im only at 35... sob =( jasskelenen, fox, alexandr, bikey, mtaylor, eagles, paterson, klasnic, kuyt... what do you all think??? do i stand a chance?? because i think bikey, mtaylor n klasnic will most probable be bench AGAIn! =(
TIM
in order for me to buy rooney drogba and torres for next week i have to put up with the likes of muamba mancienne and babel
@ Tim, that doesn't sound very promising! except for Kuyt...
trying to pick up the best single gamers or even trying to load up on good villa players seems an impossible task!
Question about AM chat room regulars how is this being scored is it by what u make during the week or is it by your overall score. reason i am asking is because i am see players with lower weekly scores than me but ranked higher thna me because there overall score is higher. could some one explain
Liverpool fc 4ever
Had Maxi and Torres yesterday and they earned me 3.5 points pushing my weekly total up to a staggering 28.
Strangely this was enough to go up 50 places and back into the top 2000
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