Week 5 - Saturday

What you'll tend to find in weeks with few clean sheets is a far lower scoring pattern across fantasy teams, and so far this weekend has been no exception. From the seven Saturday fixtures only Newcastle were able to keep their opposition out, and let's face it, not many people would've gone with Newcastle defenders with a tricky game at Everton.

It means the majority of defenders scored very little yesterday...as did many of the goalkeepers. I saw a comment in the "My Team" post from someone claiming they saw I'd picked Foster and quickly switched to Kirkland (which I don't think is possible because nobody knew I'd picked him till after the deadline), but I wouldn't blame anyone taking this approach!

We all know I've had a rotten time with goalkeepers this season and it continued with -3 as Foster shipped 3 goals at the Hawthorns. The odds of this result occurring were 30/1, so it proves I must have some sort of jinx on the position at the moment. Great result for West Brom mind you, as Odemwingie inspired them to come from behind after Jerome had opened the scoring for Birmingham.

There also weren't many goals by premier league standards, as we had no fewer than FOUR 1-1 draws. The first of these was Stoke v West Ham, where the result was probably fair, The Hammers started brightly but Stoke got back in to it in the 2nd half - goals from Scott Parker and Kenwyne Jones and an assist for Jermaine Pennant were the things to note, but Matt Etherington just about returned his barndoor cost with a solid 9 points.

It all looked rosey for Aston Villa as they took an early lead against Bolton through as popular pick this week, Ashley Young. But Bolton are fighters this year, and they got level through Kevin Davies. Bot sides had chances after this, but again a point for each side was fair. Same story at Ewood Park, as Fulham came from a goal down vs Blackburn, Samba and Clint Dempsey on the scoresheet. Dembele was disappointing but Salcido looks like he's going to be a fantasy star bombing forward from left back, and I promptly picked him up on the barndoor.

Spurs were slightly fortunate to win 3-1 over Wolves after scoring 3 times in the final 13 minutes, but when you look at the match stats (58% possession and 20 attempts on goal vs Wolves 5) then maybe you can say we just about deserved it. Fletcher gave the away side he lead, but the "injured" Van Der Vaart (thanks Harry) got Spurs level from the spot, before Pavlyuchenko and Hutton wrapped things up. Bale was a machine once again, another 15 points for him...VDV came in on the barndoor.

Everton remain in the bottom three and without a win (where's ToffeeDave?) after a defeat at home to Newcastle, and you have to say the Geordies deserved the 3 points. Ben Arfa scored a cracker and Barton ran the midfield show to lump more misery on David Moyes' side. The final game of the day saw Sunderland snatch a 95th minute equaliser through Darren Bent after Fabregas's freak 1st half goal had put Arsenal ahead. Song was sent off, Rosicky missed a penalty (badly) and Fabregas was taken off early on with an apparent hamstring injury. He was all set to be in my team for next week, but now I'll have to wait and see if he's set for a lay-off.

So that was Saturday - a disappointing 46.5 points with my two most expensive players, Malouda & Drogba, along with Charlie Adam left to go. I still have faint hope of getting up towards a par score 80 points, but the way this week is going I'm not getting my hopes up and it could be a 1st Round exit for me in The Blog Cup! Unbelievably my total so far was enough to move me up 200 places in the rankings, but I know many people will have more than 3 players left today so I expect to drop considerably tonight.

My currently Week 6 team looks like this:  

Foster, Koscielny, Salcido, Bale, Adam, Barton, Van Der Vaart, Arshavin, Dembele, Chamakh, Drogba

I still have over £5m in the bank, so Kos may be upgraded (he could be benched with Vermaelen returning), or Arshavin could be switched to Fabregas if he's ready to play. Alternatively I could upgrade Dembele, but I might give him another go at home to struggling Everton. Drogba will stay, but Malouda is going and I'm just pre-warning you all, Foster is going to stay, so run away while you still can.

How are you getting on so far? Who came in on the barndoor?

Cheers,
AM