Week 6 - Player Picks

Week 6 is here - and you'll notice my player recommendations are very similar to last week's which shows us clearly that after five weeks the season is starting to take shape. Player's averages are actually starting to mean something in terms of genuine consistency and we're starting to get a better idea of which teams are set for successful seasons. I think you can expect to see a similar core pool of players featuring quite regularly over the coming weeks and months.

I'm obviously writing this post with the values of players still not updated from Sunday's games. This is the first time I've seen such a gap between the points being awarded and the prices being affected as a result, which in turn has meant we're in the middle of the longest barndoor period in history. We're less than 3 days away from the next deadline so I'm actually starting to doubt whether the prices are actually going to be updated at all...?

If that's the case then another technical issue at Yahoo can be the only explanation and one can only guess what happens to the pricing algorithm after the Week 6 points come in. Obviously if the prices are updated before the deadline then that's going to affect some of my recommendations, but I couldn't wait any longer so I thought I'd go ahead and post them anyway. * now updated, please see the bottom of this post

I've had a lot less spare time for the blog this week so lets move swiftly on to the Week 6 fixtures. The stand-out match is Arsenal v West Brom at The Emirates, with the home side huge favourite to win comfortably. West Brom have had a decent start to the season thanks to their home form, but they're on 2 defeats from 2 on the road and I see no reason why that won't become 3 from 3.  

Birmingham will be desperate to bounce back from their derby defeat last Saturday and should find things reasonably easy at home to Wigan, while Man United travel to Bolton knowing they must win games like this to close the gap on Chelsea.

Tottenham travel to bottom of the table West Ham, where Hary Redknapp will be praying we pick up all 3 points after resting the entire team in the Carling Cup, while Liverpool play host to Sunderland at Anfield in a game they need to win and Newcastle,  full of confidence after a fine performance at Everton in Week 5, welcome Stoke to St James' Park,

Aside from those 6 games we have the biggest of the weekend at lunchtime on Saturday - Man City vs Chelsea. It's Ancelotti's first real test this season and it'll be tight, but I just feel Chelsea's strength will be too much for City and can see an away win - it should be a cracker!  

Blackpool v Blackburn is a difficult one but a draw wouldn't surprise me, and the same could be said for Fulham v Everton. The final game on Sunday is Wolves v Aston Villa and I'm certain it's going to be real scrap between two fierce rivals...another which could easily be another score draw.

That wraps up the fixtures, so based on that here are my Week 6 Player Picks...

KEEPERS
Foster
Krul
Kirkland

Many people will be taking the zero for Kirkland again, but if you're spending a bit more than £1.17m then I reckon Foster at home to Wigan & Krul (replacing Harper) at home to Stoke are your best bets. But I can't stress this enough...do not listen to me regarding keepers, I seriously don't know what I'm talking about this season!

DEFENDERS
Bale
Vermaelen
Salcido
Koscielny/Squillaci
Enrique
Ferreira
O'Shea
Baptiste
Carr
Williamson
Hutton
Skrtel
Salgado
Jacobson
Mancienne

Bale has handed some set piece duties to Van Der Vaart but will still score well and is still undroppable in my opinion. Salcido has made an exciting start at Fulham and could be the cheap attacking fullback we were hoping for in Kolorov/Boateng. We're still awaiting news on Vermaelen's return but if he's back then one of Koscielny/Squillaci will drop out with Kos the more likely after playing 120 minutes on Tuesday.

Enrique, O'Shea, Baptiste & Ferreira are all scoring well so far this season so present interesting options (and possible clean sheets) around the £7m mark and Martin Skrtel is the most reasonably priced Liverpool defender. Williamson is another Newcastle defender a little cheaper along with Carr of Birmingham, Hutton (who should start with Corluka & Kaboul missing) and Salgado of Blackburn, all priced around 6.5.

It's weeks like this where a filler defender can be mighty handy, and we have two such players available to us in Week 6 - West Ham's right back Lars Jacobson and Wolves defensive midfielder Michael Mancienne, both should play & are priced below 4.5...bargain!

MIDFIELDERS
Gerrard
Arshavin
Malouda
Barton
Nani
Van Der Vaart
Adam
J Cole
Nasri
Ben Arfa
Demsey
Hleb
Gardner
Albrighton
D Jones
Gera
Pennant *check injury news

The amount of great midfield options this week is staggering and I can see quite a few fantasy managers considering switching to 3-5-2. The two players that stand out given the fixtures are Andrey Arshavin and Steven Gerrard. Arshavin seems to be getting involved a lot more than last season and continued his goal scoring in the cup last night, while Gerrard's first league goals since April will give him plenty of confidence. I was set to get rid of Malouda for one of these two but his performance vs Blackpool changed my mind & I'm now considering him as a possible season keeper. Will Micah Richards be able to cope with him?

Joey Barton and Charlie Adam have been scoring really well so far thanks to taking all set pieces, so I'm likely to keep both as they enter winnable home games. Van Der Vaart is now on set piece and penalty duty at Spurs so he has to be tempting you at West Ham, while Nani is in the best form of his life for United. Joe Cole needs to kick start his Liverpool career, Ben Arfa showed his talent with a wonder-strike vs Everton & Samir Nasri will be expected to fill Fabregas' shoes vs West Brom.

With Zamora & Dembele out it'll be down to Clint Dempsey to lead the line against a struggling Everton, and i'll throw Zoltan Gera in as another good Fulham pick that could separate you from the crowd. Hleb and Gardner face Wigan, D.Jones & Albrighton are more-or-less returning their value and Jermaine Pennant is one to keep an eye on if he recovers from his hamstring injury.

STRIKERS
Chamakh
Berbatov
Drogba
Tevez
Jerome
Carroll
Crouch
Torres
Kalinic

I really have a feeling this is the week Chamakh breaks out and scores a couple of goals - he's been steadily improving each game and I expect him to get plenty of chances, even without Fabregas pulling the strings. At his current price and facing West Brom he's my pick of the week. A large proportion of managers will have brought Berbatov in after his magnificent hat-trick but a word of warning - he rarely performs as well on the road as he does in front of his own fans, and Bolton won't be a walkover. Still - he's the league's top scorer, you can't argue with that.

Looking at the teams posted in the comments section over the past few days it appears lots of people are dropping Drogba this week. I still think he's capable of big points at City but I do understand why people feel the £20m+ can be spent better elsewhere with so many good midfield options. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do with him but I'm leaning towards keeping him at the moment. On the opposite side he faces an in-form Carlos Tevez who remains priced at 16 and loves the big occasion.

Cameron Jerome has started the season well, as has Andy Carroll, and both face winnable home games against Wigan & Stoke respectively, with Carroll my preference due to cost. Crouch faces West Ham, Kalinic is dirt cheap and heads to Blackpool and for the real gamblers amongst you, Fernando Torres had to hit form again at some point and it's likely to be at Anfield,...so why not vs a Sunderland side who just lost to West Ham?

That's it for Week 6....obviously we still have the injury/suspension fall-out from the Carling Cup so things may change, but I'll detail anything important in my Friday Update post. I'm aware this isn't my finest writing/analysis and can only apologise - as I mentioned earlier I've struggled to find the time this week.

As for my team, I'm having loads of problems after some sloppy barndoor work. I want Gerrard, Arshavin & Berbatov but I don't want to lose Malouda or Drogba so I'll have to make some big decisions over the next few days. I'm continuing my refusal to pick a non-playing keeper so I'm going with Foster again (you have been warned) but this is further limiting my funds for some of the premium picks. Salcido is in my team at under 6, while Bale, Adam, Barton & Chamakh will all definitely stay.

As always, please remember to vote in the poll that helps us pick the Blog Team, where I've added Drogba and Malouda back in due to a number of people dropping them for other options. Bale remains excluded... 

http://www.misterpoll.com/polls/501734/

We're on a bit of a roll after two massive weeks, so we'll be looking to continue this in Week 6 :)

That'll do! How's your team shaping up? The big question...are you dropping Drogba?

Cheers,
AM

* Since I wrote this post yesterday not only have Yahoo updated the prices but they have ALSO made some slight point adjustments which have moved me up 90 places in the overall rankings. This means I need to recalculate the 1st Round Blog Cup Results, so keep checking back as you may well find you've actually now made it through/missed out...