Tuesday 15 February 2011

Week 27 - So Far

Fulham v Chelsea completed the first round of Week 27 fixtures last night, so we're now left with the double game teams to play their 2nd match. Until Arsenal, Birmingham, West Brom, Spurs, Blackpool, Stoke, Newcastle & Wolves complete the week we can't tell exactly how's it's gone, but we can analyse what's happened so far.

Manchester United v Manchester City and "that" goal seem ages ago already, but the most important thing from a fantasy stand-point was Nani's performance. I'll admit that having dropped him @17.84 my heart sunk as I saw a goal & assist bring him another 20 points, forcing me to grab him back on the barndoor for 21.10 (and Rooney @16) in preparation for the possible double in Week 28. United's win keeps them in pole position for the title and City are probably out of it, but they are improving & I'm sure they'll be back with a full-on challenge next season.

I replaced Nani him with Fabregas, who brought in 11.5 points & has another game to play, but unless Cesc can hit 20 points in Arsenal's game vs Stoke then the gamble can probably be classed as an error. There was no such problem with Szczesny as he grabbed a clean sheet, and Van Persie did superbly again with two goals & 25.5 points as the Gunners kept themselves on United's heals with a comfortable victory over Wolves. Arsenal (along with Spurs & Birmingham) have a blank Week 28, but I'll be keeping Van Persie given his current form & £12m discount.

Spurs pulled off a great win at Sunderland despite being without Bale, Van Der Vaart and Modric, coming from behind again. They've now rescued 20 points from losing positions this season and are 2 points clear in the final Champions League place after Chelsea could only draw at Fulham. It could've been worse for Ancelotti's men as Petr Cech saved a 93rd minute Clint Dempsey penalty conceded by the otherwise excellent David Luiz, but something doesn't look right for Chelsea at the moment - and I'm not just talking about Fernando Torres' awful first touch. Could Spurs keep them out of the Top 4?

Down at the bottom West Brom & West Ham played out a six goal thriller, but there's no doubting which team were happier with a point as the Baggies blew a 3 goal lead. Odemwingie picked up some great points but Brunt & Olssen have been a let down so far. Birmingham snatched 3 vital points from Stoke thanks to a late Zigic winner, with the clean sheet providing great points for Foster, Ridgewell & Johnson, but Bentley disappointed. Carew provided double his cost with 4 points but the late switch of Pennant to Brunt has been a poor one so far.

Suarez looked impressive for Liverpool but it wasn't enough to beat a spirited Wigan side, with Reina owners taking an unexpected zero. Blackpool & Villa played out an entertaining 1-1 draw, Charlie Adam scored good points again and more importantly managed to avoid his 10th yellow card, so he'll face Spurs in the 2nd fixture next week. Van Der Vaart should also be available for that game, but he of course has a blank Week 28. Blackburn & Newcastle ended 0-0 despite Pardew's men dominating. Blackburn became the first home team in the Premier League this season to not register a single shot on goal - woeful!

What does that all mean? Well - I'm on 105 points with 10 DGers to go but that score actually dropped me a few places to 107th overall, so some people scored better (and some of them probably kept Nani & VDV!). I really need big points from my DGers - specifically Fabregas, Johnson, Brunt & Olssen - to make any sort of upward movement & to justify some of my Friday trades. As we know double weeks tend to produce some crazy midweek points, so I'm still hopeful I could end it in the Top 100.

Now my barndoor team is slightly misleading as it will change significantly depending on the outcome of the Manchester United double week, but this is what I have saved:

Freidel, Kolarov, Luiz, Walker, GutiƩrrez, Adam, Silva, Nani, Carew, RvP, Rooney

If it ends up as a United double I'll look to bring in Giggs, Evra & possibly Chris Smalling if Rio Ferdinand is set for a long lay-off. If Adam picks up a booking at Spurs then he'd face a 2 match ban so would have to go, but as I've already mentioned I'm taking the zero for Van Persie. Kolarov, Silva & Carew will probably all stay.

If Chelsea v Man Utd is postponed then Luiz would have to go as Chelsea would have a blank week, so I'd maybe bring Shawcross or Heitinga in. I'd also probably drop Rooney but I'd hang on to Nani at Wigan. Gutierrez is just filling a space at the moment - I'll try to switch him to Pennant or someone similar if I can find the cash. I also wouldn't mind Dzeko or Suarez. As you can tell, I haven't really made any firm decisions yet - it'll all depends on the Chelsea v Everton FA Cup result next week.

That's it for today -  sorry it's a bit of a rambling post. As I'm sure you can imagine I'm getting pretty nervous/excited about the Champions League tonight - AC Milan v Tottenham in the San Siro! We'll be without Bale, but hopefully Van Der Vaart & Modric will be fit to start. I'd be satisfied to go back to White Hart Lane perhaps 2-1 behind as I know we can beat anyone at home, but it'll be really tough if we give away more than a one goal deficit and an away goal is vital. Then of course we have Arsenal v Barcelona tomorrow night...!

How are you getting on in Week 27 so far? How many DGers to go? Have you started on your Week 28 team? Prediction for Milan v Spurs & Arsenal v Barca?

Cheers,
AM

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

hundred....

DeviLDeviL said...

124 pts, 9 DGers to go. 159 overall atm, seems like my decision by dropped VDV to Brunt not doing good, at the moment. He lost most of SP to Dorrans.

Btw Nik, I think u should put our tournament site link http://ffchallenge.moonfruit.com/ to this site at 'Useful Resources' link as some of the managers do not know about this. Cheers !

DeviLxDeviL

Chris O. said...

Arsenal and Spurs may play in midweek of 28 if Arsenal beat (or lose to) Leyton Orient and thus avoid the need for a replay. Would there be any reason they would NOT play then? I think it's worth sitting on them for now to see when it gets rescheduled to.

Jon said...

Good week so far - 132 points with 10 DG's to play ...

Nik, a quick question - are you in a private league with Neal/Jeremy and any other fellow bloggers? If so, how are you doing? I only ask cos i am in front of the Neal/Jeremy in their blog league 5, and the Fantasist in his blog league 3, but you are still nearly 200 points ahead of me in your blog league 1, so if you are in a league with them you must be doing pretty well!!

Anonymous said...

Arsenal 3-2 Barcelona

greginho said...

128.5 points with 11 double gamers to go. i got the luck of van der vaart returning. i was being pig headed and wanted to keep him at his discount of $6. now with the prospect of his return, i could have 11 more play.
i have a manure heavy squad. i will only retain nani, if there is no double week. i have silva and zabeleta covering city's easy matchup. i might work tevez back in rooney's spot, but that would mean zabeleta would be downgraded. i am also trying to figure out if nani or ashley young is the better pick next week.

Anonymous said...

my BD team look this way:

FRIEDAL
SHAWCROSS, STEARMAN, AURELIO
NANI, SILVA, DOWNING, PENNANT
CAREW, ROONEY, SUAREZ

-No Name FC-

Anonymous said...

107.5 with 7 double gamers. I'm not happy but decided to keep Nani and Van der Vaart. Possibly 2 zeros again 4 week 28, the only player i could have switched VdV to was Dorrans but i wasn't sure he would start for his injury.

Team atm
Howard(burns me always)
Kolarov Evra Smalling
Nani VdV A.Young

Ebi

gaius marius said...

112.5 with 10 games left (provided VdV lines up).

hanging on CFC-everton saturday, i have a provisional lineup of

foster @ 5.2

kolarov @5.3 - carney - smalling

VdV @ 5.5 - nani - carrick - anderson

RvP @ 9.3 - berbatov - rooney

worked out that all united players (ex-keepers) have notched 1995 points in 26 games -- 49% of that is just nani, berbs, vidic and rooney.

given an average of 76.7 ppg ex-keepers, nani (average points 15.2), berbs (11.6) and rooney (9.5) might be expected to take 47% of the haul.

Anonymous said...

107.5 with 7 double gamers. I'm not happy but decided to keep Nani and Van der Vaart. Possibly 2 zeros again 4 week 28, the only player i could have switched VdV to was Dorrans but i wasn't sure he would start for his injury.

Team atm
Howard(burns me always)
Kolarov Evra Smalling
Nani VdV A.Young
7.55
VanPersie Rooney Dzeko

Ebi

Anonymous said...

So glad I chose to retain Nani at 17. The guy is a points machine and I cant see myself dropping him again this season.

Current team for next round:

Howard
Kelly, Kolarov, Walker, Luiz
Nani, Silva, Anderson
Carew, Tevez, Rooney

Will drop Rooney, Anderson and Luiz if the Chelsea/Man Utd game is postponed.

Linesman said...

114.5 with 10 DGers to go. I chose Barton over Pennat or Brunt, so I guess I'll find out if that was a worthwhile gamble in a few hours.

Current team

Friedel
Kol Luiz Walker Heitinga
Nani Silva Meireles
RvP Suarez Berba

Berba will go if the double is not on and I'm still debating whether or not to replace Meireles with Downing, Young or Adam. If Berba goes I can switch to a 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 and try a few other things.

AdmiraLord Nelson said...

casillas/ sagna vidic hutton/ ronaldo(C) iniesta Lucho Bastos/ van persie ibra huntelaar...forget YFF for a minute, it's the Champions League fantasy week now!

Will Hutton start at Milan AM? if not i have a copenhagen defender to fill in there

Dave said...

@Ken (continued from previous string)--

I don't regret sticking up for you at all. Indeed, you've become a more regular and valuable contributor than I am.

BTW, I live in Virginia now but was born and raised in Michigan (Kalamazoo).

AdmiraLord Nelson said...

@ Dave, I live in Viriginia too...

Ken said...

@Dave

Michigander's always stick together!

Hope all is well in the great state of Virginia. Currently have extended family living in Kalamazoo. Small world.

Luck to you this coming (football) week, and the best to you & yours.

Freddie said...

Great win for Tottenham, completely deserved it. I thought Milan were an absolute disgrace this evening, Gattuso should be looking at a long European ban for nutting Joe Jordan - although good to see he'll miss the next match anyhow. Anyhow, good job Yids (and this coming from an Arsenal fan).

AdmiraLord Nelson said...

what a waste picking Ibra in CL game! Spurs are strong in Europe. This from an Arsenal fan too.

Anonymous said...

I took a flyer on Barton to be different. What a waste at a cost of 15. don't try to be different kids. Fall in with the crowd.

BCB

AdmiraLord Nelson said...

Connor Wickham, 17 years old, hat trick for Ipswich at Doncaster, as they won 6-0!!!!!!! Look out Fabio Capello...

AdmiraLord Nelson said...

bloody chatroll wake up already!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

From Virginia, way to go Spurs-- terrific.

sharobmic said...

i have 132 points so far, Kept VDV as I just couldn't bring myself to lose him. As he played tonight against ACM he should hopefully play next game which will mean I have 10 DGs left to score. Hubby wasn't happy as he only managed to get 88.5 points.

WTG Spurs on 1-0 win tonight TTID!

Anonymous said...

My week 28 line up could be like this:

Friedel
Koscielny Kelly Coleman
Adam Merieles A.Young Arteta
V.Persie Dzeko Rooney

But thinking of swapping Young-Dzeko to Bent-Silva (by downgrading Coleman to Shawcross)..what do you guys think? which combination is better?

Anonymous said...

I read this blog constantly and it brings me much enjoyment through the week. thanks to am and eveybody else who contributes!

I am a leeds fan (sshhhhhh, even though times may be changing), but even more so, a fan of football. Nothing has delighted me more in the past couple of years of football (other than Leeds' promotion) than to watch spurs last night (in fact 3.30 this morning as I am living in oz) beat ac Milan in the champs league. It isn't just because it reignites fond champs league memories of my own, but the way redknapp and his men approached the game, stuck to the style of play that has served them so well and handled themselves. What a breath of fresh air. Congrats to am and other spurs fans, you should be proud.

On a seperate note, I hope gattusso gets the book thrown at him. Little tw@t!

Ash

I am Gareth Keenan said...

Although I am a West Ham fan, I was wrapped to see the performance of the Spurs in Milan, especially without the services of Bale to call upon.

Gattusso is a petulent pr!ck who should get rubbed out for a very long time.

south of europe said...

120 points and still 9 DG. Bentley was disapointment to me only 13,5 points in two games.

Anonymous said...

Nice to see a fellow Leeds fan Ash.

Back to back promotions for Leeds lets make it happen!

Anonymous said...

Bentley scored 13.5, Martins only 1.5, its ok, complain.

Anonymous said...

108 with 8 double gamers left... birmingham's 2nd game was totally out of mind...

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