Week 30 - Quick Review

This is a quick post to summarise how things went in Week 30. But first things first, congratulations to Matt Jarvis for his first full England call-up. One of my best mates is a Wolves fan & a blog reader, so he asked me to mention this momentous event in the history of Wolverhampton. Done.

Now, all the points are in after a typically unexplained delay by Yahoo, and overall it was quite a low scoring week. Some of the most fancied picks flopped - specifically Ashley Young & Darren Bent, as well as Nasri, Lampard, Torres & Hernandez - but there were some big points for others; Charlie Adam & David Luiz being the stand-out performers. Honourable mentions to Nani, Suarez, Pennant, Coleman & Hoilett, who all picked up decent scores.

In terms of the league, I think Manchester United are nearly home-and-dry despite another less than convincing performance. They have a fairly easy run-in and I can see Arsenal dropping more points, so I expect they'll have the title sewn up with a game or two to spare. Chelsea are looking back in form so should seal 3rd, leaving City and Spurs to fight it out for 4th. Who knows, maybe Liverpool could make a late charge too? Meanwhile, at the bottom, 3 points separate 8 teams after vital wins for Wigan & Wolves made things even tighter. It should be an exciting finish to the Premier League season!

As for my fantasy week, I stayed in 65th place with a usually-below-average 84 points, which backs-up my earlier comment that it was quite a low scoring week. Being away all weekend meant I saved my final team on Friday night and was unable to do any barndoor work on Saturday, so I missed grabbing Adam, but I don't think I missed anyone else major.

Remember, we don't have any games this coming weekend due to international fixtures, so the next deadline isn't until 2nd April, but this is my very early Week 31 team:

Harper, Kolarov, Smalling, Luiz, Hitzlsperger, Adam Johnson, Dempsey, Nani, Defoe, Suarez, Van Persie

It's a work in progress. Harper may raise some eyebrows, but he had been in good form until this week's -11, so I think he's quite a decent pick with a home game. My defensive trio will probably stay as it is (although I do still hold Walker @ 5-ish behind the scenes), Nani, Suarez & RvP will stay too, but Hitz, Dempsey & Defoe are still up for debate. Adam Johnson is a hunch as I think he'll get a start after City's recent struggles & he should get set pieces, but I'll wait until much nearer the time before setting that one in stone.

Let's wrap it up there, as this post was really done to allow you to reply and let me know how you did in Week 30. How's your Week 31 team looking? Where are you sitting overall? With only 8 weeks to go now, are you close to where you hoped to finish in the overall standings/your private leagues, or have you still got some work to do?

Cheers,
AM