Week 28 - Player Picks

I'm buzzing this morning. Last night was massive for Tottenham as they progressed past Fulham in to the FA Cup semi finals after a scintillating 2nd half fight back, with the added bonus of Man City & Villa dropping points in winnable home games in the Premier League.

On top of this, Week 27 has been the most successful week I've had since I started the blog last July.

A large proportion of the players I recommended did superbly (including all top 10 point scorers for the week, shown above) & for once I actually took my own advice, picked a fair few of them up & ended on 212.5 points as 6 goals last night moved me in to the Top 500 for the first time this season.

Dropping players on discount & picking purely on match-ups really worked for me & going by the chatroom/comments it seems the majority of readers did the same as plenty had 5 or 6 goals from the evening & around 200 points for the week - congratulations to all!

It's time to push on now - Week 28 is a single week for all teams after the Fulham v Wigan Friday game was rescheduled for the following Sunday. It's also the Quarter Finals of The Blog Cup...21 teams cut down to 10!!

The Week 28 fixtures...

Saturday, 27 March 2010
Birmingham v Arsenal, 15:00
Bolton v Man Utd, 17:30
Chelsea v Aston Villa, 15:00
Hull v Fulham, 15:00
Tottenham v Portsmouth, 15:00
West Ham v Stoke, 15:00
Wolverhampton v Everton, 15:00

Sunday, 28 March 2010
Burnley v Blackburn, 12:00
Liverpool v Sunderland, 16:00

Monday, 29 March 2010
Man City v Wigan, 20:00

Stand-out fixtures are Spurs at home to Portsmouth & Man City (despite last night) at home to Wigan, with Man Utd at Bolton & Liverpool at home to Sunderland also tempting (although Sunderland are improving).  

Chelsea should beat Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge, but we know Villa are better away from home because of the pace of their counter attack. Everton & Wolves are both in great form but I fancy the Toffees to win that one, while Arsenal should beat a faltering Birmingham, despite their injury list.  

Burnley & Blackburn hate each other, it'll be a fiery derby & perhaps one to avoid. Hull v Fulham & West Ham v Stoke could both be scoring draws.

So we know the fixtures, now lets looks at the players...

KEEPERS
Given
Myhill
Green
Jensen

I've listed 4 keepers here but for me it'll come down to 2 choices - either pay the 7.5 for Given, hoping City sort themselves against Wigan, or go the bargain route with Myhill at 1.69 & hope Fulham are too tired to must much of a fight against Hull.

At the moment I'm not sure which direction to go...both have pros & cons but having the extra funds to spend elsewhere always tempts me when it comes to 'keepers.

If you want to do something different / take a risk then Rob Green is the cheapest he's been all season after his -15 Week 27 disaster & Stoke don't travel very well. Blackburn don't travel well either, so Jensen is a possibility as Burnley face their rivals in a game they simply must win.

DEFENDERS
Bale
Ferreira
Jagielka
Agger
Zabaleta
Bassong
Alexander
Campbell
Salgado
Hutton
Jordon
Elokobi

A huge variety of defenders to pick from this week, with quite a few new names thrown in to the mix. Bale is obviously the pick of the bunch at home to Pompey, but if you don't have him at discount & want to cover the Spurs clean sheet then Bassong is an affordable alternative.

Chelsea are running out of full backs meaning Paulo Ferreira will continue on the right hand side of defence, Zabaleta will either cover right back or defensive midfield for Man City, Jagielka is scoring well since his return & Daniel Agger has the chance of a clean sheet & likes the odd long shot..

An old favourite, penalty king Alexander, is an option at home to Blackburn, Sol Campbell is decent value, Hutton, Jordon & Salgado are sure starters at under £6m & Elokobi could act as a filler & should continue in the Wolves defence having played 90 mins in victory at Upton park.

MIDFIELDERS
Lampard
Fabregas
Gerrard
Bentley
Arteta
Bullard
Malouda
Jarvis
Modric
Dunn
Nani
Valencia
Maxi
A Johnson
Zhirkov

Masses of choice in midfield with plenty of in form set piece takers to choose from. Right at the top of the list are the big 3 - Lampard, Fabregas & Gerrard. All penalty takers, all free kick takers, all with winnable fixtures...but you'll pay the price.

Luckily, if (like me) you don't want to break the bank then there are loads of other great options. David Bentley was outstanding when coming on as substitute last night & should start vs Pompey, taking all set pieces. This is likely to mean a place on the bench for Kranjcar, so he's missing from my picks.

2 more set piece takers Arteta & Malouda are in undroppable form, while ANOTHER 2 set piece takers, Bullard & Jarvis, are at home & I expect both to have strong weeks.

Dunn was fantastic last night but we'll need to wait for injury news before deciding to pick him for the Burnley derby, Valencia & Nani will fancy their chances at Bolton & Modric is surely due a goal soon.

If you're looking for fillers then you have a choice of 3 in my opinion - Adam Johnson, Maxi or Zhirkov, who'll continue at left back for Chelsea.

STRIKERS
Drogba
Torres
Rooney
Tevez
Pavlyuchenko
Bellamy
Doyle
Adebayor
Diamanti
Crouch/Gudjohnson
Bendtner (*possible injury)

As blog followers will know, I dropped Drogba last weekend to barndoor Fulham players for their scheduled double week. Obviously their 2nd game has since been rearranged & there is no way I can get Drogs back at his current price, so I'll have to go without. I'm very nervous that I'll have neither him nor Rooney, who should have fun at Bolton.

Next in line are Torres & Tevez, who both have home fixtures & who both seem to be hitting form at the right time for their clubs. I doubt I'll be able to afford both, but Tevez is definitely in my team. So will Pavluychenko, who scored another cracker last night & must be licking his lips at the prospect of facing the league's basement club. I'm delighted to have barndoored him at 9.5 last weekend.

Bellamy & the returning Adebayor are both options if you want to grab a City forward but can't stretch to Tevez, Doyle is under £10m, playing well & at home, while it's difficult to ignore Diamanti in any home game, despite the Hammers woeful result on Monday.

Finally, wait on team news if you want a Spurs striker other than Pav, as it's difficult to predict who will partner the Russian between Crouch & Gudjohnson. Bendtner remains on the list until 100% confirmed as out of the Birmingham game, but I have a feeling that's one big discount we'll need to let go.

That wraps up my player picks for Week 28, I hope you find them useful. Bale, Ferreira, Malouda, Arteta, Tevez & Pavlyuchenko will almost definitely make the cut for me, but that leaves 5 spaces still to be decided if Bendtner doesn't make it.

I haven't settled on my keeper, and seeing as the price gap between Given & Myhill is so large, the decision I make will affect the rest of my picks. Torres, Diamanti, Bentley, Modric, Bullard, Jarvis, Jagielka, Zabaleta & Agger are all under consideration, so I may go the cheap keeper route to get the outfield players I want.

Please let me know if you feel I've missed anyone from the lists above, how Week 27 went for you & how your Week 28 team is shaping up.

Good luck to everyone, especially if you're still in The Blog Cup!

Cheers,
AM