Archive for 2012|Yearly archive page
Carroll, Crouch, Gerrard, Suarez, Torres, van Persie, Young
In Sorted, Squad Sheet, Strategy on November 10, 2012 at 4:22 am
We’ve returned with our signature fantasy premier league tips production – Last Minute Tinkers. All 10 Barclays Premier League fixtures chatted-up, brought home and kicked out before breakfast. Enjoy.
Arsenal v Fulham
The top defense in the Premier League will face Martin Jol’s high-powered offense in gameweek 11. Long-time readers will know how frequently we tout the cost-effective defensive options and both sides here are deep in the defensive ranks with several inexpensive selections on either side. For that reason we have split this match differently and we’re looking at the players by position.
Defensively, we’re not trusting anyone. With Arsenal having been blanked only once at home in the League and Fulham sitting on 21 goals to day, both sets of defenders are likely to concede at least one. Only 3.3% of fantasy premier league managers own Gunners’ ‘keeper Mannone and 4.9% of managers own Mark Schwarzer. Read the rest of this entry »
Aguero, Andre Santos, Baines, Mertesacker, Tevez, Walcott, Yaya
In Sorted, Strategy on November 7, 2012 at 2:46 am
EPL Fantasy saw a number of fine performances from Barclays Premier League players in their midweek Champions League encounters. Both Arsenal and Manchester City finished the day with 2-2 draws, one leaving the Gunners in second place and the other all but closing the book on the Citizens European aspirations. We’ve already published one post this week, yesterday’s Up The Tweets!, and will endeavor to have more new content tomorrow.
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Manchester City 2-2 Ajax
Yaya Toure 22′
Sergio Aguero 74′
Manchester City starting XI: Hart; Nastasic Zabaleta Kompany Clichy; Nasri Garcia Barry Yaya; Tevez Aguero
Substitutes: Balotelli (Garcia 45′); Dzeko (Tevez 66′); Kolarov (Barry 85′)
While the result does nothing for Roberto Mancini’s side but stave off the inevitable, the goals for Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero are a welcome site for a side with two goals in their previous three fixtures. In Barclays Premier League action, City was held scoreless against West Ham last time out and managed only one goal in their 1-0 home win over Swansea the weekend before. Read the rest of this entry »
Baines, Fletcher, Krul, Lallana, Routledge, Tevez, Van Perise
In Up The Tweets on November 6, 2012 at 3:24 am
We’ve been missing from the fantasy EPL scene for more than a week following a loss of power, television, phone and more. Back and ready to dive headfirst into one of the more interesting weeks of Fantasy Premier League gameweeks.
Sunderland are a one-man show and unfortunately that one man does not create many chances of his own. Steven Fletcher has scored five goals, still level-fifth in the Barclays Premier League, but has not found the net in four gameweeks having failed to score in October. In the Top 50 most creative players in the BPL only one Black Cat finds his name – Seb Larsson. Larsson’s 13 chances created are level-44th in the BPL with Baggies forward Peter Odemwingie and just one more than players like Leon Osman — fourth among Toffees — and Andy Carroll — who has played 443′ in the League this term. We love Fletch, but he is playing in a side that lacks the creativity to provide him with consistent opportunities in front of goal.
Ba, Carroll, Crouch, Kone, Mata, Members, Reina, Routledge, Tevez, Tinkers
In Sorted, Squad Sheet, Strategy on October 26, 2012 at 10:23 pm
Fantasy Premier League tips: read LAST MINUTE TINKERS! Set lineup. We’re starting strong because we’re ending quickly. Hot out of the gate in an attempt to overcome this crushing head cold that has us bedridden heading into the weekend.
Aston Villa v Norwich
Key Injuries: Clark
Chris Hughton’s Norwich put in a top shift against Arsenal a week ago to earn three unexpected points in a 1-0 victory. However, if there is one man who should be acutely aware of the Canaries defensive frailties it is former boss Paul Lambert, now managing Aston Villa. Lambert will have to once more decide between Christian Benteke and Darren Bent. We would be more interested if either striker had shown the ability to score this term. Additionally, one time FantasyGaffer favourites Barry Bannan and Charles N’Zogbia are not receiving enough playing time to justify owning in Fantasy Premier League. Bannan (38′ in last three BPL fixtures) and N’Zogbia (105′ in last six BPL fixtures) should not be owned at this point.
A quick fantasy premier league tip from Opta stats: NO Aston Villa player has created more than 11 chances (Darren Bent). Bannan (nine), Holman and Lowton (eight each) are the only players with more than seven chances created. Read the rest of this entry »
Ba, Baines, Berbatov, Cazorla, Defoe, Fletcher, Jenkinson, Members, Williams, Wisdom
In Sorted, Up The Tweets on October 26, 2012 at 7:41 pm
Plenty of Tweets this Friday seeking a bit of Fantasy EPL advice that requires a touch more than 140 characters. Rapid-fire for a few of these in a quick post while we continue to research Last Minute Tinkers (link is to last weekends) for publication later this evening.
Would have answered this on Twitter, but I got distracted by your background. The answer is layered, a decent bit of complexity goes into it but at the end of the day we’ll take Defoe in the short term. The questions over Adebayor’s health and the recent comments from Andre Villas-Boas give us confidence to use Defoe until such a time as his production falters.
That is the full story on Defoe. Read the rest of this entry »
Aguero, Andre Santos, Dzeko, Gibbs, Hart, OX, Richards, Tevez, Walcott
In News of the Day, Strategy on October 24, 2012 at 10:41 pm
A bit of EPL fantasy analysis following the Wednesday Champions League action. The capitulation of Arsenal and Manchester City have left the two English clubs with difficult roads to qualify from the group stage.
Arsenal 0-2 Schalke 04
Arsenal sXI: Mannone; Santos Mertesacker Vermaelen Jenkinson (Gnabry 82′); Arteta Coquelin; Ramsey Cazorla Podolski (Arshavin 82′); Gervinho (75′)
The Gunners were under the management of Steve Bould as Arsene Wenger served the final match of his three-match touchline ban. Based on their play, it is unlikely The Prof’s presence would have made much difference. As Bould noted after the match:
He also rather astutely noted that the Gunners could do with the odd first-goal:
Carrick, Chicharito, Evans, Jose Enrique, Kagawa, Lampard, Mata, Oscar, Rooney, Wisdom
In News of the Day, Strategy on October 24, 2012 at 3:06 pm
Fantasy EPL news coming after the first of four Champions League fixtures this week for Barclays Premier League sides. Javier Hernandez netted a brace to spare Manchester United their blushes and secure all three points while two midfielders departed with injuries.
Shakhtar Donetsk 2-1 Chelsea
Oscar 88′
Chelsea sXI: Cech; Ivanovic Cole Luiz Terry; Ramirez Lampard (Hazard 18′) Mata Mikel; Torres (Sturridge 70′) Oscar
Oscar netted the only goal for Roberto Di Matteo’s side. The late effort continued to build Oscar’s case for a continued run in the first team. With Frank Lampard departing early with a re-aggravation of his calf injury there is a strong case to be made that Ramires/Mikel/Mata will make-up the middle “3″ with Hazard and Oscar pairing Torres at the front.
Chelsea will be without John Terry again in gameweek nine as he continues to serve a domestic suspension. Gary Cahill was on the bench for the Champions League encounter but should return for the League fixture. The defender scored a screamer in his last start and remains one of the few defenders who will consistently attempt shots from long range. Chelsea’s schedule does not inspire much confidence in their ability to keep clean sheets and Manchester United certainly can score against anyone. Read the rest of this entry »
Ba, Gerrard, Hazard, Jelavic, Lallana, Lambert, Long, Mata, Routledge, Sterling
In Up The Tweets on October 23, 2012 at 2:39 pm
We’ve been slow the last two weeks as other issues have drawn our attention away from fantasy EPL, but we’ll try to make it up this week starting with a quick Up The Tweets!
This was going to be a quick response, but 140 characters just were not enough to get everything across. We Take three separate approaches with a high/low split either way and an even allocation of the funds. First, high-end striker with a discount midfielder.
Ba (£8.3m, 30.8%) / Sterling (£4.9m, 11.3% selected)
We wanted to include Wayne Routledge here but the slate of upcoming fixtures for the Swans are difficult. Man City (a), Chelsea (h), Southampton (a), Newcastle (a), Liverpool (h), WBA (h), Arsenal (a), Norwich (h), Spurs (a), Man Utd (h). That takes Michael Laudrup’s squad through to Christmas. While Routledge will undoubtedly post a handful of decent outings, it will be difficult to determine which. If you’re using him as a fourth or fifth midfielder there is still a good argument to made for including him in your squad. He is level sixth in the Barclays Premier League in chances created with 21, the same number as David Silva and one better than both Gareth Bale and Steven Pienaar.
However, we’re going Raheem Sterling. The Liverpool youngster has created 16 chances — that is level with Juan Mata — and scored his first goal for the Reds in gameweek eight. Read the rest of this entry »
Carroll, Crouch, Dyer, Giroud, Lambert, Members, Nani, Rooney, RVP, Santi, Tinkers
In Sorted, Squad Sheet, Strategy on October 19, 2012 at 6:20 pm
With Fantasy Premier League tips needed as the League returns to action, Last Minute Tinkers are back following the international break a few players light. Theo Walcott, Bryan Ruiz, Kieran Gibbs and David Silva all look set to miss out while Dimitar Berbatov and Mladen Petric are reportedly fit to return. Plenty more names face late fitness and we recap the season to date below. Part 1/2 Available Here.
Manchester United v Stoke City
The Red Devils will welcome back Ashley Young following two months on the sidelines with a foot injury. The trio of Young, Nani and Antonio Valencia will likely continue to rotate. While the offense is remarkably consistent, the plethora of attacking options make owning any of the midfielders a difficult proposition.
We’re not covering United in much depth because until we see the rotation of a fully healthy squad we can not handicap the value in FPL against playing time and price. Our love of Nani is well documented and we do not care to own Shinji Kagawa at this point in the season. Low cost options like Tom Cleverley provide an inexpensive route to playing a five-man midfield but frankly we’d prefer to start James Morrison, Matt Jarvis or Raheem Sterling. Read the rest of this entry »
Cahill, David Silva, Gerrard, Hazard, Mata, Members, Richards, Suarez, Terry, Tinkers
In Sorted, Squad Sheet, Strategy on October 19, 2012 at 6:18 pm
With Fantasy Premier League tips needed as the League returns to action, Last Minute Tinkers are back following the international break a few players light. Theo Walcott, Bryan Ruiz, Kieran Gibbs and David Silva all look set to miss out while Dimitar Berbatov and Mladen Petric are reportedly fit to return. Plenty more names face late fitness and we recap the season to date below.
Tottenham v Chelsea
Tottenham Hotspur can cement their title aspirations with an emphatic home win over Chelsea. Andre Villas-Boas will have nearly all of his first-choice starting XI ready for action and leads his squad into the clash with the knowledge that both offenses are capable of scoring a handful in this match. The corresponding fixture last season ended 1-1 with a goal for Emmanuel Adebayor. At this point in the 2012-13 campaign it looks that Ade is second-choice behind the rejuvenated Jermain Defoe. Defoe has four goals and two assists in the BPL this season and has posted the minimum two points in Fantasy Premier League twice in seven outings. The England man has seen his price rise to £7.8 on the strength of 130,000+ net transfers in over the past three gameweeks and we expect to see his name once more penciled into the starting XI. Read the rest of this entry »
