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.

@fantasygaffer Fletcher —> Berbatov/Jelavic?Or better ideas? I am open to better ideas.

— J. Jabaily-Blackburn (@beaglesongs) November 4, 2012

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.

@fantasygaffer Tévez or Ba or RVP? (long term)

— Alvin. (@alvinsyn) November 4, 2012

With a goal, an assist or both in each of the last six Premier League fixtures, Robin van Persie has slowly begun to open a lead at the top of the Fantasy EPL scoring table. This is largely based on his ability to secure bonus points in these matches with eight of his 15 fantasy EPL bonus points coming in the last three League fixtures. The cost is extraordinary and so is the production. We’ve stated in the past that the return of Rooney provided an opportunity for goals to be shared more broadly across the Red Devil’s attacking legion and that has been the case. However, following their 0-1 loss to Everton on opening day Sir Alex Ferguson’s side have not scored fewer than a brace in nine League fixtures on the bounce including three or more in three of their past four.

Some fantasy EPL managers prefer to invest evenly across a position, or invest heavily in the midfield. However, managers who are willing to play a two-man front or can live with players like Shane Long (6.1) and Rickie Lambert (6.1) making up the remainder of their strike force would be wise to invest in the £13.5m-rated RvP — he is already 33.9% selected.

For a more prudent purchase, Carlos Tevez price makes a bit more fiscal sense and saves a massive £4.0m over his Dutch counterpart, though he is 42.3% selected leaving little room to make up ground on the league-leaders in your fantasy EPL mini-league.

@fantasygaffer midfielder with a value of 6?

— Talal Almeshal (@talmeshal) November 4, 2012

Inside the Top 20 midfielders for Fantasy EPL scoring there are five midfielders than meet this criteria — we’re presuming that the cap is £6m but in case we’re wrong here is a list of £6m-rated midfielders:

Ki, Lallana, Etherington, Dembele and Ramirez (SOU).

As for the five we’re discussing here they’re lead by Swansea’s Wayne Routledge £5.4m and his 47 points in Fantasy Premier League. The list is rounded out by Steve Sidwell (£5m, 39 FPL points), Kightly (£5.5m, 39 FPL points), Lallana (£6m, 39 FPL points) and Noble (£4.9m, 37 points).

We’re leading with Routledge because his 22 chances created are level with Juan Mata and two better than Mata’s teammate Eden Hazard. Michael Laudrup’s side lack a poacher to finish Routledge’s work but he is capable of a few big matches and is a capable fourth or fifth midfielder who can certainly be relied upon as an every-week starter for fantasy EPL managers who choose to invest heavily elsewhere – perhaps in van Persie – and need an inexpensive option.

Mark Noble is also worth a flier with 15 of his 18 chance created coming from set pieces. Set pieces are stable in terms of weekly creation but have resulted in few assists. In fact, he does not have an assist to his credit this term and has posted better than three points in only two of 10 tries with the highlight being a two-goal, 15 point outing in gameweek eight.

@fantasygaffer Baines,Davies and Maloney for Lallana,Riise and Jenkinson??Good move??

— saura bhattacharjee (@kenji_123) November 5, 2012

Hard to tell because a) which side is coming and which is going and b) without knowing which of these players would be relied upon to start week-to-week it is nearly impossible to judge the quality of the moves. To start, three moves means a cost and none of these players — aside from Baines — creates enough to warrant a -4 point hit. In a vacuum, the second trio has more depth and would provide several quality options that could each justify a place in the starting XI. Despite Adam Lallana’s 18 chances created and four fantasy EPL assists, the Saints midfielder does not provide excellent value with his £6.0m. He is a quality option who has provided consistent points and has a decent run of fixtures upcoming — Swansea (h), QPR (a), Newcastle (h) and Norwich (h) — but needs needs his side to score more than the two goals  they’ve scored over their past three fixtures.

@fantasygaffer only 20pts. this week! Defender wid CS nxt wk?

— George Siby (@mojo_geo) November 5, 2012

If the last question was difficult, this question is fucking impossible. We’ve said, predicting clean sheets is so difficult that you need to invest in inexpensive defenders and play for the long returns instead of chasing a clean sheet in any given week. That said, we’ve some interesting data for you below. In convenient and stylish bullet-point form:

• After 10 weeks, no team has more than four clean sheets
• Five teams have four cleansheet: Arsenal, Chelsea, Stoke City, West Brom and West Ham
• Only Reading and Southampton have failed to keep a clean sheet this season
• Chelsea, Everton, Fulham, Man City, Man Utd, Tottenham and WBA have each been blanked only once
• Stoke City (5), Swansea (4) and Sunderland (4) are the teams held without a goal most frequently
• Five teams have scored fewer than 10 goals: Aston Villa, Norwich, QPR, Stoke City (8 each) and Sunderland (6)
• Three teams have allowed fewer than 10 goals: Arsenal (8), Manchester City and Sunderland (9)
• Three teams have scored more than Man City’s 18 goals: Man Utd (26), Chelsea (22) and Fulham (21)

For more check out @FantasyGaffer on Twitter and look to our Favourites on that site to find our most recent STATS tweets with Opta data courtesy of EPLIndex.com. Constant Fantasy EPL advice, even when you’d wish it would stop.

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