Fantasy Football Preview Week 33

Hey there sportsfan! We're at the business end of the season now, 5 more gameweeks, five more blogs, then that "summer" thing everyone is talking about

State Of Play

Whoo Hoo, 15 points better than average (even though as I’ve said before, the average is getting skewed by the people who’ve lost interest and have left teams dormant). On the Back Of The Net Boy league, I am now 85 points of top, where I’ve been bobbing around for last few weeks; and 20 off the top ten.

Vindication

My keeper and back three all got 6 points or more…

D’oh

… but everyone ahead of me, let the team down. If I’d captained Nani or Van Persie, I’d be in top ten not. In fact Bent has left down so much, he has now left the Len Rovers squad, till next season at earliest. (that’s all covered in later section)

Questions / Hunch / Drama / Dramatic Narrative before Sky Have Spotted it

It’s all about if Chelsea pull their socks up, and Arsenal pull themselves together for “5 cup finals”, as the annoying cliché goes. The tasty Norf London derby awaits us too, that could be scentalating, neither team can defend right and both teams are chasing points, and Arsenal get the extra bonus of effectively ruining Spurs chance of stepping back into the Champions League if they manage to stay on course for premiership. If spurs don’t get in, the squad will quickly distentigrate with the big names moving to “bigger clubs”, and that’d be a very satisfactory 90 minutes at the office for any myopic gooner.

And can Torres break his duck against a team now managed by the man who was his Boss just a few months ago? Can torres hurt Hodgson from both sides in one year?

Transfers/Selection

WILD CARD – WILD CARD – WILD CARD!!!!

Not even looking at my current team, I started from the top. 3 players from all the double game week players .

Chelsea: Cech/Luiz/Lampard… I am hoping there isn’t a champion league exit hangover, and rather a late roy of the rovers title charge, built on Lampard penalties and midfield blasters and Chelsea clean sheets, (both have happened a lot over the years)

Arsenal: I went marquee baby, Van Persie and Fabregas, can’t rely or trust any of the rest of the squad,. I always have a soft spot for Song but change my mind when I see him, not in a racist way it’s a hairest thing.

Then the Birmingham conondrum, they are actually having a terrible season, but still… it’s like when yer in the tail end of a relationship but you really want it to work out. So I went with Johnson (no major groundbreaking decision, then following fantasy premier league tips, I went with Gardner, due to his penalty taking. And Phillips up front, mainly because it’s surely my last season I can sign him, and I’ve always liked him, especially on championship manager. And he’s buddies in real life with Niall Quinn, how can you not like him! (I know he won’t play full games twice, but 1 goal and a few mins in both will be almost worth it), actually I’ll have him on the bench. DO you know what, he’s a pointless buy, so I’m gonan go with a cheap ass striker, as he’ll be sub 2 or 3 anyway. Ebanks-Blake come on down, double gameweek next week (none this week), so I’ll be prepared for that, he is first choice striker in absence of Doyle. (bringing Jarvis & Hennessy for Wolves in for same reason, good to be ready for then)

That’s it then! Probably make 3 transfers next week, I wonder is my wildcard use means my standard transfer credit passes over? Let’s find out!!!

The one problem with wildcard use, is I can keep tweaking it all night, but I do have my son so I’ll hope I’m a focused father!

so here is the list of all my transfers today, the Kitman here at Len Rovers will be up all night stitching the names onto new jerseys.

Theory/Selection

It’s pretty much all explained via the previous section, I’ll pile on my 8 double game week players, and then the only real decision was Walker or Bardsley, both are playing away, so when with the latter just cos I reckon Sunderland need & want to buck up and therefore tighten up the defence, and also while West Ham are scoring as of late, Birmingham still aren’t, so Bardsley has slightly better chance of a clean sheet (even though I do want Gardner to score!)

Will make Lampard captain, due to him and his penalty taking, I bet you ancelotti will feck me over now and ‘rest’ him for one of the games.

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

Stoke V Bolton FA Cup semi final, realistically the loser will go on to have quite a hangover.

Captains Corner with Phergal

doubles ahoy again this weekend, so your captains should be coming from these fixtures.

chelsea have west brom @home, and birmingham away. very tasty indeed. the three stand outs for captain are drogba, lampard and luiz. drog came up short last week, so i'm going for him this week. i would captain lampard if i had him though.

birmingham also have a double, home to sunderland and away to chelsea, i wouldn't be too bothered with that one tbh.

arsenal have a double, but nowhere near as captain friendly as chelseas. I like arsenal @home to liverpool. both sides seem attractive. RVP doing the business last week is an obvious choice. the tricky away fixture then comes against spurs. maybe fab's time to finally shine this season against such strong opposition?

gamble-ish pick - charlie adam @home to wigan, battling for premiership survival, just one point ahead of west ham.

Fantasy Football Preview Week 32

Fantasy Football Preview Week 32

First of all, sorry we didn’t do a blog last game week, Friday completely went awry for me.

State Of Play

1 fucking point more than the average, I was tempted to play my wildcard, and that selection I had in mind wouldn’t have done too much better. I’ve still moved up a place, but still 76 points off the top, I’ll keep going till the fat lady sings. Will be happy with a champions league place.

Vindication

Not much vindication to be fair, none of my hunches paid off. On a real slight point, my goalkeeping choice paid off (Howard only got one point)

D’oh

6 players got three points or less, which was a ball sack of a result. Johnson, the sub number 1, would have got me eight point, that mixed with what I would have got if I had made Van Persie, my captain Len Rovers would be currently sitting in 10^th place.

Questions / Hunch / Drama / Dramatic Narrative before Sky Have Spotted it

All of these are covered in the following section…

Transfers/Selection

Just gonna use my double transfer this week, and next game week it’ll be clear if Chelsea or Utd are in champions league, whoever is out I will use as the spine of my team, it’ll have to be a team built on differentials (as they say in Fantasy Football Scout). So a result my two selections are based on short term, one game week needs. Gonna put my eggs in my basket and go with Sunderland players I reckon, at home against West Brom, after a 5 goal thumping. Luis is defo too.

So in short I made three transfers in Cech in cos Chelsea play 3 times in next two games, I expect a tiny increase in Cech’s price next game week, so might save me .1 or .2 million, and subbed Hart out (can’t see the game with Liverpool being a no score either). Also with Man City not playing next week Hart’s value might suffer an inverse price drop.

I doubt Howard will keep a clean sheet at Wolves either, what with the home team really trying to kick on and avoid relegation, however I’ll keep Baines as his dead ball skills, and associated assists, will surely come into play at that game.

Now with my Sunderland theory, I’ve brought in Bardsley, their best performing defender this season, and since I have him, it’s not in my interest to have Vela score if he does (not that he’s at great form since joining them on loan anyway). My third transfer in (thus incurring a 4 point cost, but if it pays off it’ll more than make up for it) is Danny Welbeck. The other factor is since both those Mackems are English there is a better chance they’ll pick up bonus points.

Theory/Selection

Have decided to build a team simply on first off selecting all my players who are at home, and that leaves me with just Nasri & Van Persie who will be away at Blackpool (that will be a goal fest…. surely). I reckon Villa should do okay against the visiting Newcastle (who are missing Nolan and Leon Best). And while Dempsey could prosper against Man Utd (off hand I think he has a good record against them), once again it would be counter productive for me to have Vidic and Dempsey, one’s success would be negated by the other’s loss of potential points. Maybe this is all trite cos by game week 32 you’ve surely worked out these tendencies anyway.

My Team this week

 

Keeping An Eye On

Everyone is in contention for my new look end of season run-in squad.

Captains Corner with Phergal

two strong fixtures this weekend, Chelsea @home to wigan and arsenal away to blackpool.

i much prefer the chelsea fixture. home game, bounce back from 1-0 defeat to united in champions league, plus the 6-0 annihilation they gave wigan away from home at the start of the season. three candidates spring to mind. drogba, although he has yet to return to the form of old so might be a slight gamble. a resurgent lampard seems a good bet, but who can afford him now if you don't already have him? not me. captain if you have him. and thirdly new golden boy luiz who could nab a clean sheet and an assist or goal quite easily for a nice 10 points. notice how i didn't torres? no one in their rigth mind should even have him in your team at the moment.

arsenal are away and tbh, i actually think it's hard to predict this one. they've been a bit crap lately, squadering chance after chance to pull level with united in the table. RVP is a good bet but are injuries starting to niggle him again? fab and nasri are nice shouts, but wouldn't get you anything spectacular i think. worth a punt.

for a third fixture, how about united @home to fulham? rooney's out so berba good be a good shout. nani too.

Fantasy Football Preview Week 30

Fantasy Football Preview Week 30

Okay, we’re really getting into the throes of the season now eh? Players dropping out dues to injuries related to tiredness, managers getting under pressure, ref getting under double the amount of scrutiny. And we start separating the wheat from the chaff in beloved Fantasy Football.

State Of Play

I’m only 70 points off the top now lads! I managed 60 points when the average was 36 and jumped another 2 places. It would have been one more if not for alphabetical order being kinder to Colin than me.

Vindication

Well baines was my highest performer and I had captained him so that’s good. Funnily enough no one scored that highly for me, but a lot of competitors had backed the wrong horses (let’s hope that form continues, both here and for Cheltenham!)

D’oh

As I said noone really performed, too many players got 3s & 4s. Particularly my double gameweek players.

It’s been a bad gameweek for injuries for me too, Nani & Schezney out for next 6 weeks, so they both have to go, which postpones any tactical changes I had planned to make.

Questions / Hunch / Drama / Dramatic Narrative before Sky Have Spotted it

According to the always handy www.physioroom.com, Man Utd’s injury list has swelled to 10 players out, that’ll have obvious knock on effects on clean sheets. How many more players will be gone (and his stands for all the clubs) after the two internationals between now and next gameweek.

Is this the time for Arsenal to go into overdrive, I decided after Barcelona match that I’d like to Arsenal win the league, but my emotional priority is Len Rovers in out league.

Is this the time to get on the West Ham roller coaster, they are in startling form but there fixture list is horrendous, Spurs, Chelsea and both Manchester teams await in their next 6 games

Can spurs keep their eye on the ball on both fronts. They have the squad to do it, defoe scored his first goals in ages against Spurs, he’s always a fits and bursts striker but can he even be assured of a starting spot anyway?

And is Liverpool, the Suarez show, mister 5 yard hatrick Kuyt AND Carrol to start playing now. Carrol the Geordie could make his full debut against Sunderland

Transfers

Schezney is out for what seems rest of season, and with Hart @ Chelsea, I want to use another keepers. Now I now Chelsea parked the bus at arsenal early this season (if memory serves they didn’t have a single shot, or bother to try), so we can assume that’s what’ll happen at the Bridge this weekend, however Chelsea should be capable of unlocking that defence better than the Arsenal tweeners, due to the fact the pensioners have more than one way of trying to score a goal. And Torres needs to explode soon, scoring a few goals to help The Old New Money leapfrog the The New New Money.

So I’m bringing Howard in, as he looks like he has a relatively easy run of fixtures (the caveat of Everton being terribly unreliable this year hovers over me though). As  a result of that I need to lose an Everton outfield player, so dropping Beckford (whose form this year has encapsulated Everton’s this season) and brining in Van Persie. The reasons are pretty much all here - http://fantasy.premierleague.com/M/pundit.mc

I expect to play my wildcard for next gameweek, as I anticipate injuries from them to buck a few teams up. I have a premonition Spurs will lose a player or two for a few weeks, perhaps Modric or Saint Van Der Vaart.

Also I am biast, but I want a Wolves resurgence happening soon.

Theory/Selection

I’ve hummed and hawed about this and to be honest not sure, and not sure about captain either. I’m veering towards Downing but Nani is in good form and I see any goals against Bolton as a cross or break away. Actually I will go with Downing, cows (a) I need to stick with my differentials policy to catch up on people ahead of me and (b) Pherg also highlights him as a pick of the bunch

My Team this week

 

Keeping An Eye On

More so the injuries next week more so than a specific player

Captains Corner with Phergal

truely awful week last week, finished on 24 points. everyone else seemed to be doing bad tho, so not too disappointed. went from 2nd to 5th in my most competitive league.

some big name injuries this week to add to your woes; nani, fabregas, arteta etc. so they'll be a lot of point deduction transfers shipping them out i'd imagine. try to field an 11 without a points hit and give yourself a 4 point head start on your rivals.

anyway, i like two matched this week, first is man u @home to bolton. i finally got rooney in for berba and will be captaining him myself, murphy's law will apply i'm sure, with berba getting a hat trick. so captain berba and reap some of my misfortune. *sigh*

i like villa @home to wolves, bent, young and downing look nice pics.

i'd be a bit nervous with arsenal away to west brom. no fab, and a RVP not fully fit but who knows, they might bounce back after their exit from the champions league, especially with united tantalisingly close. nasri maybe and rvp if he plays.

Fantasy Football Preview Week 28

Fantasy Football Preview Week 28

Not too shabby I though to myself after the dust settled on Chelski v Man Unsecure-without-Vidic&Ferdinand-playing-together (remind anyone else of a Lethal Weapon style scenario [thinking about that it makes Raphael a Joe Pesci character, or would that be Johnny Evans}). You see I scored 60 points, 17 more than the average. But I think people who have lost interest and don’t tweak their teams anymore, so they have maybe 4 or 5 injured players etc, are skewing the average

State Of Play

I jumped a mammoth 2 places. TWO baby!!! The people ahead of me all got in or around 60 as well ya see.

Vindication

Hmmn, going by the concept of vindication being hunches paying off, nothing is vindicated except the groundbreaking decision to but Nani as captain. I suppose a differential of playing Vela scoring a goal helped since only 0.7% of people have signed him.

D’oh

The other 9 players on my team, I had six players getting 3 points or less. Mad I really hummed and hawed between Ashley Young and Downing last Friday evening, I picked the wrong horse, there was a 6-point difference between the players

Hunch / Drama / Dramatic Narrative before Sky Have Spotted it

I guess Birmingham will have a hangover and dip in form after their amazing exercitations

 In the league cup final (maybe I say again fair play and I’m delighted Stephen Carr lifted that trophy, it will, mark by words, be a trivia question soon)

If there is going to be an amazing run of form for Arsenal, this is their moment. Similarly Everton, but their season is over now, is this gonna be Moyes’ swansong, or a chance to reboot the team for next season [if they could get past the block of their legendary shit starts to each season what could happen them).

But as a counter point, Newcastle face them this weekend (in st james park) and they genuinely have a chance of finishing 6^th, they have one sticky fixture left in their run in.

But this week in specific, Mark Sparky Hughes (well Fulham do!) plays Blackburn, the team where he made his name as a club manager, (interestingly Fulham have quietly put together the best defensive record in the league, yet two of their defenders are in the top 10 defenders)

Transfers

Decided to get rid of three injured players and take an 8-point hit, but since they are all double gameweek players, I should should should make it back

Going against my worry Birmingham will drop form; I reckon Bentley will keep his (after all he’s playing to revive his career and is ‘only’ on loan), so I brought him in for Van Der Vart

Then brought in Beckford, who is slowly finding his feet at Everton, as it would be churlish to bring in brittle bones Saha for brittle muscle Van Persie

Finally brought in dead ball Baines for Martin Kelly, who has flourished under Daglish but is out for a monthish (he’s already on my shortlist for next season. [Yep even now I’m planning]

Theory/Selection

I’ve captained Baines, as he’s playing twice and if he picks up one assist, one clean sheet and a few bonus points that should get him 20 to possibly 25 points, and it’s still and all about differentials for me if I’m gonna make up ground on the 14 teams ahead of me.

With Vidic suspended, I only have 13 players to play with anyway, by virtue of playing my 5 double gameweek players, I now don’t want Vela to score as it would prevent a clean sheet bonus for Johnson, and then I think there’s more in Downing at Bolton than his team mate Walker.

Keeper wise, Szcezesny confidence is gone (alumia played ahead of him in FA CUP), so I’ll go with the stalwarth Hart, who is at home to Wigan

My Team this week

 

Keeping An Eye On

Will the Sturridge steam roll continue, Please Deity no!!!!!

Captains Corner with Phergal

2 doubles this week, Everton and Birmingham, let's take a look at them.

Everton have Newcastle away and @home to Birmingham. To be honest I don't like this double, especially with Cahill out. Arteta then or perhaps saha, but this for me isn't attractive enough to edge out some of the single match contenders who I’ll mention later.

Birmingham have west brom @home and Everton @home. This one looks a bit better, foster or a defender could be a nice safe bet. zigic is risky.

so who else is there? Man city @home to wigan is irresistible; tevez is my pick like many other managers. dzeko still isn't giving me any reason to punt on over carlos.

The always-entertaining Liverpool man u game should give us a few goals. Rooney is in flying form; I’d pick him here. United will be looking to bounce back from the Chelsea defeat. I predict 2-0.

RVP injured has a lot of people running for a replacement. I recommend tevez if you don't already have him or Rooney if you have a bit of spare cash.

Good luck!

Fantasy Football Preview Week 28

Fantasy Football Preview Week 28

Okay the bursts of mega fixtures have come to an end and now it’s back into bleak weeks of looking at 40 or 50 point hauls eh?………

State Of Play

Or this finally my chance to pounce and make up the 99 point deficit between my team, Len Rovers, and the current leaders of The Back Of The Net Boy league, One Horse Race. [Who is not walking away with the trophy (note – there is no trophy), 4 or 5 other teams all in with a shout to win by the end of the season]

Vindication

I made a fine haul 125+ points, but only 5 players got double figures, Van Persie as captain was handy, but if I’d captained Adam I’d snuck a few more points

D’oh

By virtue of having told you 5 players of mine got double points or more, I guess you’ve worked 6 of my players FAILED.

Hunch / Drama / Dramatic Narrative before Sky Have Spotted it

Okay Hughes returns to Eastlands, where would they be now if they’d kept them? Will he get a warm welcome, you can only hope so

Transfers

Bring Stewert Downing in for Adam, as he is suspended for next 2 weeks, part of me wanted to get Andy Reid out stupid Irish pride (but sure I don’t even like sliced pan!!!!)

Theory/Selection

Simply put will play the 10 players of mine who have a game. Nani & Vidic play twice so maybe summat will happen there, but Torres getting his groove back on his aul enemy/bitch Vidic could happen too!

My captain will be Nani and I can only hope he plays both games

My Team this week

 

Keeping An Eye On

My rosary beads

Captains Corner with Phergal

so no premier league fixtures this weekend for arsenal, birmingham and spurs. i imagine many will have lots from these teams due to the doubles last week. i had planned meticulously to have just enough from these teams to enable me to keep them on the bench and field a full 11 this week, but alas, injuries rear their ugly head again, with cahill and adam doubtful.

anyway, man u have the only double in the league this week so obviously the most popular pick for captaincy. nani is the main choice but you won't be making much ground if he delivers as most other serious managers will be captaining him. rooney could be a good shout here too.

if you want to go against the masses and make up some ground in your leagues try: DJ Campbell at wolves, tevez @hom to fulham and suarez @ westham.

Fantasy Football Week 27

(sorry folks i've made a haimes of today so I just can't get a blog done)

so I'll just be posting Pherg's captain corner

just a note on fixtures before the captaincy corner. very tricky few weeks coming up folks, what looked like a lovely double gameweek in gw27 is now fraught with tricky decsions. birmingham, arsenal and spurs offer excellent double gameweek options that people were looking to load up on players and even use their remaining wildcard to max on on those teams. However, due to cup fixtures these three teams now have no fixtures at all in gw28, so you could be left quite a few players short after that. My tactic is the have the minimum amount of players from these clubs while allowing myself a full 11 in gw 28. i.e. gw28 bench will take three arsenal players, and a single transfer will allow me to get 11 starters. so be carefull, i recommend studying the fixture ticker over at www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk before making any rash descisions. also be aware that you have to use your second wildcard before gw27 deadline or you will lose it.

annnnnnnyway, captains. quite open this week. city @home to westbrom looks saucy, tevez and dzeko look set for a few, good picks. arsenal away to newcastle looks good, i'm captaining RVP myself, fab really hasn't showed to much points scoring potential this year. man u away to wolves should also turn up lots of goals, rooney bagged his first brace of the season last week, so now it's a coin toss between him and berba. berba seems to be inconsistent, nothing for a few weeks, then 2/3/4 /5 goals in a single game. I'd pick rooney in this match. those goals will have done wonders for his confidence.

the other interesting game is chelsea at home to pool. will torres start for chelsea against pool? could be very interesting. his replacement on the other side suarez scored on his debut, i'll be watching him carefully. looking for a captain from this match tho? lampard.

gamble picks? n'zogbia @home to blackburn, bent @home to fulham

Fantasy Football Preview Week 25

Fantasy Football Preview Week 25

Wow, I managed a good 119 points, then mister Pherg went off and demolished me, or is it smashed me, transfer window closed last night.

State Of Play

I jumped 20 places this week, BOOOOOOM!

Vindication

I’ll just post my latest points screenshot, backed a lot of the right horses in last week. Vindicates using the wild card I feel.

D’oh

3 players got me 3 points or less, which was the difference between me & Pherg, who I will now try to beat week on week for rest of season. For personal pride

Hunch / Drama / Dramatic Narrative before Sky Have Spotted it

Hunch, gotta be bringing in Carlos Vela, on loan at WBA, he should play each game and 4 favourable fixtures in next 5 (inc one double gameweek) – Wigan, Man City, West Ham, Wolves and Stoke.

Aston Villa have been a bogey team for Man Utd at Old Trafford in last few seasons (remember Macheda bursting on the scene, to rescue them on one occasion). So there might be some craic there. Villa have won their last 3 games and if Bradley does play he’ll have the bit between his teeth (today he says he wants to emulate Roy Keane in the premiership) to make his mark in the stadium of dreams.

Return of Joe Hart to Birmingham, the club where he made his name in the premiership, will he show them what they’re missing (I hope he does, as you’ll see) or will Ben Foster, Hart’s main rival for England Jersey for next 10ish years, show him a trick or two? [in retrospect that makes no sense, will Foster have to score a goal from a kick out or something? Or maybe an injury time equalizer? I love them]

Nothing else exciting really, except will Robbie Keane make an immediate impact? Will Adam lose his focus after being made stay in Blackpool? And will Spurs like it up ‘em up North in Blackburn.

Transfers

Carroll is plummeting in price due to his injury, so I decided to get rid, but once again he is so popular I have get lesser picked players as it’s my only way to actually overtake people, (a risky approach, but feck it, my chance of winning is gone) So I went with Vela, for the reasons I gave there, Vela is also 1.4 million cheaper so gives me a bit to play with. I prefer doing two every second gameweek, but for reasons explained in next section I felt I had to make a transfer today.

I tell a lie, I just spotted Vela hasn’t played in premiership for about 16 games, his fitness might be a little off so I’ll go with Odemwingie

Theory/Selection

Hmmn, both my keepers playing away from home (not in that way m’lord - Libel Ed), so will go with Hart due to Friedal being @ Old Trafford and I’m banking on Nani to perform and get an assist or goalNasri is injured and I’m dropping Walker, for same reason as Friedal (doubt he’d be played anyway). So that only leaves just one player selection, so will drop Coleman as he will be away at Arsenal and I have Van Persie playing, having said that I have Bent and two United Defenders, so if he scores I will in fact lose 4 points, unless utd have already conceded, and then it’ll just be two. Gooood gawd I love the numbers involved with each permutations, if they bring in fractions I’ll go mental!

Will captain Van Persie the man is in form, they are playing at home. Fingers crossed, even though I keep glancing at Dempsey and home to Newcastle, they are in flying form after walloping Spurs 4-0. Fuc* it, I’ll go with the yank. Have to go for non popular decisions.

My Team this week

 

Keeping An Eye On

Here are all the players I’ve written down who moved in last few days, (notice dearth of defenders), who will be all quite cheap. The club in brackets are the ones they’ve just joined

Davies (Birmingham), the well respected defensive central duo at St Andrews has been broken up (Dann is out for rest of season), will Davies step in smoothly? If so, he would be a very tasty acquistion. [***, to be fair it’s obvious is any of these tips work out they’ll be a tasty acqusition, so let’s take such sentences as read in this section, m’kay?]

Bradley (Aston Villa), he impressed at world cup, and Petrov and him could form a very good driving midfield

O’Hara (Wolves), has another loan move from Spurs, he certainly impressed at Portsmouth last season. He must be hungry to play second half of season. Does the revival Wolves hope for revolve around him?

Reid (Blackpool), obviously signed to replace Charlie Adam who didn’t move in the end, so let’s see what transpires, certainly fits in with Holloway’s vision.

Ireland (Newcastle) – the Geordies need a new messiah, is this going to be him? Or just a very naught naughty boy. Leaving obvious hair (or lack of) difference aside, Ireland is not any sort of positional replacement for Liverpool’s new number 9, but still is he there to show what Houllier said is right or wrong.

Bentley (Birmingham) – another right sided Spurs midfielder who wants to shoe ‘Arry what’s what.

Cruz (Blackburn), El Hadj Diouf has snuck off to Rangers for the rest of 2010, so Cruz is clearly the senior striker already. They always say never go back, but since he barely played for Man City, does it even count as leaving in the first place.

Keane (West Ham), this is probably green tinged glassed more so than analythical insight. But I hope he does well and if so he’s only 4.8. He plays Liverpool in 3 gameweeks time, there’s some carrot for performance.

Vela (WBA), I covered him earlier.

Sturridge (Bolton), was supposed to be the next big thing at Stamford Bridge and has found himself to be 5^th choice striker, poor poor lad. Except he’s a millionaire, poor poor lad. I’d like to see him step up and work off Davies (Elamander seems to have gone off the boil and back to the simmer we know for last year and a half)

Gudjohnson (Fulham), proven goalscorer goes to club struggling to score goals. 4.8 Million

Captains Corner with Phergal

wow, what a gameweek last week, berba, torres, adam and dempsey all delivering massive returns as predicted. i hope you took my advice!

anyways, no doubles this week. lot of interest in arsenal for captain picks this week, RVP and Fab are the most likely options. they're at home to everton which doesn't feel like the right match to pick your captain imo.

torres was my pick until yesterday. i still have him in my team but will wait until he settles into the chelsea set up before giving him captaincy's. suarez looks to start for pool @home to stoke, but again, who knows how he'll do.

berba is my pick this week, at home to villas and in wicked form. he looks like the main man for united now, with rooney sometimes playing deeper on the left.

i like odemwingie at home to wigan this week. looks like he's due a goal and is also capable of scoring two. i brought him in for varney this week.

adam is still a blackpool player despite a renewed effort to bring him to anfield and looks like a great pick at home to west ham. although he is said to be upset at blackpool for not going for the transfer, so who knows.