Sunday, October 30, 2011

Prince of Persia Overkilled Chelsea

He crushed Stamford Bridge with his own feet.
8 goals were recorded at Stamford Bridge as Van Persie claimed the match ball in Chelsea's humiliating defeat. Some points worth noting:

  • Van Persie's hat-trick. Simply at a different level. The best striker in the world with unbeatable form. Christiano Ronaldo-esque in fantasy as mentioned before. See his third goal of the game, you'll be left stunned. Surely clubs which aim for him will need to fork out at least £60-70m if Fernando Torres worth £50m.
  • On the other side we saw Mata who performed his playmaker role to the very best. Precise cross for Lampard's opener. Freaking incredible long distance shoot which saw him evade both Song's tackle and Szczesny's hands. Stylish. Pure class.
  • Walcott's speed had maximum utilisation in this game where Chelsea's defensive line was highly pressed up. A power shot which saw Arsenal led for the first time in the game. Good job but his volatility will scare fantasy managers away.
  • Defensively both sides were terrible, although Chelsea's defence is pretty much useless compared to Arsenal's. Walcott running like no one's guarding him for the third goal, Van Persie's hat-trick was due to Terry's ridiculous slip... Just sell Bosingwa and any other Chelsea's defenders.
  • Gervinho is forming an incredible partnership with captain RvP. His unselfishness for Arsenal's first goal deserves a big applause.
Surely now the league will slowly become a two-horse race between the Manchesters, and the last two tickets to Champions League will be wide open with Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal, Liverpool and Newcastle all aiming for the hot seats.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Kick-Off: Gameweek 10 Fantasy Preview

Suarez with a wonderful curl in Carling Cup against Stoke.

Overview
A very exciting League Cup should be expected as five of the Premier League giant clubs, namely Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal have all progressed to the last eight of the tournament. With so many clubs capable of challenging titles in Premier League, surely every cup counts - expect intense competition even if this is just Carling Cup.

Game of the Week: CHELSEA v ARSENAL
Will there an immediate
impact by El Nino?
Timed to perfection? Chelsea, who seemed to struggle with their form recently, will station at Stamford Bridge to await the challenge from fellow neighbours Arsenal, who are slowly rebounding from their catastrophic season start.

The Blues will be without Drogba who was suspended on last game, but will welcome the return of £50mil Fernando Torres, Ashley Cole and Jose Bosingwa who are all released from suspension. Surely FT9 will pair up with red hot Sturridge to shatter the Gunners' fragile defence.

Defensive wise, Chelsea are obviously struggling at the moment and playing against on form Van Persie certainly would not help them. Van Persie's 30 goals in last 36 games for Arsenal surely is something, and he's got better record on the road as well. Big trouble surely for Terry and co.

At the middle of the field Chelsea will have some slight edge with Lampard, Mata, Ramires (doubtful) and Meireles all available to crush the Gunners defence. It does wonder me whether the midfield composed of Arteta, Ramsey, Song and possibly Benayoun will be able level them.

On the back of Arsenal only Szczesny can be counted, so I am really looking forward for a big scoreline by both sides. A big scoring draw, if not a narrow victory by Chelsea.

Prediction: CHE 3-2 ARS
Pick: Torres, Sturridge, Van Persie, Mata, Meireles
Avoid: Defence


Fantasy Game of the Week: MANCHESTER CITY v WOLVES
David Silva is simply unstoppable.
When one team is capable of winning 6-1 at Old Trafford, surely it's irresistible to feature it almost every week in this column. And that's Manchester City.

The Blue Moon have just demolished their forthcoming visitors 5-2 in Carling Cup encounter with their team B, and you can only expect team A which composed of Silva, Aguero and Balotelli to do even better.

Mick McCarthy will probably try to hold them off with "park the bus" tactic, but with a very different team to face compared to days ago, it probably will be too hard to them to sustain all the attacks especially when there Silva and Aguero are both very good in dribbling across stubborn defences.

The points ceiling for the players might be low with Mancini's mind surely on for the coming Champions League encounter, but still it's a risk worth taking. Captain Silva, Aguero or Balotelli if you have any.

Prediction: MCI 4-0 WOL
Pick and Captain: Silva, Aguero, Balotelli
Pick: MCI defence, Milner
Avoid: WOL defence


Pick and Drop
Pick and Captain:
  1. Van der Vaart/ Adebayor - Hosting against QPR without goalssssss? Hard to imagine.
Pick:
  1. Suarez - The floodgate opened? Well he just scored over one goal in a single game for the first time this season, good sign.
  2. Pilkington/ Morison - One thing that Blackburn never fails to do is leaking goals.
  3. Rooney - Surely he wanted a rebound from slump even if it's against his mother club.
Avoid:
  1. BLA defence - Never trust them. And I mean NEVER.
  2. EVE defence - Man Utd are surely finding a sandbag.
  3. QPR defence - Leaked 6 goals last time on the road.

Transfer Traffic
Green light (buy):
  1. Adebayor/ Van der Vaart - Two of them will take up over 60% of Tottenham's goals.
  2. Aguero/ Silva/ Balotelli - All on form.
  3. Cleverley - With Fletcher and Anderson doing poorly last week he is set for an immediate start in the centre of the park.
  4. Walters - Very very influential in the attack of Stoke.
  5. Graham - Ultra cheap 3rd forward with form at the moment.
Yellow light (watch):
  1. Torres - Still not trustworthy until he proves consistency and discipline.
  2. A Young/ Nani - Losing some form currently.
  3. Best - Offensive influence has been taken over by Ba.
Red light (sell):
  1. Long - Injured.
  2. Drogba - Suspended.
  3. Bannan - Suspended by club following his drink-drive incident.
  4. Rio Ferdinand/ Evans - Terrible defensive form.

Gameweek 10 Dream Team
Begovic
Kompany -- Walker -- Enrique
Silva -- Van der Vaart (VC) -- Sinclair -- Pilkington
Suarez -- Aguero (C) -- Adebayor
Subs: Vorm -- Cleverley -- Barnett -- Brown

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Cruising City: Gameweek 9 Fantasy Review

"Why always me?" Balotelli just never stops creating chaos. Both on
and off the pitch.
Manchester United 1-6 Manchester City
MUN: Never can I imagine there'll be worse loss than Liverpool 4-1 demolition of Old Trafford to United. BUT the calamitous performance by United defenders has successfully renewed such embarrassing record.

The biggest question is of course "Why Johnny Evans but not Vidic or Jones?" Always and always I rate Jones as the best youngsters on the back among the young blood of Red Devils. Evans? Obviously the worst. And he just did it again.

The decision to not sub Phil Jones in immediately after Evans' red card is yet another disastrous decision. No matter how good Ferdinand is it's impossible for him to guard two forwards altogether - and Ferdinand was poor, if not terrible. That's just ridiculous.

To sum it up it's really the rare bad tactical decisions by Sir Alex Ferguson that made the team looked awfully awful.

MCI: Play calmly and shown resolute defence before the red. Tackles were timed to perfection and Richards has really locked Young very well. He did well up front too.

All three of Aguero, Dzeko and Balotelli scored. The latter is showing some exceptional form despite having just burned his home recently. However, with the habit of Mancini to keep his forwards when he's sure of victory, their fantasy ceilings will be affected.

Silva as usual is the most consistent and important performer for the team, so grab him quickly before he becomes unaffordable.

Pick: Aguero, Balotelli, Silva, Richards
Drop: Ferdinand, Evans


QPR 1-0 Chelsea
QPR: Surprise surprise! QPR won but did they really play well? For sure not!

They are up by two men before half time and yet? It was Chelsea who's more adventurous and nearer to the second goal of the game.

All I can say is disgrace to Neil Warnock's team. When you are two men more than you opponent you should attack like a monster. Not only the didn't, they are struggling to defend in the second half.

Worth noting though is the fact that Helguson somehow squeezed through the starting XI and is capitalising his chances well.

CHE: Nothing much to comment as two red cards had effectively limited their performance.

Drogba's red pretty much mean that Sturridge's position in starting XI is almost certain, while Bosingwa's red should give chance to Luiz. Unfortunately, the Blues are struggling to keep a clean sheet lately and thus making Luiz not worthy as a fantasy defender.

Pick: Sturridge
Watch: Helguson
Drop: Bosingwa, Drogba


Liverpool 1-1 Norwich
LIV: They got 20+ shots and yet only a goal - finishing ability remains a big problem for Dalglish to be solved. Suarez just never stops wasting chances - that has to be stopped.

The team certainly needs a layoff man like Zamora and Carroll's inability to blend into the team certainly won't help.

NOR: Pilkington assisted this time as the young man continued to impress. Holt scored his second goal of the season surprisingly and I do wonder whether he is a big game guy.

Watch: Suarez, Pilkington


Arsenal 3-1 Stoke City
ARS: It's really all about Van Persie at this team. The captain came from the bench to decide the game with two goals. Incredible. Unbelievable. C Ronaldo-esque fantasy performance.

Ramsey is as productive as always and should be bought as direct replacement for Arteta who played to deep to score. Gervinho is good as well up front for setting up both Van Persie's goals. Great attacking selections at Arsenal.

STO: The team just never stops revolving around Walters in offence. Their sluggish away form just couldn't improve, however.

Pick: Van Persie, Ramsey, Gervinho, Walters


Fulham 1-3 Everton
FUL: Not their day really with Zamora missed a golden chance.


EVE: 16 points from Drenthe from his first Premier League start. He certainly looked must more offensive than I had imagined and is set to become a hot fantasy bargain.

Pick: Drenthe


***I am not giving full game by game reviews as I am very busy recently.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Kick-Off: Gameweek 9 Fantasy Preview

Aguero returns wonderfully.
Overview
Both Manchester clubs have finally earned themselves their first victory in Champions League group stage respectively as they set for the first grand match of the season at Old Trafford in this coming Sunday. A pretty good Champions League midweek for Premier League clubs in fact as all four participants won. Rooney, Aguero, Ramsey and Torres (still not available) were the big man from respective teams.

Game of the Week: MANCHESTER UNITED v MANCHESTER CITY
Can De Gea pass the second
test after passing the first one
against Liverpool?
The first decisive game that can alter the direction where the Premier League trophy will go at May next year. Manchester United will take on the challenge against league leader and also their "noisy neighbours" Manchester City at Old Trafford.

City are really cementing themselves as a giant club currently, sealing 22 from possible 24 league points so far. The money spent by the Sheikhs has really given them incredible squad depth - players like Balotelli and Adam Johnson can easily make it through the starting XI of any other Premier League clubs, but yet they sit on City's bench frequently.

Silva and Nasri will continue to act as the dual-core processor at City - their supplies will be the very crucial factor in determining the outcome for City at Old Trafford. Aguero, who just scored the winning goal for City coming on through bench, shall give some hard time to United's defence.

The host Manchester United are doing fine too this season, but their form has dipped a bit recently. A lucky win against Norwich plus a difficult draw against Liverpool clearly shown that they are starting to struggle as the fixtures get more compact for them.

Rooney will lead the line as usual with Nani and Young providing the width. But will they play 4-5-1 or 4-4-2 against the ever threatening City? Hard to tell.

Vidic will really have to be in 100% focus if he starts. He has bad discipline history in big games (remember the red card hat-trick against Liverpool) so he simply has to be more alert about that.

I would have gone for a home victory a week ago, but the recent performance by United simply doesn't give me the confidence for that. Mancini has quite a chance to break United's 100% Premier League home record.

Prediction: MUN 1-1 MCI
Pick: Rooney, Aguero


Fantasy Game of the Week: QPR v CHELSEA
Meireles surely hopes to lock in
a first team place at Chelsea.
Sure, Liverpool are at home against Norwich, but with Norwich on form and Liverpool not so solid on the back so far, I'll rather go with Chelsea who just won 5-0 in the Champions League.

Torres scored more than one goal for the first time for Chelsea but is still unavailable for this week's Premier League action. No worries though, as both Sturridge and Drogba are more than ready to fill the Spaniard's boots, with on form Meireles providing the supplies behind them.

Lampard and Mata are perhaps the most safe player to start, but you do need to pay some good premiums for them (Lampard is super expensive and Mata don't seem to have a high ceiling yet). Ramires' injury has certainly paved a way to Meireles for a sure-starter, so you should really consider him who comes at a much cheaper price.

Defensively I still don't trust Terry and co, so it's really the Blues' attackers who matter.

Prediction: QPR 1-3 CHE
Pick and Captain: Sturridge, Meireles, Lampard
Pick: Mata
Drop: QPR defence, Ramires


Pick and Avoid
Pick and Captain:
  1. Suarez/Adam/Gerrard - Against Norwich it's always a good choice to pass the armband any one of them.
  2. Adebayor/Van der Vaart - They are against one of the worst defence of the league.
  3. Van Persie - A no-brainer for his form.
  4. Demba Ba - Scored 5 goals in 3 games and should score again against Wigan.
Pick:
  1. Ramsey - Good form.
  2. Best - Form is not as good as Ba.
  3. Agbonlahor - Never fails to shine.
  4. NEW defence - Rock solid.
Avoid:
  1. NOR defence - Don't think they can escape from Anfield with no damages on the back.
  2. BLA players - Awful all the way.

Transfer Traffic
Green light (buy):

  1. Van der Vaart/Adebayor - Both are dictating Tottenham's offence.
  2. Ba - Newcastle are playing extremely fine with him the key player upfront.
  3. Ramsey - Cheap and productive.
Yellow light (watch):
  1. Pilkington - Not really a good time to bring him in despite the form.
  2. Adam - Watch whether he will be sacrificed to make way for Gerrard.
  3. Arteta - Playing too deep.
Red light (sell):
  1. Dzeko - Out of favour.
  2. Downing - Played decently but somehow failed to contribute anything up till now.

Gameweek 9 Dream Team
Krul
Enrique -- Warnock -- R Taylor
Adam -- Van der Vaart -- Ramsey -- Meireles(VC)
Suarez -- Adebayor(C) -- Ba
Subs: Vorm -- Eagles -- Assou-Ekkoto -- Boyata

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Stevie G Is Back: Gameweek 8 Fantasy Review

Nothing is feeling better than to score a goal after returning t the
starting XI for the first time in over 6 months.
Liverpool 1-1 Man Utd
LIV: They must be blaming themselves for not taking care of their rivals. They did play well, especially in the last 10 minutes of the game, but the finishing was basically... sucks. Until Andy Carroll hit the expectations on him Liverpool will continue to struggle with this fact.

Adam played extremely well - one of the best game I've seen so far, and is WITH Gerrard on the field. No coexist problems. Great sign to hold him, and certainly bad sign for Carroll.

MUN: Ferguson benched most of his aces - while it's understandable, it's surprising as their opponent is none other than Liverpool. Played overly defensive in my opinion as they were pressed by Liverpool throughout the game.

Welbeck and Chicharito combined for the equaliser. Both are good but I can't see them on the field together frequently with Rooney certainly will dominate one of the two starting forward spots.

Pick: Adam, Welbeck, Chicharito
Watch: Gerrard


Man City 4-1 Aston Villa
MCI: Splendid even without starting Silva, Nasri and Dzeko. Balotelli played an important part in it with an instinctive bicycle kick. Talented but fierce competition upfront will continue to limit his playing time as Aguero returns.

Same goes to Adam Johnson and Milner. Cheap in fantasy, super productive, but will spend a lot of time on the bench.

Captain Kompany scored a goal and a bonus. Still the best City defender to own in my opinion.

AST: Outclassed by Man City. Agbonlahor got a good one-on-one chance but somehow failed to score. His speed and form should continue to produce more fantasy scores though.

Warnock scored the consolation and had another good chance before that. But don't get blind to own him as Villa's defence is not as solid as expected.

Pick: Kompany, Agbonlahor
Watch: Warnock, Balotelli


Norwich 3-1 Swansea
NOR: Great game by Pilkington and Morrison after they squandered so many chances at Old Trafford last week. Pilkington certainly has good finishing. Holt can only blame himself after failing to impress. He lead scorer last season really has no place to stand currently.

SWA: Scott Sinclair continued his fine form as he assisted one for Danny Graham who scored in two games in a row. Both deserve to be monitored.

Pick: Sinclair
Watch: Pilkington, Morrison, Graham


QPR 1-1 Blackburn
QPR: Two rather unpopular players (Helguson and Mackie) combined for the goal. Nothing much to tell here.

BLA: 11 points for Samba, but you must be gutted to pick him based on just one game.

Stoke 2-0 Fulham
STO: Britannia continues to become an untouchable stadium. I believe that owning a Stoke defender (or more) is a must at this point. Shawcross and Begovic are the best choices.

In terms of offence, it's heavily focused on Walters and Etherington - nothing much to confuse you once you've decided to pick a Stoke attackers.

FUL: Not very similar to the level they played last week. Perhaps due to the frightening Britannia's aura.

Pick: Etherington, Shawcross, Walters, Begovic


Wigan 1-3 Bolton
WIG: Al-Habsi's owners must feel happy as the stopper picked up 8 points thanks to his fantastic performance which includes a penalty save.

Having said that, nothing else in Wigan has really impressed me.

BOL: N'gog is showing some great football here with a goal and a foul which earned Bolton a missed penalty. Give him some more time and he might push Klasnic away from starting XI.

The same goes for Eagles. He overpowered Wigan on his own feet. Tremendous.

Pick: Eagles
Watch: Al-Habsi, N'gog
Avoid: WIG players


Chelsea 3-1 Everton
CHE: Sturridge has once again become the key man to the victory. Incredible. Ramires scored one too as he continued to provide good fantasy return with his great runs.

No clean sheets again - Bosingwa owners will surely be frustrated.

EVE: Osman played some good football there. Drenthe was more offensive than what I'd expected. And Vellios' 2 goals in just merely 35 minutes of Premier League exposure is just admirable.

Pick: Sturridge, Ramires, Mata
Watch: Vellios, Drenthe, Osman


West Brom 2-0 Wolves
WBA: Clean sheet are never bad but I doubt people will actually pick their defenders.

Brunt was the main man of the show as he finally showed the display of a key offensive midfielder should have.

WOL: They lost for 5 consecutive games after a great league opening. Big troubles, big confidence crisis.

Get rid of them.

Pick: Brunt
Watch: Odemwingie
Avoid: WOL players


Arsenal 2-1 Sunderland
ARS: Hail captain Van Persie for his great all-round performance. A quick opening goal and a free kick goal are enough for the victory.

But the team in general are still very disappointing - the cohesion is not good enough.

SUN: Seb Larsson scored through a free kick as he once again shown why spot kick takers are worth to be held in your team.

Pick: Van Persie, Larsson


Newcastle 2-2 Tottenham
NEW: Rock solid. I certainly like the way they play. Dominated despite not earning 3 points.

It's also a must to hold a Newcastle defender or goalkeeper at this point, and I think Krul is the best choice.

Ba scored 5 in 3. From a possible flop at gameweek 1 he has developed into a monstrous presence.

TOT: Hail those who didn't drop Adebayor as he started and earned 8 points after being classified as doubtful before the game.

Van der Vaart and Defoe were the usual suspects again, nothing too surprising.

Pick: Ba, NEW defence, Adebayor, VdV
Watch: Defoe

Friday, October 14, 2011

Kick-Off: Gameweek 8 Fantasy Preview

Wayne Rooney lost his cool for England. Can he control his temper
against Manchester United and Everton's arch-rival Liverpool?
Overview
A long break for the UEFA Cup qualifier with England confirmed a spot in the finals. But Wayne Rooney's red card certainly is a blow for England as it means that he will possibly miss all the group stage of the European's top national tournament. Worries for Capello then.

This gameweek is certainly another good period to use your wildcard. With players like Adebayor and Aguero gone doubtful/injured and players like Nani and Nasri who are both on form, I would advise you to use the wildcard without hesitation should you need it.

Game of the Week: LIVERPOOL v MANCHESTER UNITED
Luis Suarez to whack
Man Utd again?
Nothing in England is greater than this derby. Manchester United, who knocked Liverpool off their perch on May this year, will seek for a victory to push themselves further in front of their arch-rivals in terms of the number of top-flight league trophies.

The Red Devils are definitely having an extremely fine league run, scoring 19 league points out of 21 which include an astonishing 8-2 victory against Arsenal. Rooney is setting his sight for the Golden Boot definitely, with Hernandez and Welbeck competing to become the ace's partner. All three are studs if start.

On the midfield we have Ashley Young and Nani who are both constant threat to any defence. Martin Kelly (whom I prefer over Glen Johnson in this game) and Jose Enrique will need to be 100% (or perhaps 110%) focus to stop them from attacking. Not to be forgotten is Valencia who can deliver precise cross for the forwards to deal the finishing blow.

On the other side, Suarez will want to repeat his feat on the same game last season as he is definitely the most threatening player to Manchester United. His mazy runs should be dealing hell lots of troubles for United's defence led by Phil Jones and co.

The most anticipated one if of course the return of Steven Gerrard to the starting XI after a hell long 7 months. Can he bring instant impact and kiss the camera again like last time at Old Trafford? Big answer to fill in.

I think United's form will match Anfield's home advantage. It can go anywhere, but I'm going in for a scoring draw.

Prediction: LIV 2-2 MUN
Pick: Rooney, Nani, Suarez


Fantasy Game of the Week: MANCHESTER CITY v ASTON VILLA
Edin Dzeko is hopeful to regain
his starting spot.
The top pack teams are all facing tricky oppositions this week, but let's focus on Mancini's squad which will host on form Villa at Etihad Stadium.

Attacking options are becoming much easier at City as Aguero suffers an injury - Dzeko should become Mancini's first choice forward. Balotelli may or may not start depending on Mancini's tactics, while Nasri should accompany Silva to supply the forward(s) after showing some magnificent form both in club and country.

On the other hand, Agbonlahor continues to be McLeish's strongest chip to steal some points from one of the joint leaders of the league as his speed and confidence should give some hard time to Kompany and co.

Given will be eager for a payback to his former club, but City's strength and home advantage will be too strong for him to protect his square.

Prediction: MCI 2-0 AST
Pick and Captain: Silva, Dzeko
Pick: Nasri




Pick and Avoid
Pick:

  1. Ramsey - Playing in a more advanced role than Arteta.
  2. Sturridge - Cheap and promising.
  3. Sinclair - Starting to shine.
  4. QPR players - Blackburn are pathetic enough for them to bounce back.
  5. Odemwingie, Long - Should be getting goals at home.
Avoid:
  1. Aguero, Adebayor - Doubtful.
  2. Sagna - Long term injury.

Transfer Traffic
Green light (buy):
  1. Ramsey - Cheap and fruitful.
  2. Nasri - On hot streak.
  3. Dzeko - Set for sure start.
 Yellow light (watch):
  1. A Young - Form is dipping.
  2. Sturridge - See if he starts most of the time.
  3. Andrew Johnson - See whether he hits his high.
Red light (sell):
  1. Aguero - People are dumping him.

Gameweek 8 Dream Team
Hart
Enrique -- A Ferdinand -- Bosingwa
Silva (C) -- Nani -- Ramsey -- SWP (VC) -- M Petrov
Dzeko -- Odemwingie
Subs: Vorm -- A Johnson -- Shawcross -- Tamas

Monday, October 3, 2011

Lampard's Return: Gameweek 7 Fantasy Review

Three goals - the perfect way to shut doubters' mouth.
Bolton 1-5 Chelsea
BOL: Another morale sapping defeat. Bogdan had a nightmarish game with several "state-of-the-art" saves. Several sparkling attacks from Petrov and Eagles, but in general they were overwhelmed.


CHE: Cool Lampard hat-tricked in style. Just when people (including me) started to forget him, the talisman of Chelsea made himself noticeable again in the most effective way. A display of great positioning.

Sturridge was the other architect who paved way for the emphatic win, who also almost hat-tricked. Great skill, great attitude to not celebrate against his former club. Chelsea did have abundance of attacking talents.

Defensively they need to improve on set pieces - certainly the dead spot of the Blues.

Pick: Lampard, Sturridge
Drop: BOL defence


Tottenham 2-1 Arsenal
TOT: Not a very convincing display, but good enough to win a derby game. I like the way Adebayor and Van der Vaart combined - lethal. In fact VdV's lovely goal was set by Ade. Given more time, I think both of them are fantasy musts given their superb figure of shots per game. Goal machines.

Kyle Walker scored a stunner, but as a defender I can't see how is he going to get a decent number of clean sheets from offensive-minded Tottenham.

ARS: Another sad case of complete control, and lost in the end. Arteta somehow played too deeply - hardly any offensive influence. It was Ramsey who surged forward more frequently, and shot a powerful equaliser. Good lad but not convincing enough as of yet, even with such low price (£6.3m).

I like the way Song played, but he is certainly not prolific enough to gain my love for him in my fantasy squad.

Pick: Adebayor, VdV
Watch: Ramsey, Walker


Everton 0-2 Liverpool
EVE: They certainly didn't deserve to lose under such unfortunate circumstances. Bad refereeing had costed them a player named Rodwell. Not quite impressive in terms of attack though.

I like Drenthe's potential. Given more playing time, he could produce some impressive feat.

LIV: Carroll broke his duck with a nice volley - still too early to say that he will return to his Newcastle's form though. Suarez continued to provide consistency despite limited upside potential.

The most impressive man was Enrique though who popped out with 11 points thanks to his good performance at both ends. Even if Liverpool can't keep too much of clean sheets this season, his good crosses will ensure that he will still score points that match his asking price.

Pick: Enrique, Suarez
Watch: Carroll, Drenthe, Kelly


Aston Villa 2-0 Wigan
AST: Gabby. You simply need to have him. Agbonlahor at Villa is like Rooney at Manchester United - ace status, prolific scoring, English. I love (seriously love) how he raped Wigan's defenders with his fastest legs of Premier League. At £7.0m it's a very ridiculous decision to not own him.

Bent scored too, but clearly at the moment people will only talked about Agbonlahor who is more all-rounded than him. The more interesting man is Bannan though - his long range bombs are threatening.

WIG: Simply got overpowered by Aston Villa. Defensively they are hardly trustworthy anyway averaging 2.5 goals conceded per game over the last 4 games.

Pick: Agbonlahor
Watch: Bannan
Drop: WIG defence


Blackburn 0-4 Manchester City
BLA: Blasted yet again as fans were holding "Kean Out" banner throughout the game. Nothing to be positive about as I place them in the first place to relegate this season.

MCI: Aguero was injured - BIG, BAD news. Fortunately it's international break coming right up and he should feature in City's next league game. The bigger concern for fantasy managers of course, is the possibility of his price drop.

Nasri dictated the whole game after replacing Kun. 1 goal plus 2 assists certainly proved to be too much for bench midfielder. Superb.

Balotelli's should had gotten 3-4 goals if he didn't waste those chances. Great prospect if Mancini decides to bring down Dzeko as third choice striker after the Serbian's dissent with his decision to sub him off during Champions League tie against Bayern.

Pick: Nasri, MCI defence, Silva
Watch: Balotelli
Drop: BLA players


Manchester United 2-0 Norwich
MUN: One of the luckiest game of the world as United opened their season with close to perfect 19 points out of possible 21. Team was rather disjointed. If not for Norwich's unbelievably poor decision making ability the Red Devils' exposed back should had lost. Credits to Welbeck though with his impact coming from the bench. He should pose huge threat to my favourite Chicharito.

NOR: Terribly terrible. They had about 4-5 clear cut chances and yet failed to score even one because of their amateur like judgement. It's a very simple philosophy: whoever is at a better chance to score, don't hesitate to pass. They didn't follow that, and thus the defeat. Paul Lambert should prepare for a big lecture to them.

Watch: Welbeck, Pilkington


Sunderland 2-2 West Brom
SUN: Nicklas Bendtner's game. Strong presence. If not for him, they wouldn't be able to level after a shocking 2-goal trail in the first 5 minutes. Not so sure about his value of money though with so many even better forwards to choose from.

WBA: They squandered a dream start. Long continued to impress though after scoring his third goal of the season. However, just like Bendtner, there're too many talents upfront.

Watch: Bendtner, Long


Wolves 1-2 Newcastle
WOL: Played well, but just couldn't penetrate five-star Krul. Just as usual, it was Doyle, Fletcher, Jarvis and O'Hara who manipulate the attacks.

NEW: Godlike Krul. Extremely entertaining just like how Begovic held off Liverpool few weeks ago. Stunning defence.

Offensive wise, Ba scored in two consecutive matches, with Cabaye the provider. Both are revealing more potential as the season progresses.

Pick: NEW defence, Ba
Watch: Cabaye, O'Hara

Fulham 6-0 QPR
FUL: Andy Johnson! 10 out of 10 for the English as he dictated the demolition after scoring a brace at Europa League just days ago. Swift run, great positioning, and most importantly, ruthless shots. He does intrigue me why Martin Jol buy Bryan Ruiz and Orlando Sa when he got one of the best local partnership already?

Not to be forgotten is Zamora who played the layman role perfectly. And I mean perfect. He just never got selfish throughout the game and always make chances for his teammates to score. Professional. Salute.

Dempsey also scored 1, but it was really aforementioned strikers who combined and took them to cloud nine.

QPR: Sluggish defending. Paddy Kenny certainly needs to be replaced with his amateurish display.

Pick: A. Johnson, Zamora
Watch: FUL defence
Drop: QPR defence


Swansea 2-0 Stoke City
SWA: Scott Sinclair scored once again through the spot - the first one to fly in the Prem against his Championship rivals Taarabt and Holt.

Danny Graham scored too, but I still don't see his value.

STO: Unlucky day for them as they were stopped by the post and Vorm.

Pick: Sinclair
Watch: Graham, Dyer, Walters