Kick-Off: Gameweek 29 Fantasy Preview

Di Matteo saved Premier League's pride by progressing to
quarter finals of Champions League.

Overview
Liverpool's 3-0 victory over Everton certainly salvaged many double gameweek gamblers. Gerrard got a whopping 22 point gameweek thanks to his hat-trick, while Suarez provided 2 assists to score 14 points. Defenders like Skrtel and Enrique got a clean sheet too. Those who bought them certainly won't be disappointed, although they might expect more.

Meanwhile, Chelsea progressed through the last eight of Champions League in the expense of Napoli after extra time. Di Matteo is certainly on the run now as the new Chelsea coach, having won all games since he took over. Chelsea's players definitely should be on your radar by now.

Game of the Week: MANCHESTER CITY v CHELSEA

Frank Lampard: The
evergreen ace.

The greatest test for Di Matteo so far as they visit to Etihad Stadium to salvage their Champions League chance next season.

The former Italian international is rejuvenating the Blues at the moment, as Roman Abramovich's army won in all games under his charge. People are being reminded of Mourinho's era with him - resolute defense, strength battle and aerial advantage all reappeared under Di Matteo.

Senior players like Lampard and Drogba should lead the team again after a fantastic performance against Napoli. Huge pressure for City then, which will be without captain Kompany who is fantastic in positioning.

On the other side, City are losing grip in this concluding stage of the season, suffering two consecutive defeats at Europa League and Premier League. Aguero is unable to show us the super Aguero at the opening stage of the season, while Silva's form is also pretty woeful and has already been overtaken by Dempsey in terms of fantasy scores.

It will be a tough game to call, but as long as Chelsea continues to play Mourinho's style of football, I believe City will slip points again and hand the title to United.

Prediction: MCI 1-1 CHE
Pick: Lampard, Drogba
Drop: MCI defence


Fantasy Game of the Week: WOLVES v MANCHESTER UNITED

Rooney still has hopes
for Golden Boot.

Tottenham are facing Stoke at home but we all know how they struggled recently. Hence I will turn my head to Molineux - where league leaders Manchester United will visit to this week.

Wayne Rooney scored both goals in their victory against West Brom last week. The forward has 20 league goals now and still has chance to pressure Robin Van Persie (25 goals) in the golden boot race. Great motivation then, apart from grabbing the 20th league title for Manchester United.

Another man on form is Rooney's compatriot Ashley Young. The former Aston Villa's ace has got 26 fantasy points in his last two games and is expected to continue such fine run to demolish Wolves. Certainly a tough time for Wolves defenders to mark them both.

I am 50-50 about United's likelihood of a clean sheet, but nevertheless having at least one of the duo mentioned above is a must at this stage. Victory for Red Devils.

Prediction: WOL 0-2 MUN
Pick and Captain: Rooney, Young
Drop: WOL defence


Pick and Drop
Pick and Captain:

• Van Persie - An automatic choice.
• Ba/ Cisse - Norwich's defensive history makes them mouth-watering choices.
• Gerrard - The captain is inspirational.
• Suarez - He will make QPR defenders look silly.
• Dempsey/ Pogrebnyak  - The partnership is impressive.

Pick:

• Bale - Still reliable, but not reliable enough to be captained.
• LIV defence - QPR's attack shouldn't be tough for them.

Drop:

• STO defence - Tottenham is not expected to disappoint their fans.
• EVE defence - No one stops RvP.
• QPR defence - To stop both Gerrard and Suarez is not easy.

Transfer Traffic

Green light (buy):

• Young/ Rooney - On their high.
• Gerrard - In his cheapest price in these few years and still has skills.
• Suarez - Points are assured with Gerrard around.

Yellow light (watch):

• Bale/ Adebayor - Lacking consistencies at the moment.
• Cleverley  - Returned finally and we shall see how he cope with in these few gameweeks.

Red light (sell):

• Silva/ Aguero - Not in form and subject to heavy rotation.
• Kompany - Injured.

Gameweek 29 Dream Team

Schwarzer

Evans -- Skrtel -- Assou-Ekkoto

Dempsey -- Gerrard (VC) -- Young -- Lampard

Rooney (C) -- Van Persie -- Suarez

Subs: Al-Habsi -- Moses -- Simpson -- Cuellar

Kick-Off: Gameweek 2 Fantasy Preview

One for two: Joey Barton (right) will be hated by all Arsenal fans following his great
"performance" for making both Alex Song and Gervinho match-banned for three games.

Overview
Only three games ended with difference on gameweek 1 and that was a rather boring season opener for Premier League. It was also a very turbulent fantasy season opener as well due to the massive technical problem and also the lack of production in terms of goals.

One thing worth noting is that two Arsenal players involved in Barton's incidents will be banned for next three games, namely Song and Gervinho. Be sure to KICK THEM OUT of your squad.

Also, The Scout at FPL official website now offers some good piece of information - it is now a very helpful guide compared to past pundits which have little use. Be sure to read that apart from fantasy blogs.

And most importantly, remember that you have UNLIMITED TRANSFERS this week so utilize this to your very best.

On EA Sports Index
Still has little information about the distribution of points, but it does seem like goals have a strong weight in determining the points. My assumption is that each goal gives approximately 10 EA points or even more - otherwise Aguero won't be sitting at the top comfortably.

Is Modric suffering from a groin
injury or forcing a transfer?

Game of the Week: MAN UTD v TOTTENHAM
In any ordinary day I would put Arsenal v Liverpool as the game of the week, but I guess all of you know how much of disadvantages Arsenal is having at this time.

That's why I am more interested in Tottenham's upcoming first Premier League game of the season - a visit to Old Trafford. Spurs have been historically poor against the Red Devils, losing all 6 past meetings with the Manchester side at Old Trafford. However, following United's injury crises at the back and De Gea's dismal display, the London team starred by Van der Vaart has the chance to break the duck.

Offensively I think both sides will leak - stay away from defenders. Van der Vaart is the obvious and the safest pick from Tottenham, followed by Bale. Playmaker Luka Modric is doubtful due to groin injury - stay away from him.

As for the Red Devils, Rooney, Young and Nani are still the best selections from the team, with Cleverly the cheap access point from the defending champions. I am looking for a goals galore here, with the home side the victor.

Prediction: MUN 3-1 TOT
Pick and captain: Rooney
Pick: Young, Nani, Cleverly, Van der Vaart
Drop: Modric, ALL defence

Much expectations on Fernando
Torres after the Spaniard have a
good game finally with Chelsea.

Fantasy Game of the Week: CHELSEA v WEST BROM

After a disappointing Premier League debut at Britannia Stadium, Andre Villas-Boas is surely determined to get three points this weekend at Stamford Bridge against West Brom.

AVB made a surprising decision last week against Stoke by dropping Drogba and starting the "thought-to-be-out-of-form" Torres. More surprisingly though was the fact that Torres actually played pretty well despite not scoring any goals. If you want some fantasy differential I think he is the man for you this week. I just have a feeling that he will score.

Mikel is expected to be out following the kidnap of his father - it remains a mystery who will fill his spot. There is also a big question mark on the defending line: will AVB favour for Bosingwa for his offensive ability from the back and sacrifice Ivanovic/ David Luiz for him? I expect this to be answered this week with Ivanovic deemed to be fit (Luiz is still unavailable by the way). As for the moment, stick with Ashley Cole or Terry if you have money to splash or wait for another gameweek to determine which player has the cheapest access to Chelsea's clean sheet points. Malouda continues to be the safest selection with no competitor to challenge his LW/ LAM spot.

UPDATE: Cech injured himself during training and is expected to out for 4 weeks. Stay away from him as Hilario and Turnbull (both at £4.5m) look to be decent fantasy picks for the next few weeks.

West Brom had an okay game against Manchester United last week, but I don't think the worst defence last season can hold the marching Blues - bench the Baggies if you happen to own them.

Prediction: CHE 2-0 WBA
Pick and captain: Torres
Pick: CHE defence, Malouda
Drop: WBA players, Cech

It seems like McLeish's rather
unnatural formation is limiting
Bent's goalscoring potential.

Pick and Drop

Pick and captain:

1. Bent - Looks good on paper against Blackburn, but be wary after his disappointing first game.
2. Carroll - Yes it's at Emirates, but I found it hard to resist him due to the fact that the Gunners have been very poor in dealing with tall players.

Pick:

1. Holt - The leadscorer of the Canaries has a point to prove with traditionally poor at away Stoke City to "help" him.
2. Saha, Tim Cahill  - With QPR shadowed by a 4-goal defeat, they could add salt to their pain.
3. Larsson - A home game will help Sunderland's new ace to extend his supremacy.
4. Sinclair - If he fails to impress this game, you can drop him for the rest of the season.

Drop:

1. BLA players - Villa's defence is fundamentally solid, which is the opposite of Blackburn's.
2. ARS defence - I expect the naked Arsenal squad to be oppressed by Liverpool throughout the game. Expect leaks with Song not around as the first defensive line.

Transfer Traffic

GW 2 special: recommended squad revamp

Given -- Al-Habsi

Kompany -- De Laet -- Enrique -- Hughes -- Brown

Young -- Silva -- Larsson -- Moses -- T Cahill

Torres -- Suarez -- Holt

Budget: £100.0m

Good alternatives

GK: Hart, Vorm

DF: Luiz, Simpson, Shawcross

MF: Van der Vaart, Downing, Adam, Malouda, Sinclair, Yaya Toure

F: Aguero, Rooney, Carroll, Bent, Fletcher

Gameweek 2 Dream Team

Given

A Cole -- De Laet -- Jagielka

Malouda -- T Cahill -- Larsson -- Sinclair

Torres (C) -- Rooney (VC) -- Bent

Subs: Vorm -- Jarvis -- J Evans -- Ward

Sunday Sparks

Luis Suarez
Steals the headline with his zero angle goal.

Another interesting Premier League weekend as Arsenal slipped unexpectedly. Here are some highlights:

• Berbatov once again showed why he deserved to be nicked Berbatop as he decided the game from the bench. Johnny Evans's red card once gave Bolton the light of winning the game, but the Bulgarian acted as a black hole and sucked all the hopes away.
• On a side note, Nani continues to provide great value to his fantasy managers with nine points in total. Really a bad fortune for those who sold him earlier.
• Arsenal collapsed like nobody as they dropped another two points to West Brom. In fact, they were lucky to snatch one from the Hawthorns after trailing 0-2.
• A good thing to note though, Van Persie continues to show his imperialism at Arsenal. Still one man is not enough to save a team from failing.
• Green's godlike show has helped West Ham to salvage a point from White Hart Lane. His actions were well rewarded with 11 fantasy points.
• In addition, Bale was looking good with his return and you might need to him to finish off your season with a good result.

Charlie Adam
The commander is back to lead the show.

• Charlie Adam's return is so pivotal for Blackpool as the skipper took the Tangerines two goals ahead only to be drawn by Blackburn. Still great performance by him with 15 fantasy points.
• Stoke got a solid solid win against Newcastle. The best thing about it? Clean sheet of course!
• One thing note mentioning: Walters, Pennant and Higginbotham scored 40 points in total from this game!
• Cleverly made himself the man of the match as he led Wigan to reverse Birmingham's one goal lead.
• Coleman and Baines continue to become the main fantasy force of Everton as both of them picked up eight points in their win against Fulham.
• Still it's a good result for Dempsey's fantasy owners with his goal.
• Aston Villa lost surprisingly at home to Wolves. Without scoring any goals. Shameful.
• Luck was totally against Sunderland just now as Steve Bruce used two of his subs in the first thirty minutes and another before the 60th for all his injured players. And Mensah was even sent off for a soft challenge.
• Great work for Suarez anyway for his incredible zero angle goal as he continue his great Liverpool record, both in reality and fantasy.
• After a hat-trick, Kuyt continues to provide great fantasy returns as he scored another double digit today.
• The Chelsea-Man City encounter is going on now and let's see what Tevez-less City can do. UPDATE: David Luiz scored his second goal for Chelsea to further embarrass Torres's goal drought.