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

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