Tottenham Won the Battle for Pienaar as Bent Joined Villa

Steven Pienaar
Tottenham edged over Chelsea to get him surprisingly.

The transfer market finally got heated up a bit with two famous names on the tabloid - Everton's Steven Pienaar and Sunderland's Darren Bent.

Pienaar has joined Tottenham Hotspur for a fee around £3m. This deal kind of surprised me as I thought that Chelsea was the one closer to the South African hero of World Cup 2010. A good deal for Harry Redknapp for such a low price.

Meanwhile, Sunderland's star Darren Bent is now hired by Aston Villa to solve their finishing problems. Bent, who sold for initially £16m and potentially racking up to £24m, is expected to improve Houllier's report book at Villa.

Interestingly, Bent's exit from Sunderland will make Gyan become the main target in fantasy transfer market. Don't you agree?

Things That You Can Do By Selling Drogba

Didier Drogba
"What's wrong? Why are we keep losing?"

Drogba has been the most terrible investments over the past two months - costing £13m but hardly contributed any. His has been goalless over the past six premier league games he was playing, with fantasy returns of 2-6-1-2-2-2, barely passing two points per game on average. What's worse? Awaiting Chelsea are seven tough games, which in order are:

• Newcastle
• Everton
• Tottenham
• Man Utd
• Arsenal
• Bolton
• Aston Villa

The Ivorian will still have a fair chance to score in the first three coming fixtures, but I'm not so positive that he will score more than one each. With the aforementioned factors, I think it's time to end the misery of owning Drogba and change him to someone else.

With £13m you can continue to hold an out of form Drogba or:

• Own the best striker partnership in the Premier League currently - K Davies and Elmander. And you can still have a small change for that.
• Change Drogba for the in form luxurious striker Fernando Torres, and spend the additional £1.1m on other areas.
• Change him for one middle price striker (Gyan, K Davies, Elmander, Carroll etc.) and upgrade one £4m defender into a £7m one. Or even two.
• Change him for one middle price striker as above and make one of your midfielder to become Fabregas.
• Buy two luxurious goalkeeper (Hart, Cech, Van der Sar, Reina).

There's so much you can do by selling Drogba. So what's your choice?

Gameweek 13 Fantasy Preview

Joey Barton
Punched Pedersen in his last game and banned for three games.

The Premier League will back on action again this weekend with fatigue a major concern for fantasy managers. Be prepared for some unexpected drop-offs and a big number of clean sheets.

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PART I: PRE-MATCH ANALYSES

Robin Van Persie
Deserves a close monitor by fantasy managers.

Everton v Arsenal
The Gunners will face a tough challenge this week facing the Toffees who is undefeated for seven games.

It's pretty interesting to see how Liverpool and Everton managed to fall into the relegation zone together and then bounce back in style but Everton has been solid recently. Tim Cahill, as always, will be the main threat for Arsenal's defence with his ultimate headers.

As for Arsenal, Fabregas will continue to lead the attack and may as well find himself some goals and assists. Arsenal's second ace, Van Persie is now fit but it's still unknown that whether he will start with or without Chamakh or won't start at all.

I think Tim Cahill will score another header but it will be the Gunners who smile when the match ends.

Prediction: EVE 1-2 ARS

Patrice Evra
Has the possibility to join C-Ron at Real if the Glazers refuse to make sound investments on the squad.

Aston Villa v Manchester United
The Red Devils will have to travel to Villa Park without a big number of injured players.

Evra (ankle) and Rafael (dead leg) are the latest to join Manchester United's red cross army which already contains Rooney, Owen, Hargreaves, Valencia and Giggs. This certainly gives a lot of reasons for the Villans to fight for point(s) against United.

Villa, on the other hand, have Agbonlahor recovered from injury as the home side finally have a fit senior striker available. He may as well lead the line with Young and Downing to breakdown the away side's defence.

With Berbatov losing his form and Nani having just recovered from an injury, I think United will drop more points away. After all, they have only won once on the road this season.

Prediction: AST 0-0 MANU

The Rest

• Man City v Birmingham (2-0) - Tevez to lead the line and crush the Brums.
• Newcastle v Fulham (2-0) - Barton will miss the game but Nolan and Carroll will provide the Magpies the edge.
• Tottenham v Blackburn (2-0) - Van der Vaart scored in every league game played in White Hart Lane and I expect that to continue.
• West Ham v Blackpool (2-2) - Avram Grant has a lot to think about his side's defence.
• Wigan v West Brom (1-2) - Odemwingie is back and he should make a difference.
• Wolves v Bolton (1-2) - I will stick with Bolton, Davies and Elmander who are more consistent.
• Stoke City v Liverpool (1-2) - It will be disastrous for the Reds to waste their victory against Chelsea.
• Chelsea v Sunderland (2-0) - Chelsea is still unbeatable at home.

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PART II: SQUAD SELECTIONS

Didier Drogba
"@*#$ you, malaria!"

Captain Picks

• Drogba - "Malaria will not stop him," claimed Kalou.
• Tevez - Two-third of City's league goals are either scored or made up by him.
• Van der Vaart - Still leads the line before Defoe recovers.

Buy-Ins

• Gyan - Bent will still out and Steve Bruce may be convinced to play 4-4-2 when he recovers.
• Tevez - On a very strong position for Golden Boot.

Sell-Outs

• Barton - Suspended for three games.

Squad of XV

GK: Hart

DF: Hutton, Bosingwa, O'Shea
MF: Van der Vaart, Nolan, Adam, Fabregas
F: Drogba, Tevez(C), Piquionne

Subs (in order): Krul, N'Zogbia, Konchesky, Luke Young
Captain: Tevez
Emergency Captain: Value
Starting XI Value: £83.4m
Total Team Value: £103.2m

Sunday Sparks

Asamoah Gyan
The hero for Sunderland after Darren Bent's absence.

Here's some of my views on premier league games that have finished this week up until now:

• Kevin Davies led Bolton to victory with his 16-pointer. Tottenham just aren't strong enough to play two games a week without Van der Vaart.
• Birmingham survived with a point after trailing two goals behind West Ham. Zigic, the tallest player in EPL, is looking more and more influential in offence.
• Morten Gamst Pedersen, once known as the Norway's Beckham, scored his first goal of the season to help Blackburn to get their third league victory of the season.
• Seamus Coleman, the best fantasy defender under £5m category in my opinion, snatched a handful of eight points with his goal and bonus points. His Tim-mate Tim Cahill is also on the radar with nine points.
• A last minute goal by Hangeland has earned his manager 11 points. On the other side of the pitch Albrighton, whom I had just transferred out this week, scored 9 points.

Ji-Sung Park
"No Nani? Then let me be!"

• Superb Park played one of the best games in his life to prevent United from a draw with a brace of goals, one of which came in the final minutes.

• Asamoah Gyan scored twice to preserve an embarrassing record for Sunderland - none other than Bent and him has scored this season.
• A single goal by Andy Carroll has pulled Arsenal three points behind in the title race. I was watching the game and got impressed how "Arsenalised" Newcastle style of play is.
• Balotelli has already scored a double against West Ham, with Tevez playing.

Transfer Deadline Blockbusters

Rafael Van der Vaart
At least he can play Champions League with Tottenham...

Well, the last day of transfer season had quite some dramas, although not really shocking. Let's just see...

• There are two big last day winners - Birmingham and Stoke. The former got Hleb, Jiranek and Beausejour who are all in their respective international squads. We all know who Hleb is, and this is such an ambitious move for the Chinese-owned club.
• As for Stoke, they have captured Gudjohnsen, Marc Wilson and Pennant. Two former Premier League players and that should be enough to make sure they stay for another season.
• Sunderland had spent a ridiculous £13m fee to get Ghana's World Cup star, Asamoah Gyan. I don't think he worth that much but given that Fraizer Campbell suffered a long-term injury in last few days, it's normal for them to be taken advantage of in terms of price.
• Robinho left City in a fee cheaper than Gyan. He will become a member of the luxurious Milan offence together with Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
• Konchesky officially joined Liverpool as Insua was loaned out to Galatasary. I don't understand why Insua must be shipped out though.
• No Carlton Cole for Liverpool as West Ham couldn't find a replacement in last minute.
• Having sent to West Ham and Tottenham on helicopter, Babel decided to stay with Liverpool.
• And of course, the Van der Vaart deal which was completed just in time before the transfer window shut.

A great time for wildcard guys!