Kick-Off: Gameweek 12 Fantasy Preview

Michael Owen to out for six weeks... Little fantasy relevance, no?

Announcements
Due to personal reasons, they will be no reviews for the next two gameweeks. Previews might be squeezed into simpler version as I try my best to make them a worthy read. A deep apology to all my fellow readers.


Overview
Congratulations to Portugal, Ireland, Czech Republic and Croatia for winning the play-offs and through the Euro 2012 Finals. With all these strong teams going through, expect a intense tournament next summer.

Back to the fantasy world, here's a list of major international casualties occurred in this recent internationals week:

1. Van der Vaart
2. Suarez
3. Aguero
4. Leon Best

Also, Suarez is now charged with racism allegations so stay away from him if you do not have him yet.

All the players above are suffering from minor injuries, so you might need to monitor again on Friday/Saturday to see whether it's necessary to make a transfer or two.

Game of the Week: CHELSEA v LIVERPOOL

Frank Lampard on fire.

The rivalry that formed in the last decade since Mourinho-Benitez era. Chelsea against Liverpool.

The Blues are suffering a bit at the moment and only managed to climbed out from back-to-back defeats with a sluggish victory against Blackburn. Defence has been a serious problem for them currently as last game was their only second clean sheet of the campaign, and that's due to Blackburn's ridiculous chance wasting ability.

Surprisingly, Lampard has started to find some extraordinary form which saw him climbing fast to the second spot of the fantasy midfielders table after a slow start in this fantasy season. Definitely one for the Reds to fear.

On the other side, Liverpool are struggling to score with 11 reflected off the goal frame already this season. Their finishing certainly needs to improve significantly if they were to snatch anything away from Stamford Bridge.

Should be a close call due to Liverpool's norm of getting stronger against stronger teams, but this time I think Andre Villas-Boas should earn his first victory against Liverpool.

Prediction: CHE 2-1 LIV

Pick: Lampard

Fantasy Game of the Week: NORWICH v ARSENAL

The return of Vermaelen has
boosted Arsenal's strength
on both ends significantly.

Well Manchester United are visiting the almighty Vorm at Liberty Stadium, while their noisy neighbours are hosting formidable Newcastle... So let's switch to Gunners, who aim to get five-in-a-row victories.

Norwich has been playing some fine football in the top-flight league and is currently standing higher than their promoting counterparts. They've been providing some great offensive sparks with Morison, Holt and Pilkington leading the casts.

But their defensive fragility is all for Arsenal to take advantage of. Captain Robin van Persie is scoring goals for fun at the moment and has collected 68 fantasy points from last 7 games. 68. Fantastic form.

With the players gelling nicely and their morale on high, Arsenal should win again and get closer to the top four.

Prediction: NOR 1-3 ARS

Pick and Captain: Van Persie

Pick: Gervinho, Vermaelen

Drop: NOR defence

Pick and Drop

Pick:

1. Bendtner/ Sessegnon - Fulham's defence is much fragile than last season.
2. STO defence - Should be strong enough to hold QPR.
3. Hoilett/ Formica - They should be able to convert something against the worst team in the league.

Drop:

1. FUL defence - Not reliable especially on the road.

Transfer Traffic

Green light (buy):

1. Van Persie - Instills fear to any defence.
2. Eagles - On form to terrorise from the flanks.

Yellow light (watch):

1. Formica/ Hoilett - Good run of fixtures for them to take advantage from.
2. Bale - Showing some kind of consistency.

Red light (sell):

1. Bosingwa - Out of starting XI.
2. A Young - Out of form with price dipping fast.

Gameweek 12 Dream Team

Begovic

Woodgate -- Vermaelen -- Kompany

Lampard (VC) -- Brunt -- Walters -- Ramsey -- Sessegnon

Van Persie (C) -- Hoilett

Subs: Vorm -- Vellios -- Jagielka -- Brown

Full-Time: Gameweek 6 Fantasy Preview

Demba Ba rocked St James' Park with his hat-trick.

Manchester City 2-0 Everton
MCI: Solid performance which saw them back on level terms with neighbour Manchester United. Both Dzeko and Aguero failed to score at this round though, with Balotelli and Milner the one who broke the deadlock. Silva continues to show his second to none fantasy consistency. Great buy.

EVE: Good job for holding City up for so long but City has just too much class at Etihad Stadium. Take note that Tim Cahill injured himself. Though it's a short one the upcoming tough fixtures suggest that you should drop him sooner rather than later.

Pick: Silva, MCI defence
Drop: Cahill


Arsenal 3-0 Bolton
ARS: The victory was expected but a clean sheet was indeed a big surprise. Van Persie was the key man as expected, contributing 2 important goals. Song's goal is impressive - it showed that he can be technical at times. Ramsey contributed 10 points too with 2 good assists.

Note to worth is Wilshere's expected absence for five months after completing an operation.

BOL: Two straight red cards in a row now as Bolton sat at the bottom of the table. Their hellish fixtures are going to end next week after the clash against Chelsea, and you should reevaluate them after that.

Pick: Van Persie
Watch: Ramsey
Drop: Weather


Chelsea 4-1 Swansea
CHE: Torres finally backed to his good old self, but he jinxed himself for yet another time after conducting a silly two-footed tackle. Before that he was almost perfect, with his opening goal indicating how good is his ball control and the incisive pass showing how important is his presence.

Ramires was the key man as well as he almost hat-tricked. If he can improve his finishing, I think he can become a very good second striker with his athleticism.

Defence wise the Blues are very shaky to set pieces. Beware.

Lampard was benched - not a part of AVB's integral plan anymore?

SWA: Not a day for Scott Sinclair as he was given no chance by his previous team.

Pick: Ramires
Drop: Lampard


Liverpool 2-1 Wolves
LIV: Suarez was influential once again but was quite frustrated by Dalglish's decision to sub him out early. His goal was simply a display of true class. Carroll played one of his better games at Liverpool with one shot on post. Bad luck.

The team still waste a lot of chances - something that need to be greatly improved to increase their competitiveness.

WOL: The form seems to dip already - a sign to sell?

Pick: Suarez
Watch: Carroll, Gerrard


Newcastle 3-1 Blackburn
NEW: Great performance by Ba. Unexpected hat-trick - cool. Best also provided something with his cross for Ba's opener. The striking department will start to show some uncertainties with such kind of competition, especially when Ben Arfa's return could influence Pardew to play 4-5-1 more often.

BLA: Junior Hoilett continues to show that he's the man capable of doing a lot of damage upfront for Blackburn.

Pick: Ba, Best
Watch: Ben Arfa, Cabaye, Hoilett
Drop: BLA defence


West Brom 0-0 Fulham
WBA: Good attacking display but perhaps lack of some luck to score. Mulumbu was surprisingly impressive at offence - maybe a good 5th midfielder for your team.

FUL: Many chances from many players but just didn't have the luck. You got to admire Schwarzer for his superiority.

Watch: Mulumbu, Schwarzer


Wigan 1-2 Tottenham
WIG: They failed to threaten Spurs too much. Diame's dribble and goal was fantastic though.

TOT: Adebayor didn't score in this game but created 1. Solid return, great prospect.

Both Van der Vaart and Bale scored suggesting that the duo are back in action. Bale clearly deserves your observation after having opening his account this season.

Pick: Adebayor, VdV
Watch: Bale, Diame
Drop: WIG defence


Stoke City 1-1 Man Utd
STO: Britannia once again has shown its supremacy after yet another extension of home unbeaten run by Stoke. Strong attacking display after trailing. Respect.

MUN: Luck for too against them as Chicharito was the latest to join red crescent army along side with Rooney. Nani's goal was yet another state of the art shot though.

Pick: Nani, Walters
Watch: Crouch, Welbeck


QPR 1-1 Aston Villa
QPR: Traore is rather silly to give a free penalty to Aston Villa. Quite good in build up play though, although they only draw the game through an own goal.

AST: Dunne broke the record of top own goal scorer in Premier League with 10 OGs. Agbonlahor continued his undivided influence, while Bannan surprisingly took the spot kick.

Pick: Barton, Agbonlahor
Drop: Traore

Norwich 2-1 Sunderland
NOR: Holt once again featured only from bench suggesting that he is a fantasy flop now. I would say avoid Norwich players for now as they don't seem to have any focal point to attack. Nonetheless, Morrison deserves some mention here as he recorded 14 points from the last 2 games.

SUN: Defence was awful as both goals are due to defensive errors.

Watch: Morrison
Drop: Holt