Kick-Off: Gameweek 24 Fantasy Preview

Djibril Cisse scored his first goal on his debut for QPR.

Overview
Gareth Bale continued his C. Ronaldo-esque performance after bagging 15 fantasy points last gameweek, while Fraizer Campbell's return provided immediate effect as he led Sunderland to a 3-0 victory. Manchester City's surprise defeat took the title race back to square one for the Manchester clubs.

Transfer Deadline Day Deals
Some significant deadline signings are as follows:

• Djibril Cisse - Obvious enough. The former Liverpool and Sunderland man scored his first goal on his debut for QPR.
• Zamora - While he should become automatic selection at Loftus Road, you should also notice that Bryan Ruiz should play further upfront for Fulham.
• Jelavic - One of the rare "big" spends by Everton. He is expected to improve the offence upfront.
• Saha - The Frenchman is moving to Tottenham to rediscover his long lost form.
• Pogrebnyak - Replacing Zamora is this 28-year-old Russian who came from Vfb Stuttgart. With the height of 188cm one would expect him to play the targetman's role.
• Bridge - The almost forgotten man in the Premier League will now play at Sunderland on a loan basis. Interesting to see whether Bridge has forgotten his footwork or not.
• Kyrgiakos - The former Liverpool giant will also join Sunderland, which will definitely boost the Black Cats' defence to another level.
• Miyaichi - Bolton wrapped up the deal for the young Japanese. We shall see whether he could make great impact in Owen Coyle's team.
• Pizarro - Quite a surprise move in my opinion. But Pizarro is experienced and should be capable to take over Yaya Toure's void before he comes back, at least.

Game of the Week: CHELSEA v MANCHESTER UNITED

Can Torres score this time?

Time for a revenge at Stamford Bridge?

The Red Devils took down the Blues 3-1 at Old Trafford earlier in this campaign, with Torres missing the miss of the century. The Spaniard should still start though, given the fact that Andre Villas-Boas is short of strikers.

Daniel Sturridge looked sharp on the midweek game but was lack of any shooting accuracy. Meanwhile, it remains clueless whether Gary Cahill was brought in as Terry's partner or as a benchwarmer. It should be revealed this week.

For the red side, Nani and Rooney should be fit to play in this tie, while Lindegaard is expected to out for four weeks. That means David de Gea will have yet another chance to prove himself despite poor performance against Liverpool.

Personally I think Ashley Cole's suspension will provide the edge for United. Valencia should take full advantage of that and United is going to frustrate Chelsea again.

Prediction: CHE 1-2 MUN

Pick: Valencia

Fantasy Game of the Week: MANCHESTER CITY v FULHAM

Time for Aguero to end his
goalless streak.

Mancini will not allow his team to make mistake again as City hosts Fulham.

Aguero has not scored any goal in his last three league games, but that should end against Martin Jol's Fulham. Expect him and Silva to combine and perform finally.

The addition of Pizarro should provide the creativity to compete deep in midfield, though it remains to be seen whether he will make a start.

It's time for City to end the embarrassment and continue to move forward and lead the pack.

Prediction: MCI 2-0 FUL
Pick and Captain: Aguero, Silva
Pick: MCI defence
Drop: FUL defence


Pick and Drop
Pick and Captain:

• Van Persie - With Samba refused to play, Blackburn's defence is worthless.

Pick:

• Ba - Return to take charge of Newcastle's offence.
• Suarez - Freed from "jail" and should be full of power.
• Djibril Cisse - Looking forward to continue his fine form against woeful Wolves.

Drop:

• Ashley Cole - Suspended.

Transfer Traffic

Green light (buy):

• Ba - The super striker returns.
• Sessegnon - Unstoppable.
• Assou Ekkoto - His price rises without limit.
• Suarez - Reunites with better Liverpool.

Yellow light (watch):

• Cisse - See whether it's debutant's luck or his real class.

Red light (sell):

• Van der Vaart - Limped off last game.
• Ramires - Won't be back soon.

Gameweek 24 Dream Team

Krul

Kompany -- Simpson -- O'Shea

Sessegnon -- Silva -- Valencia (VC) -- Bale

Aguero (C) -- Ba -- Cisse

Subs: Szczesny -- Dyer -- Martin R -- Shorey

Sebastian Coates Set to Join Liverpool - Liverpool Are Really Serious

Coates with his trophy of Best Young Player of Copa America 2011.

It's still not official, but I think there's hardly anything to stop that from happening. Sebastian Coates, the best young player of Copa America 2011, is set to join his compatriot Luis Suarez to hunt trophies for Liverpool.

The 20-year-old centre-back has caught a lot of attention following his fantastic tournament last month. Coates is expected to be bought with £12m and will fill up the void left following the departure of Sotirios Kyrgiakos.

He will be Dalglish's sixth signing of the summer and Liverpool looks more and more likely to battle for a ranking better than fourth.

Meanwhile, Aquilani is now at Milan and is close to completing a one-year loan deal with AC Milan.

Jamie Carragher Sidelined for Three Months

Jamie Carragher
Now who will become the temporary captain for Reds?

Liverpool's spiritual leader, Jamie Carragher, has to go for a surgery after dislocated his shoulder on the game against Tottenham. It will take approximately three months for him to recover.

This means that the Merseysiders will play without both captain and vice captain up to one month.

Of course, Carra's injury doesn't cause much concern to fantasy managers, although he is owned by 6.3% of over two million managers. What I do concern more is the opportunity that his absence provides - Kyrgiakos to partner Skrtel over the next three months?

We all know how effective Kyrgiakos is in set pieces, and that is proven by numbers - 4.8 points per game is the highest for Liverpool players. Managers could get well rewarded for taking him in now over the next one to two months as the Reds' fixtures get easier.

On the other hand, Van der Vaart is set to absent until the next year, with Bale the obvious replacement.

Sunday Sparks

Maximiliano Rodriguez
Says welcome to fans who thank him for the decisive goal.

Here's some brief words about what happened in the past 30 hours in English top-flight football:

• Arsenal only managed to score in final minutes for a win. Quite a sad case for me as I was captaining Chamakh. Song scored in three consecutive games. Looking good.
• Chelsea wasn't much better than their London counterpart, won by the same margin. Both Malouda and Drogba are much less striking as compared to them in the first five games. Bosingwa didn't play at all, which was another sad case for me.
• Everton won Yakubu's once-in-a-blue-moon goal. Arteta and Cahill once again gained their owners six points each.
• Dempsey fired two to become Saturday's top pointer, sitting on top of fluke-goal scorer Nani.
• Wolves shocked us with a comeback victory. Adebayor goaled through a penalty anyway.
• Nani made one and fired one to give three points to Manchester United. A quite exciting match-up with Park and Van der Vaart making on-post attempts. VdV might be out for a week or two with his in-game injury. On a side note, Berbatov also lost his sparks like Malouda and Drogba.
• Aston Villa and Birmingham played a goalless draw. Awesome for Foster-and-co owners.

Kevin Nolan
Meet the king of St James.

• Newcastle thrashed Sunderland. Amazing. Nolan wore the hat but take a look at Ameobi. Two goals and two assists. Looked much better than the consolation man (he always made an assist for me when I needed it the most) two years before. However, he will need more playing time before you can consider him.
• Liverpool won a 50-50 game. Torres was lost until the moment when N'gog was brought on. The trident of the former two and Maxi was great and it was no coincidence that the latter scored. Great job by Maxi and as usual, Kyrgiakos the tower of set pieces.

Sunday Sparks

Sotirios Kyrgiakos
Fantastic performance at both ends on the pitch.

Congratulations for Manchester United for recording their first away victory this season and Liverpool for securing their second victory of the season. Here are some highlights:

• Javi Hernandez scored both goals of United. The lad is still far from becoming a sure-fire fantasy pick as Rooney will soon be back, but he might be able to squeeze Berbatov out should the latter dips his form.
• Both Nani and Berbatov failed to provide any fantasy returns this week and this frustrates a lot of managers including me.
• Liverpool overpowered a game for the first time this season, against Blackburn. Kyrgiakos has been superb all the while and Hodgson should list him as the first choice centre back of Liverpool as the Greek's reward.
• Liverpool's midfielders has been combining brilliantly during the first half and it was no surprise that Cole and Gerrard were on the assist sheet.
• Torres finally scored his second league goal (and smiled).
• A silly foul by Dedryk Boyata costed Manchester City a possible three points. Joe Hart owners will not be sad though as he caught five points with a precious penalty save.
• Nasri scored again! That is his six out of seven games. Magnificent.
• Tevez limped out with an injury. Stay updated with his status, fantasy managers.

Good night.