Yak-Trick: Gameweek 14 Fantasy Review [Express Edition]

Yakubu's quadruple has earned Steve Kean vital three points.

Newcastle 0-3 Chelsea
Well Luiz's should have been awarded a red card in the early stage of the stage, and that have changed the whole complexion of the game.

It's good to see Drogba returning with a decisive opener, while Lampard will definitely considering his future knowing that his time with the Blues is coming short.

On the other side, Demba Ba continues to be threatening. Superb. However, 2 of their back four are now injured - might be a big hit to their rock solid defence. Nonetheless, Krul will still be magnificent despite that.

Pick: Krul, Ba, Sturridge
Watch: Drogba
Drop: Lampard, Luiz


Blackburn 4-2 Swansea
No one could have expect 4 goals from Yakubu. Splendid. A great result that come at right time.

Given forthcoming fixtures, he's a good short term pick.

Pick: Yakubu


Man City 5-1 Norwich
Aguero should really did better. While his goal was a brilliant magic, the chances he squandered had frustrated a lot of fantasy managers. Maybe it's the right time to jump across the ship for Van Persie.

The points distribution are really too widespread this time around, making City players less attractive.

Watch: Aguero


QPR 1-1 West Brom
Helguson was once again the scorer for QPR. Pretty amazing given that he was only the Neil Warnock's third choice at the beginning of the season.

On the other side, Long scored again. Very prolific at such young age.

Pick: Helguson
Watch: Long


Tottenham 3-0 Bolton
The flanks are functioning fantastically for Tottenham at the moment. Bale and Lennon are simply too swift to handle. Could have won by 7-8 goals if not for Jaaskelainen's greatness.

Gary Cahill was unlucky anyway to concede such an terrible red card decision.

Pick: Bale, Lennon
Drop: Cahill


Wigan 0-4 Arsenal
Nothing too surprising. Van Persie continues to dominate the offence, and Vermaelen's offensive ability as a centre back is just supreme.

Pick: Van Persie, Vermaelen, Walcott
Watch: Gervinho, Arteta
Drop: WIG players


Aston Villa 0-1 Man Utd
Hernandez was injured - the only striker with his scoring boots on is down. Bad news.

The win was yet again unconvincing and I really wonder how possibly can they continue to pick up points with such terrible form.

Drop: MUN offence


Everton 0-1 Stoke City
Disappointing result for Moyes. It does wonder me why were Everton trying non-stop to attack via crosses when Stoke players are all so tall.

Drop: EVE players


Wolves 2-1 Sunderland
Fantastic acting by Larsson but he inability to score the penalty has brought a calamitous result to Martin O'Neill's debut.

Fletcher and Doyle played together again finally and the results? Perfect.

Pick: Fletcher


Fulham 1-0 Liverpool
Lucas out for season, two shots reflected off the frame (again), Spearing sent off, Suarez investigated for his middle finger... Nothing's really going for Liverpool.

At this stage, the Reds still didn't managed to play like a team with free-flowing passes. Pretty hard to believe they can achieve their Champions League aspirations.

Watch: Murphy
Drop: LIV offence

Gameweek 33 Fantasy Preview

Carlos Tevez
Out for up to a month, out of Golden Boot race.

Quite a number of bad news occurred in the soccer arena, including Tevez's moderate injury ahead of FA Cup tie against Manchester United and the tragedy of Drogba's family. My deep condolences to Drogba.

Back on track. Only six gameweeks left to improve your season rankings, and with Chelsea and Arsenal having a gameweek double this week, are you ready to fight till the end?

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PART I: PRE-MATCH ANALYSES

Andy Carroll
Will pose tremendous threat to Arsenal's defenders.

Arsenal v Liverpool

The Gunners will face a decisive week to their title race as they host Liverpool as the first game of their gameweek double.

The Reds just pissed Manchester City away from Anfield with a classy 3-0 victory thanks to the marvel of Andy Carroll. With the Geordie opened his account with Liverpool, you can expect huge pressure to be faced by the Koscielny and co. That is even worse with Suarez providing different dimension of attack to complement Carroll.

Meanwhile, Arsenal finally got back on track with a victory against Blackpool last week. But just as we all know, inconsistency has been a consistent problem for Arsenal. Van Persie needs to stop wasting chances if they are to continue their pressure against Manchester United on the table.

Despite having home advantage, I don't think three points are on Wenger's grasp. Carroll alone is enough to crush Lehmann (or Almunia?).

Prediction: Arsenal 2-2 Liverpool

Aaron Lennon v Theo Walcott
A contest of agile wingers.

Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal*

An interesting replacement fixture as we see Arsenal battling Tottenham to continue their pressure on the leader Manchester United.

Tottenham might get demoralized after their Champions League exit with a silly goal conceded by Heurelho Gomes. But they do have stamina advantage on hand as Arsenal will get exhausted after battling Liverpool this Sunday.

Viewing on their stars, Van der Vaart and Bale are still struggling to back to their best. But they've Peter Crouch who just scored a brace last week and will be looking to do the same in this match.

On the other hand, Arsenal have almost all of their attackers available for this game and will do everything to crush Tottenham's defence.

It's a contest of determination, and I believe the Gunners have the thirst for victory.

Prediction: Tottenham 1-2 Arsenal

The Rest

• Birmingham v Sunderland (1-0) - A very vital game for Brums' survival. They simply must win.
• Blackpool v Wigan (2-1) - A win will bring Wigan above Blackpool. But with the poorest offence in Premier League, can they? I am negative about that.
• Everton v Blackburn (2-0) - The Toffees have been quite good on attack recently. Do invest on their attackers.
• West Brom v Chelsea (2-3) - Hodgson is indeed a mid-table club maestro. Chelsea will need to beware.
• West Ham v Aston Villa (2-3) - Wide areas has always been the Hammers' problems, and that's the Villans' advantage.
• Newcastle v Man Utd (1-2) - I don't expect rock solid United to slip this. But don't expect a big win either after a massive FA Cup derby.
• Chelsea v Birmingham* (2-0) - No reason for not winning this one.

*Replacement fixtures

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PART II: SQUAD SELECTIONS

David Luiz
A possible captain pick for this gameweek double with his wonderful bonus magnet-ing skills.

Captain Picks

• David Luiz/Lampard/Drogba - Put your double on them on top of their double with easy fixtures.
• Van Persie - Two tough opponents. But does he ever pick his opponent to score?
• Adam - Well, he faces Wigan. Poor defenders.

Buys-In

• Carroll - Adapted to Liverpool.
• Luiz/Ivanovic - You might consider both of them. It's quite possible to get two clean sheets.

Sells-Out

• Tevez - Out for a month.

Squad of XV

GK: Foster

DF: Ridgewell, Luiz, Ivanovic, Clichy

MF: Adam, Lampard, A Young, Walcott

F: Van Persie, Bent

Subs (in order): Kingson, Carroll, Jagielka, Smalling

Captain: Luiz

ECS: Value

Surprises

Robin Van Persie

Flying like a god.

Sorry for the lack of updates as I am having problems with my PC. Anyway, there's lots of surprising results happening over the past few days:

• Tottenham crushed Milan at San Siro. Can you believe it? The London club has actually won two Milan giants in the same season! Fantastic job by Lennon and Gomes.
• Newcastle scored two away clean sheets at this gameweek double. Unbelievable. Smart move for those who stocked Newcastle defenders.
• Arsenal finally won Barca. Not so surprising for me though. Van Persie scored from an unbelievable angle, but Valdes should have done better with his positioning. Nasri wasn't at his best, but his vision is still lethal.

Premier League. Still the best.

The Crazy Premier League Weekend and El Clasico

Barcelona 5-0 Real Madrid
Ronaldo will regret for what he said before the game.

Unbelievable. The strongest ever Real Madrid in history under the hands of Jose Mourinho still couldn't handle Barcelona. Goals from Xavi, Pedro, Villa (2) and Suarez ensured a perfect victory for the Catalans.

Meanwhile, the Premier League weekend is as entertaining as El Clasico with all 20 teams scored for the first time in the Premier League history. Here are the highlights:

• Arshavin finally found some great form with a stunning display against Aston Villa. On the other side, Clarke almost made himself the man of the match as he led the Villans to reduce the three goal deficit into one.
• Big disappointment towards Elmander and Davies as they failed to scored against Blackpool at Reebok Stadium. M. Davies should really pass all his fantasy points to K. Davies since there are only 0.1% of managers benefiting from his 10 points.
• Everton gave us a big shock to lose 1-4 against West Brom at home. Disgrace. Tim Cahill however continued his consistency with his header goal.
• Dempsey and Larsson scored one for each side as Fulham and Birmingham held draw at Craven Cottage.

Luis Nani and Dimitar Berbatov
The Bulgarian scored a whopping 25 fantasy points while the Portuguese contributed 12.

• Who else can be the star of the week other than the five-goal-Berbatov? He became the fourth player and also the first foreign player to score five goals in one game. Fantastic display after a nine match goal drought. Anyway, Blackburn playing style has been awful this season against superior oppositions.
• Congratulations to Manchester United as this win cemented them two points above Chelsea and also wrote off all the goal difference deficits against the defending champion.
• Manchester City painfully lost two points after a last-gasp equaliser by Stoke City.
• West Ham finally escaped from the curse of draws, beating Wigan 3-1. Piquionne, Parker and Obinna were the heroes, as usual.
• I had correctly predicted one goal each for Bent and Welbeck but Sunderland lost 2-3 to Wolves.
• Snow didn't manage to halt Chelsea's game against Newcastle but the Blue Lions' lost their lead after another disappointing offensive display by them. Drogba has now goalless for 10 hours and 36 minutes on the pitch - the second worst record of his career.
• Liverpool got punished for their failure to capitalise golden chances before Lennon scored a stoppage time goal. Johnson did well to control Bale, but Konchesky is just no match for Lennon in terms of speed. Tottenham had once again recovered three points from losing position, accounting for a total of 16 this season.
• Van der Vaart is injured once again. He will be sidelined for longer this time with his hamstring problem.