Kick-Off: Gameweek 11 Fantasy Preview

Is this the end for Roberto Mancini?

So Manchester City are 99% certain to exit UEFA Champions League after a 2-2 draw against Ajax. Group stage exit for two consecutive seasons for the champions of England. What a big humiliation.

GAMEWEEK 10 TOP SCORERS

1. Marouane Fellaini (£7.2m, 15 pts): The Belgian has scored 5 Premier League goals already this term after blasting two against Fulham last week. In superb form and looks to be a season-long pick.
2. Peter Odemwingie (£6.9m, 13 pts): Played a one-man-show against Southampton. Don't get hyped on him so fast though.
3. Kaspar Gorkss (£3.9m, 11 pts): Scored 16 points in last 2 games. Nonetheless I won't invest on any Reading players at the moment unless they can sort something out and start to rack up some league points.
4. Ben Watson (£5.2m, 11 pts): His fantasy score last gameweek is almost double of what he had so far before last gameweek. Never is a good fantasy asset.
5. Bradley Johnson (£4.7m, 11 pts): Another rare member in the gameweek top scorers' list. Scored 2 points in 8 out of 10 fantasy fixtures, which suggests that you would need to wait very long for him to replicate such a good gameweek.
6. Victor Moses (£6.3m, 11 pts): An influential game despite the draw, but will never have the chance to become a regular starter unless Juan Mata (£9.4m, - pts) or Eden Hazard (£10.3m, 2 pts) suffers a long-term injury.

FEATURED: Manchester City v Tottenham Hotspur @ Etihad
Chelsea against Liverpool is probably the more intense rivalry, but let's turn our head to Manchester, where defending champion Manchester City welcome Tottenham in a more evenly matched battle.

Roberto Mancini is one of the favourites to become the first Premier League manager to be sacked this season, and another season of premature Champions League exit did not help him neither. A win against Tottenham would be crucial to boost his chance to stay with the Blue Moons.

Sergio Aguero (£11.1m, 1 pt) scored one for City in their draw to Ajax and could be the scorer again against Tottenham, though Carlos Tevez (£9.5m, 2 pts) remains the cheaper and better pick compared to his compatriot.

On the other side, Tottenham have been going up and down in the last few games as they bounced quickly to defeat Maribor 3-1 in Europa League after a shocking defeat to Wigan at White Hart Lane. Jermaine Defoe (£8.1m, 1 pt) scored a hat-trick in the Europa Cup tie, which will definitely attract interest from fantasy managers as he formed a dynamic partnership with Gareth Bale (£9.8m, 2 pts) who remains one of the most threatening players in the Premier League.

A pretty tricky match to predict, but I guess I will stick to the Lillywhites and hope for a surprise defeat for the defending champions.

Prediction: MCI 1-3 TOT

TEAM FOCUS: Manchester United
After some long series of hectic match-ups Manchester United will finally be blessed with mid-to-bottom table opponents in the coming gameweeks, and they will begin with Aston Villa as their starter.

Robin Van Persie (£13.6m, 8 pts) continues to be FPL's hot pick and is owned by 35% of fantasy managers despite his ludicrous price tag. The Dutch forward scored yet again in United's Champions League victory against Braga, which simply shows that why he is so expensive compared to the rest of FPL players.

Wayne Rooney (£11.8m, 2 pts) redeemed himself from the spot after missing one against Arsenal last week, though his fantasy scoring ability is still some distance away from RvP. A little pricey in my opinion.

Defensively I am not so fancy about them keeping a clean sheets, but Rafael Da Silva (£6.2m, 5 pts) has been pretty effectively offensive from the back and worth every penny he costs.

Should be an easy game for Ferguson's team.

Prediction: AST 1-3 MUN

PLAYER FOCUS: Lambert
All eyes will fall on St Mary's Stadium this Saturday as Nigel Adkins may face his final Premier League game for Southampton this season, should he lose. He will be determined to create miracles and his hopes will fall under Rickie Lambert's (£6.1m, 2 pts) shoulders. Swansea won't be a tough opponent for him, having failed to secure any clean sheets for 8 consecutive league games.

Pavel Pogrebnyak (£4.7m, - pts) would be another forward to look at this weekend as Reading hosts leaky Norwich.

GAMEWEEK 11 DREAM TEAM

Begovic

Rafael — Shawcross — A Santos

Kightly — Fellaini — McAnuff — Bale

Van Persie (C) —  Ba (VC) — Suarez

Subs: Al-Habsi — Lallana —  G. Cameron — Gorkss

Can't wait to get more? Like FPLZ official Facebook page to get the latest updates regularly!

Sunday Aftermath: Aguero Injury Woes

The most vice-captained fantasy player, Sergio Aguero, ended up with only 1 point.

After such a fascinating Saturday matchday, Sunday games came with equal excitements as well. Here are some big scenes:

• Sergio Aguero (£11.5m) went injured with only 11 minutes of action against Southampton (1 point). Big, bad news for about 30% of fantasy managers as they will need to make a forced transfer following his injury. A wildcard may as well ready to be used for some of the managers.
• Also failing to deliver was David Silva (£10.0m), who missed a penalty in a terrible fashion. He scored nothing for this gameweek, which is definitely a big butthurt to his owners.
• Meanwhile, Aguero's teammate and compatriot Carlos Tevez (£9.0m) proved to be as pivotal as before at Manchester City. He scored the opener goal against the Saints and with Aguero injured, his starting spot is pretty much secured for the next few weeks.
• Samir Nasri (£8.5m) was the star performer with 12 fantasy points (which include 3 bonus points). He might as well lock a place in Mancini's starting XI with such performance.
• I am greatly impressed by Nigel Adkins - he brought in 2 substitutes who brought immediate goals. Almost beaten the Premier League Champions last year. Splendid. Rickie Lambert (£6.0m) did not start, which surprised me, but scored a goal nonetheless.
• On the other game we saw Eden Hazard (£9.5m) provided all 2 assists in Chelsea's victory over Wigan. It's Hazard 1-0 Mata (£9.5m) then.
• Branislav Ivanovic (£6.5m) got 15 points thanks to his opening goal, while Frank Lampard (£9.0m) scored from the spot - he is still an important player for the Blues.
• As for the late Saturday game, Andre Villas-Boas had a poor start as Demba Ba (£7.5m) and Hatem Ben Arfa (£7.0m) combined to send Tottenham Hotspur in misery.
• Jermaine Defoe (£7.5m) scored only goal for the visitors though, and that is an encouraging sign to own him.