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!

FPLZ 2012/13 Season Preview: West Bromwich Albion F.C.

West Bromwich Albion F.C.

Gareth McAuley with West Brom's 2012/13 season home kit.

You can download the full analyzed squad data here.

Password: http://p-fplz.blogspot.com/

Last Season: Impressive
Being a team who go through the promotion and relegation cycle regularly, West Brom managed to change the situation this time, finishing at glorious tenth place last season. A big part of the credit goes to ex-manager Roy Hodgson though, and with him left the club for England international team, it is a doubt whether they can reach the same height again this season.

This Summer: Clarke's Debut
Steve Clarke has been appointed as the new manager of the Baggies. A risky move as this is Steve Clarke's first stint as a club's head coach.

As for players, Ben Foster's move to the Hawthorns become a permanent one, with midfielder Claudio Yacob, young Belgian Yassine El Ghanassy (loan), free agent Markus Rosenberg and Chelsea forward Romelu Lukaku (loan) joining the team. Five players were being released, namely Keith Andrews, Marton Fulop, Paul Scharner, Nicky Shorey and Somen Tchoyi.

Upcoming Season: Uncertain
As mentioned this will be Steve Clarke's first time as a manager - things can go everywhere honestly. The pre-season record is neither good nor bad at the moment. Maybe the first few gameweeks will reveal Clarke's ability to mange a club.

Odemwingie's fantasy stats.

Wet Gun?: Odemwingie (FI: 0.454)

Peter Odemwingie (£7.0m) was an instant fantasy hit during his first season at the Hawthorns, but his performance somehow declined to an unappealing level last season.

Still, the Nigerian forward managed to score double figure goals last season. The lad does have good fantasy potential, so do keep an eye on him and get him when the right time comes.

Ridgewell's fantasy
indices last season.

Great Return: Ridgewell (FI: 0.924)
It really caught me when I saw Liam Ridgewell (£5.0m) scored such a high FPLZ Index last season, which aroused my curiousity to analyze him further.

The defender scored 61 points in just 1170 minutes of action, which he managed to score one goal, one assist, and six clean sheets. Impressive.

He now costs £0.5m more than last season, but nonetheless he should be the first man to consider among West Brom defenders, if Steve Clarke can keep the back as tight as when it was during Hodgson's era, or even tighter.

Tough Battle: Long (FI: 0.344), Rosenberg (FI: N/A), Lukaku (FI: N/A)
Interesting competition upfront for West Brom where we will have three equally good candidate to fight for the second forward spot alongside Odemwingie - Shane Long (£6.0m), Markus Rosenberg (£6.5m) and Romelu Lukaku (£6.5m).

All of them are priced in the same band, so it really takes time to observe and see which player actually plays more and brings good value to fantasy managers.

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