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

Stevie G Is Back: Gameweek 8 Fantasy Review

Nothing is feeling better than to score a goal after returning t the
starting XI for the first time in over 6 months.

Liverpool 1-1 Man Utd
LIV: They must be blaming themselves for not taking care of their rivals. They did play well, especially in the last 10 minutes of the game, but the finishing was basically... sucks. Until Andy Carroll hit the expectations on him Liverpool will continue to struggle with this fact.

Adam played extremely well - one of the best game I've seen so far, and is WITH Gerrard on the field. No coexist problems. Great sign to hold him, and certainly bad sign for Carroll.

MUN: Ferguson benched most of his aces - while it's understandable, it's surprising as their opponent is none other than Liverpool. Played overly defensive in my opinion as they were pressed by Liverpool throughout the game.

Welbeck and Chicharito combined for the equaliser. Both are good but I can't see them on the field together frequently with Rooney certainly will dominate one of the two starting forward spots.

Pick: Adam, Welbeck, Chicharito
Watch: Gerrard


Man City 4-1 Aston Villa
MCI: Splendid even without starting Silva, Nasri and Dzeko. Balotelli played an important part in it with an instinctive bicycle kick. Talented but fierce competition upfront will continue to limit his playing time as Aguero returns.

Same goes to Adam Johnson and Milner. Cheap in fantasy, super productive, but will spend a lot of time on the bench.

Captain Kompany scored a goal and a bonus. Still the best City defender to own in my opinion.

AST: Outclassed by Man City. Agbonlahor got a good one-on-one chance but somehow failed to score. His speed and form should continue to produce more fantasy scores though.

Warnock scored the consolation and had another good chance before that. But don't get blind to own him as Villa's defence is not as solid as expected.

Pick: Kompany, Agbonlahor
Watch: Warnock, Balotelli


Norwich 3-1 Swansea
NOR: Great game by Pilkington and Morrison after they squandered so many chances at Old Trafford last week. Pilkington certainly has good finishing. Holt can only blame himself after failing to impress. He lead scorer last season really has no place to stand currently.

SWA: Scott Sinclair continued his fine form as he assisted one for Danny Graham who scored in two games in a row. Both deserve to be monitored.

Pick: Sinclair
Watch: Pilkington, Morrison, Graham


QPR 1-1 Blackburn
QPR: Two rather unpopular players (Helguson and Mackie) combined for the goal. Nothing much to tell here.

BLA: 11 points for Samba, but you must be gutted to pick him based on just one game.

Stoke 2-0 Fulham
STO: Britannia continues to become an untouchable stadium. I believe that owning a Stoke defender (or more) is a must at this point. Shawcross and Begovic are the best choices.

In terms of offence, it's heavily focused on Walters and Etherington - nothing much to confuse you once you've decided to pick a Stoke attackers.

FUL: Not very similar to the level they played last week. Perhaps due to the frightening Britannia's aura.

Pick: Etherington, Shawcross, Walters, Begovic


Wigan 1-3 Bolton
WIG: Al-Habsi's owners must feel happy as the stopper picked up 8 points thanks to his fantastic performance which includes a penalty save.

Having said that, nothing else in Wigan has really impressed me.

BOL: N'gog is showing some great football here with a goal and a foul which earned Bolton a missed penalty. Give him some more time and he might push Klasnic away from starting XI.

The same goes for Eagles. He overpowered Wigan on his own feet. Tremendous.

Pick: Eagles
Watch: Al-Habsi, N'gog
Avoid: WIG players


Chelsea 3-1 Everton
CHE: Sturridge has once again become the key man to the victory. Incredible. Ramires scored one too as he continued to provide good fantasy return with his great runs.

No clean sheets again - Bosingwa owners will surely be frustrated.

EVE: Osman played some good football there. Drenthe was more offensive than what I'd expected. And Vellios' 2 goals in just merely 35 minutes of Premier League exposure is just admirable.

Pick: Sturridge, Ramires, Mata
Watch: Vellios, Drenthe, Osman


West Brom 2-0 Wolves
WBA: Clean sheet are never bad but I doubt people will actually pick their defenders.

Brunt was the main man of the show as he finally showed the display of a key offensive midfielder should have.

WOL: They lost for 5 consecutive games after a great league opening. Big troubles, big confidence crisis.

Get rid of them.

Pick: Brunt
Watch: Odemwingie
Avoid: WOL players


Arsenal 2-1 Sunderland
ARS: Hail captain Van Persie for his great all-round performance. A quick opening goal and a free kick goal are enough for the victory.

But the team in general are still very disappointing - the cohesion is not good enough.

SUN: Seb Larsson scored through a free kick as he once again shown why spot kick takers are worth to be held in your team.

Pick: Van Persie, Larsson


Newcastle 2-2 Tottenham
NEW: Rock solid. I certainly like the way they play. Dominated despite not earning 3 points.

It's also a must to hold a Newcastle defender or goalkeeper at this point, and I think Krul is the best choice.

Ba scored 5 in 3. From a possible flop at gameweek 1 he has developed into a monstrous presence.

TOT: Hail those who didn't drop Adebayor as he started and earned 8 points after being classified as doubtful before the game.

Van der Vaart and Defoe were the usual suspects again, nothing too surprising.

Pick: Ba, NEW defence, Adebayor, VdV
Watch: Defoe

Full-Time: Gameweek 5 Fantasy Review

Like brothers?

38 goals from 10 games this week. Great feast for Premier League fans especially the Man Utd-Chelsea encounter. Dramas here and there!

Man Utd 3-1 Chelsea
Extremely entertaining game with lots of goals, lots of dramas and most importantly, lots of MISSES! What are the odds of Rooney missed a penalty and Torres missed an open goal attempt after that? Unbelievable.


MUN: Not the most convincing victory at Old Trafford, but 3 points are 3 points and no complaints about that. Smalling's goal was offside, but he won't get that chance if he was not courageous enough to run and bang the ball with his head; Nani's goal was offside when he received the ball, but to be left so open by Chelsea's defender to score such a magnificent shot - you can only blame Terry and co for that. Phil Jones was very determined to get the ball - which he indirectly helped Rooney to get the third goal for United. Applause.

In overall the team looked very confident and determined despite the fact that it was Chelsea who were actually having the edge in the game. Clear title favourites. The central midfield is still weak, but the strength of the flanks will overcome it easily.

What interests me is when will United lose their first game, and how will the young players react with it. Big confidence hit, and the title race may be wide open; otherwise expect the young blood of Red Devils to march their way to 20th.

Pick: Nani, Rooney, Young
Watch: Smalling, Jones


CHE: Torres resurrected? Quite close. The pack of faster players really had positive impact on him. Much better runs, better courage, better skills. Too bad the miss did flaw his performance by a lot.

Ramires was good for some of the passes, but for beautiful pass by Torres - should he let it go and allow Sturridge to shoot instead of attempting a forceful shot, well much to improve on offence despite having numerous beautiful runs.

One thing to note though, Torres and Lampard are mutually exclusive players - they simply can't and won't link well. Torres needs players to play around him and Lampard's speed prohibits that.

In short, great job by AVB to dominate the play at Old Trafford - 22 shots, and I can see things to improve sooner rather than later for Chelsea to close down the leading duo.

Watch: Torres, Mata, Ramires
Drop: Lampard


Tottenham 4-0 Liverpool
Not the kind of result that fans expect, but no surprise as Liverpool played terribly bad. With or without the red cards I would still believe Tottenham will win.

TOT: Modric screamer is clearly on the list for goal of the season. Harry Redknapp will be glad that he actually kept him during the summer transfer window. Adebayor was wreaking havoc throughout the game and at £8.1m, he's a mega steal. I can see the Togolese's price to hike up to £9.0m or even £9.5m at the end of the season.

Surprisingly it seems that Adebayor's presence has powered up Defoe too, with the English scoring 19 points over the past two gameweeks when Adebayor played both games. Both are good, although I will definitely pick Adebayor on any day.

With Van der Vaart returned too, the tri-core (VdV, Modric, Parker) midfield line-up will definitely supply the front duo lots of ammunition for goals. Having at least one Tottenham attackers is simply a must for this moment.

Pick: Adebayor, Defoe
Watch: Van der Vaart, Parker, Modric


LIV: Pathetically weak throughout the game. Defence was nonsense, especially at the right flank where Skrtel was dominated totally by Gareth Bale. The red card was really, really expected with his frequent mistakes and terrible judgments. Charlie Adam way too reckless and impatient when defending - he needs to keep his cool. Lucas was helpless as Tottenham's attack was too quick - he had no backup.

Carroll still didn't find his way into the team - he acted more like a statue rather than a player. Suarez, once again, was helpless upfront. Dalglish and Comolli really shouldn't let both Meireles and Aquilani - the rare creative directors in midfield - to go.

Fans will be eager for the return of Steven Gerrard, and hopefully he will cure the current mediocre Liverpool at least by a bit.

Watch: Suarez
Drop: Adam, Skrtel, Carroll


Blackburn 4-3 Arsenal
Weird game? Arsenal led twice only to be let down by the worst defence of the league - they leaked 14 goals already.

BLA: It was Yakubu's day, really. The Everton outcast was influential he scored 2 important goals (the other 2 were own goals though). Solid striker which will also be the pivot of the Rovers' survival. He is a must if Rovers' can pick up their form and bang in some goals.

N'Zonzi had a good run which caused Koscielny's own goal, but he isn't historically productive so don't be hasty to make decisions about him.

Pick: Yakubu
Watch: N'Zonzi


ARS: Defence was once again a let down. I thought Mertesacker will turn the situation around but seriously, Koscielny is too big a tumour to be removed. He was at fault for at least 2 of the goals. Before Vermaelen's return or Wenger's decision to kick Koscielny into the reserves, avoid Arsenal defenders.


There's also problems offensively. While Arteta and Gervinho both got their first goal for their new club, Gervinho's selfishness is questionable. In fact he was scolded by captain Robin van Persie for his selfish attempt instead of feeding the ball to the Dutchman who was clearly unmarked. The ending would be much different if Arsenal led by 3-1 instead of 2-1 by half-time.

Pick: Van Persie, Gervinho, Arteta
Drop: Koscielny, ARS defence


Aston Villa 1-1 Newcastle
AST: Satisfactory performance. Given was influential again as he saved some of the tricky shots especially the long-distance cannon from Cabaye. Offensively it's yet again Agbonlahor who scored - he feet are on fire.

Pick: Agbonlahor
Watch: Given


NEW: St. James' Park has their new Carroll - Leon Best. In fact I'm torn between choosing Agbonlahor and him: Gabby is more clinical, but Leo is cheaper. Both are great third forward.

Cabaye was unlucky - he could have scored double digits on any other game with that kind of performance. Instead, it was Tiote who scored 7 points - I seriously cannot see that to repeat frequently.

Pick: Best, Cabaye


Bolton 1-2 Norwich
BOL: Klasnic got a red - that butt-hurted a lot of managers. N'gog grabbed the chance and earned the team a penalty. Unfortunately Bolton's next two games are tricky - Arsenal and Chelsea - won't bring too much good to the young French.

Martin Petrov scored through the spot, and is surely claiming the #1 fantasy spot at Bolton.

Pick: Petrov
Watch: N'gog
Drop: Klasnic


NOR: Holt started from bench - the captain is becoming less and less influential as the team won without him for majority of the playing time.

It's only the Canaries' first win, and is far too soon to deduce anything about any of their players yet.

Watch: Pilkington, Morison
Drop: Holt


Everton 3-1 Wigan
EVE: Slight disappointment from Tim Cahill as he only assisted one - not so solid captain choice. Vellios is receiving good reviews from football pundits - a superb steal if he starts.

Watch: Vellios


WIG: It's Di Santo who's the ace of the team instead of Moses who remained rather silent over these weeks.

Pick: Di Santo


Swansea 3-0 West Brom
SWA: Finally a victory. Luck was on their side this time as Sinclair fired 12 fantasy points. Those who remain loyal with him are well rewarded.

Also on the score sheet are Nathan Dyer and Leroy Lita - two cheap fantasy players. Not sure about their consistency though.

And Michel Vorm is as solid as ever. A season long hold.

Pick: Sinclair, Vorm
Watch: Dyer, Lita


WBA: Not their day. Long wasn't clinical enough to take the chances. Surprised to see both Dorrans and Brunt started on bench.

Wolves 0-3 QPR
WOL: Overwhelmed by QPR throughout the game. Form is starting to loosen out.

QPR: Faurlin's 10 points and 3 bonus points were both unexpected. As for the expected ones, Wright-Phillips (6 points) was once again influential in the win as well as Joey Barton (13 points). Both are superstuds from QPR.

Bothroyd once again failed to impress; instead it was DJ Campbell who scored for the strikers.

Pick: Barton, SWP
Watch: Faurlin, DJ Campbell
Drop: Bothroyd


Fulham 2-2 Man City
FUL: Good comeback. Good role played by Zamora. Still the ace of the team whenever he's fit.

Pick: Zamora


MCI: Overly defensive after the 2-0 lead. Silva, Dzeko, Aguero and Nasri are still the usual producers from the team.

Pick: Aguero, Silva


Sunderland 4-0 Stoke
SUN: Larsson scored 2 and created 1 as I suffered for selling him out of my team. He got only 1 bonus point though for such good stats. Instead it was Craig Gardner who got 3. The one that is more well-worthed to invest for long-term is surely Bendtner (5 points).

Pick: Bendtner, Larsson, Brown
Watch: Gardner


STO: Nothing much to say here as the team lost completely.