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

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Sunday Aftermath: United On the Summit

"Oops!" Van Persie made Arsenal's £24m revenue from him a painstaking one after scoring the critical opener against them. 

A weird weekend as none of the teams from the top half of the table won except the new league leaders, Manchester United. Here are some highlights:

• Robin Van Persie (£13.5m, 8 pts) embarrassed Arsene Wenger as he capitalised on Thomas Vermaelen's (£7.1m, 1 pt) mistake to score an early opener against Arsenal. Incredible consistency which makes his hefty price tag more and more justified.
• Wayne Rooney (£11.8m, 2 pts) was given the authority to take the penalty on top of Van Persie but somehow missed it. He made up for his mistake later on by making an assist for Patrice Evra's (£6.8m, 10 pts) — still a miserable fantasy gameweek however.
• Meanwhile, Marouane Fellaini (£7.1m, 15 pts) bossed Craven's Cottage as he scored both goals of Everton against Fulham. The Toffees dominated the game but was left frustrated by Steve Sidwell's (£5.0m, 8 pts) late equaliser.
• Norwich have now gotten 7 points out of 9 in their last 3 league games as Bradley Johnson (£4.7m, 11 pts) converted Robert Snodgrass' (£5.8m, 8 pts) assist into the net.
• Fallen fantasy star Gabriel Agbonlahor (£6.9m, 9 pts) scored his first goal of the season as Aston Villa snatched 3 points away from Stadium of Light.
• Victor Moses (£6.3m, 11 pts) grabbed his chance well to score the opening goal for Chelsea but Pablo Hernandez (£6.1m, 9 pts) stopped Chelsea from climbing back to the top of the league table with a late equaliser.
• A stunning day at White Hart Lane as Tottenham failed to deliver any goals at home against Wigan.
• Manchester City's 22 shots proved to be a waste of effort as they shared a point with West Ham in a 0-0 draw.
• Both Queens Park Rangers and Reading failed to grab their first win of the season as they shared one goal apiece at Loftus Road.
• Luis Suarez (£9.7m, 9 pts) is certainly on fire currently but his side failed to snatch all three points at Anfield against Newcastle.

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Saturday Screamers: RVP Strikes!

Robin Van Persie grabbed his first goal for the Red Devils.

Another great Saturday night with comprehensive victory by Swansea, Everton and Manchester United! Here are some highlights:

• Robin Van Persie (£13.0m) scored his first goal for Manchester United in his first shot for the team through a wonderful volley. Class.
• His teammate Shinji Kagawa (£8.5m) also scored his first goal for United with an unmarked rebound. Two men to monitor.
• Wayne Rooney (£12.0m) only featured as a sub disappointingly and ended the game on a stretcher. The striker is expected to out for 4 weeks. A good news for Van Persie and Kagawa's owners and prospective owners though as it will remove rotation fears.
• David de Gea (£6.0m) continued to show good form between the post, but porous defence continues to hinder him from reaping good points.
• Damien Duff (£6.0m) made it 2 goals in 2 games for Fulham, which tallied his record last season. The winger is showing some form lately - a good short-term choice, perhaps.
• As for Swansea, Michu (£6.8m) did it again and leads the Golden Boot race with 3 goals. His price has already hiked by £0.3m in just one week, and I expect at least another £0.2m increase before gameweek 3's deadline. Grab him fast if you plan to get the highest goalscoring midfielder of La Liga last season.
• Danny Graham (£6.0m) opened his account for Swansea too as predicted. Most of the Swans' goals will share between Michu and him - a decent third forward pick in my opinion.
• A surprisingly flying start for Everton, scoring 6 league points out of possible 6. Maruoane Fellaini (£6.6m) scored again, which surprised me. Also on the scoresheet are Nikica Jelavic (£8.5m) and Steven Pienaar (£6.5m) - the usual suspects.
• Meanwhile, goals from Franco Di Santo (£5.5m) and Arouna Kone (£6.5m) helped to secure victory for Wigan over newcomers Southampton. Victor Moses (£7.0m) is leaving Wigan for Chelsea, so one would expect the duo to take over the offensive burden of the club.
• Tottenham failed to hold on their lead by Benoit Assou-Ekkoto (£6.5m) at White Hart Lane. Gylfi Sigurdsson (£9.0m) made an assist, but the rest of the attacking pack just didn't look sharp.
• Norwich and QPR, who both lost by 5 goals last week, shared one goal apiece at Carrow Road.
• And finally, Reading will have another double gameweek soon as the game between Sunderland and them was postponed because of waterlogged pitch.

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FPLZ 2012/13 Season Preview: Wigan Athletic F.C.

Wigan Athletic F.C.

Victor Moses promoting his club's new kit for 2012/13 season.

You can download the full analyzed squad data here.

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

Last Season: Safe
Struggle - this has always been Wigan's situation every season, and the last one was not an exception. Poor conversion rate especially by Victor Moses in first half of the season had almost sent the Latics to hell, though they fired up in the late stage of the season and saved themselves with still a little bit extra league points for survival.

This Summer: Lack of Excitement
Many players are going away from DW Stadium this summer, with names such as Hugo Rodallega, Mohamed Diame, Steve Gohouri and Chris Kirkland; heading the opposite direction are highly rated young midfielder Fraser Fyvie and Mallorca defender Ivan Ramis. Not very flashy here, as usual.

Upcoming Season: Escape the Cycle
Stuck in relegation battle, barely survived. Stuck in relegation battle, barely survived. The unhealthy cycle has been on and on every season for Wigan, and surely this is not something the players and the fans like. They definitely need to bring their skill to the next level and pull themselves up to the mid-table position to avoid such scare again.

Moses' indices last season.

N'Zogbia V2: Moses (FI: 0.634)
He wouldn't like to be recognized that way, but that's the way he is. Victor Moses (£7.0m) is the new ace of Wigan after the departure of Charles N'Zogbia last season, though he did not look like at first. The lad failed to score for a streak of 60+ shots before scoring his first goal on December last season - an embarrassing record for any players. But he marched on from there and ended the season with 6 goals and 6 assists - certainly not bad for a player from a club which constantly troubled by relegation fears.

His £7.0m fantasy valuation might stop you from getting him, but I do believe he has the quality to meet his asking price. The bigger doubt though is his highly possible move to Chelsea, which can be done in these few days. Stay alert for the development.

Budget Pick: Di Santo (FI: 0.434)
There are hardly any fantasy talents at DW Stadium other than Moses, but Franco Di Santo (£5.5m) can be the next hit at Wigan after Moses.

At the age of 23, the Argentine still has a lot of room to grow, not to mention he played only 2025 minutes last season - 150 points should be an attainable target for him this season with less competition upfront and higher reliance on him, should Moses leaves.

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