It’s barely been four days and the next round of fixtures in
the IEFSA Fantasy League on Fantrax comes around again. An agonising loss last
week saw my side slip from ninth to twelfth with a .500 win percentage.
@BenDinnery might be the go to guy for Premier League injury news, but how long
to recover from a broken heart Ben, how long?? I thought I had done enough on Saturday
to keep my side in front, before Diego Costa popped up with two goals to crush
my dreams, as Ben’s team streaked off into the distance. Everton’s emphatic win
on Monday night only served to fill me with false hope as a late rally from
Baines left me short by a soul crushing 1.85 points. An interception or a
blocked shot and some accurate passes away from the victory. Heart breaking
stuff.
This week the IEFSA fixture bias against my team continues,
as I’m to face 3-1 (fifth place) @RotoZdroik. He has won his last two games and
is the fourth highest scorer in the league. His Forward line has also
contributed five goals to his team, while my Forward line has provided the
grand total of zero.
@RotoZdroik’s Team
That Forward line is led by Romelu Lukaku. The Belgian hit a
hat trick last time out and will be home to Middlesbrough on Saturday evening.
His back-ups are more than capable too. Jermain Defoe returns to old side
Tottenham on Sunday. Wilfried Bony will try to open his Stoke City account
against Crystal Palace, while Fernando Llorente heads with his Swansea
teammates to Southampton. Adam’s Midfield is full of real work horses who love
hoovering up points around the pitch. Idrissa Gueye averages over twenty points
a game for Everton. Granit Xhaka will be part of the Arsenal squad that travels
to Hull on the back of some good recent form. Gylfi Sigurdsson adds some guile
to his midfield; and if any of those three are not fit to start, he has Aaron
Ramsey and Leroy Sane waiting in reserve.
 |
| Lukaku won't get everything his own way against Middlesbrough |
His star in defence has been Kyle Naughton. Averaging over
19 points a game, he wins his fair share of aerial duels, as well as putting in
a number of accurate crosses. His three other defenders are playing at home
though, so he may be tempted to rotate them in to one of his three defensive
slots. Cahill will be kept busy by Liverpool. Zabaleta might get to raid
forward when Man City entertain Bournemouth. Damien Delaney plays on Sunday in
the clash of Palace and Stoke. Finally in goals will be Hull’s Jakupovic. In
the opening four games the Bosnian has made 16 saves to three goals conceded.
What I Need To Happen
If Arsenal could put a few past Hull at three o’clock on
Saturday that would be good for my squad, which includes Bellerin and Cazorla.
Before that game though, perhaps it would be good (if not a minor miracle) on Friday
night if Pedro were to actually start a game for Chelsea. He hasn’t done a great deal since joining the
Blues and faces stiff competition to break into their starting eleven. More
than likely joining him on the bench will be my two Manchester United ‘stars’
Lingard and Mkhitaryan. Playing these two last week more than likely cost me
any chance of victory, but the chances of them starting this weekend against
Watford are pretty remote. Although we will know more after the dust has
settled on Man Utd’s Europa League game.
This will leave the rest of my squad to pick up the slack.
Burnley holding champions Leicester to a clean sheet would benefit my
goalkeeper, and defender Michael Keane. Two Stoke players, Arnautovic and Allen,
need to help the Potters off the foot of the table, and any win away to Palace
will surely hurt Delaney’s points tally. My ace in the hole though is tricky
Jack Wilshire, who is due a goal when Bournemouth head to Man City. No clean
sheets yet for The Citizens means a brace or more is not out of the question.
Predictions
It’s proving really difficult to predict winners in this
league. @cjradune overcame @TomSunderland_ by only 0.2 points in Week 4's top of the table clash for instance. A respectable six correct and
three wrong from last week’s predictions though. As usual, to keep track of all
the games from this week, make sure you are following @THE_IEFSA on Twitter.
Here are this week’s predictions. Good luck everyone.
@nikarg over @SmokeyLoogy
@jwl_15 over @SportsByGotti
@jasonuk17 over @TAMc10
@cjradune over @TRKingston
@FuzzyWarbles over @jforquer11
@wrigavin over @TomSunderland_
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