My team responded to defeat in Gameweek 22
with a big victory midweek against @BenDinnery.
Along with scoring the highest total of the week with 133.7 points, the
victory also saw my side move up into second place in the league. A Tom Heaton
clean sheet for Burnley, as well as his teammate Michael Keane adding an
assist. Marko Arnautovic chipped in with an assist too. Ben only had a Darren
Fletcher assist and a one save Willy Caballero shutout in response. My rise was
because of a number of upsets, as four of the top eight lost. One person who didn’t
taste defeat was leader @RotoZdroik. His side has a league best six wins on the
trot (the next best has two!). Adam also had the second highest score in midweek
with 132.5. This after he had been nearly sixty points adrift going into
Wednesday night.
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| All Tom Heaton's six clean sheets have come at Turf Moor |
@RotoZdroik is now 12 points clear of a
group of four teams. He is in danger of being out of sight before we enter the
final third of the season. Our clash will also be a revenge game for him, as I managed
to beat him in Gameweek 5 by a measly 2.6 points. It was one of only five
defeats for him this season. He has only lost three in eighteen games since.
While most of the league will be cheering me on in this clash of the top two
sides, I have a feeling the IEFSA/Fantrax fixture computer has thrown up this
fixture now in an attempt to undermine my side’s rise up the table. Only three
of my players have home games this week. While Adam’s two top scorers, Defoe
and Lukaku, have a combined goals total (24), just two shy of the combined
goals total of my whole team (26).
@RotoZdroik’s Team
Oh did I mention he has eight goal Fernando
Llorente and seven goal Gylfi Sigurdsson of Swansea in his squad too? Or that
his Hull Goalkeeper gained more than twenty points in a game away to Manchester
United last time out. If his players simply hit their average for the season, I
will need 131.7 points to beat him. A score I have only managed six times this
season. Adam can only play two of Lukaku, Llorente and Defoe though, so he will
have a few choices to make this weekend. Lukaku and Defoe are the obvious
picks, but Llorente did score two goals away at Liverpool recently and the Man
City backline does tend to have the odd car crash game, even at home.
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| Sigurdsson spearheads a resurgent Swansea side |
The three Defenders he is likely to go with
all have home fixtures. Cahill, Maguire and Sagna. While two out of his three Midfielders
will be playing at home, Gueye and Sane, the other being Sigurdsson. The
Icelandic international has already scored against Man City this season in the
League Cup though, and averages over twenty points a game. Unlike the Forward
and Defender positions, Adam has no alternative options in Midfield with his Arsenal pair
Granit Zhaka and Aaron Ramsey, suspended and injured respectively.
What I Need To Happen
Goals win games. I will need all of his top
four scorers to have an off day this gameweek. The last time none of these
players scored in a gameweek was back in mid-December in Gameweek 17. But even
in that week, Leroy Sane scored for @RotoZdroik. With goals almost guaranteed,
maybe I should just worry about my side scoring goals.
With most of my players playing away from
home, and my only Forward playing at home is up against Arsenal. Pedro may have
five goals this year, but he can’t seem to nail down a place in Conte’s Chelsea
side. This London derby is the first game of the weekend, so as least I will
know early if Pedro is in or out of my team. If he is out, Arnautovic or Borini will
occupy the Forward position. Elsewhere in my team, Joe Allen and Henrik
Mkhitaryan have had dips in form recently, and Jack Wilshere is still making me
wait for his first Bournemouth goal. It may come this weekend, and if it does
it would take cleansheet points away from my Defender Leighton Baines.
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| Afellay will take his gloves off soon and storm the fantasy scene |
In better news, the Ibrahim Afellay
Experiment is seemingly improving. He started Stoke’s last game and managed
ninety minutes, but only 7.75 points. A trip to West Brom is not the easiest
game to gain points in, so perhaps I will hold off on unleashing him to the
fantasy football world just yet.
Predictions
With a few upsets last week, the
predictions finally saw a dip from a run of six correct in a row over the
previous three gameweeks. Five correct and four incorrect. Remember to follow
@THE_IEFSA on Twitter to not only keep track of this weekend’s scores, but also
to see if any side has dipped into the transfer market. A number of teams are
looking to get players in order to improve their fortunes. No one has made a
bid for Ibrahim Afellay or Jack Wilshere yet. But when that happens, follow
@GarryIrwin and you’ll be the first to know.
Here are this week’s predictions. Good Luck
Everyone
@SportsByGotti over @jwl_15
@TAMc10 over @jasonuk17
@TRKingston over @cjradune
@wrigavin over @TomSunderland_
@nikarg over @SmokeyLoogy
@FuzzyWarbles over @jforquer11
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