Week 21: IEFSA Fantasy League Preview

The Premier League is back after a week of FA Cup action. Most sides put out ‘experimental’ lineups in an effort to save themselves for the rigours of a relegation battle, title race, European campaign, or finishing 14^th. (delete as appropriate) The return of league action means the return of Fantasy Football and the IEFSA Fantasy League brought to you by Fantrax. So check your sides for the latest injuries, or in case anyone of your players have scuttled off to China, and lets begin the Gameweek 21 preview.

A Leighton Baines goal helped my team overcome @TRKingston two weeks ago. This result moved my team up to fourth in the league. I would have lost to this week’s opponent if I had been playing him though, @jasonuk17. I overcame Jason in Week 2 and since then our two teams have been scoring pretty close points-wise. Six times in the following game weeks our sides would have only been separated by less than five points, twice by less than a point (0.1 and 0.35). This all points to a rather tight game, but as usual, the IEFSA Fantrax fixture computer has organised it so that @jasonuk17’s Forward is in his best form of the season. While my highest priced Defender heads to the Injured Reserve list. Jason also picked up Claudio Yacob not long after he was discarded to Free Agency. This sets the West Brom man up nicely to come back and bite my side in the ass this week!

@jasonuk17’s Team

The in form Forward in Jason’s team is Frenchman Olivier Giroud. The Arsenal front-man has scored three goals in as many games and averages 24.4 points over the same period. Helping him out and pulling in almost 18 points a game this season is Bournemouth’s Junior Stanislas. Stanislas faces bottom club Hull on Saturday, so should have no problem getting near his average again. Elsewhere in Midfield he has another inform player in the shape of Michael Carrick. The Man Utd player should have plenty of work to do, and therefore earn plenty of points, when United entertain Liverpool on Sunday.

@jasonuk's secret weapon: Claudio Yacob

In goals Jason has another Man Utd star, David de Gea. Rested for the League Cup game midweek, de Gea has started all twenty league games this season, keeping seven clean sheets. He will probably not be the only one looking for clean sheets this week though, as all of @jasonuk17’s Defenders have home fixtures. The toughest of these being Ben Chilwell of Leicester City who host table toppers Chelsea. Conte’s men look like they will be playing without top scorer Diego Costa for this game though, as reports out of Stamford Bridge suggest he is unsettled and looking to move in January.

Will Costa be banging in goals at a sold out Workers Stadium in 2017?

What I Need To Happen

Hector Bellerin joined Arsenal teammate Santi Cazorla on my injured list this week after injuring his ankle. This leaves only three fit defenders, but hopefully they will all get the starts for their respective clubs and pick up a clean sheet or two. My goalkeeper Tom Heaton of Burnley will face Southampton. A clean sheet here, as well as keeping out Jason’s Oriol Romeu would be a good start on Saturday. Jason could also have up to three Watford players in his squad starting at three o’clock on Saturday. So, a Middlesbrough upset would be most welcomed in that game.

Another three-pm kick-off, this time involving four players from my squad, is the fixture between Sunderland and Stoke. Joe Allen has not been his usual self lately in regards gaining fantasy points, but will not get many better chances to reverse this trend than against third from bottom Sunderland. A high scoring affair with an effort or two from Fabio Borini would entertain the neutral and make me very happy. This fixture could also go a long way to seeing if the ‘Ibrahim Afellay Experiment’ will be a success. Jack Wilshere has yet to score in 2017, but should knock in one or two against bottom club Hull City, as he slowly forces his way into the England squad for the crucial game against Lithuania in March.

Jack Wilshere should open his Bournemouth account against Hull

Predictions

Six correct and three incorrect for the second week in a row. Many of the managers are looking around trying to improve their squads during the January transfer window. Perhaps @BenDinnery is sweating the most as $65 of his budget is tied up in want-away Diego Costa. For the latest on this and all the other goings on in the league, please follow @THE_IEFSA on Twitter. Here are this week’s predictions.

Good Luck Everyone

@jwl_15 over @TRKingston

@EPL_MOstradamus over @BenDinnery

@RotoZdroik over @TomSunderland_

@nikarg over @DFS_Hambazaza

@SportsByGotti over @nealjthurman

@FuzzyWarbles over @TAMc10

@cjradune over @jforquer11

@RotoWireAndrew over @FantasyYIRMA

@wrigavin over @SmokeyLoogy

Week 15: IEFSA Fantasy League Preview

A return to winning ways sees my side move up the table to sixth. It wasn’t a vintage performance by any means as I struggled to 109.5 points. It was a pair of defenders getting on the scoresheet that turned the tie in my favour over @jforquer11. Leighton Baines and Steve Cook left it late to score equalizers for their teams on Sunday, and the twenty plus points they each scored was better than what Pedro, Wilshere and Yacob put together managed for my side.

Baines slots home his penalty with ease

And with this victory, what has the IEFSA Fantrax fixture computer saw fit to do this week? Why it’s decided that I should play the highest scoring team in the league, because it doesn’t want me winning too much. That high scoring side belongs to @FuzzyWarbles. If our sides had met every week this season he would have ten wins to my four. So once again I’m up against it. There is one green shoot of hope though, as @FuzzyWarbles will be missing his top goal scorer Sergio Aguero through suspension. But even this doesn’t help much, as even without those ten goals, his side have outscored mine 21 goals to 15 after fourteen weeks of the season.

@FuzzyWarbles Team

Aguero will miss the first of four games this week. Steve has a number of choices in who will deputise for the Argentinian. He has three other Forward players who could slot in. Fischer of Middlesbrough, Bojan at Stoke and Lucas Perez with Arsenal. None of the three are guaranteed of a start but perhaps after his hat trick in midweek, Perez will get the most minutes this weekend. Although Viktor Fischer did start last week for Boro, and could keep his place for the trip to Southampton. Elsewhere in his team the goals have mostly been supplied by the Liverpool pair of Sadio Mane and James Milner. Twelve goals between them, and they face a West Ham team that shipped five goals against Arsenal recently.

At the back @FuzzyWarbles has gotten three goals out of Gareth McAuley this season, but the West Brom defender faces a stern test in trying to breach the Chelsea backline this Sunday. Another West Brom player in his side, and  onethat has had positive recent form, is Chris Brunt. Brunt has found himself deployed further up the pitch in recent games, yet will probably have to do more defending than he’d like when his team head to Stamford Bridge. Steve might get more points in Midfield from the return of Yaya Toure. Pep Guardiola will have to shake up his starting eleven for the trip to champions Leicester, with the Ivorian perhaps gaining one of the attacking midfield spots.

What I Need To Happen

With @FuzzyWarbles having Hugo Loris between the sticks, I’m hoping that my Manchester United players earn the start and cause him problems. I’m more optimistic about Mkhitaryan getting game time than Jesse Lingard though. Any goals created by the Armenian will doubly hurt, as @FuzzyWarbles also has Jan Vertongen in Defence. My Top scorer Joe Allen was a surprise omission form the Stoke line-up last week, with the Potters heading to Arsenal this week, perhaps Mark Hughes will adopt a more defensive approach and use the Welshman in midfield where he will be kept busy while racking up the points.

The red flags all over my team seem to be abating somewhat going into Gameweek 15. Leighton Baines returned last week and it looks like Hector Bellerin could return this week. If he does return in time for the Saturday three o'clock kickoff, that would mean the end of the ‘Claudio Yacob Experiment’, as the West Brom midfielder would have to be jettisoned. Despite West Brom having some positive results of late, the Argentine has not been doing enough fantasywise and failed to get into double figures for the last two games.

I have two pairs of players playing against each other in the Bournemouth Burnley match; a goalkeeper and defender for Burnley and a defender and midfielder for Bournemouth. A nice boring scoreless draw would be perfect here, but that’s not going to happen, because as we all know, Jack Wilshere is due a goal.

It's tight at the top (and the middle, and the bottom)

Predictions

An improvement to six correct from nine predictions last week. The league is very tight, with everyone bar the bottom two sides within six points of the top four. Hopefully things go a little better this week. To see how every tie is progressing follow @THE_IEFSA on Twitter.

Good Luck Everyone.

@nealjthurman over @jforquer11

@RotoWireAndrew over @nikarg

@TomSunderland_ over @SmokeyLoogy

@TRKingston over @FantasyYIRMA

@cjradune over @jasonuk17

@jwl_15 over @TAMc10

@SportsByGotti over @BenDinnery

@RotoZdroik over @DFS_Hambazaza

Week 14: IEFSA Fantasy League Preview

An embarrassing defeat to @RotoWireAndrew last week continues my side’s slide down the table. Fans are surely getting restless after three losses in a row, while the board are probably scratching their heads asking ‘What’s a Claudio Yacob?’ Things don’t get any easier this week in the @THE_IEFSA and Fantrax Fantasy League as the fixture computer (which hate’s me by the way) throws me into a matchup with @jforquer11. Both our teams have 21 points and are in danger of dropping down to the lower reaches of the table this week if things don’t go their way. @jforquer11 has a fully fit squad to select from though, whereas my players just love that treatment table.

A wild Yacob appeared.

@jforquer11’s Team

A good spread of teams in Joel’s squad. Only Stoke City supplies him with two players; the goalkeeper (currently Lee Grant) and the left back Erik Pieters. Luckily for him also, is that most of his team will be playing on Saturday. He might sweat over the inclusions of Gareth Barry or Daley Blind in the Everton versus Manchester United game on Sunday, but could fill his Defence and Midfield with players with Saturday fixtures and save himself that headache, while more than likely opening up a sizable lead in our matchup! His top scorer, Burnley’s Sam Vokes, does travel to Stoke though, so while these players could keep each other busy, they could end up taking points off each other, so that even the sting of a Vokes goal will be tempered by the points Grant would lose.

Elsewhere in his squad he will be looking to some of his more reliable players to gather him points. His highest salaried player, Man City’s Fernandinho, averages nearly 17 points a game, but does have a tricky game against Chelsea in the opening fixture of the weekend. Joel spent big in defence and will perhaps be disappointed with the returns so far from Wes Morgan (Leicester City) and Jose Fonte (Southampton). These two players do have fixtures with some of the Premier League’s lesser teams in Sunderland and Crystal Palace respectively. Complementing Vokes in attack he will have to choose between Shinji Okazaki and Joshua King. They have started 18 games between them, but have only managed three goals, so they are perhaps due a goal this week.

What I Need To Happen

Speaking of being due a goal, Jack Wilshere will return to the Bournemouth side this week. The Cherries host Coutinho-less Liverpool, and a clean sheet there rake in the points for my side. Steve Cook also owes me a solid 90 minutes after last week’s horror show. Another player returning this week is Stoke’s Joe Allen. Fresh from suspension, Allen will hopefully rediscover the form of a few weeks ago. The Stoke versus Burnley fixture will include Allen as well as Arnautovic for the home side, against Michael Keane and the Burnley goalkeeper with the away side. Last week Paul Robinson found himself in goals after Tom Heaton was ruled out with a toe injury. A highly entertaining nil all draw would be ideal here. But a boring draw that ends up shown last on all the highlight shows is more likely.

Has Mkhitaryan done enough to earn a start?

Another game that will include four of my squad will be the Sunday four o’clock kick-off between Everton and Manchester United. Though if all four players do play, I will be genuinely surprised. Baines does seem to have settled back into the side after injury, but Mirallas has seen himself fall out of the side after a number of anonymous performances and a run of poor results for the Toffees. The Man Utd team is even harder to predict. Lingard and Mkhitaryan have been in and out of the side over their last four fixtures, with perhaps the Armenian midfielder more likely to gain a starting berth this weekend.

Predictions

12 points separate the top 18 sides in this league. The longest win streak is only three games, by @FantasyYIRMA in 17^th. Any team can beat any other, so even a fixture between top (@jwl_15) and bottom (@DFS_Hambazaza) cannot be predicted with 100% certainty. Only three of nine matchups correctly predicted last weekend. Are things going to improve in Gameweek 14? Follow @THE_IEFSA on Twitter to find out.

Good Luck Everyone

@jwl_15 over @DFS_Hambazaza

@RotoZdroik over @BenDinnery

@EPL_MOstradamus over @cjradune

@wrigavin over @nikarg

@RotoWireAndrew over @FuzzyWarbles

@SportsByGotti over @jasonuk17

@nealjthurman over @SmokeyLoogy

@TRKingston over @TAMc10

@TomSunderland_ over @FantasyYIRMA