I love weeks that defy convention; Newcastle beat Liverpool, Bournemouth beat Chelsea, Stoke beat City. There were draws for Villa, West Brom and West Ham against opponents where you’d expect them to really suffer. It makes everything just a bit more interesting doesn’t it? It just goes to show how wide open the league is this season and that can only be a good thing in my opinion. For too long the top four have had a strangle-hold on the league and we were fast approaching a time when only the money in your club’s pockets could move you up to the highest echelons. Well done minnows, you’ve help restore my faith a bit.
This week has also given me the chance to look at all of the fantasy football games I play and reflect. As readers will be aware, this season I’m playing two different Fantrax leagues (AMCRFFC & BTB), the official Premier League game, Perfect XI & Mondogoal. I wouldn’t normally play so many but when Yahoo disappeared I wanted to grab a few to see what I liked and what I didn’t. It turns out that a/I love Mondogoal – you should definitely give it a go b/Perfect XI is also awesome because it’s so quick to do and you get so much freedom, c/the Premier League games format is also really quick to do and you’ll never get the chance to play more people in one game. Fantrax is a great platform but my least favourite. I love that you can create new versions of whatever game you want but the selection process takes a lot of time and the app is pretty naff. I especially don’t like in the AMCR FFC league that players have prices to two decimal places. Is that really necessary? In the old days of Yahoo it was simple to think – ‘I’ve got £30m of my budget left, if I choose player A for £10m and player b for £8m, then I’ll need to find a defender for £12m’. In this league you’re end up going ‘Player A is £7,692.61 and Player B is £14,293.19 and I have £36,193.22 left – How much should I be spending on defenders?’ – I agree that it’s not difficult to work out but it stops the enjoyment from my point of view.
So………. I’m quitting Fantrax I’m afraid. Time to concentrate on the games I like. Let’s have a look at this week’s predictor.
Predictor
Well didn’t the predictor get it wrong last week huh? It fancied Southampton, Chelsea and United all to do well at home but it wasn’t to be. There always seem to be a point around this time in the season when some surprise results turn up – maybe it’s the injuries mounting up, the yellow card suspensions or maybe just a bit of pre-Christmas partying? Who knows, next year we’ll just have to be ready for the unexpected.
This week puts Spurs out as clear leaders against Newcastle and even though they beat Liverpool last week I can’t argue with the prediction. With just a 19% chance of Newcastle getting anything from the match then Messrs. Kane, Alli and Eriksen all look like great choices. I’m especially tempted by Alli as he’s still relatively cheap in almost all formats.
The next match is probably equally obvious although you have to wonder what was going on last week – I was only discussing recently with a member of the Stoke board that the Britannia is a difficult place for teams to play but I don’t think anyone saw that coming. This week’s game at home to Swansea looks like time for them to get back on track – De Bruyne is the obvious choice and as it looks like Aguero maybe rested then Bony and Iheanacho’s stock looks set to rise. I also like the idea of Kolorov performing well from a defensive position.
Leicester, West Ham and Sunderland all look to offer good value (although let’s be honest, Sunderland haven’t been convincing). With Chelsea’s defence looing average at best I’d be amazed if anyone was considering dropping Mahrez or Vardy from their teams. As for the others, they maybe a good place to find some cheap filler players for your team.
Poisson
This week’s Poisson agrees with the Predictor suggesting that City should perform very well at home to Swansea. It rates them as 69% favourites with 2-0, 2-1, 3-0 and 3-1 the most likely scores. They’ll certainly form key parts of my team. It isn’t as bullish as the Predictor on Spurs chances however with a score of 1-1 marginally ahead of 2-1.
Leicester are fancied as well as West Ham although the Poisson isn’t excited about Sunderland at all, placing Watford as the marginal favourites (I wholeheartedly agree). As you can see from the bottom of the graphic that Liverpool and Arsenal join West Ham as the best place to look for cleans sheets – I like Moreno personally.
Looking at the other fixtures and I find it hard to see anything that jumps out at me at this stage.
See you next week.
