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As alluded to yesterday, Chelsea are in great form and just as Didier Drogba is in great form, so too are many of his Chelsea team-mates. Consider three Chelsea players in your fantasy football team as mandatory, especially when they are playing Wigan.
Flavour of the first week Blackpool travel to Emirates Stadium to take on Arsenal. This is going to be a real test for them. It will be interesting to see how Blackpool fare.
In terms of other members of the Big Four, Manchester United are away to Fulham. Fulham are missing manager Roy Hodgson who is now with Liverpool and you would expect the Red Devils to dominate. So take a couple of United players as well. Fulham could struggle to score so United defenders could be a could pick.
Speaking of Liverpool, they are away to Manchester City and this is going to be a tough match. Hard to know what is going to happen here.
With other matches, you would think Everton would rebound against Wolves. The likes of Mikel Arteta and Tim Cahill are worthy of inclusion. Tottenham had a difficult night midweek in Switzrerland but you would expect them to rebound against Stoke.
Last year Darren Bent scored plenty of goals for Sunderland and he could do so again against West Bromwich Albion.
Bolton and West Ham and Birmingham and Blackburn are two of those matches which just don’t hold any fantasy football appeal. Then you have Aston Villa travelling to Newcastle. Second week of the Premier League season and it should be a cracker.
Speaking of Arsenal – Blackpool, here is some cool footage of a game between them 80 years ago:
The opening round of the Premier League season has come to an end. How did you fare in terms of fantasy football? Joy for the owners of Didier Drogba, Florent Malouda, Ryan Giggs and Frank Lampard. Not so much for the owners of the Liverpool defence, Joe Cole and any Wigan players.
There were only three matches in which there wasn’t a clean sheet so if you missed out on clean sheet points, you probably would have struggled unless you were able to make those points up elsewhere.
It looks like the high powered Chelsea offence of last year is continuing from where it left off. The big surprise though is obviously Blackpool. They scored 4, kept a clean sheet and Marlon Harewood was dominant up forward scoring twice. They are flying high but its a long season and by December this great result could be nothing but a distant memory. Take it with a grain of salt as they were playing Wigan. Let’s see how they do against Arsenal.
Elsewhere it was another memory why the Premier League is such a great competition.
Ryan Giggs is timeless and maintained his record of scoring in every Premier League season. His goal was the icing on the cake for a Manchester United side that simply had too much class for Newcastle. The Magpies may have dominated the Championship last year but they quickly learned about the gulf in skill between the two divisions.
Class is permanent and form is temporary. You don’t want to be seduced by players who shine one week and crash the next.
The 2010/2011 English Premier League season begins tomorrow. There is no better time of the year. Every team is in the same boat and filled with hopes, optimism and anxiety. That is where the similarities between the 20 sides ends. You can’t compare a Manchester United with Fulham or a Chelsea with Blackpool.
A new year is a new beginning. Not just for all of the clubs but for 11kicks as well. 11kicks has a new Stats Center. You have the ability to check out stats via club or player. Use it wisely as it a valuable resource for you and your fantasy football teams.
Looking ahead to the opening weekend of the season and three matches stand out. The first is between Liverpool and Arsenal. Liverpool are now under the stewardship of Roy Hodgson and it will be interesting to see how he fares. But for a stint at Inter Milan, Hodgson has mostly been at smaller sides, how will he fare at one of the biggest clubs in the world? Liverpool just signed Christian Poulsen which could be a good move. Fantasy owners should keep an eye out on him as well as Joe Cole and Milan Jovanovic. The three are all good players.
As for Arsenal, they have had a quiet off-season and will be hoping that this year they can spoil the Manchester United – Chelsea party at the top of the ladder. The Gunners didn’t really sign any big names and will be putting a lot of faith in the existing squad.
Then you have Manchester City taking on Tottenham. These two fought fiercely for fourth spot last year with Spurs prevailing although the teams may be quite different to those who played then. Spurs were quiet on the transfer front which is the last thing you could say about City. They signed Jerome Boateng, Yaya Toure, David Silva and Aleksandar Kolarov for a total of £74m. On paper they have a ridiculously talented squad, the issue is space for them all. Already Craig Bellamy has seen the writing on the wall but what about the others? Only 11 can play at one time. And when it comes to your fantasy football side you want to make sure the players you select are starting.
Newcastle travel to Old Trafford for their first game back in the Premier League. They signed Dan Gosling and Sol Campbell. On the other side Nicky Butt has retired which is sad for our good friend, NCNB. Would have been great for him to be able to play his namesake.
Once again should be a fantastic year. Good luck in all of your fantasy football endeavours.
There is no doubt that Arsenal are struggling. They have lost their last two matches. Now they have nothing to play for and another trophy-less season is what is in store for them. Not even a semi-final.
Injury has definitely played a part. They lost Robin van Persie in November for five months; Aaron Ramsey in February for the rest of the season; Cesc Fabregas went down in the Champions League quarter-final to Barcelona to miss the final six weeks of the season. Then there are the various other injuries and niggles which have afflicted them.
Losing Fabregas is a huge blow. He is their leading scorer in the league with 15 goals. Andrei Arshavin is next with nine followed by Van Persie and Thomas Vermaelen tied on seven. Van Persie is the third leading scorer even though he hasn’t played since November! That doesn’t speak well for the Arsenal players in front of goal. Eduardo only has three goals, as does Theo Walcott one of which came last weekend against Wigan. Williams Gallas scored in each of the opening three matches of the season and hasn’t scored since.
The funny thing is that Arsenal has scored the exact same number of goals as Manchester United.
Still it is clear when you are looking for a goalscorer, you should think very carefully about choosing any Arsenal player who isn’t Fabregas. When Fabregas is out, no only does Arsenal miss his goals but his assists. With 15, he has the most assists in the Premier League. So not only does he score but he creates opportunities for all of those around him.
Maybe it is too harsh to focus on the offence – after all, they scored two goals against Wigan only to let in three in the final 10 minutes. Arsenal only has 12 clean sheets for the year which is equal fifth-most for the year.
It really is true not you start but how you finish as Arsenal scored 10 goals in its first two games of the year; 17 goals in their first five matches; 24 in its first seven. It has 12 goals from their last seven matches. Unless you have a good reason for it, steer clear from choosing Arsenal players for their goal-scoring abilities or lack thereof.
Looking forward to this weekend’s match against Manchester City, it may be a dead rubber for Arsenal, but they will have plenty to play for following their lost to City earlier in the year. Forgot what happened? This should jog your memory.
Tonight is the derby between Tottenham and Arsenal. It will be played at White Hart Lane and is sure to be a massive game. If Arsenal can win they will leapfrog Manchester United by a point and be just three behind Chelsea. Spurs are four points behind Manchester City for that coveted fourth spot. With games to play against Chelsea and both Manchester sides, if Spurs don’t win here they can just about forget about playing Champions League football next year.
Arsenal won their clash earlier in the year to the tune of 3-0. Since their loss to Chelsea, Arsenal have been in good form taking 22 of 24 points in the league. Their loss in the Champions League to Barcelona was a tough one and in the process they lost Cesc Fabregas for the year. They do get to welcome back Robin van Persie.
Tottenham had won five games in a row until their loss to Sunderland. They may be boosted by the return of Ledley King who has been out with injury. Spurs are themselves recovering from their loss in the FA Cup to Chelsea.
So how do Tottenham defeat Arsenal for the first time in the League since 1999? Spurs will definitely be bouyed by the absence of Fabregas – he is an inspirational player and they won’t be tormented by his wizardry. But the fact is that if they are to win, they need goals. The likely source of them is Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch. These two could both be vital for England at the World Cup and they need to be able to poduce tonight if Spurs are to win. Then there is the supporting cast of Nico Kranjcar and Roman Pavlyuchenko.
Someone who may have flown under the radar is Eiður Guðjohnsen. The Icelandic star who used to play for Bolton and Chelsea is on loan from Monaco. His big match experience could be vital for Spurs tonight. As can be witnessed below, he definitely has the skills to be able to defeat Arsenal.
With Arsenal missing Fabregas and Andrey Arshavin they lose a lot of their fire power and there is no better time for Spurs to break the streak. As long as their defence holds ups the have the strikers to win.
For those of you who have selected Nicklas Bendtner, you would have been disgusted after his efforts against Porto. Not because he did anything wrong, but what he did right!
How can a player score a hat-trick in a high-pressured Champions League knock-out much when he has only scored three goals in the league this year? Bendtner has only managed eight goals for the year, four of which have come in Europe. The other goal was in the League Cup.
There are some players who seem to flourish in certain situations and not in others. That may mean they excel at scoring goals in Cup competitions, but have trouble finding the back of the net during the league campaign.
For a fantasy football player, there can be nothing more infuriating.
Saying that, maybe this may be the start of something for the young Dane. Who isn’t to say he won’t continue his good form at Hull? Or will he selected by people only to disappoint them again?
It is better when you pick guys and they produce and vice versa. Far more preferable to the reverse.
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