FANTASY SOCCER: PREMIER LEAGUE POINTS

If you didn’t know how unpredictable the Premier League is, or soccer for that matter, look no further than this weekend’s games.

The league’s hottest club, Tottenham, had a home match against Wolves, one of the worst clubs each season. No matter what happened in the past, it didn’t matter in this game when Wolves went up 1-0. The match finished 1-1 even after Tottenham previously beat Wolves 2-0 in Wolverhampton.

Arsenal traveled to Swansea, a club that played in the English Third Division just 10 years ago, and was unable to keep up with them, losing 2-3.

On Monday night, Manchester City went to Wigan and squeaked out a 1-0 win in an ugly game. City currently has a goal differential of plus-65 compared to Wigan in only 21 matches. In Monday’s game, it surely didn’t seem like it.

FOOTIE NOTES

To go along with the absence of Demba Ba because of the African Cup of Nations, Yakubu picked up a red card against Fulham, which has him out for the next three games. Value wise, each of them were at the top of rankings since they were so cheap. You can safely remove these two players from your wildcard lists. Now, we are left with the likes of Danny Graham, Steve Morison, Steven Fletcher and Leon Best as the top cheap forwards.

None of them have outstanding schedules, so it’s close to a flip of the coin for your third forward. All of them scored this past weekend and have been playing well. If you have enough money, go for Fletcher at 6.0m, but if you’re short on cash, Graham isn’t a bad option at 4.7m. Fletcher has nine goals and Graham has seven on the year.

The Newcastle defense is back to its defensive ways. Through the first 10 games of the season, they allowed the fewest amount of goals. Unfortunately, they ran into some injuries and were without multiple defenders for a few games. Now that they are healthy again (excluding Steven Taylor) Newcastle has three clean sheets in their last four matches. Their defense is filled with some of the cheapest options around if you need them. That includes Ryan Taylor, who is two million pounds cheaper than John Terry yet only one Fantasy point behind.

Gary Cahill’s value receives a huge boost in Chelsea. Photo Credit: p_a_h

Some of the bigger news from the past few days is the transfer of defender Gary Cahill. Cahill goes from a bottom-dweller in Bolton to a consistent threat at the top of the table in Chelsea. He takes the cake as Chelsea’s cheapest defender behind Jose Bosingwa. One would think Cahill would become a starter and partner John Terry as a center back. I mean, why else would they go after him? David Luiz’s value now drops and Cahill becomes the most added defender.

Nathan Dyer is one of the hottest players in the league and one of the cheapest. The Swansea midfielder has two goals, an assist and five bonus points in his last two games. At 4.7m, he sits as a nice fifth midfielder.

Sergio Aguero has the third most points for forwards, but most of that was at the beginning of the season. He only has six goals in his past 13 games. He is only two million pounds cheaper than Robin van Persie. RVP has scored 13 goals in the same 13 games. Who would you want to spend your big money on? For some reason, 35 percent of owners at premierleague.com pick Aguero.

FANTASY TIP

David Silva, 10.3m, 122 points
Gareth Bale, 9.4m, 122 points
Nani, 10.5m, 118 points

If you want to compete with the best, you need at least two of these midfielders on your squad. The next highest midfielder comes in 20 points behind them. The thing about all of these players is that they are consistent. They all start almost every match, whereas the midfielders behind them like Rafael Van der Vaart and Frank Lampard face injuries and aren’t given starts each match.

YOU’RE THE CAPTAIN

Your top options to captain this week will be a toss-up. That’s usually what happens when four of the top clubs face each other. The outlier is Chelsea who faces Norwich. Still, that won’t be an easy task on the road against a club that is playing in top form. In addition, Chelsea’s top forward Daniel Sturridge hasn’t played the last couple of games, which makes matters even more confusing.

So who do you lean on in troubled times? Your best and most consistent players of course.

David Silva. He has slowed down lately, but there’s no denying owners have the most trust in him. It’ll be a big game for Man City at home and Silva usually comes out on top.

His opponent, Gareth Bale, is next on the list. Even after a really slow start to the campaign, Bale is actually tied with Silva for most Fantasy points for midfielders. His striking partner Emmanuel Adebayor won’t be playing, but we’ve seen Bale do it by himself before.

We can’t forget about RVP either. He is the biggest threat to score in every game. Unfortunately, Manchester United has one of the best defenses in the league and has the players that can mark Van Persie. Still, he has 18 goals in 21 games. He can score on anyone.

Wayne Rooney makes the captain list yet again. While he isn’t scoring much lately, he’s setting up goals, which counts the same. Don’t kid yourself; there will be plenty of goals in this match. Last time Arsenal and Man United played, it was 2-8. 

I could’ve given the last spot to someone like Frank Lampard or Juan Mata, but it’s going to Steven Gerrard. This is more of a matchup play because Gerrard has been hurt just about all season. Bolton’s defense is struggling and they just lost their top defender, Gary Cahill. Even without Luis Suarez, Liverpool will score this time around.

1. David Silva, Manchester City
2. Gareth Bale, Tottenham
3. Robin van Persie, Arsenal
4. Sergio Aguero, Manchester City
5. Steven Gerrard, Liverpool

WEEKLY RANKINGS

Goalkeepers

1. Michel Vorm, Swansea, 5.2m, at Sunderland
2. Jose Reina Liverpool, 6.4m, at Bolton
3. Tim Howard, Everton, 5.4m, vs. Blackburn
4. Patrick Kenny, QPR, 4.4m, vs. Wigan
5. Petr Cech, Chelsea, 6.8m, at Norwich

Defenders

1. Leighton Baines, Everton, 7.7m, vs. Blackburn
2. John Terry, Chelsea, 7.5m, at Norwich
3. Jose Enrique, Liverpool, 6.0m, at Bolton
4. Martin Skrtel, Liverpool, 6.2m, at Bolton
5. Luke Young, QPR, 4.9m, vs. Wigan
6. Ryan Taylor, Newcastle, 5.3m, at Fulham
7. Ashley Williams, Swansea, 5.0m, at Sunderland
8. Johnny Heitinga, Everton, 5.2m, vs. Blackburn
9. Brede Hangeland, Fulham, 6.0m vs. Newcastle
10. Ryan Shawcross, Stoke City, 5.1m, vs. West Brom

Midfielders

1. David Silva, Manchester City, 10.3m, vs. Tottenham
2. Gareth Bale, Tottenham, 9.4m, vs. at Manchester City
3. Steven Gerrard, Liverpool, 10.6m, at Bolton
4. Nani, Manchester United, 10.5m, at Arsenal
5. Juan Mata, Chelsea, 9.7m, at Norwich
6. Nathan Dyer, Swansea, 4.7m, at Sunderland
7. Scott Sinclair, Swansea 6.3m, at Sunderland
8. Stephane Sessegnon, Sunderland, 6.6m, vs. Swansea
9. Jonathan Walters, Stoke City, 6.7m, vs. West Brom
10. Antonio Valencia, Manchester United, 8.0m, at Arsenal

Forwards

1. Robin van Persie, Arsenal, 13.2m, vs. Manchester United
2. Wayne Rooney, Manchester United, 12.0m, at Arsenal
3. Sergio Aguero, Manchester City, 11.1m, vs. Tottenham
4. Craig Bellamy, Liverpool, 7.5m, at Bolton
5. Daniel Sturridge, Chelsea, 7.4m, at Norwich
6. Steven Fletcher, Wolves, 6.0m, vs. Chelsea
7. Jermaine Defoe, Tottenham, 8.1m, vs. at Manchester City
8. Leon Best, Newcastle, 4.6m, at Fulham

Don’t forget to check out our latest podcast of Premier League Plus. Each Monday at 7 pm EST, Matt Mariconi of FootiePhantom.com and I review and preview every Fantasy situation you can think of from Barclays Premier League.

*Stats up-to-date as of 01/16/12

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