GW8 Match Centre

Juan Mata is clearly the stand out performer in this match and Fantasy Manager have taken notice with a £0.2m price rise already this week after 80,000 transfers in.  Chelsea are on to something and Mata is their main man with both Hazard and Torres well overshadowed in an attacking respect.

For Tottenham a rejuvenated Jermaine Defoe rewarded Villas-Boas’ faith with another goal amid amid plenty of threat and creativity.  From the stats, Spurs had their opportunities to get more from this match with plenty of chances spread out around the team.  Interestingly their poor rate of goal conversion this year is not too dissimilar from that of Chelsea’s this time last season with AVB at the helm.

 Wayne Rooney has had a big, big impact to United upon his return to the team.  The front three of Rooney, Van Persie and Welbeck and full of fantasy potential and the key men to consider for your teams.  Which one though?  Rooney and Van Persie are probably on a level in terms of point potential so Rooney’s lower price edges him ahead.  If Welbeck keeps getting starts though he could be a steal.   Stoke had a good go but their defence was uncharacteristically sloppy, with Pulis admitting as much after the match.  Perhaps they didn’t know how to handle being a goal up, or perhaps United were just too good.

Everton’s bubble, whilst not quite burst, is slowly starting to deflate it seems.  The absence of Fellaini blunted their attack in this match with Jagielka leading the chances for the Blues, mainly from set pieces.  With Pienaar now suspended for the home derby with Liverpool the Belgain’s absence may be even more telling.  For the home side Hoilett and Granero were the chief threat, with Taarabt not quite as busy as you’d hope, especially against ten men.  QPR are slowly growing this season and finding their best system. 

  

 

Suarez frustrated Liverpool fans and fantasy managers everywhere with another typical display, only hitting the target once from 10 efforts.  He did get an assist though, there is that.  Young Raheem Sterling stole the headlines though taking up a much more central role in this match where he saw plenty of goal-mouth action.  Reading mustered a few efforts but are really lacking as an attacking force so far this season.

Much was expected of Fulham,  and Dimitar Berbatov in particular, but Paul Lambert’s men spoiled the party with a solid defensive display.  The signs are there that the Villians are improving under the Scot, at least in a organisastional sense.  Going forward is a different matter though, with only Agbonglahor and Lowton providing anything if note in attack.  Berbatov continues to be chief goal threat for Fulham, and Richardson’s performance is worth a note.

That Man City came back to win this game despite being a man down for most of the game is one thing.  That they dominated the game having more shots on target (8) than the Baggies have suffered at home so far combined is really quite impressive - Liverpool (2), Everton (1), Reading (1),  QPR (3), City (8).    Their fantasy options are so clouded by rotation risk though it’s enough to give FPL manager a headache.  West Brom did pretty well overall, although didn’t really get much going in front of goal until Lukaku’s introduction.

  

Swansea are a wonderfully adventurous team under Laudrup, in contrast to their outings under Brendan Rodgers last season.  They juts seem to lack a bit of quality, which is perhaps evident in the Dane’s decision to promote Michu to the lone forward role over regular front man Danny Graham.  This obviously is a boon for Michu owners but also promotes the likes Ki and Guzman into a more attacking role.  Michu again grabbed a goal, and a header at that, and fantasy managers will now see how he does against a trickier run of opponents.  Wigan created a fair number of chances in this game.  Martinez’s men are a decent attacking team, probably on a par with Swansea when on home soil, with Kone, Di Santo and Maloney from midfield the men to watch. 

 

Southampton continue to ship goals at an alarming rate. Despite Adkin’s bold claims that they will continue in their attacking remit, this kind of form is going to see them going down, in style perhaps, but still going down.  Kevin Nolan continued to show he is a major threat in the box, feeding of Carrol’s aerial play and Mark Noble’s set pieces.  Ricky Lambert’s absence from the visitor’s starting eleven will have hurt owners, and this is not the first time this has happened season.  Clearly Adkin’s think he’s team lack a certain tactical facet with their top-scorer in the team.

 The Canaries pulled off the shock of the weekend with a 1-0 victory against an out-of-sorts Arsenal.  Grant Holt is a good striker at this level, as he showed last season.  He can be counted upon to score at a reliable rate when given the opportunity and provided the only real threat on offer from the home side. Who knows what happened to Arsenal in this one.  Their defending was poor and neither of Podolski on the flank or Ramsey in midfield offered very little.  The main threat came from Cazorla and Gervinho, with Norwich doing a good job of limiting the former to long range efforts.  Oliver Giroud was the focal point of the attack fro Arsenal and should be expected to pick up some big points soon.

Demba Ba equals Goal Machine.  He couldn’t find his way through Sunderland’s well drilled defence in this game so put it into his own net instead.  He just can’t help himself!  He had three times as many shots on target in this game on his own than Sunderland did and is the focal point of everything Newcastle do going forward.   Cabaye continued his recent under-the-radar form and looks a viable alternative to the over-hyped Ban Arfa.  Sunderland are looking pretty woeful in attack this season.  I really cannot get excited about any team that can only manage 1 shot on goal at home in 90 minutes.