fantasy premier league game week 8 – Saturday selected games – the immediate reaction

various

Here’s my fantasy premier league immediate reaction to  selected  game week 8 Saturday games.

Spurs 2 Chelsea 4

Spurs were without Bale due to his partner having a baby and Dembele through injury so Siggy and Huddlestone started.  BAE didn’t make the squad and Vertonghen started at LB with Caulker continuing with Gallas at CB

Chelsea as I thought didn’t start with Lampard but went with the athleticism of  Ramires.  Cahill came in for  Terry who is obviously suspended for 4 games.

Mata was the star scoring twice.  Possession was 52% to Chelsea.  Shots were with Spurs convincingly  36/16 to 11/7.  Individual errors and appalling defending combined  with lethal finishing though overcame the shot deficit

Mata has suddenly come from no where to become a scoring midfielder and had the best shooting stats reasonably comfortably.  Next in line was Defoe.  Siggy had the opportunities but didnt make the most of them.  Dempsey was a huge disappointment.

Mata and Hazard were the most advanced midfielders for Chelsea.  Siggy for Spurs.  Lennon, Siggy and Defoe led the chances created column

Mata is £9.0m and only 8% owned in fantasy premier league.  30k people have transferred him in already this game week.  Chelsea have about the worst fixtures of any club over the next 6 games.  Is he fixture proof that’s the question.  Spurs were terrible defensively today and Walker and Gallas must really be worried about their positions after such a display but that takes nothing away from Mata.  To me though it doesn’t mean he’s fixture proof yet.  Hazard was 1 chance created and 2 assists (corners intercepted dont count except in fantasy premier league)  and no shots on goal.  Fantasy premier league owners of him should consider themselves very lucky.

WBA 1 Man City 2

Richards came in for Zabaleta and Clichy was LB with Lescott and Kompany.  Barry and Milner screened with YYT, Nasri and Baoltelli behind Tevez.

WBA were predictable in the line up except Fortune came in to the midfield instead of Gera.  Ridgewell came in for Popov.

City amazingly led the possession by 61% and shots were 21/13 to City vs 16/8 to WBA despite being down to 10 men.

City went down to 10 men after Milner was sent off.  It doesn’t seem that it matters whether the City strikers start or not they seem to either score or assist.  Dzeko is only £7.5m in fantasy premier league but seems to score regularly to justify that price even as a sub.  Both Tevez and Aguero got an assist.

Ballotelli and Dzeko led the shooting stats and Lukaku was next. Balotelli and Tevez led the way in chances created.  Tevez was the most involved player in the final third.  Nasri and Dorrans were the most forward midfielders.

Man U 4 Stoke 2

De Gea started in goal.  The defence was as predicted.  Carrick and Scholes screened behind Welbeck, Rooney and Valencia. RVP was the lone front man.

Stoke played with 1 up front with Crouch.  Cameron started ahead of Wilkinson in defence.  Whitehead started ahead of the injured Whelan.

Possession was 57% Man U.  Shots were 13/8 to 8/6 to Utd.

After a shaky start and a first goal that will have De Gea’s fantasy premier league owners worried, United went on dominate the game.  Rooney had the best of the shooting stas behind Welbeck.  RVP is scoring despite not shooting anything like last year and its really how lethal he can continue to be from a relatively low base.  There’s no doubt he has been producing when playing but the stats aren’t ideal from my point of view.

Rooney, Valencia, RVP and Adam led the chances created.  Valencia was the most forward midfielder for Utd. Walters for Stoke.   Rooney was the most influential player in the final third.  Surprisingly it was Adam for Stoke.

The United defence again looked shaky after being surprisingly strong against Newcastle. The 20 clean sheets from last year looked miles away.

Liverpool 1 Reading 0

Reina didn’t make it for Liverpool and Wisdom held his place with Enrique on the bench.  The rest of the team was predictable with the only questionable selection being Shelvey on the bench.

Guthrie returned for Reading.  The defence was as recently lined up. Possession was 56% to Liverpool and shots 23/13 to 8/5.

Liverpool dominated the game but Reading still had chances to score.  The game said everything about Suarez.  He totally dominated the game and was world class but does any of it matter if you cant  finish.  Fantasy premier league owners must have been pulling their hair out.  He had nearly twice the shots of anyone else but only a 10% on target ratio.  Can he really be trusted as a captain option?

Sterling and Johnson were next. Sterling and Suarez led the chances created.  Sterling was the most forward midfielder for Liverpool and Guthrie for Reading.  Suarez was by far most the influential player in the final third and McLeary for Reading despite coming on in the 25th minute.

Norwich 1 Arsenal 0

The defence for Norwich included Turner at CB apart from that its been as before.  The midfield 5 had a defensive look to it.  There’s still alot of rotation and Howson and Snodgrass were on the bench. Holt was the lone striker.

Santos came in for the injured Gibbs.  Giroud held his place and Gervinho returned to the flank.

Possession was 62% Arsenal predictably.  Shots were 7/3 to 13/7.

The Norwich defence has shown potential in the games they don’t concede 5 goals and its only 2 goals conceded in 3 games at home apart from the Liverpool fiasco.

Giroud and Holt had the best of the shooting stats.  Gervinho despite a quiet game just behind.  Cazorla reverted again to shooting outside the box.

Cazorla and Giroud led the chances created but it just wasn’t going to happen for Arsenal.

Pilkington was by far the most forward midfielder for Norwich.  Gervinho for Arsenal.

Cazorla probably scraped the most influential player for Arsenal but not nearly as much as he should have been.  Holt was easily for Norwich.

This games shows why it can be risky to have a player as captain away from home although Arsenal are probably more susceptible than most of the top teams to displays like this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You may also like to read one of these too: