Fantasy premier league – GW2 match analysis – Saturday Part 2

Here’s my GW2 fantasy premier league round up for Saturdays matches – part 2   giving views from a fantasy premier league perspective on the lineups, the game itself and the “winners and losers” in terms of players from the game.  Matches covered, Stoke v Crystal Palace, Hull v Norwich, Southampton v Sunderland and Newcastle v West Ham

Stoke 2 Crystal Palace 1

Stoke: Begovic 6; Cameron 6, Shawcross 6, Huth 7, Pieters 6; Nzonzi 6, Wilson 6; Walters 6, Adam 7 (Whelan 75, 5), Etherington 6 (Pennant 68, 5); Crouch 5 (Jones 86, 5). Subs not used: Sorensen, Muniesa, Wilkinson, Jerome.
Booked: Shawcross, Cameron, Walters.
Goals: Adam 58, Shawcross 62  Assists:  Huth Walters
Crystal Palace: Speroni 6; Ward 6, Gabbidon 7, Delaney 7, Moxey 6; Dikgacoi 6, Jedinak 7; Gayle 6, Campana 7 (Williams 64, 7), Puncheon 6 (Phillips 75, 6); Chamakh 6 (Garven 64, 6). Subs not used: Alexander, Dobbie, Wilbraham, Ramage.
Goal: Chamakh 31.  Assist:  Delaney

Stoke:   Adam after being surprisingly left out of the 1st game started, otherwise it was fairly predictable.

Palace:   Introduced new signings Campana, Puncheon and Chamakh.  Chamakh lead the line flanked by Gayle and Puncheon.

Palace had much the better of the first half and got a deserved lead.  Stoke “Pulised” there was back into the game with 2 very scrappy goals in 4 minutes.

The winners:

No real winners here.  The attacking goal scorers did little apart from score and the players with the best attacking underlying stats of Crouch and Walters were just good stats on paper with only Crouch looking like scoring.

The losers:

The Stoke defence:  Huth and Shawcross did get attacking points but this was a game historically where Palace wouldn’t have been allowed half the chances they did.  The Stoke defence is way over priced.  Out of position £4.5m Wilson in midfield is the only consideration.

Hull 1 Norwich 0

Hull: McGregor 7, Elmohamady 6, Chester 6, Davies 7, Figueroa 6, Koren 6 (Rosenior 83), Huddlestone 8, Livermore 6, Brady 7 (Boyd 80), Aluko 7 (Graham 72 5), Sagbo 4.
Subs not used: Bruce, Meyler, McShane,Harper.
Booked: Livermore
Sent off: Sagbo
Goal: Brady 22 (pen)  Assist:  Sagbo
Norwich: Ruddy 6, Whittaker 6, Turner 5, Martin 6, Garrido 6, Howson 6, Tettey 6 (Elmander 65, 6), Fer 5, Johnson 6 (Snodgrass 45, 5), Redmond 6 (Hoolahan 73, 5), Van Wolfswinkel 5.
Booked: Garrido
Subs not used: Bunn, Becchio, Olsson, Ryan Bennett.

Hull:  Huddlestone and Livermore started.    Cheapie £4.0m Chester held his place.  Graham was on the bench and Sagbo and Aluko led the line.

Norwich:   Bassong didn’t make it so the future of £4.0m cheapie Whittaker was deferred for another week.   Turner’s pen can’t have helped his case.  Fer came into the team and RVW was the lone striker. Snodgrass was surprisingly sub although presumably due to injury recovery.

A game that changed due to the sending off of Sagbo after half an hour.  After that it was backs to the wall for Hull while Norwich tried to break Hull down unsuccessfully

The winners:

The Hull defence:  Anyone who saw Steve Bruce’s Wigan side shouldn’t have been surprised at this.  Great defensive stats with Norwich pretty much limited to shooting from distance.

The losers:

The Norwich attack:  RVW still emerged with some credit with ok stats and could have rescued a point.  Redmond looked a prospect although there was little output from his fine dribbling.  However the lack of really good chances was an indictment on them.  Snodgrass starting and Hooper coming back (if Hughton wants to play 4-4-2) may help.

Southampton 1 Sunderland 1

Southampton: Boruc 6, Chambers 5 , Fonte 6, Lovren 5, Shaw 5 (Clyne 45 5), Schneiderlin 5 (Osvaldo 45 6), Wanyama 6, Ward-Prowse 7, Rodriguez 5, Lallana 6(Ramirez 68), Lambert 6.
Subs: Kelvin Davis, Steven Davis, Cork, Hooiveld.
Booked: Ward-Prowse, Osvaldo
Goal: Fonte 89  Assist:  Ward  – Prowse
Sunderland: Westwood 8, Celustka 6, O’Shea 6, Diakite 7, Colback 5 (Vaughan 54), Johnson 6, Gardner 5, Larsson 6, Giaccherini 8 (Wickham 82), Sessegnon 4 (Ji 46), Altidore 6.
Subs: Cabral, Moberg Karlsson, Mannone, Roberge.
Booked: Gardner, Larsson
Goal: Giaccherini 3  Assist:  Larsson

For Saints:  Clyne only made the bench.  JWP held his place over Ramirez.  Osvaldo started on the bench.

For Southampton:  Diakite started instead of Roberge.  Cabral lost his place to Gardner

Southampton after conceding a poor first goal should have won this easily with the chances they created.

The winners:

Lambert:  I have to hold my hands up here.  Last year I dismissed him principally on the basis that he didn’t shoot enough.  However, I’m now a believer.  Today he had great stats and really should have scored.  He also  created his customary couple of chances for team mates including a goal which was wrongly disallowed.  He also has pens in his locker

JWP:  I totally expected him to be benched for Ramirez but held his place and took  the free kicks which gave him the assist.  At £4.5m he looks a real bargain and is a buy, if a bit of a gamble on future gametime.

The Southampton defence:  Not sure why Luke Shaw was replaced btw?  But apart from the ridiculous opening goal, where the smallest man on the pitch headed Sunderland in front while unmarked from a corner, this was another very strong defensive performance.  There’s loads of value in the defence and if Fonte can hold his place he is a real goalscoring threat at £4.5m.

The losers:

Sessegnon and Altidore:  No threat whatsover from either.  Sessegnon was particularly poor.  Sunderland need Fletcher back and a proper no 10 to play behind him.

Newcastle 0 West Ham 0

Newcastle: Krul 6, Debuchy 6, Yanga-Mbiwa 6, Coloccini 6, Santon 6, Ben Arfa 6, Anita 6, Sissoko, Marveaux 5 (Sammy Ameobi 66, 6), Shola Ameobi 6, Cisse 5 (Gouffran 72, 5). Subs not used: Gosling, Bigirimana, Elliot, Vuckic, Dummett.
West Ham: Jaaskelainen 6, Demel 6, Collins 7, Reid 7, O’Brien 6, Noble, Diame 6 (Morrison 75, 6), Downing 5 (Cole 64, 6), Nolan 6, Jarvis 6, Maiga 6. Subs not used: Tomkins, Rat, Vaz Te, Adrian, Diarra.
Booked: O’Brien.

Newcastle: Santon returned for suspended S Taylor.  Anita instead of the Arsenal target Cabaye.   Marveaux and Ameobi started with Gouffran on the bench.

West Ham:  Downing in for Cole.

A game that West ham should have won with the chances created but they could have lost when Gouffran missed at the end  when it looked impossible to do so.

Winners:

The Newcastle defence:  A clean sheet and reasonable defensive stats although in the context of playing a West ham without Andy Carroll I still would be staying well away

Other comments:

Nolan:  Only had 1 chance but that was a glorious one he should have scored from

Cole:  Left on the bench when big Sam decided to go for 2 wingers in the front 3.  I would expect that to continue

The West Ham defence:  2 clean sheets in a row but the stats weren’t anywhere near as convincing as last week.  Collins is my choice at £4.5m but Reid if you want to pay the extra £0.5m was an unlucky threat at set pieces.

Thats it on to Sunday’s games

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