WBA 2 Norwich 1

Sondgrass continued his scoring run to open the game up but WBA came back to win with goals from Gera and the ridiculously talented Belgian teenager Lukaku with assists from defenders Popov and Olsson for those who missed out on defensive returns

defensive stats

Reasonable defensive stats from both teams with WBA edging it

player shooting stats

Lukaku led the shootings stats as he often does when in the team.  If only he was a regular starter.  B Johnson McAuley and Snodgrass followed.

Pen Box touches were  Lukaku Snodgrass Morrison and Olsson

Chances created

Snodgrass and Brunt

Most forward midfielders

Morrison and Pilkington/Snodgrass

performances by players owned by more than 10% of fantasy premier league teams

McAuley – The WBA defence is a bit of a conundrum for me.  The stats aren’t great but the CSs are and now the fixtures are. McAuley showed excellent attacking intent and also good stats.  He isn’t cheap though £5.4m is the same as Gibbs and only a little less than Nastasic and not  far off  Skrtel.  Attacking stats or not they’re a better option for me.  Popov and Jones are far cheaper but don’t have security with Ridgewell and Reid breathing down their neck.  If you’ve got the cash with nothing else to do with it then maybe I’d give MCAuley a punt with the good fixtures but my personal view is that you can buck the stats for a while but sooner or later they’ll catch up with you.

Bassong – Norwich have awful fixtures now and Bassong at £5.2m is just not worth it.  Turner is my Norwich player of choice as he also has good attacking intent but is £1m cheaper.  Whittaker is another option.  Both are shadowed by Bennett and R Martin respectively but as a rotation punt Turner is a good shout for me.

other players worth mentioning

 Snodgrass – Has set piece duties and is in the overall shooting stats  but with the fixtures coming up I would be going for others myself.

Morrison J  – With WBA’s fixtures Morrison should have been the attacking coverage and although there weren’t a huge amount of chances in the game this was an extremely disappointing stats return with only the pen box touches giving any cause for optimism   Gera perhaps gives another cheaper option but will he play when Yacob returns although you could take a view with the January Wildcard coming up.  Personally as Morrison  doesn’t get near the shooting stats its a no for me but there’s really no other option for coverage in my mind

Lukaku – You may have picked up that I’m a huge fan.  Always produces the stats and if he was regularly playing would provide one of the few cheap striking options with his compatriot Benteke at Villa.

Liverpool 4 Fulham 0

Fulham showed what they were all about away from home today and the performance at Arsenal for 3-3 seems like a distant memory.  Destroyed in the possession and shooting stats this was nothing but a processions for Liverpool with even Downing getting a goal and an assist.

defensive stats

Liverpools were fantastic and Fulhams among the worst I’ve seen.

player shooting stats

No surprise that Suarez led this stat easily followed by Skrtel Gerrard and Downing

Pen Box touches were    Suarez, Skrtel, Shelvey and Frei

Chances created

Downing Gerrad and Suarez were all equal followed by Karagounis and Johnson

Most forward midfielders

Downing/Shelvey and Dejagh

performances by players owned by more than 10% of fantasy premier league teams

Sterling – rested today and certainly the re-emergence of Downing will see some rotation.  While in a period of good fixtures I would certainly hold on but at £5.7m when these finish it may be time to move on

Suarez – produces stats no matter what the fixture so during a relatively good run of fixtures you should not be selling.  Returned today and as usual it could have been more.

Riise – £5.6m really?  Sell

Berbatov – Its now 7 games in a row now with no returns.  A home game against WBA coming up may give him a chance and today he was the most furtherest forward which should help.

other players worth mentioning

Enrique/Johnson  – Got the assist today and his average position was further up the field than Johnson although Johnson had the better stats.  In watching the game I wonder if Downings advanced position and width limited Johnson in some way and thats worth monitoring