Fantasy premier league pre-season match catch up – Arsenal, Man City Chelsea & Spurs

Preseason

Here’s the fantasy premier league match catch up from a few of  the pre-season games on Saturday with games involve Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea and Spurs.  We’ll be studying the games for form, line up issues and looking for value in players 

Arsenal 3 Manchester City 1 (in Finland)

Arsenal: Szczesny (Fabianski 46), Sagna (Jenkinson 73), Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs, Arteta (Perez 68), Ramsey (Hayden 88), Wilshere (Cazorla 46), Podolski (Giroud 46), Oxlade-Chamberlain (Zelalem 74), Walcott

Goals: Walcott 9, Ramsey 59, Giroud 62

Booked: Perez

Manchester City: Hart, Zabaleta (Richards 46), Kompany, Lescott (Boyata 86), Clichy, Milner (Navas 46), Fernandinho (Rodwell 80), Toure (Garcia 68) Silva, Negredo (Jovetic 68), Dzeko (Nasri 46)

Subs not used: Kolarov, Wright, Pantilimon.

Goal: Negredo 80

Booked: Kompany

Well this was unexpected, not only the result but the Arsenal lineup.  Arsenal played a 4-3-3 with central striker Podolski rather than Giroud and they were flanked by Walcott and the Ox.  Not sure how to take this other than Walcott remains the only safe position in the Arsenal attacking team as a 4-3-3 could see Cazorla in the midfield 3.  I’m surprised Giroud didn’t start and I think he will but his selection does now come with some risk.  My gut feel though is that Wenger will still roll out 4-2-3-1 with the 3 being Podolski, Cazorla and Walcott behind Giroud although Podolski as a central striker could open the way for the Ox to start or Rosicky.  The defence started as expected. Personally I just dont see Podolski as a number 9 not enough movement or shots.

Arsenal played City on the break with City enjoying possession and Walcott and Ramsey were fantastic.  The Ox and Wilshere didnt quite live up to expectations.

City’s line up was interesting.  The first name on the team sheet that every fantasy premier league manager was looking for was Dzeko and Pellegrini didn’t let us down with Dzeko up front with Negredo.  Negredo going to Ecudaor and Aguero struggling for fitness means £7.5m bargain Dzeko has a great chance of starting.  Lescott got the nod as the CB partner for Kompany while Nastasic is injured.  The defence was a shambles though and Lescott could be the scapegoat.  The best defence in the league has looked aything but in pre-season and brings in to question the premiums demanded for their assets.  On the plus side Silva played centrally which has to be a plus and City, especially Negredo had loads of chances but didn’t put them away.  You may remember in my article on him this was a criticism of Negredo.   

Chelsea 2 Roma 1

Chelsea: Schwarzer (Blackman 46); Azpilicueta (Ivanovic 57), Luiz (Cahill 46, Terry (Lukaku 78), Bertrand; Mikel (Van Ginkel 57), Essien (Lampard 46); Moses (Ramires 46), De Bruyne (Oscar 46), Schurrle (Hazard 57); Torres (Ba 46).

Goals: Lampard 60, Lukaku 89

Mourinho didn’t really give us fantasy premier league managers afull strength team which was hardly surprising given the last game against Madrid was 3 days ago.  So nothing really to take lineup wise from the game.  However what was interesting was the inability of Torres, Schurrle, De Bruyne and moses to break Roma down in the first half and none of them would have done their starting chances any good.  Hazard Lukaku and Ba came on to rescue the situation reinforcing the belief that Hazard and Lukaku are ahead of their counterparts in the attacking midfield and orward departments

Spurs 1 Espanyol 1

Spurs: Lloris (Friedel 60), Walker, Dawson, Fryers (Kaboul 46), Rose (Naughton 77), Paulinho (Sandro 60), Dembele (Huddlestone 72), Lennon (Townsend 72), Sigurdsson, Chadli (Stewart 88), Soldado (Defoe 60).

Interesting line up with Spurs playing a 4-2-3-1 with Sandro not starting and going for Paulino plus Dembele in the double pivot.  Lennon was on the right of the 3, Chadli the left and Siggy central.  Soldado led the line up front.  However as long as he’s fit I expect Sandro to start and AVB to go for 4-3-3 and Siggy to miss out.  Fryers started but either Vertonghen or Kaboul will start GW1 I expect.  The good news for Sky Sports fantasy football managers is that Rose started and redeemed himself after the disaster against Monaco.  Soldado looked good and is still the best option to me for Spurs after Bale.  Lennon plays a little too wide for me but Chadli was impressive, far more direct and cut in alot more than Lennon and is a better alternative.   Interestingly Paulino also showed some ability to get forward and justify that box to box tag.  He also looked handy at set peices.

Thats it for part 1.  I’ll be working through them later on today

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