The partnership of Walcott and Cazorla for the double gameweek 33 was nailed on until the sideshow to fantasy premier league,that ridiculous competition called the world cup, threw a spanner in the works for everyone and now Walcott is neither in or out of the double gameweek meaning apart from Cazorla there’s really no midfield option.  With Arsenal having the easiest fixtures for the double gameweek should we now be considering whether we should be considering Giroud to replace Berbatov.  Personally Suarez and RVP are staying in my line up no matter what.  I have to confess I’m a little unsure about how to look forward on fixtures for Sky Sports fantasy football but I’m assuming  it will be the same DGW 

Here’s the basic stat comparison for barclays fantasy premier league and sky sports fantasy football.  Lets start with barclays fantasy premier league:

Over the season Berba has the edge. Although the goal or assists per minute (every 128 minutes for Berba vs every 150 minutes for Giroud) arent that significantly different, Berba being the standout star of the Fulham side racks up the bonus points far easier than Giroud.  Berba also has the advantage of penalty duties.

However on recent form there’s no comparison.  Berba is on fire and as scored 5 goals in his last 4 only missing out on maximum bonus once.

Well it looks even worse there with Berba monopolising the man of the match awards

So lets look at the underlying stats to see what these reveal.

If you look at the overall season Berba is by far the most involved player in the game but Giroud has a higher average position and gets far more penalty boxes.  Not surprising given the all round nature of Berbas game vs Giroud who’s more of a finisher.  Interestingly over the season although Giroud has the edge on shots in the box a high percentage of these are headers which are inherently harder to score from which is why Berbas on target % is higher.  The situation has changed in the last 6 where Giroud has out shot Berba significantly but whereas Giroud cant seem to score to save his life everything Berba touches turns to goals.  Their on target % has gone far from their season averages in totally different directions.  Berbas has nearly doubled from his season average.  The only conclusion you can draw from this is that Berbas isn’t sustainable and Grouds can only get better.

Summary

So where does this leave us

On actual returns there’s no contest.  Berba is on fire in comparison to Giroud.  He’s also the darling of the bonus/man of the match awards and has pen duties.  Both hae good fixtures although Arsenal the edge on the DGW.  The tricky issue is whether Berbas form is unsustainable given his current conversion rate to shots and whether Giroud can only get better.  I’m in a quandry but need to work it out before the Sky Sports cut off!