Here’s the fantasy premier league immediate reaction to the Everton v Liverpool and Chelsea v Man U games.

Everton 2 Liverpool 2

Everton lined up in their usual 4-4-1-1 with Fellaini fit to play behind Jelavic.  Coleman was preferred to Hibbert even though he was fit enough to be on the bench and Distin was selected instead of Heitinga.  In the midfield Mirallas and Naismith were on the flanks with Neville and Osman in the CM positions.

Jones was preferred to Riena who was on the bench.  Johnson was still injured and the question over whether Wisdom would be selected over Enrique therefore never got answered.  Gerrard, Sahin and Allen were the deeper midfielders with Suso and Sterling flanking Suarez.

The first half saw Liverpool race out to a 2 0 lead before being quickly pegged back.  The game was very open and although either side could have won it, Suarez should have won it with a goal wrongly ruled offside at the death.

Possession was convincingly Evertons with 54%.  Shots as well 17/5 to 12/8.  Evertons defence was the far superior conceding far less shots in the box.

For Everton the fullbacks Baines and Coleman were excellent, Baines especially combined with Mirallas in the first half with both looking threatening.  Baines is Evertons most owned player in fantasy premier league and with Evertons good fixtures coming up will continue to get returns.  Fellaini was disappointing although heavily involved in the game for Everton.  His passing was poor and he wasn’t the goal threat in statistical or actual terms.  With Mirallas he was still the most forward midfielder.  He does Lead the fantasy premier league midfield shooting stats by some distance but hasn’t really returned recently.  Again he has the schedule to produce but there must be some nervous fantasy premier league owners holding him.  Jelavic worked hard but uncharacteristically failed to finish off his one fantastic chance.  There’s no doubting his quality and he will definitely get returns during the upcoming schedule which sees Fulham A, Sunderland H, Reading A and Norwich H next up.

For Liverpool Suarez was a constant threat.  He easily leads the shooting stats for forwards in fantasy premier league its just his inability to finish which creates doubts.  Newcastle  H, Chelsea A, Wigan H, Swansea A and Spurs A in a tough schedule but Suarez as shown he can score, and not score, against any opposition.  The question is do you trust him with the captains armband when games like Reading H show he is difficult to predict?

Suarez led the shooting stats in this game although again struggled to get any sort of reasonable ratio on target.  Jelavic was 2nd and really should have scored with a free header.  Baines led the chances created column by some distance.  Fellaini was the most involved player in terms of stats for Everton but generally struggled with his passing and lacked the aerial dominance you would normally expect. Suarez was by far Liverpools most involved player.

Sterling was also excellent and his position now seems assured.  Hes’s excellent value at £5.1 and even with the fixtures looks worth the extra money as your cheap midfielder.

Chelsea 2 Man U 3

Chelsea lined up in their usual 4-2-3-1 with no surprises.

Man U ditched the diamond and went back to their usual winger based 4-4-1-1.  De Gea held his position in goal despite Lindegaard being fit.  The defence was as predicted.  Cleverley partnered Carrick at CM to give some pressing energy to the team with Young and Valencia on the flanks.  Rooney sat behind RVP.

The game had everything with Utd starting off pressing high up the pitch and scoring twice early on.  Chelsea dominated before the break getting 1 back through Mata before equalising soon after half time.  Then 2 sendings off totally changed the game and Hernandez scored the winner off the bench.

For Utd, RVP is showing more and more why he is an essential purchase.  With Rooney playing deeper and with the midfield subject to even heavier rotation than RVP, he is now the only way to get anything like reliable Utd coverage which is essential given their goal scoring potential.  What’s more the fixtures are getting easier and the Champions league will soon be taking a break.  You will get the game where he’s on the bench but it doesn’t matter what the opposition he seems able to score.  Statistically he shoots far less than last year but that doesn’t seem to have effected his scoring with the winger based attack producing better quality chances even though they are less.

Rooney from a fantasy premier league perspective was a disaster being deeper helping out with defence even though this was essential to obtaining any sort of midfield parity with Chelsea.  An assist for Valencia and Rafael also underlined their attacking qualities.  Valencia faces rotation and is therefore a risky bet and Rafael will start to face competition soon with Jones and Smalling returning to fitness.  In the meantime Rafael continues to provide attacking returns while we wait for the 20 clean sheets of last year to start materialising.

For Chelsea, Mata with an excellent goal and performance continues to build a fixture proof case and again put a case forward that he is  ahead of Hazard in the decision of which of the 2 you should own.  Torres again was disappointing and not worth owning as Chelsea now face Swansea A, Liverpool H, WBA A and City H.  The defence didn’t cope at all even before the sending offs and now is seriously the time to consider selling those assets at least after the Swansea game.

Possession was with Chelsea at 52% as Man U looked to counter attack rather than dominate possession.  Shots were relatively even at 41/11 to 15/7.  RVP monstered the shooting stats with Mata 2nd showing that he’s a credible attacking force rather than just a provider of shooting chances for others.  On that subject, Mata also led the chances created column and was also the most forward midfielder for Chelsea.  Valencia was for Man U.    Mata was the most involved player in the game for Chelsea with hazard.  RVP was for Man U.