Premier League

There’s no change at the top of the J-League as Shane Halligan’s Hal’s Allstars remain the top dogs, while it was a miserable gameweek for Joe’s Journeymen.

By Conor Heneghan

Sunderland and Liverpool were the big winners in Gameweek 11, with five players from the sides featuring on the dream team following the weekend’s Premier League action.

On his first start for his new club, two goals and three bonus points earned Ghanaian Asamoah Gyan 13 points, while a brace of goals and two bonus points for Fernando Torres returned 12 points for managers with ‘El Nino’ in their side.

At the back, a clean sheet and a string of fine saves (six in total) meant nine points for Liverpool ‘keeper Pepe Reina, while the Sunderland pair of Nedum Onuoha and Phil Bardsley gained nine and eight points respectively after shutting out Stoke City at the Stadium of Light.

The individual performances of the weekend, however, were delivered by Bolton’s Kevin Davies and Manchester United’s Park Ji-Sung, who like Gyan and Torres, both netted braces against Spurs and Wolves respectively.

In last week’s fantasy football insider, we tipped Davies as a potential squad member because of his price (£6.3 million) and his ability to pick up bonus points. He collected another three this weekend (14 in all this season) and delivered 16 points in total to bring him to 54 points for the season, the sixth highest points-scoring striker in the league so far.

Manchester United struggled in the absence of Nani and Dimitar Berbatov at the weekend, but as has happened so many times in the past, another United man stepped up to the plate when needed. This time it was Park Ji-Sung who saved the day at the death for the Red Devils with a last-gasp strike, his second of the game.

Not many fantasy managers have the South Korean in their side, but the 1.2 percent of those who do will have been happy with the 15 points he came away with.

Other noteworthy performances this weekend came from Fulham’s Brede Hangeland (11 points), Blackpool’s David Vaughan (10), Blackburn’s Morten Gamst Pedersen (10) and Aston Villa’s Marc Albrighton (9), while Donegal man Seamus Coleman had another excellent week with eight points after getting on the scoresheet against his old Blackpool buddies at Bloomfield Road.

The J-League

The top two remain the same in the J-League after Gameweek 11, with second placed Team of Gary Breens, led by John Murphy, closing the gap on Shane Halligan’s Hal’s Allstars to seven points. Neither Shane (34) nor John (36) had great weeks and the biggest mover at the top of the table was Hand of Frog! managed by Peter Byrne, who shot up to third place after a solid 50 points. Dermot Groarke’s Table Toppers and Jason Anglim’s the Billy Danglers make up the rest of the top five.

It was a miserable week for Joe’s Journeymen, who scored an appalling 25 points in Gameweek 11, after your humble author decided to refrain from making any changes to the side. Thank god for Andy Carroll, then, as the other ten players in the team could only manage 16 points between them.

Fortunately for us, however, the round of midweek fixtures in the Premier League has given us a chance to quickly change our fortunes and the brains trust in JOE Towers have decided that Emmet Purcell is the man to inspire a surge up the table. Good luck and Godspeed Emmet.

Fantasy Football Insider will be back as usual on Thursday. Keep in touch with our football section for the best fantasy football advice.

J-League Top 5

1. Hal’s Allstars – Shane Halligan: 606 points
2. Team of Gary Breens – John Murphy: 599 points
3. Hand of Frog! – Peter Byrne: 594 points
4. Table Toppers – Dermot Groarke: 590 points
5. The billy danglers – Jason Anglim: 588 points