Not many people seem to have noticed, but Champions Manchester City, and a number of their key players, seem to be coming to the boil at just the right time.
Gameweek 23 review
Given this column’s often questionable advice in the past it’s highly understandable if you didn’t follow my advice about bulking up on Arsenal players last week, but it turned out to be one of those increasingly rare occasions that my recommendations came up trumps.
Granted, you didn’t have to be Einstein to work out that such a policy was highly likely to succeed, but chances to gloat are, unfortunately, few and far between these days, so forgive me for indulging myself on this occasion.
In the end, four Gunners made into the Dream Team; three of them – Theo Walcott (18 points), Lukas Podolski (17) and Santi Cazorla (12) were fairly predictable inclusions while the appearance of Olivier Giroud (15) represents the Frenchman’s surge of form of late; he also managed to score twice against Brighton in the FA Cup on Saturday.
Elsewhere, the big winners for the week were Manchester City’s David Silva (16) after a brace against Fulham, while with Michu going through a quiet spell by his high standards, Swansea team mate Jonathan de Guzman stepped up to the plate with two goals and 15 points against Stoke.
Steven Fletcher’s first goals in five games earned the Sunderland striker 13 points, Swansea’s Ben Davies was the highest scoring defender with 10 points, while Phil Jagielka (9), Gael Clichy (8) and Artur Boruc (7) also deserve honourable mentions.
J-League
Just like last week, a double gameweek was always likely to wreak havoc at the top of the J-League and so it proved as a highly impressive 115-point haul catapulted James Shannon’s Jagerbombers to the top spot.
84 points is normally an excellent score but this week it resulted in previous leader Martin Hanway and his Marty’s Muppets side dropping down to third place, with Andy Twomey’s Athtrasna and Barry McCabe’s Breffni Blues claiming joint second, five points behind the leaders.
Neil McNicholas’ 123 and Darren McCann’s Dazzleros make up the top five, with both teams still within touching distance of the top as the business end draws ever closer.
J-League Top 5:
- Jagerbombers – James Shannon: 1,446 points
- Athtrasna – Andy Twomey: 1,439 points, Breffni Blues – Barry McCabe: 1,439 points
- Marty’s Muppets – Martin Hanway: 1,435 points
- 123 – Neil McNicholas: 1,432 points
- Dazzleros – Darren McCann: 1,428 points
Champions on a charge?
It could be because of the January transfer window, the fact that their bitter cross-town rivals show no signs of letting up at the top of the league or the fact that cup giant-killings and 17-year old ball men have been stealing all the attention, but not much notice seems to have been paid to Manchester City’s excellent run of form of late.
Going out of Europe and the dramatic derby defeat at the start of December heaped a lot of negative press on the Champions, but apart from ubiquitous speculation about the future of Mario Balotelli and cringe-worthy Joe Hart hair adverts, all has been pretty rosy in the City garden since.
Roberto Mancini’s men have taken 18 points from a possible 21 and, despite missing Yaya Toure, have found the league a doddle since the turn of the year, winning three games against Stoke, Arsenal and Fulham and scoring seven goals without reply.
They are showing the type of form they showed at the beginning and end of last season’s memorable campaign, have a few handy-looking fixtures coming up and as such, many of their players provide very tempting options with the deadline for the winter wildcard fast approaching.
Because City have the best defensive record in the league, it is no surprise to learn that Joe Hart is one of the highest-scoring goalkeepers. A decent return is pretty much guaranteed from the England number one, but at £6.9 million he is also the most expensive netminder so managers would be forgiven for looking elsewhere.
There are fewer more likeable characters in the Premier League at the moment than Pablo Zabaleta (£6.0 million) and the Argentinean provides pretty good value for money from a Fantasy Football perspective with two goals and an assist already this campaign, while his winner against Stoke at the weekend will have done wonders for his confidence.
Further up the pitch, James Milner (£6.1 million) mightn’t be a very popular choice, but he’s very affordable and he’s certainly in Bobby Mancini’s good books at the moment, having played 90 minutes in all of the last three games and picked up a goal and an assist while he was at it.
We predicted a David Silva (£9.4 million) resurgence prior to Christmas and he has belatedly begun to deliver the goods with a brace in his last game, added to four assists in his previous six outings prior to that. If City do start to make a dent in United’s lead, we have a feeling Silva will be the man with his hand firmly on the hammer.
The tricky part with City is trying to predict who will play up front on a weekly basis. Sergio Aguero (£10.9 million) would appear to be first choice but he has been very fragile this season, Carlos Tevez (£8.9 million) hasn’t scored in the league since December 1 but has provided five assists in the same period, leaving Edin Dzeko (£7.5 million) as the safest choice, taking into account he is the cheapest option and has four goals, two assists and 31 points in total in his last four games.
*Remember folks, this is the second last gameweek in which managers can avail of the special Winter Wildcard, more advice on that to come later in the week.*
JOE’s Fantasy Football Picks:
Top Dollar: Gareth Bale (£9.8 million). Bale hasn’t done an awful lot in the last few games, but given the state Norwich are in at the moment, he could do damage at Carrow Road on Wednesday night.
Mid-Range: Steven Fletcher (£7.1 million). His brace against Wigan took him to ten for the season so far and there’s a good chance of him adding to his tally playing in a Sunderland side who have won four of their last six games.
Bargain Basement: Jonathan de Guzman (£5.8 million). The Dutchman has three goals in his last four games and is excellent value for a man who has proved to be yet another astute signing by Michael Laudrup.
Irish Pick: Jonathan Walters (£6.6 million). Stoke aren’t in great shape at the moment, but neither are Wigan and you’d fancy the Potters to have the upper hand at the Britannia. Besides, it can hardly be as bad as Walters’ last home performance…
Captain’s Pick: Robin van Persie (£14.1 million). Has failed to score in only one of his last ten league games and we don’t see that run coming to an end against Southampton at Old Trafford.
