After the chaos that made a mess of the opening weekend, normality was restored for Gameweek 2, with the big two in Manchester dominating proceedings so far.
Fantasy Football (in association with Champion)
Gameweek 2 review
The two Manchester clubs have already delivered ominous signs of intent early on in the season and similarly, their talented and expensive personnel have made their mark as far as Fantasy Football is concerned.
The impish David Silva has been in magnificent form in the opening two games and he cemented his status as the highest scoring midfielder with another ten points against Bolton at the weekend. Fellow midfielders Gareth Barry and James Milner also feature prominently after nine and ten points respectively.
Across town in Old Trafford, it is the youngsters that are making the biggest impression and showing that Alex Ferguson’s powers of regeneration show no signs of slowing down as he approaches 70 years of age.
Despite looking ridiculously nervous and shaky so far, David de Gea managed a clean sheet and nine points against Spurs, but the performance of Danny Welbeck took the attention away from the young Spaniard. Welbeck’s goal and glorious assist helped him to nine points, a total that was only bettered by Aston Villa duo Darren Bent (12) and Gabriel Agbonlahor (10), while QPR’s Tommy Smith equalled Welbeck’s tally with a goal and three bonus points against Everton.
Honourable mentions must go to one of our tips last week, Swansea ‘keeper Michel Vorm, who netted 11 points thanks to a clean sheet and a penalty save against Wigan, Newcastle duo Ryan Taylor (12) and Stephen Taylor (9), Norwich defender Ritchie De Laet (11) and the always impressive Wolves winger Matt Jarvis, whose goal and assist against Fulham earned 12 points.
Champion J-League
Jason Galvin has set the early pace in the Champion J-League after Gameweek 2, holding a slender one point lead from another Liverpool inspired selection Noel Cahill’s ‘Fsg j.henry’.
Naturally enough Jason’s team, ‘liverpoolsnumber7’, contained Liverpool number seven Luis Suarez, who coincidentally, contributed seven points. It was his decision to nominate David Silva as captain that paid most dividends, however, with the in-form Manchester City midfielder contributing ten points thanks to a goal and three bonus points.
Noel had Stephen Taylor, Matt Jarvis and Wayne Rooney to thank for his 56-point haul, although he may regret not tinkering with his selection a little more – his substitute goalkeeper and three subs accounted for an impressive 34 points between them.
Closely behind Jason and Noel in the pecking order is Gerard Duffy’s rather loud sounding outfit ‘BALLINAGAR’ on 131 points, followed by Stephen McHugh’s ‘Barca99’ and Cormac Fitzgerald’s ‘Pompey’ on 130 points.
Amongst the crew in JOE Towers, Aston Villa worshipping Nick Bradshaw leads the way. His selection ‘I Could Live in IKEA’ are just about holding off the threat of my own team ‘Cool Under Pressure’ at the top of the league, but perhaps the biggest shock is the disastrous performance of Emmet Purcell’s ‘Team Cobra’ so far.
Emmet has managed a paltry 59 points after two gameweeks (he wasn’t affected by the crash last weekend I hasten to add) which leaves him 60 points adrift at the bottom of our in-house league and in 485th place in the Champion J-League, only eleven places and 24 points from the bottom of the table. For shame.
Champion J-League Top 5
1. Liverpoolsnumber7 – Jason Galvin: 133 points
2. Fsg j.henry – Noel Cahill: 132 points
3. BALLINAGAR – Gerard Duffy: 131 points
4. Barca99 – Stephen McHugh: 130 points
Pompey – Cormac Fitzgerald: 130 points
