Dermot Groarke is the worthy winner of the manager of the month award, while the JOE team have learned the hard way about the problems brought on by a shared management policy.
Football, bloody hell! The immortal words once uttered by Alex Ferguson seemed entirely relevant once more this weekend as Wigan and Spurs defied both form and logic on Saturday at White Hart Lane.
In my insider column last week, I recommended the likes of Peter Crouch and Gareth Bale as must-haves for any fantasy team as Wigan looked set to be on the end of another sound trashing away to Harry Redknapp’s in-form side.
Hugo Rodallega had other ideas, however, when he scored an 80th minute winner and with Spurs also failing to hit the scoresheet, the points were to be had elsewhere. While one can’t rely on Spurs at the best of times, it seems you can set your watch by Florent Malouda and Didier Drogba at the moment.
Goals for both players led to ten and nine point returns respectively and sealed each player’s place as the best in their position in the league. It seems that it wasn’t only my advice about Spurs players that was ill-fated last week, however, as Theo Walcott practically forced my harsh words against him right back my throat.
The Arsenal speedster netted for the second week in succession against Blackburn and bagged an assist for good measure to deliver ten points for this gameweek, while another man in-form, Andy Carroll, found the net and claimed three bonus points for an eight-point haul.
Three Chelsea defenders, Ashley Cole, John Terry and Alex, feature in the top four leading defenders after three consecutive clean sheets for the champions, while Aston Villa’s Luke Young also figures prominently after his wonder goal and a clean sheet against Everton helped contribute to a whopping 14 points for the right back.
A solid defensive performance by Sunderland against Manchester City earned high returns for the likes of Ahmed Al-Muhammadi (9) and Titus Bramble (8), while the 10% of managers with Darren Bent in their team will rarely let be down, as was evident in yet another strike for the goal machine against Roberto Mancini’s star-studded side.
Nani was the star man as Manchester United eased to a comfortable 3-0 victory over West Ham at Old Trafford with a goal, an assist and three bonus points helping him to 14 points. Many fantasy managers, meanwhile, were quick to get rid of Wayne Rooney after a poor World Cup and a poor start to the season and even though he still doesn’t look the player of last season, a penalty and an assist was enough to yield ten points this weekend.
In the J-League, Dermot Groarke’s Table Toppers have proved to be as consistent as Chelsea have been in the real thing. Dermot remains at the head of the league for the third week in succession and has earned a Premier League replica jersey of his choice for his excellent start to the season.
Dermot scored a solid 58 points in Gameweek three thanks to some solid defensive performances from Brad Friedel, Richard Dunne, Jonny Evans and Roger Johnson, while his decision to award the captaincy to Florent Malouda returned 20 points.
The Table Toppers hold a ten point lead from John Murphy’s Team of Gary Breens and Brendan Walsh’s Team Actimel in second place.
Making up the rest of the top five are Martin Kelly’s Scouting for Goals, Brendan Breen’s dafunkbrothers and Alan Egan’s Moone Maulers.
Joe’s Journeymen slumped another eight places to 40th in the table after 53 points in Gameweek 3, despite having the likes of Florent Malouda, Didier Drogba and Andy Carroll in our starting eleven. Control of the side will now pass over to the ace in the JOE pack, Conor Hogan.
Conor has been told that a hike of no less than 20 places in the table will be accepted. The consequences if he fails to do so are too grim to be printed on these pages.
Owing to the international break, there will be no fantasy football insider this week. Keep in touch with our football section for the next insider when normal service resumes next weekend.
J-League Top Five:
- Table toppers – Dermot Groarke: 208 points
- Team of Gary Breens – John Murphy, Team Actimel – Brendan Walsh: both 198 points
- Scouting for goals – Martin Kelly: 197 points
- Dafunkbrothers – Brendan Breen: 188 points
- Moone Maulers – Alan Egan: 184 points
