By Nick Simmons
MOMS Fantasy League Update
Hello, fellow Villains. With the Premier League seeing its first international break of the season, we have the perfect time to look over the trials and tribulations of FPL so far. Also, we want to announce an early prize for the team that is top of the table at the end of September.
The leading team on October 1st 2013 will win two tickets to attend Sky Sports Studio in London on a match day Saturday of their choosing, where they’ll have a chance to meet Jamie Rednapp & guests and watch the 5.30pm game from the studio (a free lunch is thrown in too). More tickets will be available as prizes throughout the season to MOMS Fantasy League players, as well as other prizes.
Aston Villa-related Fantasy Matters
As stated in my previous article, Benteke is the main man at Villa Park. He has scored 3 of the 4 Villa goals, and as the lone man up top he will most likely continue from his 49% of goal involvement last season.
Delph at 4.5 is an interesting option. Although he is yet to score or assist so far in the Premier League, he has often been the most advanced of a 3 man midfield and was unlucky not to score against Arsenal after hitting the inside of the post. He looks nailed on to play 90 each week (if we need a goal he will sit back with Westwood to allow a more attacking midfielder to go forward) and could be a cheap bench option. His goal vs. Rotherham was also classy.
Agbonlahor has started the season very impressively – he destroyed Carl Jenkinson on the opening day of the season. However, he has only had 3 attempts on goal for the season – Weimann has double this at 6. Agbonlahor’s performances have been better so far, but Weimann still offers more goal threat.
Defensively, Villa have looked slightly stronger this season. Villa have conceded on average 10.3 chances a game so far compared to 12.68 last season, against much tougher opposition. Still, we have not kept a clean sheet since December 8th 2012. With Okore returning to full fitness and raring to go we can be hopeful of more defensive points this year.
A few key FPL issues
1) Bonus Points System (BPS). If you sort FPL by total bonus points, you’ll see that defenders have been awarded the vast majority of points. This is due to BPS awarded for factors such as clearances and tackles. Strikers have also faired well compared with midfielders – mainly due to strikers being awarded more BPS than midfielders or defenders for scoring. This is to perhaps compensate for defenders earning more BPS for defensive actions – but it looks like midfielders have suffered as a consequence. (See http://fantasy.premierleague.com/rules/ for a breakdown of the BPS).
2) Liverpool are yet to concede, with Chelsea, West Ham and Tottenham only conceding 1. As mentioned in 1), getting defenders who keep clean sheets also earn bonus points. Chelsea have kept the same defence for all 3 games of the season, and KoloToure or Mignolet offer cheap ways into Liverpool’s defence.
3) Man City top the scoring table with 8 goals. Negredo and Toure both have 2 of these. Other big scorers include Benteke, Giroud and Sturridge (3 goals apiece). The key is deciding whether you’d prefer a player scoring all of a club’s goals (Benteke has 3 of Villa’s 4 and Sturridge all 3 of Liverpool’s goals) or a player like Negredo who, while playing in a team who score a lot, they aren’t monopolising their team’s goals.
4) Some cheap options will always show up early on. Current cheap options include Barkley (Everton), Ward-Prowse (Southampton), Chester (Hull), and Delph.
Transfer Deadline Dealings
- MesutOzil. One of the best German players ever to have played the game has joined Arsenal, and costs 10m. This is the same as Cazorla and 0.5 more than Walcott. He tops the charts for assists over the last 5 years in Europe, but this could equally benefit Walcott, Giroud and Cazorla. With kind fixtures, it may be essential to have an Arsenal player.
- Villa’s signing of Kozak for a reported fee of £7m has raised a few eyebrows. Rumours going around with no basis include him being signed to replace Benteke next season, although Lambert has hinted at resting Benteke a few times throughout the season, so Kozak could score a few points as the lone striker when played. We will have to see what happens.
- Marouane Fellaini has joined Utd. Excellent in a support striker role behind Jelavic last season, Fellaini is likely to play deeper for Utd, most likely in the centre with Cleverley and Carrick. At 8.5m in FPL, he is unlikely to provide decent value.
- Samuel Eto’o to Chelsea (9m in FPL). With Chelsea starting three different players up front in the first 3 games (Torres, Ba then Schurrle) and his persistence in trying to sign Rooney from United, Mourinho was clearly unhappy with his striking options. With Lukaku off to Everton on loan (7.4 in FPL), we will have to monitor Mourinho’s striking choices before investing.
The MOMS Massive League Table (after August 2013)
Currently top of the MOMS league is Paul Bennett in overall position 1,675, with his team ‘Desperados’. He can thank Benteke (c ) in the first week, who managed two goals and 6 bonus points. He can also thank Redmond, Baines, Mignolet and Zabaleta in GW3 (Game Week 3). However, Paul has already played his wildcard.
7 points behind Paul is Andrea Hartman, with her Villa themed team name ‘Missing Mellberg’. A very brave GW3 captain choice of Darren Bent didn’t pay off; a better captain choice would have seen Andrea top the league.
In third place is Craig Quarterman, 3 points behind Andrea with team name ‘Sunny Villa’. Yaya Toure as captain paid dividends for Craig.
Also in joint third place we have Aaron Mulhall, with his team name eeeee-peeee-ooohhh. Soldado captain away to Arsenal was brave and unfortunately for Aaron, Soldado didn’t manage much on the pitch.
Good luck in the remaining 35 weeks to all managers!
We will re-open the MOMS League, so any new teams can join before Saturday’s game. Come join the 1000+ MOMS Fantasy Premier League by using the code: 683871-164358
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Follow Nick on Twitter – @lil_wizard123
