If you had Robin van Persie as your captain this week, you were in for a good score no matter the performance of the rest of your team. If you didn’t on the other hand…
Last week, we waxed lyrical about Gareth Bale and how he is a Fantasy Football points machine if pitted against a shoddy defence. Well, the Welshman is like an Audi compared to the Ferrari that is Robin van Persie when he gets a sniff of a dodgy rearguard, as he did when a woeful Blackburn side came to the Emirates at the weekend.
The writing was on the wall as early as the second minute when Van Persie got the party started and the game was up completely for Steve Kean’s men when Gael Givet attempted to break the Dutchman in two and was given his marching orders before the break.
Come 90 minutes, RVP had three goals and two assists to his name, and when he was also the inevitable recipient of the three bonus points, managers with Van Persie as their captain were reflecting on a cool 46 points from one player.
If you didn’t have him as skipper, 23 points was at least a consolation, if you didn’t have him in your team at all, you might, as Tony Soprano might say, “fuhgeddaboutit” for this week.
Van Persie was joined in the dream team this week by Arsenal team-mates Theo Walcott (12 points from three assists) and the ever improving Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (14 points), who broke his Premier League duck with a brace as the Blackburn defence parted easier than the Red Sea when Moses was around.
Juan Mata (13 points) and Wayne Rooney (12) were represented from the six-goal thriller at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, although strangely, there was no room for Howard Webb despite two assists in the same game (we’re joking Man United fans).
Norwich’s Russell Martin (10) and Adam Drury (8) both deserve a mention for shutting out Bolton on Saturday, Swansea’s easy-to-spell midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson grabbed a goal, an assist and three bonus points for a 13-point haul, while last but by no means least, James McClean once again featured prominently with 11 points thanks to his brilliant goal in the snow against Stoke.
Champion J-League
Not surprisingly, every single member of the top five had RVP as captain, but that wasn’t enough for Conor Sheehy’s A Great Bunch of Lads to maintain the top spot as Matt Light’s Mamelodi Sundowns jumped two places to top spot with 94 points this week.
Conor dropped to second with a not-too-shabby 87 points and leads Eoin Groarke’s Sure Now by four points after Eoin delivered 98 points, the best of the top five this week. Top five regulars Neil Kelly’s The Wet Bandits, Joe Culloty’s Stop Feeding the Yak and Brian Duffy’s Fergie’s Fledglings are also still well in the mix.
Seeing as I have given him so much grief in the column to date, it would be remiss of me not to give a nod in the direction of my colleague Emmet Purcell, who has steered the JOE team to a highly respectable 10th place in the table.
Of course, Emmet has been more than willing to take risks on the JOE team that he wouldn’t dare take on his own charges – who, by the way, are hovering more than 100 places below – but let it not be said that I can’t dish out praise when it’s due, even if it’s of the damning-with-faint variety in this case.
Champion J-League Top 5:
1. Mamelodi Sundowns – Matt Light: 1,473 points
2. A Great Bunch’a Lads – Conor Sheehy: 1,471 points
3. Sure Now – Eoin Groarke: 1,467 points
4. The Wet Bandits – Neil Kelly: 1,458 points
5. Stop Feeding the Yak – Joe Culloty, Fergie’s Fledglings – Brian Duffy: 1,453 points
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