Thanks to the tardiness of the Fantasy Premier League website, our Fantasy Football review is a tad belated this week, but it’s pretty much as you were at the top of the J-League.
Gameweek 29 review
It was fairly predictable that Manchester United players would dominate the Dream Team considering that they were up against a Wolves side that seem to have given all hope of staying in the Premier League, but kudos to you if you forecast the four United players that actually made the cut.
With Wayne Rooney and Danny Welbeck posting relatively low scores, the returning Antonio Valencia was the main man with a goal, two assists and two bonus points that helped him to 16 points, three more than two-goal Javier Hernandez and Jonny Evans, who ended a drought that only the Sahara desert could compare with after scoring his first goal for the club after nearly six years.
Rafael Da Silva also gets a mention with an assist to add to the clean sheet for nine points and features in a back three alongside Thomas Vermaelen (15 points), who scored the only goal of the game as Arsenal came away from Goodison Park with all three points.
Equalling Valencia’s tally of 16 points was probably the signing of the season, Gylfi Sigurdsson, thanks to his brace against Fulham and although you might think your eyes are deceiving you, Stewart Downing (10 points) also makes the cut after laying on two assists – his first of the season – in Liverpool’s late capitulation against QPR at Loftus Road.
Goalscorer on the night Shaun Derry and Wigan’s James McCarthur also scored ten points, while the outfield contingent was completed by Yakubu thanks to his effort against Sunderland on Tuesday evening.
Champion J-League
It was a case of steady as she goes at the summit of the J-League this week, with four of the top five registering scores of between 53 and 56 points, solid but unspectacular form which the managers in question will argue is what’s important at this stage of the season.
The only man to rise above the mediocrity was Matt Light’s Mamelodi Sundowns, who scored 67 points thanks mainly to the presence of Jonny Evans and Gylfi Sigurdsson in his first XI. Matt actually sent me a personal e-mail a while back feigning anger at some light-hearted criticism I had sent his way in an earlier piece this season, so I’m more than happy to dish out the praise on this occasion. So Matt, if you’re reading, hearty congratulations on your good score this week.
That 67 points was enough to take him within 11 points of league leaders, Neil Kelly’s The Wet Bandits in a race that, pretty much like the Premier League itself, is turning into a two-horse race. Eoin Groarke’s Sure Now, 18 points adrift of Matt in third place, might have something to say about that, however.
Brian Duffy’s Fergie’s Fledglings and Conor Sheehy’s A Great Bunch’a Lads are still in the hunt in fourth and fifth respectively, but will need a grandstand finish if they are to usurp the top two between now and season’s end.
Champion J-League Top 5:
1. The Wet Bandits – Neil Kelly: 1,757 points
2. Mamelodi Sundowns – Matt Light: 1,746 points
3. Sure Now – Eoin Groarke: 1,728 points
4. Fergie’s Fledglings – Brian Duffy: 1,712 points
5. A Great Bunch’a Lads – Conor Sheehy: 1,711 points
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