Man City and Man United may occupy the top two positions in the league, but the momentum has gradually been shifting towards North London in recent weeks.
Only a few weeks into the season, your humble author penned a piece on how the momentum remained in Manchester after what was a blistering start to the season from the red and blue halves of Mancunia. While City and United continue to lead the way and City certainly show no signs of slowing down, there has been a momentum shift south towards the capital and more specifically, the north half of London of late, and not just in the Champions League.
With ten wins in their last eleven games, Spurs’ run has been the more impressive, but considering the depths that Arsenal had plumbed at the beginning of the season after losing two of their best players, they deserve massive credit for the way they’ve turned things around.
The man at the centre of Arsenal’s resurgence needs no introduction but we’ll give him one anyway. Mentioning Robin van Persie’s stats has become a recurring theme in this column but only because they are so damn impressive. Another 15 points at the weekend amounts to 78 in his last nine games and simply put, if you don’t have him in your team at the moment you’re a fool.
But it’s not just RVP who has impressed. In four games since his return from injury, Thomas Vermaelen (£6.8 million) has scored three goals, grabbed one assist and collected seven bonus points. All in all that’s 42 points in four games, an astonishing return for a defender.
Mikel Arteta (£8.1 million) has settled in quickly with four goals since his arrival, while the much-maligned Theo Walcott (£8.9 million) has been brilliant at times and has pitched in with two goals and five assists.
In the white half of North London, Emmanuel Adebayor and Gareth Bale have rightly been receiving most of the plaudits, but they too have been receiving plenty of help from all around. Scott Parker and Luka Modric may be the heartbeat of ‘Arry’s outfit, but they tend to leave the final pass and the finishing to others, such as Rafael van der Vaart (£10.2 million), who has six goals and two assists but has dropped off the pace of late.
His slack has been picked up by Aaron Lennon (£7.2 million), who has two goals and three assists and Jermain Defoe (£8.2 million) with six goals and two assists, while at the back, Kyle Walker (£5.7 million) has stood out.
It remains to be seen how long the good times roll for both clubs, but with a favourable enough fixture list for both sides over the festive period, it could be very merry in North London this Christmas.
JOE’s Fantasy Football Picks:
Top Dollar: Gareth Bale (£8.8 million). A relatively cheap top dollar option this week, but only Robin van Persie is in better form than Bale at the moment. Another goal and assist at the weekend means that he has four goals and five assists in his last five games, with nine bonus points thrown in for good measure. In this mood, Bale is fast approaching ‘Best Player in the World behind Messi and Ronaldo’ territory and we’re only half-joking when we say that.
Mid-Range: Phil Jones (£6.4 million). The champions have been desperately mediocre going forward of late, but have rediscovered a meanness at the back that has been their trademark in recent seasons. United have kept four clean sheets in their last five games, though the injury to Nemanja Vidic will considerably weaken United defensively. Jones played 90 minutes in all of those shutouts and with two goals in his last two games, he is a good bet to pop up with a goal against Wolves.
Bargain Basement: Yakubu (£5.6 million). Feed the Yak, they say, and he will score and although he seems to need little in the way of actual food given his considerable heft, he has been gobbling up the chances of late with seven goals in his last five games and four against Swansea at the weekend.
Irish Pick: Shane Long (£5.7 million). The spell on the sidelines seems to have done no harm to a man known as ‘Tintin plus’ to Baggies boss Roy Hodgson. Long has got two goals in his last three games and will more than likely have a hatful of chances against an abysmal Wigan outfit this weekend.
Captain’s Pick: Robin van Persie (£13.1 million). Not since Cristiano Ronaldo was at his peak has there been a man who has so consistently produced the goods on the Fantasy Football stage. He’s now the best player in the competition by 22 points and when you consider what happened to the Gunners at the start of the season, that’s some achievement.
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