With so little time left, things are really hotting up in the Fantasy Football stakes, especially in our own ultra-competitive J-League.
Gameweek 36 review
It is well known amongst Fantasy managers that double gameweeks can provide a fruitful bounty when it comes to points, but one would have been hard pressed to predict exactly how true that would turn out to be after the last few days.
Whether it is fatigue, a greater sense of adventure or the fact that some of the teams with nought to play for simply can’t be arsed at this late stage of the season, there were an unbelievable amount of goals scored between Saturday afternoon and late on Wednesday night, despite the fact that the two best teams in the league could only muster one between them.
There were a number of benefactors from the double gameweek, but it was two that have come in for criticism at times this season that reaped more than most. Rafael van der Vaart was top scorer for the week with 22 points after two goals, an assist and four bonus points over two games, while the oft-derided Fernando Torres posted 19 points after his confidently taken hat-trick against QPR.
The man who took Torres’ place at Liverpool, Luis Suarez, delivered 17 points thanks to one of the best hat-tricks you’ll see in many a year and although he didn’t score for Chelsea in the last two games, Juan Mata scored a similar total after an impressive four assists in the rain on Sunday.
Steven Pienaar wasn’t far off that with three assists of his own in the last few days which earned him 18 points, two more than Wigan’s Victor Moses and Spurs’ Kyle Walker and three more than Bolton striker Kevin Davies.
With precious little goalmouth action at the Etihad on Monday night, it took Vincent Kompany to show the more illustrious players in action how it’s done and his goal and clean sheet secured him 14 points and quite probably the Premier League title to boot.
J-League
We said that Gameweek 36 was going to be a big one in determining the fate of all the various leagues out there and so it proved in the J-League, where there was drama on a level far beyond what occurred in the title decider at Eastlands on Monday night.
The teams in the top five might be the exact same as last week, but their positions have changed drastically. Last week’s leaders, Eoin Groarke’s Sure Now slipped to fourth place, which is where Conell Cashell’s Cashmachines had resided until a whopping 127 points propelled them into top spot.
Conor Sheehy’s A Great Bunch’a Lads and Brian Duffy’s Fergie’s Fledglings also exceeded a ton of points to take up second and third place respectively with the result that the title, which had looked like Eoin Groarke’s to lose, is completely up for grabs with only two gameweeks to go.
14 points separate Conell Cashell from Conor Sheehy in second place, but with less than 40 points separating first from fifth, it’s anyone’s guess as to who might come out on top come the season’s end.
J-League Top 5:
- Cashmachines – Conell Cashell: 2,200 points
- A Great Bunch’a Lads – Conor Sheehy: 2,186 points
- Fergie’s Fledglings – Brian Duffy: 2,184 points
- Sure Now – Eoin Groarke – 2,178 points
- Mamelodi Sundowns – Matt Light: 2,162 points
Form is temporary… and that’s all that counts
Form is temporary, but class is permanent goes the saying, but with all due respect to any world-class operators going through a rough patch at the moment, they’re hardly likely to rediscover their greatness in the week and a half left in this Premier League season.
With the double gameweeks over and done with and results proving nigh on impossible to predict in what has been a crazy season, the form of individual players is the only logic a manager can follow as the season draws to a close.
The likes of Papiss Cisse (£8.2 million), even though he’s playing against Manchester City, and Nikica Jelavic (£6.2 million) nearly go without saying, but here are a few more to consider for the last two rounds of fixtures.
Everton’s Steven Pienaar (£7.2 million) has scored 37 points in his last four games in what has been a sensational return to the Toffees. Wigan have any number of players in the form of their lives, but Victor Moses (£5.3 million) is arguably their most consistent threat.
At the higher end of the scale, meanwhile, Liverpool’s Luis Suarez (£9.3 million) has four goals in his last three games and could trouble Chelsea at Anfield on Tuesday night provided he’s not worn out from the FA Cup Final clash against the same opposition three days earlier.
JOE’s Fantasy Football Picks
Top Dollar: Wayne Rooney (£12.9 million). If Man United are going to stand any chance of winning the title, there needs to be a backlash from their weak showing against City on Monday. Against a Swansea side with little to play for at Old Trafford, Rooney may well add to the eight goals he’s scored in the last five home games.
Mid-Range: Nikica Jelavic (£6.2 million). The thought of what he might do to us at the Euros in the summer is extremely frightening, but for now, he’s proving impossible to ignore. Plus, he’s playing against Wolves this weekend.
Bargain Basement: Franco di Santo (£4.7 million). We still wouldn’t be the Italian’s biggest fans, but he’s leading the line for a Wigan team that are on fire at the moment and has two goals and an assist to his name in the last three outings.
Irish Pick: James McClean (£4.9 million). Just when you thought the hype around James McClean has died down, he comes up with a belter of a free-kick to show that there’s more in his locker than we thought.
Captain’s Pick: Robin van Persie (£13.1 million). Back on the scoresheet after a two game ‘drought’, the Gunners will be looking for RVP to deliver in a game they could do with winning at home to Norwich on Saturday. He hasn’t let them down yet.
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