An awful lot of players will be making their debuts for their new clubs this weekend, but which of the new signings have what it takes to be a Fantasy Football success story?
Gameweek 3 Review
The last Premier League weekend feels like about ten years ago at this stage and you’ve probably well forgotten the players who made most of an impact last time around.
To refresh your memory, Swansea and Chelsea both maintained their excellent start to the season and it’s no surprise to see them split five players between them in the Dream Team for Gameweek 3.
Swans winger Nathan Dyer led the way with 16 points after a brace of goals against West Brom, while his teammate Gylfi Sigurdsson earned 11 points for providing two assists in the same game.
Sigurdsson and Dyer were joined in midfield by Chelsea duo Nemanja Matic and Ramires with 12 and 13 points respectively, while Diego Costa completed the Blues trio with 12 points after netting twice in the 6-3 win over Everton at Goodison Park.
Southampton’s Morgan Schneiderlin (15), Aston Villa’s Andreas Weimann (12), Liverpool’s Alberto Moreno (13) and Stoke’s Erik Pieters also hit double figures, with Rob Green and Mike Williamson making up the XI on nine points apiece.
J-League
There are three survivors from the last time we updated you on the J-League top five, but all three of them are clinging onto that status having been usurped at the top of the league by Eoin O’Sullivan’s Rock Solid Reivers, who occupy top spot and Brent Simonis’ Baraka’s Boys, who lie two points further back.
Samuel Frazher’s Gazzaniga Please are the best placed of the survivors in third, with Terry O’Rourke’s Sporting Kilbeggan and Eoin McIntyre’s Dirty Sanchez inseparable a little further back having just about taken their cumulative totals over the 200-point mark.
J-League Top 5:
- Rock Solid Reivers – Eoin O’Sullivan: 209 points
- Baraka’s Boys – Brent Simonis: 207 points
- Gazzaniga Please – Samuel Frazher: 205 points
- Sporting Kilbeggan – Terry O’Rourke: 203 points
- Dirty Sanchez – Eoin McIntyre: 203 points
Let’s hear it for the new guys
The most recent transfer deadline day and indeed the transfer window as a whole was one of the busiest we can remember and as a result, it almost feels like this weekend marks the real start of the Premier League season.
Of all the dozens and dozens of players to make a move in and around Deadline Day, we’ve picked out a handful of the most notable and weighed up whether they have the potential to make an impact where it matters most… Fantasy Football, of course.
Radamel Falcao (£11.0 million): Wherever the Colombian goes, he scores goals and lots of them and providing he can stay fit, there’s no reason to think he won’t do the same at Old Trafford. Since joining Porto, the 28-year old has scored 155 goals in 200 appearances at club level; his record speaks for itself.
Loic Remy (£7.4 million): Remy has nothing to prove in terms of his ability to score goals at this level, but managers investing in him have to weigh up how many minutes he’s going to get considering that Diego Costa has fitted in so seamlessly at Stamford Bridge. Costa’s a doubt this weekend so Remy might get a look-in, but he looks set to play second fiddle in a team that look best with a lone operator up front.
Danny Welbeck (£7.0 million): Unlike Falcao, Welbeck’s record doesn’t speak for itself but one could argue that he never got the chance to play through the middle for a sustained run of games at Manchester United. With Olivier Giroud out injured for the foreseeable future, he should get that chance at Arsenal and seven million quid sounds like a very decent price to us.
Hatem Ben Arfa (£5.8 million): Serious questions have to be asked about his attitude and his fitness but if Steve Bruce can get the Frenchman firing, then he has a very good player on his hands. That said, in the last three seasons, Ben Arfa’s best goals figure was five and his best assists figure was seven (both in 2011/12), hardly anything to write home about. Best adopt a wait and see approach here.
Toby Alderweireld (£5.0 million): Southampton have been mocked for the amount of players they’ve lost this summer, but they look to have brought in a very decent one in Belgian international Alderweireld. He didn’t really feature in his only season at Atletico Madrid, but he was brilliant at Ajax and chipped in with a decent amount of goals from the back. One to keep an eye on.
JOE’s Fantasy Football Picks
Top Dollar: Diego Costa (£10.7 million). Providing he’s fit, there’s no reason to suggest that Costa won’t continue his inspired early season form against Swansea, a team that nobody expected to be sharing the lead with Chelsea after three games. With four goals in three games, he’s so hot right now.
Mid-Range: Angel di Maria (£9.5 million). A little bit expensive for the mid-range bracket perhaps, but in less than an hour against Burnley Di Maria was far better than any of his new teammates and he followed that up with a devastating performance for Argentina against Germany. QPR better watch out.
Bargain Basement: Ryan Shawcross (£5.6 million). Always a Fantasy Football favourite, Shawcross has enjoyed an excellent start to the season with a goal, a clean sheet, four bonus points and 20 points in total to date.
Irish Pick: Kevin Doyle (£5.0 million). A bit of stab in the dark this one as it’s not yet clear whether Doyle will start for the Eagles, but Palace are short of strikers at the moment and a home clash with Burnley provides an ideal opportunity to open his account.
Captain’s Pick: Raheem Sterling (£8.7 million). Villa have been good so far but they’ll have to be very good to stop the Liverpool youngster, who has continued in the rich vein of form he was in at the tail-end of last season and has two goals, an assist and three bonus points to his name so far.
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