Only three points separate the top four sides in the Champion J-League after another mental weekend’s action in the Premier League, inspired by the brilliance of Robin van Persie.
Fantasy Football (In association with Champion)
Gameweek 10 review
A couple of weeks back when we tipped Robin van Persie to be a rip-roaring success between now and Christmas, we had pencilled in the away game at Stamford Bridge as a game when he might struggle to rack up the points.
Instead, after one of the most crazy and entertaining games of what has been a thoroughly crazy and entertaining season to date, the flying Dutchman ended up with 19 points thanks to a cracking hat-trick, an assist and three bonus points. If he can manage that away to Chelsea, you might ask what sort of havoc he will wreak against the likes of West Brom, Fulham, Norwich and Wigan, who a rejuvenated Gunners side face in their next four games.
As we all know, it rarely works like that and RVP may end up coming unstuck against the league’s supposed lesser lights, but it still definitely worth persisting with him up until Christmas.
Elsewhere, Newcastle continue to act as the Levante of the Premier League and in Demba Ba, they have arguably the signing of the summer.
Ba failed a medical at Stoke last season and either the fussiness of their medical team or their refusal to bend the rules slightly came back to haunt them when Ba struck a hat-trick at the Britannia. Combined with three bonus points, it made for a pretty sweet 17-point total for the Senegal international, who has netted eight goals already in this campaign.
Gareth Bale scored twice for Spurs against QPR on Sunday, so can we now start calling him the best footballer in the world again? That led to 14 points for the Welshman, one better than Stiliyan Petrov and two better than Stephane Sessegnon, who both scored for Villa and Sunderland respectively at the weekend.
It was a quiet weekend for the Manchester clubs, illustrated by the fact that their highest scorers were defenders Alexsandr Kolarov and Patrice Evra with 11 points, a score matched by Fulham’s Clint Dempsey after his goal against Wigan at the DW.
Champion J-League
Things are getting spookily tight in the Champion J-League after the Halloween weekend with Neil Kelly’s The Wet Bandits and Conor Sheehy’s A Great Bunch’a Lads sharing top spot on 615 points. Alan O’Brien’s The Smurfs lie a point behind in outright second with Conell Cashell’s Cashmachines two points further adrift in third.
Continuing the eerie coincidences, both Neil and Alan scored 68 points this week and the highest scorer on both sides was Robin van Persie with 19 points. Conell Cashell outscored both of the top dogs with an impressive 77 points, while the rest of the top five is populated by Joe Culloty’s Stopfeedingtheyak and Man Shity, the invention of the foul-mouthed if admittedly hilarious Joe McGeary.
Champion J-League Top 5:
1. The Wet Bandits – Neil Kelly, A Great Bunch’a Lads – Conor Sheehy: 615 points
2. The Smurfs – Alan O’Brien: 614 points
3. Cashmachines – Conell Cashell: 612 points
4. Stopfeedingtheyak – Joe Culloty: 596 points
5. Man Shity – Joe McGeary: 594 points
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ podcast – listen to the latest episode now!
