The top of the Champion J-League was given a much-needed new lease of life after a weekend where Juan Mata and Emmanuel Adebayor caused serious damage.
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A few weeks back, I was all set to big up Juan Mata in the Fantasy Football Insider piece based on his quick transition to life in the Premier League but was forced to change my mind at the last minute.
Why? Well, because although it was clearly evident that the oldest-looking 23-year old we’ve seen for some time was a class act, he simply didn’t have the stats to back it up. The Spaniard has completed 90 minutes in three of his last four games, but played only one full game in seven before that, while two goals and four assists before the weekend was a fairly paltry return for a man of his standards.
There was nothing paltry about the 17 points he scored this weekend, however, landing a goal, two assists, three bonus points and a clean sheet bonus point after a virtuoso display against Wolves. It was a total that only Emmanuel Adebayor came close to matching; indeed he would have been within a point of it had he not missed a penalty against West Brom.
For a very, very brief period this morning, three stupid heads in the JOE office reasoned that because he missed the penalty, Adebayor was awarded three points for an assist because he gained the penalty in the first place. Those three points would have more than counteracted the negative two-point penalty for missing the penalty and left him better off, in fantasy football terms, than if he had actually scored the penalty in the first place!
Then we realised that it was Aaron Lennon was fouled for the penalty and that Adebayor’s assist came for Jermain Defoe’s goal, that there is no ridiculous loophole and that our bogus theory was bogus for a reason.
In the other games this weekend, John Terry provided a riposte for his critics with a goal and 12 points, while Stoke’s Irish duo Glenn Whelan and Rory Delap scored ten and nine points respectively after both got on the scoresheet against a woeful Blackburn at the Britannia.
Elsewhere, Norwich’s Russell Martin (11), Everton’s Marouane Fellaini (11), Wigan’s Jordi Gomez (10) and Manchester City’s Vincent Kompany (10) all deserve an honourable mention for breaking the ten-point barrier.
Champion J-League
We asked for a couple of bolters to liven up what had become a dull and predictable top five, and fair play to you, JOE readers, you responded to our call to arms in some style this weekend.
Leader Neil Kelly remains in tow after his Wet Bandits scored a solid 44 points, but the top five contains a few new and unrecognisable names such as Jeff Roller’s ProContrarian, who rocketed into second place with an impressive 79 points.
Jeff had Juan Mata and Emmanuel Adebayor to thank for that impressive haul, but his team also included goalscorers Daniel Sturridge and Sebastian Larsson. Top five regular Conor Sheehy held onto third place and maintains a little daylight between Kenneth Patterson’s Dirty Bagels in fourth and Eoin Keane’s Pallas United and Alan O’Brien’s The Smurfs, who are tied in fifth.
Champion J-League Top 5:
1. The Wet Bandits – Neil Kelly: 800 points
2. ProContrarian – Jeff Roller: 794 points
3. A Great Bunch’a Lads – Conor Sheehy: 793 points
4. Dirty Bagels – Kenneth Patterson: 783 points
5. Pallas United – Eoin Keane, The Smurfs – Alan O’Brien: 779 points
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