Things are arse-clenchingly tight at the top of the Champion J-League after an enthralling weekend’s action across the water.
Fantasy Football (In association with Champion)
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How about that for a weekend? Manchester United conceding six on their own turf, Alan Hutton almost amputating the legs of our own Shane Long, Chelsea getting two men sent off and Mario Balotelli setting his own house on fire after an amateur fireworks display gone wrong – you certainly couldn’t have scripted it.
Considering the magnitude of what happened at Old Trafford, is it a surprise that only one City player makes the Dream Team this week, especially when that player, Edin Dzeko, was only on the pitch for 21 minutes!
In that extremely productive period, he did manage two goals, an assist and a bonus point for 13 points, a total that was fairly modest in light of other contributions this weekend. Best of the lot was Royston Drenthe, a man whose career seemed to have died a death at Real Madrid, but who has been rejuvenated by the less glamorous surroundings at Everton.
Drenthe notched a goal, two assists and three bonus points for 16 in total, but unless you’re one of the 0.4 per cent of managers that have him in your team, he’s unlikely to have made too much of a difference in fantasy football terms.
One man who probably did, and we’re proud to say we recommended his selection last week, was Rafael van der Vaart, whose two goals and three bonus points at Blackburn led to 15 points.
That’s the same tally as the man with the giant forehead across the divide in North London, Gervinho, who scored against Stoke and later laid on both goals for substitute Robin Van Persie, who was of course, our tip for the captaincy. That will be the last tooting of our own horns for the time being… promise.
Closer to home, Kevin Doyle deserves a mention for his goal, assist and maximum bonus point haul in Wolves’ late, late rescue act against Swansea at Molineux that earned him 12 points, while other noteworthy performers were Stephane Sessegnon (13) and Jack Rodwell (12).
Champion J-League
Alan O’Brien’s the Smurfs rocketed into the lead in the Champion J-League thanks to high scores from the likes of Robin van Persie, David Silva and Wes Brown and he leads Neil Kelly’s The Wet Bandits and Conor Sheehy’s A Great Bunch of Lads by four points.
Clive Earley’s Derryowen Hawthorns and Paul Flynn’s SAFB 2011 are a point further adrift in third, while Gerard Duffy’s BALLINAGAR (No need to shout, Gerard) and Conell Cashell’s Cashmachines make up the rest of the top five.
It would be remiss of us not to mention Conell’s fantastic 88 points this week, which came about because of the presence of Robin van Persie, David Silva, Stephane Sessegnon, Rafael van der Vaart and Wes Brown. No such scores were returned by any of the JOE team this week and our in-house league is a sad reflection on a bunch of nerdy hacks who claim to know plenty about the beautiful game.
At this stage, my colleague Emmet Purcell normally comes in for a bit of light-hearted criticism, but this week, the subject of my ire is none other than our erstwhile editor Shane Breslin, who hasn’t even broke the 400-point barrier as of yet. A sad effort indeed.
Champion J-League Top 5:
1. The Smurfs – Alan O’Brien: 551 points
2. The Wet Bandits – Neil Kelly, A Great Bunch of Lads – Conor Sheehy: 547 points
3. Derryowen Hawthorns – Clive Earley, SAFB 2011 – Paul Flynn: 546 points
4. BALLINAGAR – Gerard Duffy: 536 points
5. Cashmachines – Conell Cashell: 535 points
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