Dermot Groarke’s Table Toppers have finally been usurped at the top of the J-League by Martin Kelly’s Scouting for Goals, while things have gone from bad to worse for JOE’s Journeymen.
It was another strange week in the world of fantasy football, with a number of players, and indeed teams, once again confounding expectations.
The prime example of this was Blackpool. The Tangerines seemed to have returned to reality after trashing Wigan on the opening day and looked for all the world as if they were going to succumb to an in-form Newcastle at St. James’ Park on Saturday. Managers rushed to get Andy Carroll in particular into their starting eleven, anticipating at least a goal or two to add to the four he has already scored this season.
Matt Gilks had other ideas, however and produced a once in a lifetime performance to deny Carroll and his Magpie team-mates on a number of occasions. Gilks made six saves in total and didn’t have his net breached once, yielding an eight-point return for the man who considered quitting football to become a mechanic only two years ago.
Gilks’ colleague Charlie Adam also had a bumper week with 13 points for a goal, an assist and three bonus points, which was enough to earn him a place in the dream team alongside man of the week, Michael Essien, who stepped up to the plate for the Blues while Didier Drogba was kept relatively quiet and Florent Malouda was twiddling his thumbs on the bench.
Essien was magnificent and full value for his 15 points thanks to two goals and three bonus points. His mate Salomon Kalou was also amongst the highest points earners thanks to one of the luckiest goals of all time against West Ham.
Joining Essien, Adam and Kalou in the midfield section of the dream team were Cesc Fabregas on 11 points thanks to two assists and three bonus points and Stoke’s Matthew Etherington, who did the exact same against Aston Villa on Monday night.
Fabregas has been consistently amongst the best fantasy football performers in recent years, but at £11.9 million, it will take a bit of meddling to fit him into your team. Etherington, on the other hand, is very affordable at £5.8 million and, since the start of last season, has assisted a higher percentage of his side’s goals in the Premier League than any other player.
At the back, it was a good gameweek for goalscoring defenders with Nemanja Vidic (9 points) Laurent Koscielny (8), Jelle van Damme (7), Antolin Alcaraz (11) and Robert Huth (8) all hitting the net over the weekend. Goal-scoring defenders are gold dust for any fantasy team, but Vidic and possibly Huth aside, it would be a surprise if any of the above continue to hit the net on a regular basis.
Dimitar Berbatov has enjoyed an excellent start to the season
With Wayne Rooney controversially ruled absent from Manchester United’s clash with Everton at the weekend, Dimitar Berbatov continued his impressive start to the season with yet another goal at Goodison, which allied to his three bonus points, yielded nine points for the Bulgarian.
Speaking of impressive starts, there haven’t been many better summer signings than Fulham’s Moussa Dembele, who added to his two assists against Blackpool with two goals against Wolves this weekend. At £5.5 million, he’s brilliant value for money at the moment and will no doubt be snapped up by more than the 1.8% of managers who currently have him in their squads.
In the J-League, Dermot Groarke was finally relieved of the top spot by Martin Kelly’s Scouting for Goals, a team that included Cesc Fabregas and Charlie Adam in midfield and had a 12-point return from captain Didier Drogba.
Trailing Kelly by a point in second place is David Freeman’s Far East Far Out FC. David’s lofty perch in the table completes a remarkable transformation from only a few short weeks ago when his team lay perilously close to the bottom of the table.
Dermot Groarke’s Table Toppers are still well in the hunt in third place, while Brendan Breen’s Dafunkbrothers and Thomas Gleeson’s Scouser FC make up the rest of the top five.
The decision to put the unpredictable Conor Hogan in charge this weekend was always going to make or break JOE’s Journeymen and unfortunately it broke them, with Didier Drogba picking up the slack for the rest of the starting eleven, five of whom scored only a single point in a disappointing 35-point total.
Radical changes may need to be made and with that in mind, control of the team passes to the versatile William Nestor, who is already threatening to pull out the wildcard after the mediocre performances of recent weeks.
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J-League Top Five:
- Scouting for Goals – Martin Kelly: 248 points
- Far East Far Out FC – David Freeman: 247 points
- Table Toppers – Dermot Groarke: 244 points
- Dafunkbrothers – Brendan Breen: 243 points
- Scouser FC – Thomas Gleeson: 242 points
