A Week Ahead

By Jeremy Spitzberg & Neal Thurman

Well, I have to say I didn't see the outbursts from Chelsea and Villa coming at all. Sure the attacking talent is there but who would have guessed that either would be so sharp in front of goal against what we assumed would be competent mid-table Premier League opposition. So, now that question that we have to answer is whether we believe that one or both of those performances were anomolies or whether one or both teams are positioned to be a real attacking force all season. There are reasons to think that both are possibilities.

Chelsea - could be that Scolari is going to get his width from his fullbacks and let arrange an impressive array of attacking talent (Deco, Ballack, Lamps, Cole, Anelka, and eventually Drogba) down the middle. It certainly fits their personnel more than the way Mourinho/Grant deployed similar personnel last term (trying to force central players into wing positions). The next question is how opposing managers will react once they have a few matches to figure it out. Will holes appear in what is essentially a 3 man defence where Mikel is still prone to errors and cards?

Villa - there is certainly plenty of attacking skill in the ascendency. Ashley Young and Gabby Agbonlahor are very nice players and with Carew and Barry providing more skill and veteran guile there is a lot of potential to terrorize defence. With the addition of solid (but not great) wing defenders and a better goalkeeper there is a better platform for the attack to build upon. It certainly may be that Citeh are a bit of a mess given the drama that has been going on but Villa would have been hard pressed to score 4 against a team likely destined for the middle of the table. With Stoke on the agenda this weekend, there's every reason to believe that things will continue to look bright for the Villa attack.

As Jeremy pointed out in the Monday Morning Manager, there seem to be a lot of solid additions to the Premier League so far. Outside of the goalscorers, Newcastle's two newbies (Gutierrez and Colocinni) looked like solid additions with Gutierrez looking like he might also be a good fantasy option when NUFC have good match-ups. GdS (that's Spurs' Giovanni dos Santos), looked like he'll be a solid contributor in the weeks and months to come despite Spurs frustrations against Boro. Returning players who looked the part included Faubert for WHU (injured most of last year), Darren Fletcher who will be deputizing for CRon, Giovanni (the one from Hull), and MGP.

On the downside, I can't accurately describe how disappointed I was with Modric. I'm not sure if he's to blame or whether the indescribably stupid formation that Ramos sent out was more at fault. I watched the entire match and I'm not even sure I can identify when he got the half a point that Yahoo credited him with. Honestly, I struggled to find him on the field. Not good news when your new, and expensive, creative force is invisible.

OK, on to the match-ups and player recommendations...

Blackburn (attack and defence), Everton (attack), and Villa (attack and defence) are where I'm concentrating most of my energy. Certainly, ManYoo should be better given Pompey's struggles and the fact that Tevez should be back from his family obligations. Finally, hard to bet against Arsenal given the extent to which Hull embarrassed Fulham on the opening weekend. Obviously, Chelsea have to interest all fantasy managers unless we get a few weeks of evidence that the performance vs. Pompey was just a one-time thing. I'd stay away from Liverpool who have looked really bad as they play a Boro team that consistently plays well against higher profile teams. I'd also stay away from Sunderland and Spurs which looks a lot like it could be an ugly scrum as both managers try to figure out how to best deploy their new parts.

Forwards
So, the question becomes "who did you get on the Barn Door" last week?" The guys best poised to have big weekends all scored last weekend - Carew, Agbonlahor, Anelka, and RSC have to be at the top of your list right now. Hard to ignore Ashton given his performance and the match-up with a seemingly out-of-sorts Citeh team.

If you're looking for bargains, Jason Roberts is a good one. Giovanni is still relatively cheap and he seems like he'll be a point-producer all season even if his team comes back to earth.

Yakubu is relatively cheap given his goal-scoring performance last weekend (remember, he tends to get them in bunches) and the opposition (WBA).

As for the traditional studs - Rooney, K2, Tevez, and Torres - I'd put them in the following order if you have to have one - Torres, K2, Tevez, and Rooney (who just seems a bit out of sync).

Midfielders
Lamps, Ashley Young, and Barry are the most interesting high-priced options out there. The good news is that there are a ton of interesting bargains still sitting out there even after solid Week 1 performances. Faubert, Fletcher, Deco, Nasri, Dunn, and Denilson (taking kicks) are all interesting. The questions...who will make way at ManYoo with Tevez and Anderson back? When will Dunn get hurt (or a petulant red card)? Were Deco's points really a sign of things to come or a once-in-a-blue-moon bolt of lightning that won't strike twice?

I'm still a big Jummy fan and will be keeping on with him despite his match-up with Arsenal but if I were buying new this weekend, I'd be looking hard at MGP in that spot.

Defenders
Unlike the forwards and midfielders, there really weren't many defenders who had great weeks for cheap in Week 1. A lot of this is owed to the scarcity of clean sheets (and the ones that there were came from teams - Liverpool, Arsenal, and Chelsea - who tend to have expensive defenders). Dossena is still pretty cheap but as one commentator pointed out, he didn't venture much past the halfway line - not much chance of a lot of points going forward. The other big news for defenders is that they apparently need to play the full 90 minutes to be awarded CS points. This obviously killed Bosingwa in Week 1 and really forces you to think about your defenders. The sub-CS is out and even more importantly, guys like Bale who have histories of being fragile are much less likely to pick up any CS points.

Here are a few other interesting options for the coming week - Paintsil (did well in a loss vs. Hull so not unreasonable to expect that he could do it again vs Arsenal, plus he's super-cheap), Davies (great match-up vs. Stoke and relatively cheap at about 7), Mokoena (super-cheap and a good match-up and he's actually playing), Nelsen (fairly cheap and always a reasonable bet for a set-piece SOT and/or Goal), and Luke Young (match-up for a decent price).

Like I said, not exactly an inspiring group - nothing like the early season excitement last year with Sagna and Bale.

Keepers
So, which American to go with? THo vs. WBA? or Friedel vs. Stoke? Are you desperate enough for Robbo vs. Hull? Of the first two, Friedel seems the better bet - Everton looked a bit of a mess vs Rovers while Villa were only a bit sloppy after they went up big.

If you're looking for a more expensive but solid bet, Almunia is the best value for the price. It is worth looking into EvdS though since his price is a bit low after the surprise draw with NUFC last weekend.

Back again on Friday with Injuries and Suspension and before then in the unlikely event that something big actually happens on the transfer market.