This is Week 9 of the English Premier League which effectively means that by 6pm on Sunday, 25% of the ‘new’ season will be gone. Doesn’t time fly?
This week’s outstanding fixture sees Jose Mourinho take his stuttering Manchester United team to the ground where he became a Premier League champion, Stamford Bridge. Will he park the bus as he did at Anfield on Monday night or will he provide the Sky cameras with a football feast? I suspect the former.
Arsenal are on a fantastic run of form; they scored six in the Champions League on Wednesday and have what looks like a comfortable home game against struggling Middlesbrough on Saturday.
I’m looking forward to this weekend’s games because I would rather forget last week’s team selection for Premier Punt. My team managed only a paltry 31 points, very disappointing to say the least. My cause was not helped by Son of Tottenham and Aguero of Manchester City being on the bench, another legacy of the dreaded international break.
When Aguero did come off the bench he managed to miss a penalty which resulted in the princely total of -2 points on Premier Punt….nightmare!
My cause was not helped either with neither my goalkeeper nor defenders keeping a clean sheet. Anyhoo, onwards and upwards.
Formation
I’m retaining my preferred 3-4-3 system this week, I’m just going to pick better players. Premier Punt also offers 4-4-2 and 3-5-2 systems.
Keeper
My keeper this week is Petr Cech of Arsenal. He was also my keeper last week but he managed to concede two at home to Swansea. As mentioned above, the Arsenal are at home to the Boro. This has surely got clean sheet written all over it….
Defenders
My back three this week consists of Mustafi, the Arsenal defender, and Kyle Walker with Jan Vertonghen of Spurs. Spurs are away to Bournemouth, who scored six last week, but Spurs are a different proposition to Hull City who were on the receiving end of that thrashing at the Vitality Stadium.
Last week’s defence of Koscielny, Alderweireld and Van Dijk couldn’t muster a clean sheet between them…..enough said.
Midfielders
I had two goal scorers from midfield last week which was a bonus. Nathan Redmond of Southampton and Nacer Chadli of West Brom did the business, however, this won’t stop me dropping both of them this week.
Kevin De Bruyne, in my opinion, is the best midfielder in the league and that’s why I’m spending £13.3M of my £100M Premier Punt budget on him. Manchester City entertain Southampton at the Etihad on Sunday afternoon which is the reason I’m dropping Redmond from my team.
Bob Bradley’s home debut as Swansea manager sees them taking on Watford. Gylfi Siggurdsson is Swansea’s best player which is why he’s fairly pricey at £9.7M.
Manuel Lanzini is the West Ham United midfielder you buy if you can’t afford Dimitri Payet, which I can’t. The Hammers are at home to Sunderland. Another tip for a home clean sheet there, unless Defoe scores against his old team.
Hull City have struggled after a bright start to the season. They have not won since August and although I’m not tipping them to win this week against a resurgent Stoke side, I do believe Robert Snodgrass could get a goal from a set piece or a penalty in any game.
Strikers
As I stated earlier, my front three last week was a disaster; a total of three points between Aguero, Benteke and Diego Costa. It hardly seems possible but it happened. Benteke and Costa are getting dropped, even though Costa scored.
This week’s front three consists of Romelu Lukaku, Modou Barrow and Sergio Aguero (again).
For those who don’t know who Modou Barrow is, he plays for Swansea City. He’s a pacy wide man with energy to burn, maybe a poor man’s Bolasie, but I like him. He terrorised Arsenal in the second half at the Emirates last week and I expect him to put Watford to the sword this week. A bargain at £6.4M but watch his price rise over the next few weeks if he can get a consistent run in the team.
Everton travel to Burnley and I expect at least two goals from Lukaku. He scored against Manchester City last week despite being anonymous for most of the game.
Finally, my captain and still the most expensive man on Premier Punt at £16M, Sergio Aguero. If he doesn’t do the business this week I’m definitely maybe going to drop him next week. He was left on the bench by the genius that is Pep Guardiola at Barcelona in midweek and they lost 4-0, partly due to the Franz Beckenbauer lookalike they had in goals…..until he got sent off.
As I write this this morning, I’m hearing rumours that Aguero is unsettled at City. Apparently he’s not doing enough off the ball for Pep. Has he not looked at the little man’s stats?
Aguero has stated in the past that he wants to stay at City until they have won the Champions League. Judging by Wednesday’s performance he might be there for a while yet, but if Guardiola decides he doesn’t fancy him we could have another Joe Hart scenario here.
Again, my captain this week is Sergio Aguero and my vice-captain will be Romelu Lukaku.
Good luck and,
GET IN THERE!!!!