14/15 Fantasy Premier League: Week 8 Recap

I do apologize for the late update.

This past week has been a fantasy hell.

Remember when I mentioned that I hadn’t received my two championship trophies from last year’s Yahoo! Premiership fantasy season?

It appears a representative grew tired of my repeated requests for resolution and decided to lock my 15-year old account.

Why?

I’ve been trying to sort this out since last Friday and the closest I’ve come to an explanation is that my account was locked due to an old inactive Yahoo! chat ID that contained inappropriate language.

Pretty ridiculous as my primary ID is the one I had been using exclusively for the past 10+ years and it was a lame reference to System of a Down (@systemofadown).

LOL.

Anyway, needless to say, I am very upset to have one of my fantasy seasons ending prematurely in a game I have had fun documenting over the past couple of years.

I am still in touch with Yahoo! but the previous representative told me they were unable to locate my league despite giving them the correct league ID# and password.

Holding out hope but my hopes are slim.

Some arbitrary bullshit.

Leaves a bad taste in the mouth when you get burned by a platform you’ve been championing for years.

Regardless, the series will continue with posts pertaining to my official team.

If I manage to get my team back in the Y! game, I will likely resume posting recaps for that format as well, even though my season has been effectively ruined.

But until then, my apologies to those of you who were following along with me.

Not only was it a tough week due to fantasy issues but Arsenal (@Arsenal) put up some forgettable performances.

They scored a last minute equaliser versus Hull (@hullfcofficial) to scrape away with a point and had no business taking the three points from Anderlecht (@rscanderlecht).

It felt as if Alexis Sánchez (@Alexis_Sanchez) won that game for us on his own.

Oh, by the way, 2-3 months is our new holy grail.

As in, that’s how long David Ospina (@D_Ospina1) has been ruled out through injury.

And in case you forgot that water is wet, Abou Diaby (@AbouVDIABY) is hurt again.

Poor fucker.

F.U. Shad Forsythe aka the saboteur.

This was just a brutal week and my feelings are still hurt over the Yahoo! thing so let’s keep it movin’.

*     *     *     *     *

OFFICIAL

Overall Points: 435

Global: 127,700 (Last week: 174,448)
Fans of Arsenal: 5,646 (Last week: 6,894)
Canada: 1,226 (Last week: 1,723)

Private League I: 3/9 (48 points out of 1^st)
Private League II: 2/13 (7 points out of 1^st)
Private League III: 1/3 (86 points clear)

*     *     *     *     *

YAHOO!

Total Points: ???

Global: ???
Fans of Arsenal: ???

Private League I: ???

YAHOO! IS NOT FOR THE PEOPLE.

*     *     *     *     *

Damn, that makes me sad.

Anyway, you can see that I was forced to play my wildcard in the official format as I had 5 inactive players either through injury or suspension.

Made out pretty well considering I missed out on Agüero‘s (@aguerosergiokun) 4-goal performance.

But it was Dusan Tadic and his 1-goal / 3-assist who I was most upset to have lost out on.

It’s a shame that you can only add a maximum of three players from each club but it adds to the strategy.

I felt that Bertrand (@ryanbertrand3) and Forster (@FraserForster) needed to be added to my squad for gameweek 8 and beyond.

And I had no intention of dropping Graziano Pellè (@GPelle19).

Make no mistake, though – Tadic has season keeper potential.

And I fear for the out-of-form Arsenal as they travel to the Stadium of Light.

Last week, Southampton (@SouthamptonFC) polished off Sunderland (@SAFCofficial) with an 8-nil drubbing and the Black Cats are sure to be full of piss and vinegar.

 

How did you make out in Gameweek 8???

14/15 Fantasy Premier League: Week 7 Recap

.. and the Arsenal (@Arsenal) woes continue to pile up.

It is amazing how so much can happen in the span of a week.

First off, the Chelsea (@chelseafc) match.

Yet again, Wenger was unable to get the best of his arch-nemesis, Mourinho.

Chelsea won the match 2-0 and it was a confrontational affair.

The sparks began to fly after this vicious Gary Cahill (@GaryJCahill) tackle on Alexis Sánchez (@Alexis_Sanchez):

Certainly worthy of a sending off but Martin Atkinson didn’t see it that way and only issued a yellow.

This threw Wenger into a rage which led to a scuffle with Mourinho as the former approached the latter’s technical area:

By the end of the match, each manager estimated the other side was lucky not to have finished with eight men.

While it’s true that an overall lack of discipline defined this match, it would have altered the game dramatically had Chelsea gone down to 10 men after only having played about 20 minutes of football by that point.

Nevertheless, it was always going to be a tough fixture and now, unfortunately, it is one that has left Chelsea as the only unbeaten team remaining in the Premier League (@premierleague) this season.

How nice did Cesc Fàbregas (@cesc4official) look on that assist to Diego Costa?

Hindsight is always 20/20 but regardless of depth, passing on an exclusive world-class player transfer for less than £30M is rarely good business.

Looking at his relative ease in re-acclimating to the BPL, there is no question that we should have exercised the buy-back clause.

But it’s an even tougher pill to swallow now that Özil (@MesutOzil1088) is confirmed to be out until 2015 with torn ligaments in his knee.

Blame it on the Touch of Satan?

The most disturbing part of this story is knowing that the injury was only detected due to Özil leaving for international duty.

The German National team doctors discover a severe injury and have to inform the medical staff of the player’s parent club about it?

That is some disgraceful, backwards-ass shit.

But wait, it gets worse!

The French Football Federation has also sent Laurent Koscielny back to Arsenal because he is suffering from acute tendinitis in both achilles tendons.

WTF??? These players were allowed to leave for internationals?

Look, if you want to talk overrated Americans, leave Jozy Atildore (@JozyAltidore) alone.

Let’s talk Shad Forsythe.

BUST.

Let’s face it, the injury bug became an epidemic at Arsenal long before Shad‘s arrival but this year is about as bad as it’s ever been.

The training staff and facilities were supposed to be a summer priority and it appears we may actually be working in reverse.

Again, Shad just got here, so by no means am I blaming him for the image below but it truly is something that has to be seen to be believed:

A comprehensive list of Arsenal injuries over the past 10 years or so

And if you weren’t having enough fun with that image, why not check out the complete injury list (in text form) dating from August 2002 to present.

Is that unbelievable or what!?

Perhaps, it’s time Arsenal looked into borrowing some steroids from Real Madrid (@realmadrid).

Bale: First Blood

Anyway, as previously mentioned, players have been sent out for national duties which means no Premier League action this weekend.

The timing works as I have some decisions to make regarding my fantasy squads.

Speaking of which..

*     *     *     *     *

OFFICIAL

Overall Points: 369

Global: 174,448 (Last week: 147,155)
Fans of Arsenal: 6,894 (Last week: 6,751)
Canada: 1,723 (Last week: 1,422)

Private League I: 3/9 (16 points out of 1^st)
Private League II: 4/13 (24 points out of 1^st)
Private League III: 1/3 (65 points clear)

*     *     *     *     *

YAHOO!

Total Points: 702

Global: ???
Fans of Arsenal: ???

STILL NO GLOBAL RANK WTF!!!

Private League I: 2 / 6 (5 points out of 1^st)

*     *     *     *     *

I had planned to use my wildcard in week 7 of the official game but decided against it when I realized I could swap out the injured Aaron Ramsey (@aaronramsey) for Raheem Sterling (@sterling31) at the same price point.

However, I feel it will be impossible not to activate it this week: Calum Chambers (@CalumChambers95) is suspended having (already!) picked up his 5^th yellow, James Ward-Prowse (@Prowsey16) and Yaya Sanogo (@Yayasanogoal22) are still ruled out through injury, and Dejan Lovren (@DejanLovrenLFC6) is returning from Croatia with a “torn abdominal wall”.

I’m mostly satisfied with my strikers and midfield in the official game but my fullback and keeper situations are getting worrisome.

As far as the Yahoo! game goes, it’s still driving me bonkers that there is no words on the reintroduction of global rankings AND I AM STILL WAITING ON MY TWO CHAMPIONSHIP TROPHIES FROM LAST SEASON.

And for your information, their customer support and engineering team are useless tits.

JUST IN CASE ANY OF YOU BUMS HAPPEN TO READ THIS.

In Yahoo!, I thought I was being clever by moving Thibaut Courtois (@thibautcourtois) to the bench in order to bring in Kasper Schmeichel (@kschmeichel1).

Except that Courtois finished with more fantasy points despite leaving the match after 10 minutes due to a head injury.

Hahha.

At least I reclaimed my 100-point-a-week average.. for now.

How did you make out in Gameweek 7???

14/15 Fantasy Premier League: Week 6 Recap

Another tumultuous week for the Arsenal (@Arsenal).

The latest installment of the North London derby ended in a 1-1 stalemate.

After a goalless first half, Tottenham (@SpursOfficial) took advantage of some sloppy Arsenal defense to open the scoring about 10 minutes into the second.

Thankfully, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (@Alex_OxChambo) was able to equalize roughly 20 minutes later in order to salvage the point.

Curiously, the Ox started ahead of new signing, Alexis Sánchez (@Alexis_Sanchez).

With Alexis now having not made the starting XI for two consecutive Premier League (@premierleague) starts, word is emerging that he has been dropped by Wenger for disrupting Arsenal’s style.

While I would say it’s true that Alexis likes to hug the ball a bit more than the average Gunner, I’m not sure it’s fair to say he slows down the team as his pace can be electric.

If anything, he seems to have an advanced ability to draw players away from their markers in order to free up the pass.

But I digress.

The Danny Welbeck buy may have allowed Wenger to avoid forcing Alexis to play through the middle but there is no reason to assume that the second-highest player purchase in club history is in danger of becoming the next Podolski (@Podolski10).

The derby also came with a dark side.

Wenger was forced to use two of his three substitutions before the half with both Mikel Arteta (@m8arteta) and Aaron Ramsey (@aaronramsey) leaving through injury.

The manager found the knocks to be curious given that both players were rested during the Capital One Cup (@CapitalOne_Cup).

Remember when Shad Forsythe was supposed to be our signing of the summer?

I know us Gooners are supposed to be familiar with extended layoffs due to injury – even expecting them at times – but this season began with an outright crisis and it hasn’t seemed to let up yet.

The boss did, however, have some positive news for us today in regards to injuries:

Wenger: "Walcott and Gnabry will be joining in training next week" #AFCvGAL

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) September 30, 2014

I look forward to seeing what Theo Walcott (@theowalcott) can add to the side.

Serge Gnabry (@SergeGnabry) continues to be one of our more exciting young players.

Nevertheless, the focus now becomes Galatasaray (@GalatasaraySK) in tomorrow’s Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) fixture.

We need a top quality display after taking that drubbing from Borussia Dortmund (@BVB) to open up the group stage.

Onto the fantasy we go.

*     *     *     *     *

OFFICIAL

Overall Points: 314

Global: 147,155 (Last week: 237,170)
Fans of Arsenal: 6,751 (Last week: 11,725)
Canada: 1,422 (Last week: 2,278)

Private League I: 3/9 (5 points out of 1^st)
Private League II: 2/13 (5 points out of 1^st)
Private League III: 1/3 (58 points clear)

*     *     *     *     *

YAHOO!

Total Points: 589

Global: ???
Fans of Arsenal: ???

STILL NO GLOBAL RANK WTF!!!

Private League I: 2 / 6 (16 points out of 1^st)

*     *     *     *     *

I have to thank Asmir Begovic (@asmir1) and Ryan Shawcross as the Stoke (@stokecity) clean sheet was what helped me to finish with an above-average week in the official game.

With Ramsey, James Ward-Prowse (@Prowsey16), and Yaya Sanogo (@Yayasanogoal22) all sidelined for significant periods, I’ll be tempted to use my wildcard prior to gameweek 7.

I was really hoping to hold onto the WC as long as possible this year but sometimes circumstances dictate the situation.

It’s still possible to play a full squad and keep my bench filled with all three injured options but I can’t afford to lose any ground at this early point in the season.

Decisions, decisions.

The Yahoo! game seems to be getting more difficult for me with each week.

The problem being that I have some marquee players being held at some serious cut-rate prices.. so making any significant changes to the squad has turned into a pretty serious quandary.

Now that his place in the XI may be temporarily jeopardized, do I drop Alexis Sánchez despite holding him at less than £5m?

I already know who I’ll be swapping Ramsey out for during his absence so I suppose not all is lost.

How about you? How are your teams looking through the first month and a half?

How did you make out in Gameweek 6???

14/15 Fantasy Premier League: Week 5 Recap

He’s back.

That’s more like it.

After a poor week of football, Arsenal (@Arsenal) got back on track with a dominant 0-3 victory at Villa Park.

Answering his critics, Mesut Özil (@MesutOzil1088) arrived on the pitch with what was arguably his best performance of the calendar year.

This is the type of performance that Gooners regularly expect of their £42M man and he will hopefully continue to be deployed in his preferred position through the middle.

Although chances were going each way, Arsenal looked shaky to start, failing to hit the target from several choice opportunities.

It took a massive save from Wojciech Szczęsny (@13Szczesny13) on a Ciaran Clark (@C_Clark_6) header from close range to awaken the visiting side.

Shortly thereafter, the Gunners would net three goals in just a little over three minutes time.

Özil and new arrival Danny Welbeck each scored their first goals of the season while also assisting on each other’s markers.

An own goal from Aly Cissokho would seal the scoreline.

It was a great weekend of football in terms of results.

The quality was even better.

Liverpool (@LFC), Everton (@Everton), Tottenham (@SpursOfficial), and Manchester United (@ManUtd) each completed their fixtures without earning a point while Frank Lampard put away a late Man City (@MCFC) equaliser against his former side Chelsea (@chelseafc) for a storybook finish at the Etihad.

The United match against Leicester City (@OfficialFOXES) may be the game of the season thus far as the scrappy affair saw the Foxes claim a 5-3 victory after trailing 1-3 at the half.

o fux.

In any case, it was just about a perfect weekend for those of you who understand that LONDON IS RED.

FOREVER

It’s fantasy time, baby.

*     *     *     *     *

OFFICIAL

Overall Points: 266

Global: 237,170 (Last week: 130,436)
Fans of Arsenal: 11,725 (Last week: 6,158)
Canada: 2,278 (Last week: 1,236)

Private League I: 3/9 (8 points out of 1^st)
Private League II: 5/13 (10 points out of 1^st)
Private League III: 1/3 (47 points clear)

*     *     *     *     *

YAHOO!

Total Points: 498

Global: ???
Fans of Arsenal: ???

Private League I: 2 / 6 (2 points out of 1^st)

*     *     *     *     *

Two season firsts for me this weekend:

1. Finished below 50 gameweek points for the first time in the official game.
2. Finished below 100 gameweek points for the first time in the Yahoo! game.

* Upon further inspection, I had forgotten that I finished week 1 in Yahoo! with 88 pts. Apologies.

Whenever I have an above-average weekend in fantasy, Murphy starts bashing me over the head with his rule of law and I typically come back down to Earth after the next set of fixtures.

It is always disappointing but I think a lot of managers struggled given the lackluster performances from the majority of the top teams.

In the Yahoo! game, investing in Spurs players definitely backfired on me.

Thankfully, Thibaut Courtois (@thibautcourtois) didn’t have his best game so I was able to swap him back in with little change to the discount I was originally holding him at.

Alexis Sánchez (@Alexis_Sanchez) was removed from the Arsenal XI at the last minute which brought in Martin Kelly (@MartinKelly1990) as my fantasy auto-sub. He did me well by putting up an assist as well as some much-needed phantom points.

I am averaging a touch less than 100pts/week in the Yahoo! game which is currently good enough to place me within the 99^th percentile.

Oh, one more thing about Yahoo! and their incompetence: aside from the fact that I am STILL WAITING ON MY PREMIERSHIP TROPHIES FROM LAST SEASON, now they somehow managed to auto-opt me into their La Liga fantasy game.

First of all, I don’t watch La Liga so this wasn’t some accident on my part – I only noticed it by checking to see if my trophies from last year had arrived!

I contacted their support and as usual, they spit out some variation of the same answer: “Our engineers are aware of the problem and are working to fix it. There is no timeline for resolution”.

Fucking bullshit.

Despite having zero players in this fake XI that I am only associated with by name, I somehow sit in the 57^th overall percentile.

This leads me to believe I am not the only one who started playing this game without realizing it.

ANYWAY..

The official game was a bit of a disaster.

31 points is a pathetic tally for the week.

I knew captaining Diego Costa was a slight risk but I was unable to foresee a suitable alternative.

It sort of feels like he will be this year’s Luis Suárez (@LuisSuarez9) in that he will always make you worry about what you could be missing out on if you don’t captain him.

I definitely would not have considering giving the armband to a defensive player but my backline is where the majority of my points came from.

In fact, I left Jose Fonte on the bench and it is always a piss off to miss out on clean sheets, not to mention bonus points.

For the most part, my decisions have been sound so I can’t be too hard on myself. But the bench sure does complicate things.

I decided not to use a free transfer in gameweek 5 and perhaps that came back to bite me a little.

However, Coutinho (@Phil_Coutinho) has been rotting in my squad for weeks now and with two FTs saved up, I was finally able to rid myself of him before he loses even more of his value.

I really wanted (needed) to get Ángel Di María into my side but I had to sell Wayne Rooney (@WayneRooney) to free up the funds in order to do so.

So after upgrading my midfield, I replaced Wazza up top with Graziano Pellè (@GPelle19) who will hopefully continue with his devastating form.

The transfers left me with £1.9M in the bank which will be dedicated towards upgrading Yaya Sanogo (@Yayasanogoal22) as soon as possible.

What I originally thought would be a shrewd bench addition is looking to be increasingly irrelevant – at this point, with Welbeck in, Theo Walcott (@theowalcott) on the verge of returning, and Olivier Giroud (@_OlivierGiroud_) due back in the new year, I’m not sure we will even see Sanogo coming back into the squad this season.

The always affable Lukas Podolski (@Podolski10) is hoping to fight his way back into the XI.

And don’t forget, Joel Campbell (@joel_campbell12) waits in the wings.

Anyway, there is your early glimpse into my official team for gameweek 6.

Before signing off, surely many of you have heard about how Gervinho (@GervinhOfficial) is bossing it up in Roma (@OfficialASRoma) since leaving the Arsenal.

While I respect him for avoiding the Rooney highway to hairplugs, I do hope he never removes the headband again. Like, ever.

Jesus Christ.

I can say without hesitation that I would have a very difficult time coping with massive hair loss.

But I’m not tryna look like Devin Townsend (@dvntownsend), either.

Gervinho’s lost brother in metal

Shave it, bro.

PS. The 2022 World Cup WILL NOT be Held in Qatar. This is good news for everyone.

How did you make out in Gameweek 5???

14/15 Fantasy Premier League: Week 4 Recap

It was a rough week for the Arsenal (@Arsenal), to say the least.

After having fought for the lead after being down 1-nil to Manchester City (@MCFC) last Saturday, the Gunners conceded an inexcusable late equaliser to miss out on finishing with the full three points.

The midweek match versus Borussia Dortmund (@BVB) was even worse.

There were zero positives to be taken from this one. We were a disaster.

Uhh.. Arteta???

Truth be told, after such a promising window, we have yet to look convincing this season.

Other unfortunate news:

• Mathieu Debuchy will miss a minimum of six weeks with an ankle injury.. three months if surgery is required
• Arsenal now spends more on player wages than Chelsea (!?!?!)
• The “cup kit” is so damn ugly

Now we have to face a buzzing Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) side away from home and it won’t be easy.

Not only do they currently sit second in the table but it’s no secret that assistant manager Roy Keane is always ready to have a go at Arsenal.

Let’s hope we get ourselves sorted immediately.

FOREVER

*     *     *     *     *

OFFICIAL

Overall Points: 235

Global: 130,436 (Last week: 315,954)
Fans of Arsenal: 6,158 (Last week: 17,765)
Canada: 1,236 (Last week: 3,984)

Private League I: 2/9 (8 points out of 1^st)
Private League II: 3/13 (8 points out of 1^st)
Private League III: 1/3 (49 points clear)

*     *     *     *     *

YAHOO!

Total Points: 424

Global: ???
Fans of Arsenal: ???

Private League I: 1 / 6 (17 points clear)

*     *     *     *     *

Pretty good week for me in both formats.

If I were really thinking, I would have subbed in James Ward-Prowse (@Prowsey16) for Steven Caulker in the official game and that would have taken me up to an even 80 points on the week.

But I can’t be greedy.

Diego Costa proved to be the man in both formats this week and I was thankful to have went all in on him.

However, the Yahoo! game keeps telling me to bring Jack Rodwell (@JackRodwell) off the bench.

He continues to put up points and I have yet to actually benefit from them despite having him in my squad since the start of week one.

Speaking of Yahoo!, they have finally allowed us to view friends teams.

Global rankings coming soon?

In the upcoming set of Premier League (@premierleague) fixtures, Liverpool (@LFC), United (@ManUtd), Everton (@Everton), and Tottenham (@SpursOfficial) all look to be good fantasy bets.

How did you make out in Gameweek 4???

14/15 Fantasy Premier League: Week 3 Recap

DAT GUY!

Another summer transfer window comes and goes and Arsenal (@Arsenal) begins another campaign with several question marks surrounding their squad depth.

On the positive side, we acquired some desperately needed cover up top for the injured Olivier Giroud (@_OlivierGiroud_) by signing Danny Welbeck at the 11^th hour.

Similar to how Mesut Özil (@MesutOzil1088) was made available subsequent to the Real Madrid (@realmadrid) signing of Gareth Bale (@GarethBale11), Welbeck was snatched up upon being deemed surplus to requirements at United (@ManUtd) as they verged on finalizing their (outrageous) deal with Radamel Falcao (@FALCAO).

Although Welbz isn’t quite on par with some of the marquee players we were being linked with, he did provide Gooners with some positive reinforcement by bagging a brace for England this past Monday in a Euro 2016 (@UEFAEURO) qualifier versus Switzerland.

In any case, it was nice to see Arsène Wenger actually move for a natural centre-forward rather than attempting to convert another out-wide player. The striker position has been a contentious one at the Emirates since the departure of Robin van Persie (@Persie_Official).

And while Welbeck‘s £16M move is Arsenal‘s third most expensive transfer in the history of the club, at 23 years old and on a five-year deal, it looks like a comparative steal – especially when you consider that United themselves saw no issue in buying a fat unproven teenage defender for £30M!

LOL.

Of course, Louis van Gaal couldn’t resist sending off his former player with an underhanded dig.

I can’t understand the logic in degrading someone like that on their way out.

Especially when supporters were already upset to see one of their favourites heading to a direct rival.

And especially when said player has given his life to the club since the age of eight! Eight years old, ferchrissakes!! In comparison to the few months tenure of LVG..

Speaking of van Gaal, obviously he has the superior pedigree (given that he has actually won things) but when compared to his predecessor, David Moyes, I think the next biggest thing separating the two is the former’s extreme sense of arrogance.

And then there is the spending.

LVG has spent an absolute fortune and while a lot of that money has yet to show up on the pitch, it’s fun bringing up that by this time last year, Moyes had double the points of the current United side and his opening fixtures were much tougher.

It is “sink or swim” time at Old Trafford.

Wage bills are skyrocketing and the strategy of the club seems to be growing more in line with the sugar daddy philosophies of Chelsea (@chelseafc) and Manchester City (@MCFC).

Even their massive upcoming 10-year / £750M kit deal with adidas (@adidas) will not provide a big enough safety net, for if they fail to qualify for the Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) for a second consecutive year, the deal is to be automatically slashed by at least 30%.

Tread carefully, United.

Although it would be a bit satisfying to see, it would also be somewhat disheartening to witness an institution like Man U going the way of Liverpool (@LFC) of the 1990s.

Nevertheless, back to Arsenal.

Per Mertesacker (@mertesacker) and Laurent Koscielny remain the only senior centre-backs in the squad.

Not good.

Does the boss really have that much faith in Calum Chambers (@CalumChambers95) already?

We also failed to add any steel through the middle of the pitch by acquiring a true DM.

Wenger seems content to keep the diminutive and perpetually-falling Jack Wilshere (@JackWilshere) there while waiting for the glue to dry on Abou Diaby‘s (@AbouVDIABY) papier-mâché body.

Aaron Ramsey (@aaronramsey) picked up a knock playing for Wales and is questionable for this weekend.

But good news comes in knowing that Mikel Arteta (@m8arteta), Kieran Gibbs (@KieranGibbs), Theo Walcott (@theowalcott), and David Ospina (@D_Ospina1) all sound close to returning.

Should be a tough match facing Man City tomorrow for the early match.

Hopefully we can replicate our dominating performance at the recent Community Shield!

FOREVER

Now, let’s have a peek at last week’s fantasy.

*     *     *     *     *

OFFICIAL

Overall Points: 160

Global: 315,954 (Last week: 404,543)
Fans of Arsenal: 17,765 (Last week: 25,442)
Canada: 3,984 (Last week: 2,920)

Private League I: 2/9 (10 points out of 1^st)
Private League II: 4/13 (15 points out of 1^st)
Private League III: 1/3 (32 points clear)

*     *     *     *     *

YAHOO!

Total Points: 302

Global: ???
Fans of Arsenal: ???

Private League I: 2 / 6 (3 pts out of 1^st)

*     *     *     *     *

Steadily improving.

In the official game, I had a bit of luck on my side, as Chambers was awarded a clean sheet despite coming on for Koscielny and Yaya Sanogo (@Yayasanogoal22), who picked up an assist, was auto-subbed in for me due to Coutinho (@Phil_Coutinho) not playing.

I transferred out Sturridge (@D_Sturridge) before the gameweek had concluded in order to bring in August’s Player of the Month, Diego Costa. I had debated swapping out Rooney (@WayneRooney) instead but it worked out in the end as Sturridge has now been ruled out a minimum of three weeks.

The Yahoo! game was hit and miss. The strikers actually put some work in for me this time although bringing in Stevan Jovetic proved fruitless.

What really bothers me is that Yahoo! continues to slack – still no global rank, still unable to see friends teams.. you know, I still haven’t even received my trophies from last year’s fantasy Premier League (@premierleague) season!

Can you believe that!?

Yahoo! is run by shit-birds.

How did you make out in Gameweek 3???

14/15 Fantasy Premier League: Week 2 Recap

F*ck.

It certainly does not bode well for the year ahead when your only natural centre-forward gets injured in the second match of the season.

While Giroud (@_OlivierGiroud_) was in obvious pain after blocking a Sylvain Distin (@sylvaind15tin) clearance, I don’t think anyone was fearing the worst.

And yet, the latest reports are saying Giroud will not play again in 2014 after suffering a fracture to his ankle.

After all the talk of Shad Forsythe arguably being our signing of the summer, he is certain to be a busy man with the likes of Mikel Arteta (@m8arteta), Laurent Koscielny, Kieran Gibbs (@KieranGibbs), Theo Walcott (@theowalcott), Serge Gnabry (@SergeGnabry), Abou Diaby (@AbouVDIABY), David Ospina (@D_Ospina1), and now Giroud all requiring a substantial amount of time on the treatment table.

After the most positive start to a transfer window in quite some time for Arsenal (@Arsenal), we are back to asking ourselves those all-too-familiar questions about the quality of our reinforcements and the overall depth of our squad.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this!

News pertaining to the severity of Giroud‘s injury won’t come until after today’s Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) fixture versus Besiktas (@Besiktas).

Speaking of Besiktas, who do we play up top today?

The most natural choice would seem to be new marquee signing, Alexis Sánchez (@Alexis_Sanchez), although if his start leading the line against Everton (@Everton) over the weekend told us anything, it’s that the £35m man still needs time to acclimate himself within a Premier League (@premierleague) side, as well as a role differing from his natural “out-wide” position.

Speaking of acclimation, the same can be said for the newly recalled Joel Campbell (@joel_campbell12). Despite a terrific World Cup performance, no one expected the 22-year old to walk into the squad as a number one attacking option.

Podolski (@Podolski10) – who only a few days ago looked all but certain to be leaving the Emirates – will not be going anywhere now, though he is another example of a player who has looked clumsy when forced into a target man role.

Once again, Gooners are left looking towards Mr. Arsène Wenger to see if he has any tricks left up his sleeve.

It’s no surprise to see many outlets reporting that Arsenal are unlikely to sign a new striker – that seems to be par for the course in North London.

For whatever reason, the striker position hasn’t appeared to be a priority area in the mind of the manager for several years now.

Of course, that hasn’t prevented the press linking us with everyone from Edinson Cavani and Radamel Falcao (@FALCAO) to Loïc Rémy and Danny Welbeck.

In all honesty, they each appear to be unlikely targets for various reasons, although Twitter was ablaze last night with a rumour that PSG (@PSG_inside) had accepted an Arsenal bid for Cavani…

 

To make matters worse, we will be without Aaron Ramsey (@aaronramsey) today after receiving two very harsh / ridiculous yellow cards during the first leg in Turkey.

I can’t predict what the XI will look like but I imagine that Sanchez will feature up top once again.

Wenger seems to have faith that this will work in the short and long term so all we can do is put faith in the manager and his continued insistence upon Playing the Right Way ™.

Onto the fantasy!

*     *     *     *     *

OFFICIAL

Overall Points: 109

Global: 404,543 (Last week: 834,302)
Fans of Arsenal: 25,442 (Last week: 47,847)
Canada: 3,984 (Last week: 7,542)

Private League I: 3/9 (10 points out of 1^st)
Private League II: 3/13 (9 points out of 1^st)
Private League III: 1/3 (28 points clear)

*     *     *     *     *

YAHOO!

Total Points: 197

Global: ???
Fans of Arsenal: ???

Private League I: 2 / 6 (21 pts out of 1^st)

*     *     *     *     *

I would have had a much better week if I hadn’t entirely neglected a few key Manchester City (@MCFC) players.

In the Yahoo! format, I benched 21 points between Jack Rodwell (@JackRodwell) and Aaron Cresswell (@Aaron_Cresswell).

That’s the second week in a row that Rodwell put up points while sitting on the bench. I’m going to have to seriously consider getting him into the side now that he is likely to earn a ton of playing time under Gus Poyet.

In the official game, I jumped more than 400k places. Have to thank my back line for keeping me in it!

Good signs to be taken but still plenty of work to be done!

See you next week!

And #COYG!!

How did you make out in Gameweek 2???

14/15 Fantasy Premier League: Week 1 Recap

 

Here we are back again for another season of Premier League (@premierleague) football.

Of course, this also means we have kicked off the annual fantasy festivities.

And, as usual, we start the year off with a host of complaints regarding the latest (annual?) Yahoo! overhaul.

As stated in my previous post, prior to the start of the season, there were a lot “fixes” applied to the Yahoo! format that players were looking forward to: scaling the squad budget back to £100m from £150m, removing the captain’s armband, points reintroduced for winning corners, etc.

However, now that we are through the first week, I have a few questions:

• Why are some player prices still absurdly high? The last time Yahoo! used a £100m squad budget, they had yet to incorporate a substitutes bench into their fantasy game. With a required 15 player selections per game week, it is a bit ridiculous to see the likes of Rooney (@WayneRooney) and Sturridge (@D_Sturridge) hovering somewhere around £20m after the first week.
• Why am I unable to view the squads of other players I am directly competing against?
• Has the global game been removed entirely? I want to know my global rank!

Speaking of global ranks, early in the morning prior to the kickoff for Sunday’s games, Yahoo! glitched out and opened a three-hour window where the prices of a few new additions to the Premier League – including Alexis Sánchez (@Alexis_Sanchez), Diego Costa, and Thibaut Courtois (@thibautcourtois) – all dropped to £5m, providing a huge boost to those who were up early and lucky enough to catch it.

Not sure how Yahoo! plans to fix that one but what an utter disaster. If I’m being honest, disaster has become a bit of a Yahoo! specialty of late. They seem to have problems with every one of their games, albeit none as glaring as the ones we suffer playing fantasy football year after year (no handegg).

EDIT: Yahoo! has addressed almost all of my concerns with this blog post. They’ve also created a fix for the pricing errors. Check it out before the start of week 2 or you’ll miss out!!

On the other hand, the official Premier League fantasy game continues to run like a well-oiled machine.

It is, after all, the game that has set the standard, as well as being the model that has turned the Yahoo! game into a total clusterfuck due to poor imitation.

Saying all of that, I definitely didn’t have a great opening week. First week of the season is always the toughest, if you ask me.

Let’s take a look.

*     *     *     *     *

OFFICIAL

Overall Points: 53

Global: 834,302
Fans of Arsenal: 47,847
Canada: 7,542

Private League I: 2/9 (6 points out of 1^st)
Private League II: 7/13 (10 points out of 1^st)
Private League III: TBD in week 2

*     *     *     *     *

YAHOO!

Total Points: 88

Global: ???
Fans of Arsenal: ???

Private League I: 3 / 6 (21 pts out of 1^st)

*     *     *     *     *

Not in terrible shape but still work to be done.

It’s definitely going to be a lot more difficult in the Yahoo! game this year – last season was a relative breeze – and the official game gets tougher with each year as the game continues to grow worldwide.

Now: onto the important stuff…

 

Never forget…

How did you make out in Gameweek 1???

Sign-Ups for 2014/15 Premier League Fantasy are Now Open

Me, year after year, minus the goatee.

After a terrific World Cup – certainly the best in many years – we are roughly a month out from the start of the 2014/15 Premier League (@premierleague) campaign!

We all know what that means: it is time to sign up for the fantasy season!

The official and the Yahoo! games are now both officially open for business.

Most fans of the Yahoo! game should be pleased to see that some of their tweaks from last year (read: rip-offs from the official game) have either been scaled back or removed completely.

Gone are the captaincies and the absurdly inflated £150M budgets.

Team budgets have reverted back to a respectable £100M, though this will pose something of a challenge as the substitutes bench will remain this season.

We will also see the reintroduction of the single point earned for winning a corner.

Another significant change that I hear is taking place is that new players who arrive at the PL mid-season will be introduced with proper starting values.

In the past, mid-season squad additions would enter the Yahoo! fantasy somewhere around the £6.7 mark, regardless of their pedigree.

This year, it sounds like introductory prices will better reflect the real-life caliber of the player.

As for the official game, well, that format has set the standard and it remains tried and true yet again this year with no significant changes.

*     *     *     *     *

2014 has been a bit of a tumultuous year for me and due to that, my 13/14 fantasy series fizzled out prematurely.

Seeing as I intend on doing the weekly recaps again this season, I felt it only right to share my previous results.

OFFICIAL

Overall Points: 2197

Global: 300,733
Fans of Arsenal: 13,770
Canada: 2,950

Although I finished the season with my highest ever points total, I was unable to beat my highest ever finish which continues to stand at 270,816^th overall.

At one point, I sat inside the top 100,000 and to finish inside of that was my goal for the year.

Looks like I still have some work to do!

*     *     *     *     *

YAHOO!

Total Points: 4325

Global: 2,885
Fans of Arsenal: 638

My goal for the Yahoo! game was to make it within the top 1,000.

I got within it a few times but couldn’t hold on and petered out a bit towards the end of the year.

Overall though, I was still pleased with my performance, especially given the radical changes to the format.

I was mostly satisfied to have finished within the 99^th overall percentile for the second consecutive season.

*     *     *     *     *

How about you?

Will you playing fantasy again this season?

Did you follow my recaps from last year?

Any thoughts / suggestions?

Looking forward to another great season of football!

GO GUNNERS!

Arsenal Premier League Fixtures for 2014/15 Released

 

Let’s go, @Arsenal!!!