Welcome to Week 7...

Sure signs of the coming of Autumn - the cooling of the weather, the turning of leaves, Tottenham underachieving, and some embarrassing performances by a few Premiership clubs in the opening round of the Carling/League Cup. Thanks to Pompey, Tottenham and Man City for making sure that, like death and taxes, some things are eternal.

The thing that the onset of Autumn bring us as fantasy owners is enough matches to start figuring out what was merely an early season anomoly and what is an emerging trend. With that in mind - here are a few thoughts that I've included in my analysis of who I should include in my line-up from week-to-week. West Ham have joined Arsenal and Chelsea at the top of the goals/match column for the season but they've done nearly all of their damage at home (as have Arsenal) whereas Chelsea has scored wherever they've been. Liverpool is playing entirely negative football - so much so that only ONE goal has been scored by either side in all four matches combined - not good times unless you have a defender in one of their matches. WBA and Sunderland are giving up goals by the bucketload, so players playing against those teams should be given some consideration - ditto anyone hosting Villa. Just a little food for thought as you think about playing the odds. And with that, we're on to the usual analysis...

Chelsea - Chelsea continues to look unbeatable and the presence of Villa seems unlikely to change that given their terrible road record so far this year. Stay away from any and all Villa players if you know what's good for you (unless you have Baros at a very low price, then you have a decision to weigh). As for the Chelsea players, the obvious guys (Cech, Terry, Gallas, Carvalho, Ferriera, Lamps, Robben, and Del Horno) are expensive - if you can afford them, they'll probably make you happy but you'll have to find bargains elsewhere. One ray of hope here is Michael Essien who is still very affordable at 7.99 and has been improving very steadily and inserting himself into the offense more and more. The striker dilema continues - Crespo is relatively affordable but Chelsea's strikers have split the minutes and the fantasy points so far this season and that leads me to believe there are better options elsewhere - the Crespo decision is, in my opinion, high risk (he doesn't play or midfielders get all the points) and medium reward (even when he does score, he rarely does the other things to produce a large point total).

The Former "Big Two" - Arsenal travels across London to visit the Hammers and does so with a large number of injury worries. Bergkamp, Pires, and Freddie all seem likely to join Henry on the bench. This leaves van Persie very likely to start and have a good fantasy day for the low-low price of 7.90 and Reyes as the talisman (albeit at an expensive price). This feels like a 2-1 or 3-1 Arsenal victory to me (note to new readers - I'm a Gooner, so take that with a grain of salt) which leaves me thinking that it isn't worth including anyone from Arsenal's back line unless you can guess which defender is going to net two of the goals. Hleb came into the Prem with high expectations but as Jeremy so rightly pointed out, so far he seems more likely to make the pass that leads to the assist - good for the team, bad for the fantasy manager.

Manchester United welcome Rovers to the Theatre of Dreams needing a win in a big way and suffering from something of a defensive crisis. Gary Neville and Gabriel Heinze are still out and Roy Keane is added to the injury list leaving Sir Alex likely to continue to use multiple (bad) central midfielders to stem attacks. This, and the lack of creativity in central midfield seems to be cutting off the supply lines to United's talented attackers. Ruud has been effective and I wouldn't be surprised to see that continue against Rovers. Rooney and Ronaldo have been ok for fantasy owners but not enough so that they're worth their prices. Those with United (healthy) defenders or van der Saar should stick with them as Rovers have been miserable on offense and don't seem likely to reverse that trend at Old Trafford. The only Rovers player I'd recommend is Mort Gamst Pedersen who may find room to operate against United's depleated wings and might pile up some "phantom" points in the form of corners won and successful crosses as he did last week. This feels like another nil-nil draw or a 1-0 United victory - in either case, it'll be ugly.

Going Against the "Newbies" - Everton welcomes Wigan and I have no idea if that's a good thing for them or not. Given that Everton are playing at home and must be desperate at this point might inspire a good performance, but it is unlikely to be a goal-fest. We've already talked about West Ham hosting the Gunners - probably not a lot of value in taking any of the Hammers unless you have one or more of them (Reo-Coker, Etherington, Harewood) at an extremely low price. I'm still on the Benayoun bandwagon but he disappointed me last weekend and I'm not willing to try again against Arsenal. Finally, we have Boro hosting goal-leaking Sunderland. You have to suspect that Boro will win this match and it may even be worth assuming that they'll get a clean sheet while doing so but I have to say that doesn't leave me THAT much more excited about taking anyone from Boro for my squad. They rotate their strikers too much for my liking and none of them are very consistent. Yakubu is pretty expensive and very streaky - and when he doesn't score, he doesn't do much for you.

Random Notes - I love Charlton even thought they're on the road - it is WBA and we've already noted their deficiencies on the defensive side of the ball. I'd get as many of the following as you can - Danny Murphy, Darren Bent, Chris Perry, Chris Powell and maybe even Jon Spector if it looks like he'll start. Robert may be in for a down week as Pompey travel to the Reebok to face Bolton. Liverpool and Birmingham will slug it out in the Midlands and probably do more for the cause of fighting insomnia than they will for fantasy managers. Finally, everyone must make a big decision on Newcastle - was last week's result against Fulham a mirage or is there some value in inexpensive players like Charles N'Zogbia and Michael Owen or will they revert to their previous terrible form. Man City seem like they've cooled off after their hot start after losses last weekend in the Premiership and in mid-week in Carling Cup action. Finally, we have Fulham travelling to White Hart Lane for another match that is likely to end 1-0 - the biggest question is who gets the goal. Talent and location leads you to believe that it will be Spurs (and Defoe) but history leads you to believe that it will be Fulham (and McBride). I'm staying away from that one because I have no idea which factor will win out and there are more attractive options available.

I'm posting early because I'll be on a cross-country flight tomorrow so make sure you check the injury reports for any updates after this posting...good luck.