Chaos Reigns...

In the nearly two years we've been doing this blog, there are weeks where I've been uncertain as to what I wanted to write. There have been weeks where I didn't necessarily feel THAT strongly about the picks I made. In some cases, it was because I didn't like that week's matchups, in some cases it was because I liked too many of them and couldn't focus my thoughts down to a managable set of things for our readers to consider. Usually, I feel pretty good about what I put up here being sound advice capable of helping someone plant themselves firmly in the top percentile or two of the Yahoo overall standings. This week, I have to admit that I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to say. Why?

ManYoo theoretically play twice this week (Sunday and Friday) but after advertising this week as a "two-gamer" for ManYoo for most of the week, the Sunderland match has been pulled off the board amid speculation that it will be included in next week's fixture list where pretty much everyone has two matches.

Arsenal's rained out match with Pompey has been rescheduled for Wednesday but that has yet to be added to the Yahoo schedule for this week. That fact combined with the lack of any credit for Bolton's match with Birmingham makes me worry about loading up on Gunners.

In the absence of certainty related to Arsenal and ManYoo's 2nd matches this week, we're left with those two clubs playing each other in a fixture that is rarely gold for fantasy managers. So what to do?

Basically, you have to take a leap of faith one way or the other related to the two-gamers. Finding a way to load up on Henry/Rooney plus Adebayor up front (with perhaps Todorov as a CHEAP 3rd striker who will be playing two matches). In the midfield, Cesc is still relatively inexpensive and in fine form recently. Pires, Ljungberg, Flamini, Fletcher and D'Allesandro are also potential two-gamers who are priced to move.

The back is much more troublesome - van der Saar and (new German #1) Lehmann are both through the roof expensive as are pretty much the full complement of Arsenal and ManYoo defenders.

If you don't believe that Arsenal and ManYoo will get credit for their second matches this week, then the most attractive players out there are from Fulham, Everton, and Spurs. Beattie, Keane and Collins John are of particular interest up front. Malbranque, Carrick, Arteta, McFadden, and Cahill are the favorites in midfield. Niemi is back and should be relatively cheap for his match with Sunderland in net. The back is more problematic but I'd go with Everton's defense (Naysmith being the most interesting).

I'd write more but I'll be spending the rest of my afternoon trying to figure out what the hell to do with this mess. In the end, I'm guessing my strategy will involve getting Henry on my squad. In uncertain times, you can't go too far wrong with that TH on your side - if he gets two games, all the better.

Happy Shopping...and good luck containing your outrage when you find out that your guess about the two-gamer thing turned out to be wrong.