The Week Ahead

Wow, we're back!! The season is really set to get underway. No more making due with an MLS fix here or a big-time international friendly there (DC United vs. Real Madrid in 100 degree heat none-the-less). Obviously we're firmly entrenched in our new/old home and excited for the freedom that it brings us as we continue to bring you what we hope is the best coverage around of Premier League Fantasy Football (especially pertaining to the Yahoo game but hopefully useful for those of you playing other games as well). As we do every year, we'll try some new stuff and some of it will stick and some of it will not. We encourage your feedback as we do try new things out and if you think there are things that we could be doing that we aren't, well, let us know about that too. If it seems like a good idea to us and the time commitment won't cause one or both of us to either get fired from our day jobs or get divorced, then we're happy to consider it.

So, I have to confess, the first TWA of the season is always both the easiest and hardest to write. Why is it easy you ask? Well, because Jeremy and I have generally been IMing, texting, and writing emails back and forth discussing new players, new formations, pre-season results, and everything else we can get our hands on for the better part of a month. Throw in that we've just written 20 fairly in-depth team season previews and I'm certainly up to speed on what the options are and I've had a lot of time to settle on my opinion of those options.

Given that, why is it difficult? I say it is difficult for two reasons. First, there are a lot of players who are brand new to the league and we're not really sure what to expect of them or if they'll even get much playing time. Second, because I've been thinking about this for so long already - I'm pretty much down to firm answers rather than lots of options. Now I have to go back and remember how I narrowed myself down to those answers by recalling the options that I considered and why they were attractive to start with and why I dismissed them in favor of something else. But, enough of my complaining, on to the analysis...

Oh, one other thing to keep you in suspense before I start the analysis in earnest. I mentioned above that I'd been to see Real Madrid play DC United last weekend and have a few observations from that match. First, I was reminded why Arjen Robben was such a big deal for a couple seasons before injury started interrupting things. With all the stars on display he was EASILY the most dynamic player on the pitch. Made CRon look like a squad player by comparison. I wonder if the new competition will motivate him to actually stay healthy all season or if some other team is going to find a way to pry him away from Real. If they do, it will be great business if he can stay healthy.

One final note on that match is about the guy who played right midfield for DC United, Chris Pontius. He made Roystan Drenthe his bitch for the entire match. I can't say I've watched Drenthe too many times but I assume for him to be playing at Real, he must be considered at least decent. Pontius is an MLS rookie and unless Drenthe was just not putting in any effort due to the heat or pre-season or whatever my guess is that Pontius will be showing up on the other side of the ocean in the next season or two. Nice player - for you non-MLS followers, remember you heard it hear first.

OK, here we go with a slightly revised format from last year...

Schedule
The big deal for Week 1 is obviously the difference between those teams that play two matches (ManYoo, Chelsea, Sunderland, Pompey, Stoke, Burnley, Wolves, Wigan, Liverpool, Birmingham, Tottenham, and Hull) and those who only play one (Arsenal, Everton, Villa, Rovers, Fulham, Bolton, Citeh, and West Ham). Once you start considering the match-ups for the two-gamers and their talent levels (5 of them are likely to struggle against relegation) and you're really left with ManYoo, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs and maybe Stoke as the most likely sources of people in your line-up. Are there select guys from the other teams that you might want to consider? Sure, but if you're line-up isn't heavily tilted towards those teams then you're definitely going against the odds. There will be plenty of time to pick up guys like Arshavin or Ashley Young or Robinho next week when they're back on even par as far as number of matches played.

Forwards
Value Pick of the Week: The best bargain of the week is likely to be Didier Drogba. Priced at 10.66 and seemingly guaranteed a starting spot as Chelsea's new manager seems intent on forcing the pairing of Anelka and Drogs. He's looked healthy in the pre-season and a healthy Drogs is a good thing for fantasy managers as unlikeable a guy as he seems to be. Honorable mention goes to Berbatov and Defoe who are pretty solid value in the mid-12s with solid match-ups but at that price you can have Drogs and a much better player at another position. Don't get carried away with Defoe's two goals vs. Holland please, international form rarely translates to league goals - at least not enough to where you'd want to alter your plans.

Premium Pick of the Week: Wayne Rooney has to be the guy. Sir Alex has challenged him to pick up the slack left when CRon left for Madrid and Wayne seems energized by the opportunity to play something close to his ideal position and not have to cover up for Ronaldo's deficiencies tracking back. With the not-so-killer Bs (Birmingham and Burnley) the opposition he should be off to a flying start. I rate Rooney's chances of having a big week slightly higher than Anelka's and much less risky than Torres. With RvP, Robinho, K2, and Agbonlahor playing only one match there really aren't many other premium picks available this weekend.

Best of the Rest: Hugo Rodallega at 7.38; Frederic Piquionne at 6.42; and Ricardo Fuller at 7.03.

One closing note, I wouldn't expect too much from Michael Owen unless and until one of the presumptive starters at ManYoo (Rooney and Berbs) gets hurt. I think SAF is smart enough to keep him rested (read healthy) and pick his spots when he needs something special off the bench in 20 to 30 minute increments.

Midfielders

Value Pick of the Week: I'm really torn here between Luka Modric and Lucas as the best value for the money with a chance of Nani getting into the conversation if he turns out to be healthy. If I had to pick one of the two, I'd go with Modric because he has more of a track record and I don't want to get too excited about Lucas' pre-season performances because, well, it's pre-season. Modric had a pretty solid second half of last season and is likely to continue to improve as the situation at Spurs continues to stablize (at least as much as it ever does at the Lane these days). Honorable mention here to Charles N'Zogbia who we here at the blog have always had high hopes for as well as Darren Fletcher who seems likely to get a regular run out and starts out the season at 5.24 with an increased chance of picking up points with more minutes.

Premium Pick of the Week: With Cesc, Arshavin, Ashley Young, Gareth Barry, SWP, and MTay all one-gamers and Jummy and Arteta still coming back from injury there isn't really much Week 1 competition for this slot, it's really Lamps and Gerrard with Lamps taking the lead based on Chelsea's easier schedule and Gerrard's minor knock (might not keep him out but why risk it with Lamps having a better match-up for less money?). Hopefully, this will be a more interesting discussion next week.

Best of the Rest: Florent Malouda at 10.54; Valencia at 11.73; Utaka at 4.69; Lawrence at 8.94; KRich at 8.41; Milijas at 5.60; and Gomez at 5.60.

Defenders

Value Pick of the Week: With the injuries mounting at Old Trafford, John O'Shea seems like a shoe-in to be playing right back in Week 1 at a very reasonable price. He won't blow your doors off with a ton of points but for 7.37 he's a pretty good bet for 7 or 8 points in each of his two matches. Ivanovic/Ferreira enter this conversation if Chelsea inexplicably sell Bosingwa to Bayern Munich not because either of them are particularly useful defenders over the course of the season but if you're looking only at Week 1 then you might pick one of them based on match-ups (that said, I can't imagine Chelsea would be crazy enough to sell Bos so you can probably ignore the last sentence).

Premium Pick of the Week: Speaking of Bosingwa (which I was) he is (assuming he's still with Chelsea, that is) the best bet of the guys who are first choice guys at either ManYoo or Chelsea. He wasn't the point machine that we'd all hoped for last season but he was pretty solid and I'd expect the same thing this week. Second place here for me is Martin Skertl. The man who needs to buy a vowel made it through a closed door match today and is headed into the starting line-up at a pretty reasonable price for a defender starting for Liverpool.

Best of the Rest: Bassong at 5.50; Wilko at 4.73; Insua at 8.73; Hutton at 7.34.

Keepers

Value Pick of the Week: Whichever of Foster or Kuszczak gets the starts (hopefully, we won't have to guess) followed at a fair distance by The Captain, Chris Kirkland.

Premium Pick of the Week: Cech who still isn't the guy he used to be over Reina who has a shakey defence in front of him this week due to injury.

Best of the Rest: Not much here this week unless you're really not willing to risk the ManYoo thing and want to go with Given and his one match at a decent price. Next week should be much more interesting in this space as everyone gets back to an equal number of matches.

Should be an interesting opening week of the season - I know I can't wait. Watch this space for Injuries and Suspensions on Friday and hopefully we'll get the final word on Nani and Foster/Kuszczak among others.