Monday Morning Manager

Gallagher, Andrews, Nelsen and Robinson before the match.

Counting the cost of Friday's trades, after the jump.

[I]f Chelsea have enough to beat Wolves, are there fantasy points to be had? Anelka is the obvious choice. He's scored for Chelsea in the Champions League when Drogs hasn't been available. But for 9 less, I'm going to go with Kalou. There should be enough goals to go around, and I'm going to bet on the young Ivorian, who was kicked out of his national side this week, rather than the thirty-year old who just played 120 minutes of football on Wednesday.

Well, I was half to 3/4 right. Anelka and Kalou started, and while neither scored Kalou did notch two assists. He nearly matched Joe Cole's output but Essien and Malouda were far and away Chelsea's stand-out performers on the day.

I'm going with the Yak! We love the Yak here at blog central and he's healthy again after a long layoff. In fact, he even scored for Nigeria on Wednesday night. Now I'm under no illusions that he's a sure starter in both, or even one of Everton's matches this week. But with talk of Saha still nursing his calf injury and Cahill with a groin injury (albeit minor), I just think there will be enough minutes for Yakubu.

In the end he got the full second half and looked lively against the Champions. And he did outscore both Saha and Cahill by half a point. The latter pair both came off and are doubts for Hull. And with Fellaini's suspension for five bookings, there's every chance that Yakubu will get minutes again this midweek.

[W]ho knows what state the Gunners will be in this weekend. Sunderland will want to get back to some sort of form, and Reid could profit.

Again, the decision - along with the decision not to pick up Eduardo - was the right one as Sunderland beat Arsenal a goal to nil. But Reid didn't profit, returning no more than five for the second consecutive week. Indeed it was Frazier Campbell again who proved good value for money, even if he didn't quite deserve it. Sunderland travel to Wigan next so I think it will be worth keeping the Irishman, but his place in my team will be under threat if he can't improve.

As for Arsenal, they could have had several goals but just seemed off their stride. That wasn't surprising considering all the injuries and surrounding drama over the last few weeks. But Arshavin on the bench? I don't think anyone expected that, least of all us.

Dunn is a keeper. I had him last week and he was half my team's production! And of course, he's a two gamer this week. A must-have as far as I'm concerned.

Yup, yep and yes. This was an easy one though.

I'm going for Bullard and Duff. Hull is a bit of a shambles, but with two home matches Jummy should have plenty of chances to shoot when others are better placed and thus screw Hull but benefit my fantasy team. And Duff... yes, I know that just a few paragraphs above I was dumping the "thirty-year old who just played 120 minutes of football on Wednesday." But I've always loved Duff and am looking forward to rooting for him again this weekend.

Half right here as Bullard did the business but Duff was restricted to a late run-out. For those betting on Hull for the 2-game week, Bullard and Hunt were the danger men and it was Hunt who was originally trying to take the penalty (dubious!) befor Jummy pulled rank. However Hunt took all the left-footed set pieces and got an assist on Zayette's goal from one of those. Geovanni was a substitute and I would guess that would continue until Hull's fortunes change again.

And a quick note on Jozy, as were nothing if not USA-centric... I thought he looked really good. Quick, athletic and made some really nice passes in attack. He's still a 19 year old kid, and he's still learning about being a professional as he wasn't raised up in as developed a football system as a European or South American kid might have. But the physical attributes and the footballing promise are all there.

But wait, it gets worse...

I'm going for Schwarzer. Fulham are playing much better these days and they at least have one home game. Schwarzer hasn't been amazing this year, and I'm not sure what the extra 7 buys me other than he's not Robbo.

I knew this was a lousy decision at the time, and the weekend only proved me correct. Rovers held Bolton, whom I thought were better than that at home, while Schwarzer had his classic 1 save, 1 goal allowed in a loss performance. So there's 15 points lost, and adding insult to injury...

I'm going for Baird. Murphy isn't back in training so Baird should continue in central midfield for Fulham. I was looing at Emerton for the same reason - listed as a defender, playing in midfield - but Emerton hasn't actually put up any points.

Nothing wrong with Baird's performance except that this weekend Emerton put up 15. So these two Friday trades cost me 30 points, which would have been 1/3 again of my weeks points to date. And now it turns out that Murphy may yet make Fulham's midweek match, further compounding my misery.

The other two defenders are Verm and Heit. Yes, Heit is a 2-gamer this week, but honestly I don't even look at these two spots any longer. Unless there's some catastrophe, I'm happy with the price I paid for these guys and the return I'm getting.

Another poor showing from Verm and those of you who offloaded him were vindicated, for this week at least. Heitinga was a surpring 11 points. I thought he'd be around 5, like around than half of Everton's players but he was very busy defending from midfield and earned a sizeable chunk of phantom points.

Looking forward, the two "marquee" fantasy matchups are Citeh/Hull and WHU/Burnley.  I've grabbed Given, Bellamy, Collison (whom I just love and was sick to have missed his big points this weekend), and CCole (who came down in price after the own goal against Hull).  But the more I look at those matchups, the more I think there will be goals from both sides so a bet on Blake or Fletcher might be in order.  As might taking another pass on Given.

Manchester United travel to Pompey which may prove rewarding for the Red Devils, though I could see that one being another grind.  Villa/Spurs, Ars/Che and Eve/Liv are the tasty fixtures in real life, but I think a stay away might be in order for fantasy purposes.  Though I do hope Drogba will be back as I think he'll prosper against Arsenal's fragile back line.

Dear lord, is Robinson a good bet, home to Stoke, this week?  Or will he have used up all of his karma this week?  I guess we'll wait until after Wednesday's match, but maybe a place on the barn door isn't out of line.

How did you do this weekend, and to whom are you turning for next?