The Week Ahead (Finally)

With the weekend's matches almost upon us (weather permitting) and with work coming out of my ears, here is the rapid fire Week Ahead...

• Welcome back to Arsenal Sol Campbell and while I respect everything you did for the club I can honestly say I really hope we don't see a lot of you on the pitch for the rest of the season.  10 to 20 minutes here and there in matches we're winning big? Sure.  Starting more than once or twice when Gallas/Verm are inevitably suspended or have a minor knock? I really hope not.  That won't be good news for the Arsenal title hunt.
• What can you say about Liverpool? I guess they're finally getting the karmic downside from fortune smiling on them in two of the greatest cup matches of all time (Champions League vs. AC Milan and FA Cup vs. WHU).  Not saying that they did anything wrong in either of those matches but they got incredible fortune and now they're seeing the horrible fortune with injuries that is the karmic opposite of those cup championships.  How far will they sink? Are they a top half team? 
• As reported by the Assistant Manager, ManYoo are no longer two-gamers this weekend - Arsenal, Bolton, Spurs, and Liverpool are the two-match teams this time around (how many match weeks in a row have Arsenal and Bolton had or supposedly had an extra match?)
• With Liverpool gutted by injuries Spurs (Hull and @LIV) are making it look a lot like a North London sort of weekend when it comes to team selection.
• Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes in the comments sections and on Facebook - they're much appreciated even if old guys like me probably won't remember it happened after a few days ;-) 

For the one match teams, the recommendations aren't terribly innovative with Chelsea and ManYoo having the best match-ups with Sunderland being a disaster at the back and Burnley continuing to channel Hull's season arc from last season (famous results and high point total early and fading fast after that).  Wolves are home to Wigan if you're looking for a less fashionable club to pick a player or two from. Birmingham also look pretty strong with a trip to disintegrating Pompey on tap for the weekend.

Forwards
A lot of the chatter on the comments sections of the blog and FB have been on the relative merits of EdS given Arsenal's status as two-gamers.  If you'll recall my breakdown of Arsenal's line-up options from last weekend (which was dead-on much to my surprise even though it didn't help me pick up any fantasy points), it hinged on Cesc remaining on the bench.  Well, he's back which puts one more name in the mix for the 5 positions in front of Denilson and the defence.  Given that EdS hasn't done much, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't start at least one of these matches.  At his current price (9.99), you need him to start to justify the price.  My take on EdS is that he just doesn't get enough phantom points to make him a good choice at anything about 7.5 or 8 in cost. 

The other big question I saw was about Ngog and with all of Liverpool's creative players - Gerrard, Nando, and Benayoun - out I'm having a hard time seeing Ngog getting anything if he starts.  Ngog isn't the sort of guy who is going to create points out of nothing.

So, who SHOULD you be looking at? Defoe (PhysioRoom has him back this weekend), Crouch, Klasnic, Sturridge, Donovan (he's taking at least some kicks and appears to be starting), Doyle, Agbonlahor, and whomever it looks like will partner Tevez at Citeh (Robinho? RSC? Benjani?).

Midfielders
Lots of good options here with a little uncertainty around who will start for Arsenal.  Obviously Cesc is the premium option of choice since he is projected to be back for match one of the Arsenal/Bolton doubleheader.  The question is who will give way among Nasri, EdS, Diaby, and Ramsey (I'm assuming that Denilson and Arshavin are guaranteed spots)?  My guess is that it is either Nasri or Ramsey.  My choice would be Nasri but I have a sneaking suspicion that Wenger will choose to send Ramsey to the bench. Hard to justify Arshavin based on his price and his production in the last 5 matches or so.  He could go off at any moment but hard to take that leap of faith when recent evidence has been so poor.

At Spurs it appears - again using PhysioRoom as the information source - that Lennon will not be back for either match.  This means that it is most likely that both Kranjcar and Modric will have wing roles and both are pretty strong bets at fairly reasonable prices.

At Bolton MTay is pretty expensive for someone who will be playing against Arsenal twice but if you can swing the money then it isn't hard to see him getting a bunch of phantom points and maybe one PK.  Cohen and Lee have both tailed off recently so I'd look at them only if they help you get to other players.

Speaking of guys who should only be considered if they enable other things...Aquilani may have to start twice because there are no other healthy midfielders at Liverpool but other than his price being right you shouldn't be too excited.

Among the one-gamers you might want to consider MPet, Larsson, Bowyer, and Milijas but I have to say I'm not looking very hard at those options.

Defenders
The strongest options are Verm, Bale, Corluka, Bassong (depending on King's always variable status), and maybe Traore depending on the Clichy prognosis (PhysioRoom has him as coming back for this weekend).
Why no Liverpool defenders? Honestly, I'm not sure who is going to play at this point.  I'm not willing to pay for Insua, Carra, or Agger (very likely to start) and I'm not sure who gets the final spot (Degen, Skertl, or someone else).  With Bolton, I'm just not too excited about anyone who is playing Arsenal twice.

If you're looking for a solid one-match bet, Evans from ManYoo still may be worthwhile as might Zabaleta or Garrido from Citeh.  I've also been a fairly big fan of Heitinga and this probably isn't the best weekend to get back on that bandwagon but he's always a solid bet for cheap.

Keepers
Gomez or Almunia? I can't believe I'm saying this but I think Gomez is the better bet but you'll pay for the opportunity to find out.  Almunia SHOULD be a strong play but he's just so dicey and with Song still at the ACN you just can't count on Arsenal's defence to hold up.  If you're buying cheaper, I'd go with whichever of Hennessey or Kirkland you like more but you'll have a rough weekend.

Injuries and suspensions tomorrow...

Cheers - Neal