The Week Ahead

What can you say, Cesc is the man (at least when he's healthy). One of the commentators for the Sunday Bolton/Arsenal match called Fab4 "just short of world class" leaving the nice people at Bolton to wonder what exactly would have happened if he were ACTUALLY world class? Maybe it is the lack of any one defining characteristic - he doesn't have the speed on an Henry, the technical excellence of a Bergkamp, the tricks of a CRon, the power of a Drogba, the long distance thunderbolt of a Gerrard, or the close control of a Messi - that keeps people from giving him his due credit but he just makes winning plays. We'll see how it goes once the schedule gets harder here in the next month but he's neck and neck with Drogba for player of the year this season.

OK, on to my weekly rant. I want to know what has become of the wide midfielder at the top of the table. It used to be that the prevailing wisdom was that any Best XI would be made up entirely of players from the Big Four. Now? I'd argue that there are better wingers playing out of position or sitting on the bench at clubs outside of the "Big Four" than any starting for ANY of those clubs. Crazy? Let's see...



Best of the Big Four...I guess you'd have to give it to the ManYoo duo of Giggs and Valencia over anyone from Arsenal (who don't really have any actual wingers), Chelsea (who have FloMal which means that they really don't have any actual wingers), and Liverpool (who have the next best of the bunch in Benayoun but nothing after that and his health has been sporadic). And what of Giggs and Valencia? Well, sadly Giggs is clearly the best player of this group and he can only play about half of ManYoo's matches for fear of them losing him to injury. Valencia has been as maddeningly inconsistent for ManYoo as he was for Wigan. At Wigan he was a bit better than expected but that doesn't really cut it at ManYoo.

Best of the Rest...At Villa they're finding ways to use three wingers in their formation (Milner, BFAY, and Downing); at Citeh they're doing the same with MPet, SWP, and Barry; and at Spurs they have Kranjcar, Lennon, Modric, Jenas, Bentley, and are so deep that O'Hara had to be shipped off to get some playing time. Outside of those clubs you could look at Hunt, MTay, Duff, Pienaar, Bily, and Arteta coming back eventually and he will likely find himself moved into the middle. A level or two down the pecking order you find guys like Eagles, Eth, Larsson, and the formerly really good MGP.

So, what to make of this? Have the big guys gone to some post-modern system where wingers are obsolete? Do the big guys just not have the money to pluck really good players from the next tier down? Does the fact that target strikers - Drogba aside - are absent from the Big Four mean that the classic winger isn't really worth the money? Do wing defenders (Sagna, Clichy, ACole, Bosingwa, Evra, Rafael, Insua, and GJohn) take the classic wing role from midfielders and render the "wide" midfielders into the spaces between the touchline and that occupied by the central players? I can't say I have answers but this season has made it incredibly clear that there is a stark difference in thinking about the value of wingers between Chelsea and Arsenal especially and the rest of the league (I'm not sure if Liverpool and ManYoo share the Chelsea/Arsenal philosophy or if they've just chosen very poorly where to spend their money on wingers and therefore have mediocre options outside of the ancient Giggs).

OK, on to the upcoming week...

The big thing to make sure you remember for the upcoming week (other than that Arsenal are top of the table) is that Citeh and Stoke are off this weekend. For those who kept Tevez and/or Given for last weekend in hopes of only losing one weekend's points in return for keeping two hot players for below market prices...OUCH. With a crappy week from both players one week of nothing became two very quickly.

As far as the schedules go for those who are actually playing...

• ManYoo get Hull at OT in what SHOULD be a blow out (but all bets are off on ManYoo right now so take it with a grain of salt); 
• Liverpool travel to Wolves in another match-up that should shape up to be a blowout but again, who knows what to expect from Pool; 
• Chelsea plays a tough one with Birmingham and I guess we get to see if Brum really has the chops to play with the big boys; 
• Suddenly better-than-average Everton are hosting suddenly-horrible Sunderland;
• Rovers (who gave up 6 today and lost Samba to a Red Card) host equally unpredictable Wigan; 
• Bolton hosts Burnley in what we should expect will be a much needed first win for Owen Coyle; and
  
• Spurs/Fulham; Villa/Arsenal; and Pompey/WHU look fairly evenly matched when considering talent, form, and location of the match.

So, Everton, ManYoo, and Liverpool should be the choices if you're looking to place a bet on a team based on match-up.

Forwards

• Anelka (but hopefully you bought him before his price went up last weekend);
• Donovan (his price is still low but climbing); 
• Saha (quietly solid this season); 
• Kuyt (but only if you got him before his price went up after his brace today); 
• Diamanti (price to production ratio is very solid and Pompey is spiraling back downward); 
• Rooney (seems like a perfect weekend to have him but that's usually when he pulls the rug out from under fantasy managers); and
  
• Klasnic (I really liked what I saw in the Sunday match against Arsenal - he could have had a couple of goals and Burnley aren't exactly top of the table - think I'm enjoying being able to say that)

Midfielders

• Valencia (seems to be in a reasonable vein of form); 
• Fab4 (pricey but worth the money when he's healthy); 
• MTay (didn't look great vs. Arsenal but STILL went for 23 across the two matches); 
• Eagles (I'm enjoying that the most consistently productive winger from the ManYoo system plays for Burnley - see rant above); 
• Bily (price isn't that bad and the match-up is a nice one); 
• Lee (would be nice if his play on the right side of Bolton's midfield had translated into more points on Sunday); 
• McCarthy (price is right if you want to see if his game-winning performance last weekend was a fluke or something real - Rovers don't seem like a bad choice if you're going to bet on "real"); and
  
• Aquilani (wasn't bad today and would have featured more last weekend if not for going 120 minutes last midweek - oh yeah, still cheap);

Defenders

• Verm (evergreen);
• Bale (match-up isn't great but he's money until BAE gets back); 
• Ivanovic (if you're spending, option 1); 
• Wes Brown (if you're spending, option 2);
  
• SeaBass (hard to imagine that King will start two in 6 days); 
• Degen (inexpensive "buy-in" in the Liverpool defence); 
• Givet (all hands on deck with Samba suspended); 
• Steinsson (I'm betting on him to rebound after a rough go against Arsenal); and
• GNev (but it's a heck of a risk with a reasonable percent chance of Rafael starting instead);

Keepers

• EvdS (if you got him before his price went WAY up);
• Pepe (why not? they're playing between 6 and 8 defenders, how would anyone score on them?); 
• T-Ho (price is down which is nice but not THAT low); and
• Jussi (he's cheap and needs to get a CS one of these weeks doesn't he?

OK, that's all until it's time for injuries and suspensions on Friday.

Cheers - Neal