Week Two Barn Door Team

A bit of analysis, including who is on the bubble, coming soon.

This was my team after the weekend matches, though in truth I do have Riise and Formica held "behind the scenes", as Nik likes to say.  There's obviously a strong Manchester City contingent after yesterday's match.  Aguero was devestating in his 30-minute cameo and I wouldn't expect his playing time to be limited going forward.  Silva was the straw that stirred the drink, and Richards and Toure were sometimes the most advanced players on the pitch!  They travel to Bolton this weekend (top of the table clash!), and I am still betting against the Trotters.  Yes, I tried that last weekend with Taarabt and DJ Campbell, and no it didn't work out.  Bolton have a settled back five at the moment, even if those players couldn't keep a clean sheet to save their lives last season.  I'm not going to over-react to the QPR match (though maybe I'm over-reacting to the Swansea match?) and I'm going to bet on Citeh to do the business again.

Everton and Aston Villa get strong representation here, with two players apiece. Everton are opening their season and get to do so now at home, against QPR.  Saha is fit and does well when healthy.  Cahill should again play as a withdrawn forward, which is great for a fantasy midfielder.  He's also healthy, and scored for Australia against Wales last week. Mikel Arteta is back for Everton, but I'm not sure he'll start.  Osman is a bit more expensive than Cahill but could also represent a good bet.

Aston Villa are represented after their credible 0-0 draw at Fulham.  Given goes into the team and can hopefully replicate the clean sheet at home against a struggling Rovers side. Rovers played Hanley and N'Zonzi at center back last weekend so N'Zogbia (battle of the N's!) gets the nod in midfield.  Other candidates for the fantasy team would include Darren Bent - LOVE the idea of his running at that makeshift backline) and Warnock - who is back in the team and getting involved going forward as far as I can tell.

Rounding out the team is Luis Suarez, who picked up right where he left off after last season and seems to be a +10 fantasy player.  He should love running at, and around, the Arsenal defence this weekend.  That defence may or may not have Gibbs as he is not "unlikely" to be fit.  I may keep Gibbs at his ridiculously low price, but I may look to gut Bosingwa and bring in two mid-price defenders (back to Riise?) for the combined value.

Season Preview - Manchester City

Quick Reminder, Real Life

This was the season when all of the money invested started to pay off in a big way. Lots of shiny new objects came into the squad with the corresponding spare parts mostly going out on loan. Some of them fit - Yaya Toure, David Silva - while some of them didn’t - Jerome Boateng - and the jury is still out on others - Edin Dzeko, Mario Balotelli, and Aleksander Kolarov. Still, at the end of the day, the money produced results in the form of an FA Cup trophy and an invitation to Europe’s biggest dance, the Champions League, for the upcoming season. Can’t really argue with that... unless you are turned off by teams just buying big names like the real world were just a big game of fantasy football.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

Given their results on the pitch, you’d think that there would be more fantasy success around this group but that’s just not the way it turned out. The size of the squad and the frequent rotation between very good and pretty good players kept fantasy output low. The unquestioned fantasy studs were Joe Hart and Carlos Tevez with Kompany and Kolarov putting up solid numbers as well. Beyond that, players like YToure and Silva were much more productive on the real pitch than the virtual one.

Summer Changes

Kun You Believe It?

One of the longest running transfer sagas of the last few years is finally over.  Sergio "Kun" Aguero is officially a Manchester City player as of today.  How does "son-in-law-of-Maradona" fit into the Citeh squad and more importantly your fantasy team? Here's the rundown:

Manchester City announce signing of Yaya Toure

Manchester City announce signing of Yaya Toure

Manchester City have secured the signing of Yaya Toure on a five-year deal from Barcelona.

The Ivory Coast international midfielder returned from World Cup duty on Monday following the African side’s exit from the tournament.

Toure has completed a medical with City physios in Spain and also finalised the details of his switch from the Spanish Champions.

Between Touré and Jérôme Boateng, it's going to be hard to write about Citeh just because of the special characters in their names! [/geek]

These two also add to the number of brothers in the Premier League, which is always fun. Though are Yaya and Kevin the only ones who aren't defenders? And even Yaya can play in central defence. But Nevilles, Dawsons, the Muppet Twins at Manchester United, the Caldwells... all defenders.