With the large amount of snow that’s been causing Premier League matches to get canceled these days, the one advantage is the amount of makeup fixtures we’ll end up seeing on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. This means fantasy players who missed a match or two due to snow will now have weeks where you’ve got a chance to double up on points.
Looking ahead, gameweek 24 features two games each for Fulham, Hull City, Chelsea, West Ham, Wolverhampton, and Portsmouth. Gameweek 26 will feature double fixtures for Stoke, Man City, Wigan and Bolton. There is also a match for Birmingham against Portsmouth that still hasn’t been rescheduled.
Most of these teams aren’t exactly full of fantasy studs, but someone’s gotta score some points somewhere in all these matches. The best part is these matches are still at least a full gameweek away (gameweek 23 starts on Tuesday) so you’ve got at least 2 transfers you can make to pepper your team with a few players from these squads.
Who should you pick up though? I thought you’d never ask!
Damien Duff, Fulham With Deuce being out for an extended period of time along with Zamora, Duff is probably the best Fulham player to pick up. He’s been decent in recent weeks, and is probably the most “go to” guy on the squad.
Carlos Tevez, Manchester City Tevez should be on your radar regardless. He’s averaging 8.75 points over the last 8 weeks. You might want to hold off on grabbing Tevez till next gameweek, as he doesn’t play this week.
Kevin Davies, Bolton I don’t love Bolton or Davies, but with Coyle coming in I think Bolton are more of a threat than they were before. Davies always seems to have a good run of form around mid-season and now seems like a decent time to pick him up.
Sorry about that Lee Bowyer thing: Remember a few weeks back when I said you should run and pick up Lee Bowyer because he was dirt cheap and was scoring 8 points a game? Well he decided that he didn’t need to do that anymore after I said that, as he’s scored 11 points in the last 5 weeks. I’d still hold onto him though, he’s one of the better guys on a good team and he’s cheap.
Never count Cesc out: I really didn’t have high hopes for Cesc Fabregas coming out of an injury that saw him sit for two weeks, but once again he came out and gave two strong performances in back to back games. So far this season, apart from 3 games, he’s scored at least 5 points in every game. Nobody else can match that consistency. Cesc should be in everyone’s lineup from here on out. Arsenal have some tough games coming up, but someone’s gonna have to step up for the squad, and it might as well be Cesc. He’s still about a point cheaper than Frank Lampard, but he’s got 40 more points.
Four teams don’t play this week: I mentioned this in my Tevez blurb, but there are only 8 games this week, meaning you’re gonna need to watch your lineup. Manchester United, Manchester City, Stoke City, and Hull City aren’t playing, so if you’ve got players on those teams make sure you get them to the bench. I would advise against using my suggested method of taking the 4 point hit if you’ve got too many players to fill the bench, as the following week all but Manchester United play two games.
Team of The Week:
I can’t talk about how awesome Cesc has been without throwing him into the captain spot. Pienaar has been on real good form the last few weeks, though you could make the homer case for throwing Landon Donovan on your team as he’s been in good form (especially if you had to drop Dempsey). Bowyer stays for now, but if he can’t do something this week, he might be looking at a vacation from the starting XI.
As always, throw your questions in the comments and I’ll do what I can to answer them. Good Luck!
