PLFantasy

Thankyou for all the kind words of encouragement this week after my confession of apathy surrounding my fantasy scribbles of late. It wasn't meant as a plea for attention but the messages were genuinely humbling and have forced me back to my senses quicker than expected. I still don't have anything interesting to write this week, but here is the week's data and my model is at least up to date again. Here's hoping to see you back in these pages soon. Learn About Tableau

Powered by Tableau As in prior weeks, each player is assigned a 'buy', 'hold/monitor' or 'sell' status. These do not necessarily reflect what I would personally do, rather what I suggest to be a decision based in logic. For example, I might feel that Rooney represents better value than van Persie, but I would still 'buy' the Dutchman's success and consider him very ownable. The different assigned statuses are summarised as: Buy - the player can be purchased immediately taking consideration of his playing time, fixtures, injury status etc. This status does not necessarily mean you should buy him now as it depends who else you own, only that it is reasonable to do so. Hold, and/or monitor - if you own the player you're not in a rush to sell him but there's sufficient risk here to justify potential buyers holding off. Sell - the player has too many risks and should either be sold or not purchased. This does not mean he might not ha...

Arsenal Szczesny, Sagna, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Arteta, Wilshere, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Cazorla, Podolski, Walcott Subs: Martinez, Mertesacker, Rosicky, Giroud, Ramsey, Coquelin, Gervinho Nothing really to note here in terms of lineup issues with Mertesacker apparently struggling for fitness rather than being benched. The ineffectiveness of the team going forward could well lead to changes next game, though Wenger is one of the managers who tends to stick his plans more than most so I wouldn't be expecting anything too drastic. I'm still a touch concerned that Giroud comes into this side and Walcott slides back into midfield, but given the fact he'd still have significant value in that role too, it wouldn't put me off pulling the trigger Walcott during this gameweek. Aston Villa Guzan, Lowton, Clark,  Stevens,  Herd,  Bennett, Delph, Westwood, Albrighton, Benteke , Weimann Subs: Given, Ireland, Holman, Bowery, Bannan, Lichaj, Carruthers ...

Clean Sheet Data Powered by Tableau Attacking Data Powered by Tableau Individual Data Powered by Tableau Note that the individual rankings are based on the assumption that all players will play 90 minutes. Injured/suspended players are generally excluded but borderline cases are left in and I make no assessment as to whether individual's will be rested/rotated.

Arsenal Szczesny, Djourou, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Miquel, Walcott, Ramsey, Song, Benayoun, Arshavin, van Persie Subs: Almunia, Rosicky, Park, Henry, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Squillaci, Yennaris. Arshavin and Walcott have to be two of the most frustrating, supposedly good players in the league, and yet they both line up in a significant amount of games for Wenger's side. Walcott at least gets into good positions but his final ball has regressed once again to simply hitting it hard into the box or taking an ill-advised shot (he did take his goal very nicely though, hence: frustrating). Arshavin, however, contributes essentially nothing and worse, gave away the ball for Swansea's second this week. Rosicky did okay off the bench without much end product but you'd expect that he or Oxalde-Chamberlain will get more minutes in the future. Henry came on to play alongside Van Persie suggesting that's an option too, but you'd be surprised if he is fit enough to immediately st...

Captain Picks Those top four teams look pretty appealing and when you throw the ever present Van Persie to the mix, you have good depth in captain options for this week. I've been working on some data for an upcoming post, looking at the percentage of goals each player accounts for (counting goals and assists). I hope this will make the above goalscoring forecasts more useful in that, if Arsenal are projected to score 2 goals and City are projected to score 2.3, you might still favour Van Persie as your captain over Aguero if you knew that he accounts for 64% of the Gunners goals (and is thus forecast to account for 1.28 goals) where as Aguero's percentage is just 38% and so he is forecast to account just 0.86 goals.A full post is to come on this, but I start to reference the stats below, as I try to make the captain more picks for quantitative, rather than just the standard, "Rooney is good, Bolton are crap' you get elsewhere. Wayne Rooney Rooney already ha...