Fantasy Premier League: Gameweek 4 Preview
Looking ahead to Fantasy Football Gameweek 4, @FantasyYIRMA has frisked the fixtures to try and make sense of where the points are going to come from in this week's games.
The International Break is over!! THANK **** FOR THAT!!
I'm giving off in my standard way about the disruption that the International Break brings to the sweet, sweet fixtures in the Premier League. Hand on heart I didn't actually even hate the International Break this time given that I've decided that it is blatantly obvious Northern Ireland will now win the World Cup.
Actually just participating in the World Cup would be an incredible achievement for Michael O'Neill's men. I am happy to announce the Bible Boy's have offered to send me to the World Cup all expenses paid to cover the Green and White Army should they qualify for Russia. Now when I say offered, they haven't actually offered...yet. I'm guessing that despite not offering, agreeing or confirming any of this I'm taking it as a given that if this intro is included post edit, I'll be getting my visa sorted sharpish. They'll need a roving reporter. If anything - I'd be doing them a favour!
To sum up: Northern Ireland Excellent, rest of the International matches - load of balls.
The return of the Premier League is a welcome one and here's a few selection picks to get you thinking about Fantasy Football for Gameweek 4
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GAMEWEEK 4 DEADLINE IS ON SATURDAY 9TH SEPTEMBER AT 11:30AM
1.DEFENDER
The return to fitness of Northern Ireland's legend Jonny Evans, the impending return of Gareth McAuley and the transfer addition of Kieran Gibbs means that although I am big on West Brom defenders I'm cautious at this point to see how these additions will affect the starting 11. It is entirely possible that Tony Pulis could just start with half a dozen centre backs but for this week I'll see how the dust settles.
Burnley have a home match up against Crystal Palace and there could be some value here. Sean Dyche's men have made Turf Moor a tough place to visit for Premier League opposition and had a genuinely impressive home record last season.
Ben Mee was an option for this week's defender pick but as I'm continually reminded this column is not supposed to be solely about Mee, Mee, Mee.
James Tarkowski's name may not roll off the tongue easily but he's put in some good performances thus far in the League. He actually in joint first position across all defenders for successful clearances meaning he's fairly active around the backline. If you are playing Yahoo, you'll know there's a £200m salary cap meaning that you need to balance the books also. Priced at £13 in that format he's a budget option that frees up funds elsewhere.
And Sean Dyche scares the shit outta me so I want to throw in a Burnley player from time to time
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2.MIDFIELDER
Mesut Ozil made a long public statement last week that has massive potential to come back and bite him in the arse. He essentially issued a rally call for players and pundits alike to get behind himself and the team and support the club as they look to improve from (and I'm putting it mildly here) a questionable start.
Ozil is very often singled out if Arsenal don't perform and perhaps that is harsh. Ability is never in question. He has more ability in his left ear lobe than my entire U16 squad where spent most of the time kicking lumps out of each other and where a pair of fancy football boots was a prerequisite for getting snapped or even worse diddy-nipped at set pieces - bloody painful.
Looking back at GW3 Ozil didn't play well against Liverpool, neither did any of his teammates - it was a shambles. The pressure is on Arsenal this week at home to Bournemouth. Despite Arsenal's poor form Ozil (12) sits second behind Mkhitaryan (13) for chances created and with a big performance overdue you get the feeling that if he is creating chances this week for Lacazette instead of Danny Welbeck then goals could be on the cards for the Gunners.
And he was brilliant midweek for Germany, maybe it will rub off
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3.FORWARD
I received some readily received constructive criticism last week. "Will you stop picking Harry Kane in your preview post every week FFS?!"
I thought long and hard about this. Gave it the 10 seconds due thought and consideration it deserved. Weighed up all of the pro's and con's associated with the potential argument and finally came to the conclusion...Fuck it. Pick Harry Kane anyway.
Yes I know he's expensive. Yes I know he hasn't scored yet BUT... everything is in our favour this week I think.
Harry Kane managed 10 shots last week against Burnley and still didn't manage a goal. The Calendar had barely been moved to September though and he banged in a couple for England immediately.
Sir Harold is back. The other positive aspect here is that Spurs will play Everton at Goodison meaning they don't need to go near Wembley which is a blessing for this side. Harry Kane has now registered 24 shots on goal in the opening 3 gameweeks. To put this into context - The entire Everton squad have registered 23 in the same time. The goals are coming. If you are playing the Yahoo game where you are rewarded for attacking stats such as shots in addition to goals and assists then Harry could have you covered.
August is over - For the Love of God please score Harry!
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Written by Ryan @FantasyYIRMA
FantasyYIRMA started in 2012 as one of the first Fantasy Football blog accounts focused primarily on news and previews for the Premier League. Now after covering 193 consecutive Fantasy Premier League gameweeks we have a slight idea of what we're talking about however feel we could've qualified as essentially anything else if the time had been spent more productively
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