Looking ahead to Fantasy Football Gameweek 2, @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 Premier League has returned!! 31 Goals on opening weekend was a great start and with teams like Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool all conceding 3 goals it's a good job they all spent a shit load of money on attacking players like Alexandre Lacazette, Alvaro Morata and Mohamed Salah to try and bring some kind of balance to the goals for and against tally.
DEFENDER - AHMED HEGAZY
West Brom's Jonny Evans linked with an £18m move to Manchester City may seem like complete madness but when you consider you can have almost three Jonny Evans' for the price of Kyle Walker in today's market perhaps it's not as crazy as it seems? Regardless, Evans is out injured as is his fellow Northern Ireland countryman, International Hero and one of my own personal favourites Gareth McAuley. Tony Pulis has indicated that Big GMAC looks set to miss the September International matches which means a few things.
- Northern Ireland will have to take on San Marino and Czech Republic with no GMAC!
- McAuley is set to miss Gameweek 2 and 3 for Fantasy Premier League
Fear not people, Pulis has you covered. The fact that GMAC is pushing for a bus pass and Evans could be off to sit on a bench somewhere else means that WBA actually brought in defensive cover this summer!
Step forward Mr. Ahmed Hegazy. At 6' 5 he's probably shorter than the 8 foot Ogre Pulis initially enquired to Peter Jackson about but he'll do. Hegazy got off to a flyer in GW1 with the Egyptian getting the only goal of the game in a 1-0 win over Bournemouth. At £4.6m he's affordable for FPL and let's face it, West Brom score more goals from set pieces than most, so when the other, other Northern Irishman Chris Brunt swings in a set piece he could be aiming at the noggin of Hegazy.
He's big, he's strong, he seems to like the physicality of the English game already. The defender is currently on loan from al-Ahly but if he can continue like this then it's possible that Tony Pulis will make the deal permanent, take him out for a romantic meal to Nando's or try to adopt him - who knows - endless possibilities.
Clean sheets in football are like many blokes after a skinful of beer and a dodgy vindaloo - not guaranteed, but with WBA taking on Stoke and Burnley in their next two league matches they have a decent shout of keeping them both out.
And how many players can rock a perm these days?
MIDFIELDER: RIYAD MAHREZ
Taking on Brighton in his first home game of the season is Ryhad Mahrez at Leicester. SPOILER ALERT- Mahrez fancies a move away from Leicester.
This is the type of "In The Know" information you have come to expect here or ITK as us ITK types like to label ourselves. With that revelation out of the way it kinda makes sense that Mahrez pulls out all the stops for the remainder of the transfer window so he can get a move away from the King Power Stadium.
There's actually a rationale behind this pick also. Jamie Vardy was well up for the first game of the season against Arsenal and you get the feeling there was some kind of WKD win bonus incentive built into his contract if he performs well in the Friday night games.
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With Vardy in this type of form and manager Craig Shakespeare getting ready to unleash new boy Kelechi Iheanacho, Mahrez now has a solid pairing in front of him to either take a pass to feet, run into space or punch concrete walls in the tunnel after the game if reports are to be believed.
Eitherway a hungry front line means increased opportunities for Mahrez and he could really do with being the Dogs Bollocks in this match if he wants someone to fork out £50m for him before Jim White struts out on deadline day like the Golden Tied Transfer Messiah he is.
He's also in my Fantasy Draft team and I need the points...
FORWARD: HARRY KANE
More than 50% of people now have Romelu Lukaku up front in their fantasy teams and if you are reading Fantasy content on ODDSbible there's a good chance you have him also. With this in mind I am not going to pick Lukaku otherwise it would be pretty boring each week.
Not going to lie to you folks - I went Balls deep on my Harry Kane pick last week and he didn't deliver! With 6 shots against Newcastle last Sunday including one off the post and a goal disallowed for offside he managed to get me riled to the point I almost stopped watching as it was one of those games where he could've/ should've bagged himself at least two.
The offside rule is one of those beautiful paradigms in life where it is the easiest or most difficult decision depending on if the outcome benefits yourself. Case in point - Harry Kane could be 12 yards offside but I'd still start a punch up with Graham Souness in the studio if he tried to tell me otherwise - rightly or wrongly. Wouldn't bother me. LET'S GO SOUNESS!
I digress.
This Sunday in the second of the 3 consecutive Super Sunday outings for Spurs, Harry Kane takes on Chelsea at Wembley. Again you feel that Kane will get the lion's share of chances that come their way and with Cahill out following his red card last week Chelsea may be susceptible with only another 42 international capped defenders to call upon.
Here's the absolute truth - I have well and truly covered my arse with this Kane thing. If he scores - happy days - the fantasy points come rolling in. If he doesn't - I've already made contact with multiple bookmakers and placed a bet for Harry Kane to keep up this ridiculous statistic of never having scored in the league in August. Win - Win
If you are looking for a differential up top there was a very impressive League debut from Huddersfield's new poster boy Steve Mounie - The 6'3 front man signed from Montpellier this summer announced himself with a brace away to Crystal Palace and has spoken about emulating his idol Didier Drogba. Whether he can do that makes no difference - at £6m he's less than half the price of Kane so if you're tight for cash - bung him in instead!
Dear Mr. Souness, I love you really. Please don't come looking for me...
Written by Ryan @FantasyYIRMA
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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 192 consecutive gameweek previews for the Fantasy Premier League we have a slight idea of what we're talking about however feel we could've qualified as an astronaut had the time been spent more productively.
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