Daily Archives: December 2, 2013

Gooner Daily Fantasy Premier League 2013/14: Gameweek 13 Review

Ramsey raked up the points yet again this gameweek

As the weekend kickoff, Fantasy Premier League lovers were in full flow, selecting their teams and captains ahead of what seemed to be like a good gameweek to rake up points in the Gooner Daily FPL 2013/14. As fully expected, many FPL players were quick to give the captain’s armband to Luis Suarez (that had an away game against Hull) and Sergio Aguero (that had a home game against Swansea). The less adventurous ones may have selected Olivier Giroud (that had an away game against Cardiff) and probably Romelu Lukaku (that had a home game against Stoke).

The Premier League kicked off with a boring stalemate between Aston Villa and Sunderland, and I’m positive that Christian Benteke lovers must have made their minds up to removed from their respective teams as the striker notched up another sweet two points to add to his disappointing display. He hasn’t scored since gameweek 4 and I doubt still understand why he still has a price tag of 8.9 million pounds.

Last season, Benteke scored a hat-trick against Sunderland. He fired blanks last weekend

The 4.00pm matches saw Arsenal beat Cardiff with three unreplied goals while Everton went even better, destroying Stoke with four goals. The other games saw Norwich edge past Crystal Palace while West Ham compounded Fulham’s woes with a resounding victory.

Aaron Ramsey was the brightest star in the 4.00pm games and he notched up 15 points. If he hadn’t gotten a yellow card, he would have had 16 points. Mesut Ozil had 11 points while Theo Walcott, despite being on the pitch for a handful of minutes managed to notch up an assist, which ultimately meant that he did better than Giroud that played the entire game.

For Everton, Seamus Coleman had 13 points which will ultimately have an effect on his 5.6 million pounds price tag. He’s currently the highest grossing defender in the FPL in terms of points and he’s followed closely by another impressive Everton defender, Phil Jagielka. I must say that Everton has piled up the clean sheets this season, so it would be a wise punt fielded either Coleman (5.6m), Distin (5.1) or Jagielka (5.8m) in your gameweek 14 team. Leighton Baines is still out injured.

In the late Saturday fixture, Newcastle edged out West Brom, and my team was a beneficiary as my Yohan Cabaye created an assist and coupled with the fact that he played all 90 minutes, I earned five points from him.

Sunday’s fixtures had a twist in the tail with Tottenham and Manchester United sharing the spoils in an epic encounter. I stupidly removed Wayne Rooney from my team and replaced him with Giroud and of course, I was exasperated to see Rooney slamming all the points for his two goal haul while Giroud fed me with some delicious two points.

For those that had Luis Suarez and Sergio Aguero as their captains, they were equally disappointed as both men failed to deliver.

DREAM TEAM

The gameweek 13 Dream Team was clouded with Evertonians but former Gunner, Vito Mannone, earned a place in the spotlight following a brilliant performance against Aston Villa (away) with 10 points. Seamus Coleman (13), Pablo Zabaleta (11) and John Terry (11, yaaaaaaaay, my player) took the defensive positions.

In midfield, Samir Nasri was the king of the pile with his two goals as well as some bonus points earning him 16 points, Aaron Ramsey had 15, Bryan Oviedo had 14 and Gareth Barry had 11. I was stunned to see that 0.2% of FPL players had David Meyler (13) in their teams and they must have been justified putting a 4.3m player in their starting lineup ahead of a game against Liverpool.

In attack, Shrek (13) and Demba Ba (11) took the final positions.

GOONER DAILY 2013/14 FPL

In the Gooner Daily 2013/14 Fantasy Premier League, Reuben Lagat’s Victoria Concordia still leads the log table with 781 points, which puts him in pole position to win a crested jersey and 30,000 naira at the end of the season. In gameweek 13, he had 68 points, with Rooney, Ramsey and Ozil accounting for a considerable chunk of those points. Aguero was his captain and he only notched up two points.

Following Victoria Concrodia closely is Aahir Gir’s Top of the Table (777 points overall, 54 points this gameweek) and Soumyajit Das’ Soumyaxi ( 774 points overall, 84 this gameweek).

The Gooner Daily Fantasy League offers the blog’s readers and FPL fans alike a chance to win great prizes at the end of the season, with cash prizes for the first, second and third in the log while the winners also gets to win a jersey with whatever he desires crested on it.

To join the Gooner Daily FPL 2013/14, create a team in the Fantasy Premier League site, click on “join league” and insert this code,

971894-486230

See you in gameweek 14.

Sayonara.

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Posted in Competitions, Football, Premier League

Rating Arsenal’s Performances in the Month of November

Dec 2

Posted by enigma106

Remember, Remember the month of November

In season’s past, November has always be a bogey month for Arsenal, as they always had a penchant for losing corresponding fixtures as well as playing poorly.

The Gunners began the month with a comfortable victory over Liverpool which was followed up with a hard-fought nervy win over Dortmund. That night, revenge was served in a cold meal as Aaron Ramsey was brave enough to latch unto Olivier Giroud’s looping header to nod the ball home.

With the Gunners riding high on confidence and coming to Old Trafford in bullish mode, a bug sent from the pits of Hades ravaged the squad and the performance in Old Trafford was one of the poorest I’ve ever seen in a long while. After a long wait for club football due to the international break, the Gunners responded to the blip with a win against an error-prone Southampton side.

Arsene Wenger’s men put themselves in pole position for Champions League qualification with a victory over Olymique Marseille, and they went seven points clear at the top, albeit temporarily, with a commanding victory over Cardiff City in their own turf.

At the end of each month, Gooner Daily rates the performances of the Gunners using a series of categories. There will be three nominations for each category and the blog’s esteemed readers will place their votes on each category. These votes will be used in the season review post that comes up at the end of the season.

SAVE OF THE MONTH

With no Capital One cup action on display, Wojciech Szczesny was used in all six games this month. He also signed a new contract in the course of the month that inspired him to keep five clean sheets in six games, his best run of clean sheets in Arsenal colors I presume.

These clean sheets were only possible because of his brilliance in goal and there were three Szczesny saves that stood out from the crowd. They include:

Szczesny’s magnificent save from Frazier Campbell against Cardiff
Szczesny’s quick-witted save from Adam Lallana against Southampton and,
Szczesny’s low save from Florian Thauvin against Olympique Marseille

GOAL OF THE MONTH

In November, Arsenal played six games and blasted in 10 goals. All these 10 goals contributed to victories and the only game Arsenal failed to score in November resulted in a defeat. With a lot of goals to choose from, Gooner Daily’s top three goals of the month include:

Aaron Ramsey’s belter against Liverpool
Jack Wilshere’s first goal against Marseille
Mathieu Flamini surface-to-goal missile against Cardiff

ASSIST OF THE MONTH

Of the 10 goals scored in the course of the month, eight goals were scored from carefully-threaded passes from teammates while Giroud’s brace against Southampton came from the goalies stupidity and a spot kick after Per Mertesacker was fouled by Jose Fonte. Gooner Daily’s top three assists include:

Mesut Ozil to Jack Wilshere (Marseille)
Mesut Ozil to Aaron Ramsey (Cardiff)
Mesut Ozil to Mathieu Flamini (Cardiff)

MATCH OF THE MONTH

In the course of the month of November, the Gunners recorded five victories from six games and their good form was on display all month long. With just three to choose from five breathtaking games, Gooner Daily’s nominations for match of the month include:

Arsenal 2 Liverpool 0
Dortmund 0 Arsenal 1
Cardiff 0 Arsenal 3

WORST MATCH OF THE MONTH

There’s only one unanimous winner for the November Worst Match of the Month, and it goes to the disappointing defeat to Manchester United in Old Trafford, where the Gunners were punished by You-Know-Who.

MOST IMPROVED PLAYER OF THE MONTH

This goes to the player that made improved performances in the course of the month. Many players put eye-catching performances in the course of the month, but Gooner Daily’s top three include:

Wojciech Szczesny
Tomas Rosicky
Kieran Gibbs

MOST DISAPPOINTING PLAYER

Despite the fact that Arsenal had a good month bar the shambolic outing against Manchester United, some players failed to live up to expectations and the high standards the fans had become accustomed to. Gooner Daily’s nominees for the most disappointing player of the month include:

Santi Cazorla
Mesut Ozil
Olivier Giroud

PLAYER OF THE MONTH

This award goes to the most outstanding player in the month of November. Some players have put up a lot of top-notch performances in the course of the month, but Gooner Daily’s top three include: