Gameweek 10 proved to be another action packed round of premier league fixtures full of goals, cautions and controversy. The only thing that seemed to be missing was a decent number of clean sheets!
Awesome Arsenal
Arsenal against Chelsea was another big clash between two of the premier league’s heavyweights, and once again I was treated to a high scoring match full of attacking end to end football. I thought I had seen it all when Man United beat Arsenal 8-2 or when ManCity defeated Man United 6-1, but this game at StamfordBridge served up another goal feast as Arsenal humbled Chelsea 5-3!
But what does all this mean for us fantasy football managers? In my opinion, there are a few key takeaways from this game. First, Robin van Persie is in superb goal scoring form, and 3 goals, an assist and 3 bonus points in this game confirms his position as a ‘must have’ striker. RVP has now scored an amazing 7 goals in his last 3 premier league games, and in one of those games he was only on the pitch for 25 minutes!
The second key takeaway from the game is the poor state of the Chelsea defense. Chelsea are playing great attacking football, but unlike league leaders ManCity, Chelsea are not able to combine the attacking play with solid defensive football. Chelsea’s style of football is too open, and it is leaving them exposed at the back. The result is a Chelsea team that have kept just one clean sheet in the league all season, which simply isn’t good enough considering the cost of their defenders in the FPL.
My final takeaway will be the impressive form of two of Chelsea’s attacking midfielders. While the attacking play may be costing them at the back, it is at the same time yielding good attacking points for fantasy football managers. The two players that really caught my eye were Mata and Lampard, who both got a goal and an assist in the game.
Blackburn so close yet so far
Poor old Steve Kean saw his Blackburn team draw with Norwich after they were just minutes away from a much needed morale boosting victory. Blackburn conceded 2 very unlucky late goals – one from an unlucky deflection and the other a result of a very weak penalty decision. Until Blackburn’s luck starts to turn, it would seem sensible for fantasy managers to avoid their players for the time being.
Man United Return to ‘Business as Usual’
For Man United, the match away at Everton was a hugely important game to win after the humiliating defeat at the hands of fierce local rivals ManCity in Gameweek 9. After conceding 6 goals against City, Sir Alex Ferguson will have been looking for a clean sheet and 3 points, and that is exactly what his team delivered.
Evra put in a fine display with an assist and 2 bonus points to compliment his clean sheet points. For fantasy managers, it is worth noting the commanding impact of Vidic on his return to the Man United defense, which could be a signal of more clean sheets to come.
The other big factor to note from this game was that it was another game without a goal from Rooney. Rooney has not scored a league goal since gameweek 5, which interestingly was the game when he had that horrendous penalty miss against Chelsea after slipping before striking the ball.
While many will be asking whether the miss has affected his confidence, the real question for fantasy managers that own Rooney is whether they can continue to justify owning such an expensive striker when he simply isn’t scoring goals.
ManCity Win….Again!
The ManCity bandwagon continued on Saturday as Wolves were the latest team to feel the full force of City’s attacking abilities. Mancini once again rotated his squad around, and many fantasy managers will have been frustrated to see the in-form pair of Milner and Balotelli starting on the bench. Elsewhere in the game, Kompany was sent off, which means he will miss the trip to QPR in gameweek 11 and return after the international break , so having him is not a good option.
Spurs Go Marching On
Harry Redknapp has continued the positive momentum at Spurs with another victory, which sees the team from White Hart Lane move up to 4th equal in the premier league. Once again Adebayor looked lively in the game, but the real standout performances from a fantasy perspective were from Gareth Bale and the in-form Dutchman Van der Vaart.
You will no doubt be reading in the press about the massive influence Scott Parker is having at Spurs. Whilst I agree he is a great player for Spurs, he is a classic example of when a great club player isn’t always a great fantasy player. Whilst Redknapp may give Parker high praise, in fantasy terms the Spurs midfielder is far from impressive with no goals and just one assist since arriving at White Hart Lane, which are stats worth considering if you were thinking about buying him.
Demba Ba Bags Another Hat-Trick
The Monday night fixture saw Newcastle take on Stoke at the Brittania. While Stoke has proved to be a tough place to visit this season, you wouldn’t have known it given Demba Ba‘s performance. Ba scored his second hat-trick of the season, and given his price tag of £6.5m it makes him a clear transfer target. My only word of caution is related to Newcastle’s upcoming fixture list, as the Magpies have ManCity, Man United and Chelsea in successive weeks from gameweek 12 onwards.
Gerrard Injury Blow
Steven Gerrard failed to take to the pitch on Saturday as a result of an ankle infection. Liverpool expect to discover the full extent of Steven Gerrard’s latest injury setback later this week, but signs do not look hopeful after the player was pictured on crutches and in plaster after having hospital treatment on the injury.
Liverpool Keep Their Run Going
On the more positive side for Liverpool, the two nil victory over West Brom meant they have not lost in their last 5 league games. Charlie Adam and Andy Carroll were Liverpool’s two goalscorers in the victory over the Baggies.
The Elusive Clean Sheet
To finish, I am going to point out the obvious, but just how elusive are clean sheets this season in the premier league! Over the last 3 gameweeks, there have been just 8 clean sheets out of a possible 60! Surely this shows the attacking strength of the clubs in the premier league, and for fantasy managers it suggests it is simply not worth paying big money for expensive defenders as the chances of them keeping clean sheets are low. A stat worth considering.
" I knew the pressure would be huge. Manchester United are a massive club and I knew it would be a big challenge for me. But I’ve said before I’ve always believed in my ability and hopefully I’m proving to people that I can rise to that challenge. I'm really enjoying myself here. All the lads have been brilliant to me and really helped me along. Training with world class players week in, week out has only made me a better player and I’m thankful for that. I wanted to play a part in all these big games. I enjoy the challenge and am looking forward to the ones we have ahead. The thing that’s stood out since I’ve joined United is the desire to win every single game. It means to everything to win at this club. I’m just glad to be a part of it."
- Phil Jones
"For me United remain one of the best teams in the world. Nothing changes that — even losing 6-1 at home to City."
-Pep Guardiola
“We realize how much this result has hurt the fans and how they’ll go into work on Monday and get a lot of stick, but the players are hurting just as much. We live in the city too and we’re going to have to deal with it as well. No-one wants to lose by the margin we did today, but you’ve always got to look at positives and say you can lose by that score or lose 1-0 and it’s still the same amount of points [to lose]. I said to the lads in the dressing room afterwards that we need to remember how it feels to lose a game like this, but to remember that no medals are handed out now. There’s still a long way to go in the season. It’s a bad result, but by no means is the league over. We’ve got to respond and win our next game.”
-Darren Fletcher
“You have to recover. In the history of Manchester United, it is another day and we’ll recover from this, there’s no question about that. But that kind of defeat will make an impact on the players. There’s a lot of embarrassment in the dressing room and quite rightly so. Hopefully they’ll show that next week. For the first 10 minutes, we absolutely dominated the game and played some brilliant football so it was hard to believe when we went 1-0 down, But that was retrievable. The sending-off was a killer blow to us. The player (Balotelli) didn’t control the ball, but the fact Jonny tugged his jersey gave the referee plenty of reason to send him off. It was a killer, a really bad blow to us because City are so strong defensively."
-Sir Alex Ferguson
"The derby is always an event where emotions run high and today was no exception. We are grateful to the vast majority of people that attended today, whose conduct was exemplary and they enjoyed this fixture in the true spirit of the game."
-Chief Supt John O’Hare, of Greater Manchester Police
I read this article today morning and i could not stop crying! I haven't seen a person as brave as this guy is! He is a true United fan! Courtesy: Mirror Football(Oliver Holt)
Little Jack Marshall is lying in his bed in the front room of his parents' house.
His head is resting on a Manchester United pillow case. He is wearing his Manchester United shirt.
A giant United flag covers the wall behind him. His mum and dad put it up for the Champions League final last month and they have not been able to bring themselves to take it down.
Jack is five years old but because of the severity of the treatment he has endured for the cancer that is killing him, he can only speak in a whisper.
So when I ask him who his favourite player is, I can see his eyes sparkle but I have to kneel beside him to hear his answer.
"Rooney," he says. "When I met him, I told him he was the best player in the world. And I asked if I could give him a kiss."
Rooney bowed his head low that day a few weeks ago at United's Carrington training ground so that the brave little boy's wish could be granted.
But then football has brought Jack joy throughout his short life. It fills many of his family's happiest memories of him.
He learned to walk by kicking a football. His mum, Tracey, held him by his hands as he staggered round the house as a toddler, swinging his foot at a ball then tottering after it and kicking it again.
Then there was the time his parents took him and his older brother, Josh, to Old Trafford to watch his first game against Blackburn Rovers when he was three.
Jack rode down Sir Matt Busby Way on the shoulders of his dad, Craig, and even though it was a cold December night, he refused point blank to wear a jumper over his United shirt.
Craig and Tracey worried that people were looking at the shivering little lad and thinking they were bad parents but Jack was so proud of that shirt, he wouldn't let it be covered up.
At home in Scunthorpe, he lived for football even then. He went to the local Footy Monsters kids' group every week without fail.
The coaches there said they had never seen a little boy who loved the game so much.
Even after all their lives changed in October 2009, somehow it was football that brought them the most comfort.
Jack kept waking in the night, being sick. The doctors thought it was a virus. It kept happening. They still thought it was a virus. Then, one day, Jack lost the use of his legs.
So he had a scan and they discovered he had a brain tumour and an aggressive form of cancer that had already spread to his spine.
He survived a 10-hour operation to remove the primary tumour. Then he had to endure drastic chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment to try to stop the disease raging.
While he was recovering from the trauma of the operation, the doctors made special arrangements for him and his family to watch a United-Chelsea game on the television.
"It meant we could just sit as a family and watch something Jack loved," Craig said. "It brought some normality to the most extreme of abnormal situations."
When Jack was finally allowed to go back home to Scunthorpe, still desperately ill and unable to walk, there was a surprise waiting for him.
His mum and dad had met Sir Alex Ferguson at the Tankersley Manor Hotel in South Yorkshire while they were having a couple of hours away from the hospital.
United were there preparing for a Carling Cup tie against Barnsley and Sir Alex had spoken to Tracey about Jack and asked for her address.
When Jack was wheeled back into the house, there was a box of United paraphernalia sent by Sir Alex. Amongst it, there was a football with the club crest emblazoned on it.
So Jack learned to walk all over again, using the same method he had used as a toddler.
This time, he had a walker, a kind of mini Zimmer frame, and he chased that United football all over the house until he could stand unaided again.
"He used that football every single day in his rehab," Tracey said, "because it had the United crest on it. His physios used to joke with him about it all the time."
By March this year, Jack had been brought so low by the cancer that doctors told Tracey and Craig he only had a couple of days left to live.
He came home again to the bed in the front room and the television and the football. And the couple of days turned into weeks and now the weeks have turned into months.
And as Jack lay there, surrounded by the love of his family, football began to give something back to the little boy who had given so much to it.
United have acted with great class, helping to organise the training ground visit in mid-April. Ryan Giggs, in particular, went out of his way to be kind to Jack.
Rooney, Rio Ferdinand and many others have helped to grow him an army of nearly 40,000 followers on Twitter and publicise the fact that brain tumours kill more children than any other form of cancer.
Jack Wilshere has shown a maturity and a concern beyond his years, staying in touch with Jack and his family and wearing a wristband to draw attention to fund-raising efforts on little Jack's behalf. Rooney wore the wristband, too.
Wolves fans took a huge banner with Jack's name on it to games so that Jack could see it as he lay in front of the television. The banner was signed by Mick McCarthy and the Wolves side and given to Jack as a gift.
And then there have been the messages on Twitter, from United fans, from Liverpool fans, from ManchesterCity fans, from fans of every team.
"People have written to us," Tracey says, "saying that they would never have believed it but they had found themselves wanting United to win because they knew it would make Jack happy."
The end of the season was hard for the family. It showed that time was passing and sometimes all Craig and Tracey want is for time to stand still.
They have poured as much energy as they can spare into raising awareness, highlighting the fact that 1 in every 2500 children will develop a brain tumour and that the UK has only a 14% five-year survival rate.
Now that the Premier League season is over, Jack watches MUTV and recordings of old matches, the England U21s, whatever snippets of football he can catch.
He is a beautiful child, still sweet-tempered and loving despite all the agonies he has been through, still blowing kisses to his mum's helper when she pops her head round the door to say goodbye.
Sometimes he wears an expression of heart-breaking solemnity as though he cannot quite believe his life has been stolen from him like this.
Sometimes, if you talk when he is trying to watch Peppa Pig, for instance, it is replaced by a flash of indignation. Sometimes, there are glimpses of the dashing, carefree kid he used to be.
When I have to go, I kneel by his bed again and confess to him that I once went to watch City regularly as well as United.
Jack's eyes widen. "I don't like ManchesterCity," he whispers. And then he smiles.
To learn more about brain tumour awareness go to www.jacksfund.co.uk or follow Jack on Twitter @Jack_Marshall_
