Gameweek 17 Review

This is the time of year the serious fantasy football “preppers” have been looking forward to as the festive fixture congestion rears its head. Rotation is imminent and it may have already started this week with the likes of Wilfried Bony sitting it out on the bench to come on late for the dreaded one point cameo.

Lets take a look through who made the team of the week in the gameweek 17 review, and whether they are at risk of rotation.

Gameweek 17 Dream Team

Goalkeeper

Making his third appearance in the team of the week is the Premier League’s form goalkeeper, Costel Pantilimon. Bearing in mind these three appearances have come in the last six gameweeks, and you start to get an appreciation for what a difference he has made since coming in for Mannone. 10 points earned during the 1-0 away victory in the Tyne-Wear derby. Sunderland have become clean sheet experts and still have half decent fixtures coming up. Not much better value to be found for £4.5m.
Rotation Risk: 0%

Defenders

It has been a while since a Southampton defender made it into the team of the week, and surprisingly it isn’t Clyne or Bertrand. Step forward Maya Yoshida, whose 15 point haul made him the highest points scoring defender this week. This was down to his goal, Southampton’s clean sheet and maximum bonus points earned during the somewhat unexpected 3-0 win at home against Everton.
Rotation Risk: 50%

Also picking up 15 points this week was Chelsea skipper John Terry. An ever present this season, playing every minute of every game, he looks to be getting stronger as the season progresses. Stoke away on a cold windy night in December could have dented Mourinho’s title hopes, but JT calmed any nerves after just two minutes. Say what you like about him, nobody can suggest he isn’t a leader.
Rotation Risk: 0%

With Baines going massively off the boil since his return from injury, many managers decided to cut their losses and dump him after gameweek 16. The like-for-like replacement was Pablo Zabaleta, and it proved to be a good decision as the Argentinian full-back picked up 11 points which included an assist and two bonus points. Man City have a great run of fixtures ahead, but Pellegrini does like to rotate his defensive players and seems to apply little logic to it when he does.
Rotation Risk: 25%

Completing the defence this week was West Ham’s Winston Reid with his 3 bonus points contributing to his 9 point total earned during the Hammers 2-0 win at home to an increasingly terrible Leicester side. Arguably the leader of West Ham in all but armband, he can be yours for a cheap £5.0m. I would suspect though that you’re only really interested in attacking players from this team?
Rotation Risk: 0%

Midfielders

I was quoted recently as saying that David Silva would “have to play his way back into some form” before I would consider him for my own team. He did that in some style this weekend, scoring two and picking up maximum bonus points in the 3-0 victory over Palace. 16 points in a 68 minute appearance from a player still regaining match fitness. Nice if you got on-board with him, devastating if you didn’t. He will be a popular transfer target, but Pellegrini will continue to use him sparingly and I suspect Lampard will be used in at least one of the next three games in place of old glass ankles.
Rotation Risk: 75%

A late injury to Sigurdsson and the news Bony was on the bench no doubt had Swansea fans and fantasy managers fearing the worst, but they coped well without their two key players. It was Ki Sung-Yeung who opened the scoring, and who picked up maximum bonus points for an 11 point return. Having missed only 6 minutes of the season back in gameweek 6, I’d suggest his place is safe over Christmas.
Rotation Risk: 0%

The scourge of Newcastle continued his incredible scoring record in the Tyne-Wear derby, collecting 11 points along with the winning goal in a combative encounter in the North East. Sunderland’s Adam Johnson is a fantasy football enigma; brilliant on his day, but those days come round so infrequently nobody can justify owning him. In actual fact 2.4% of managers do, and they were justly rewarded for showing faith.
Rotation Risk: 25%

Stephane Sessegnon is a blast from the past in the weekly dream team. His glory days at Sunderland are a dim and distant memory, but his two assists for the West Brom goals were a reminder of what once was. Great shame the Baggies then rolled over and allowed their bellies to be tickled by QPR’s Charlie Austin. I don’t think these double point hauls are anything Sessegnon will replicate any time soon, but 10 is a decent total.
Rotarion Risk: 25%

Making a late Monday evening entrance into the weekly team was assist-machine Cesc Fabregas. The Chelsea midfielder set up John Terry’s opener and then scored himself to put the result beyond doubt. Admittedly the rotation of Oscar allowed him to play further forward in the No.10 role, but surely this has given Mourinho a timely reminder as to where he SHOULD be playing the Spanish magician? 14 points and a masterclass performance.
Rotation Risk: 25%

Forwards

Highest scorer of the week both in terms of points and goals was QPR’s main man, Charlie Austin. Without his goals they would be relegation certs already. However, with this 3-2 victory they launched themselves out of the bottom 3. Arsenal away next, and as we all know QPR don’t win on the road, but two home fixtures in gameweek 18 and 19 make Chaz a juicy option. 17 points and apparently EVERYONE on my Twitter timeline captained him!

The gameweek 19 fixtures roll around quickly, with all teams playing on Boxing Day. Rotation will play a part, so hopefully you’ve kept some transfers in hand. Either that, or you haven’t loaded up on players from the teams with large squads who can afford the luxury of letting players sit out for a game…

FLY

@meet_the_gadfly

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