Gameweek 14 Preview

Gameweek 14 Fixtures
Blackburn v Stoke City
Fulham v Bolton
Man City v Hull City
Portsmouth v Man Utd
West Ham v Burnley
Wigan v Sunderland
Aston Villa v Tottenham
Wolves v Birmingham (Sun)
Everton v Liverpool (Sun)
Arsenal v Chelsea (Sun)

I love the fixture list this week from both a fantasy and real life perspective, with Sunday's fixture list looking particularly tasty (not to mention ¡El SuperClásico! between Real Madrid and Barcelona later that evening). The stats suggest Villa, Everton, Fulham, City and West Ham should score goals, while common sense suggests that United should clearly be in this list (even though Portsmouth have actually been very solid at home 1.33 GPG conceded).

Unfortunately some managers won't be very well placed to make changes to capitalise on these fixtures as they try to put out fires in their team with Darren Bent the latest to go down with injury, although the latest reports suggest this isn't as bad as initially feared. Meanwhile, Drogba made a return midweek against Porto and should be fit to face Arsenal at the big clash of the weekend at the Emirates. Chelsea should also be able to call on Michael Ballack while some reports even suggest Lampard might be fit for the derby clash.

Clean Sheet Rankings (Rank, Predicted Goals)
1. Birmingham (0.31)
2. Chelsea (0.43)
3. Blackburn (0.45)
4. Man City (0.69)
5. Man Utd (0.76)
6. Fulham (0.76)
7. Sunderland (0.83)
8. Wigan (0.86)
9. Wolves (0.86)
10. Liverpool (0.97)
11. Aston Villa (0.99)
12. Burnley (1.00)
13. West Ham (1.08)
14. Arsenal (1.12)
15. Stoke (1.19)
16. Tottenham (1.30)
17. Everton (1.44)
18. Portsmouth (1.73)
19. Bolton (2.31)
20. Hull (2.89)

Chelsea's stellar road defensive form allow them to rank second despite facing an Arsenal side averaging 4.0 GPG at home. The best pickup of the week is the United defense who I am still not 100% convinced by, but have such good fixtures that they will pickup clean sheets in the coming weeks even if they don't hit top form. Vidic returned to action last week but in midweek he was very average and looked a bit sluggish, perhaps not yet at full fitness. With Ferdinand, Evans and O'Shea out, Wes Brown looks like a safe pick to play and I love his value at 5.6m. He can also be easily switched for O'Shea (5.5m) when players start to return to full fitness. Birmingham also look like a good source of players as their next 5 games look great and City's defense is currently 3rd in the league. Joe Hart is the obvious choice here but Carr (4m) and Dann (3.9m) also look like solid pickups.
Of the sides with bad games this week, Hull, Portsmouth, Everton and Stoke have a bad fixture list and should be considered sells, unless you hold them as bench players or viable rotation options (such as Sorensen).

Captain Picks
1. Emmanuel Adebayor
2. Cesc Fabregas
3. Craig Bellamy
4. Didier Drogba*
5. Wayne Rooney
6. Carlton Cole
7. Ashley Young
8. Shaun Wright Phillips
9. Steve Gerrard
10. Frank Lampard*
*Some injury risk with these players so check the latest news before signing.

Premium captain picks are always limited when two top teams square off and there's no doubt the likes of Fabregas and Drogba are damaged by this game. However, to play the odds I still like them in my top four as I'd prefer Fabregas in a tough game than, say, Ashley Young against any opponent. True, others will likely outscore Fabregas but as a safe pick he still remains one of the best. He is only topped this week by Adebayor who I'm really hoping repays me, having chosen him at the last minute last week ahead of Jermaine Defoe. City and West Ham look set to score a few this week and so I've gone with the top striker from each team to net this week. Rounding off the top 10 are the two former fantasy champions who have struggled a bit this year. Last season I would have bet money on a big game from Gerrard against local rivals Everton after the disappointment of midweek but I simply don't trust this team anymore and cannot recommend using your captaincy on any of Benitez's players until Torres is back.

I'll be back tomorrow with the last minute team news, but why not tweet @plfantasy or post your thoughts and lineup questions below.