Gameweek 15 Preview

Gameweek 15 Fixtures
Portsmouth v Burnley
Arsenal v Stoke City
Aston Villa v Hull City
Blackburn v Liverpool
West Ham v Man Utd
Wigan v Birmingham
Wolves v Bolton
Man City v Chelsea
Fulham v Sunderland
Everton v Tottenham

In a week where many focus their attention on tomorrow's world cup draw, there are some excellent looking fantasy games that should see some big points after a couple of up and down weeks for many of us. Villa and United each provide plenty of fantasy options and face opponents leaking goals a plenty this season (2.57 GPG and 2.14 GPG respectively). Three excellent defensive opportunities arise this week, with three teams given predicted to concede less than 0.5 GPG (Villa, Fulham and Arsenal).

After a flurry of big name injuries over the past month, the situation is starting to improve and we may even get Torres back this week. Of course as the fantasy Gods giveth they also taketh away with Carlton Cole out for 'several weeks' and Dunn's status unkown which are both blows given their good form for a budget price. The 5-yellow suspensions are also starting to kick in, with Alex Song, Kevin Davies, Johnny Heitinga, Marouane Fellaini and Younes Kaboul all out for this week.

Clean Sheet Rankings (Predicted goals conceded in parenthesis)

1. Aston Villa (0.41)
2. Fulham (0.41)
3. Arsenal (0.45)*
4. Wigan (0.86)
5. Birmingham (0.96)*
6. Blackburn (0.96)
7. Bolton (0.96)
8. Man United (1.23)*
9. Portsmouth (1.31)
10. Wolves (1.40)
11. Tottenham (1.48)
12. Chelsea (1.56)
13. Sunderland (1.65)
14. Liverpool (1.80)
15. Everton (1.97)
16. Man City (2.30)
17. Stoke (2.55)
18. Burnley (2.73)
19. West Ham (2.87)
20. Hull (3.20)

* Despite not having the best matchups this week, if you want to replace an injured player (such as Distin) or one from a team with bad matchups (such as Shawcross) then I like the three asterisked sides for the next 5 weeks or so. If you want a one week replacement then go with the above list.

It doesn't get much better than Villa and Fulham this week as two good defensive sides (6 goals conceded in 7 home games) face opponents who are really struggling on the road (5 goals in 7 road games each). Hull are obviously improving and Darren Bent is always a threat but you have to feel comfortable starting players from either of these sides this week. Arsenal have by far the best matchup of the premium teams and have a nice little run of fixtures excluding the week 16 trip to Anfield so might be worth a thought. I'm still high on the United defense despite the tough fixture this week and I still like them as my favourite premium side for the next 8 weeks.

Captain Rankings

1. Didier Drogba
2. Wayne Rooney
3. Cesc Fabregas
4. Jermaine Defoe
5. Frank Lampard
6. Aaron Lennon
   
7. Andrei Arshavin
8. Gabriel Agbonlahor
9. Nicholas Anelka
10. Ashley Young

I'm not backing against Drogba right now, no matter who the opponent is, and while City have scored goals at home they have also conceded 9 in 6 at Eastlands. United have the pick of the matchups for the big 4 sides so Rooney looks good again this week, while Villa's top matchup gives Young and Agbonlahor a chance to shine this week. Though the risk is higher with this pair, they have as high of a ceiling as anyone this week and are worth considering if you are looking to differentiate.

Yellow Card Watch
Before making any transfers this week, consider the following list of players who are just one card away from a 1 game suspension:

• Phil Bardsley
  
• Stephen Carr
• Jamie Carragher
• Didier Drogba
• David Dunn
• Julien Faubert
• Ricardo Fuller
• Johnny Heitinga
• Jermaine Jenas
• Aaron Mokoena
• Fabrice Muamba
• Scott Parker
• Kieran Richardson
• J'Lloyd Samuel
• Ryan Shawcross
• Martin Skrtel
• Hendry Thomas
• Nemanja Vidic
• Glenn Whelan

Why not post your transfer and lineup issues below, or even tweet them @plfantasy