Gameweek 38 Preview

Apologies for the lack of posts this past week, work and commitments at home have taken over and I've barely even caught a game of footy never mind had chance to formulate some useful fantasy thoughts. I guess the good news is that with the season so close to finishing, it hopefully didn't cost anyone anything significant by not being able to talk through their team last week.

Clean Sheet Rankings

1. Man Utd
2. Everton
3. Arsenal
4. Aston Villa
5. Chelsea
6. Wolves
7. Sunderland
8. Hull
9. Liverpool
10. Tottenham
11. Bolton
12. Burnley
13. Man City
14. Birmingham
15. Stoke
16. West Ham
17. Portsmouth
18. Blackburn
19. Fulham
20. Wigan

The top 5 are a cut above this week, all enjoying home games against weaker opposition. With no distractions around either, all sides should be looking to go out on a high and of course United and Chelsea have the small matter of a title to play for so there shouldn't be too much Fulham-style slacking off here.

As a look ahead to next season, I have started to tweak my prediction spreadsheet to try and take into account more factors including recent form, type of opposition, form and injuries. Check back over the course of the off season for updates on how I plan to improve the statistical side of the blog to allow for better predictions and hence results.

Captain Picks

1. Didier Drogba
2. Frank Lampard
3. Robin Van Persie
4. Wayne Rooney
5. Mikel Arteta
6. Carlos Tevez
7. Emmanuel Adebayor
8. Louis Saha
9. James Milner
10. Florent Malouda

Again looking to next season, captain picks should be better than this year, which are largely based on form the opponents defense. I have started to create a database of players' performance against various teams to try and factor this in to the picks, so if, say, Darren Bent has scored in his last three against Birmingham then you might want to play him despite the fact that the Blues have a solid home defense.

I have big plans for the statistical side of the blog for the off season so continue to check back where I'll share some ideas and ask for your input into what info you'd like each week to help you make better decisions. Thanks for reading this season and I look forward to seeing you again throughout the off season to discuss all the latest transfer news and fantasy strategy.