Gameweek 3 Preview

This week's preview is going to be a bit condensed as my internet access has been limited while still on my travels. After the long rambling piece from GW2 was done I had enough time to throw together the below rankings which will hopefully help with lineup and transfer questions for the week:

Clean Sheet Rankings

1. Chelsea (0.27)
2. Man United (0.36)
3. Tottenham (0.40)
4. Liverpool (0.55)
5. Blackpool (0.63)
6. Aston Villa (0.70)
7. Wolves (0.79)
8. Newcastle (0.81)
9. Blackburn (1.13)
10. Bolton (1.13)
11. Sunderland (1.17)
12. Arsenal (1.36)
13. Fulham (1.44)
14. Man City (1.48)
15. Everton (1.61)
16. Birmingham (1.63)
17. West Brom (3.39)
18. Stoke (3.73)
19. West Ham (3.83)
20. Wigan (4.03)

Aside from the usual candidates, Blackpool stand out as a top pick for the week but I am cautious about this ranking due to the lack of data we have for them at home in the EPL. That said, Fulham were awful away last season (12 goals) and so Blackpool might just be worth a shot if you need a budget option this week. The top four picks are all worth consideration for doubling up if you can afford them given their great fixtures this week. For reference, I have United defenders ranked 3rd overall as buy prospects based on their value in the next 6 weeks, so they make the most sense if you want to bring one of these boys in this week.

Captain Rankings

1. Gareth Bale
2. Didier Drogba
3. Fernando Torres
4. Ashley Cole 
5. Florent Malouda
6. Steve Gerrard
7. Wayne Rooney
8. Aaron Lennon
9. Nemanja Vidic
10. John Terry

I like the top players this week and would be more than happy captaining anyone in the top 7 here. Spurs, United and Liverpool have outstanding fixtures while Chelsea are in irrepressibly good form and deserve consideration. I can't decide between the top picks here and this will be a decision made at the very last minute. I am currently leaning towards Bale as Spurs could destroy Blackpool having spanked Young Boys last night while Stoke are usually pretty solid defensively and their road defense ranked alongside Arsenal and Villa last year. This might change though such is the form of Drogba, who is the closest thing we have had to a must captain player since Ronaldo left for Madrid.

Apologies for this being a bit short this week but I wanted to get it up quickly rather than writing too much and posting it on Friday night. As always thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing your comments and questions below or @plfantasy.