First of all, apologies for the lack of posts recently, its been a combination of work and the international break that has stifled my blogging of late.
Before previewing this week's games I thought it might be useful to have a quick look around the league to see who's in and who's out for gameweek 8.
GoalkeepersNo injuries here of any note, though if for some reason you're one of the 2% of players to own Paul Robinson, you may want to look elsewhere as he is still questionable for this week (@Bolton). His potential replacement, Jason Brown (4.5m) is not particularly good value.
DefendersChelsea are the biggest question mark this week with Terry, Carvalho, Alex and Cole all listed as injured at
physioroom.com, and
Bosingwa being ruled out of the midweek game against Albania. Carvalho will almost certainly not figure, where as the other four look set to play at this point (all have missed international duty tonight). If you hold them, you are probably safe to start them if you have a decent sub, though I wouldn't recommend buying them at this point. However, after Boro away and Liverpool, Chelsea have a pretty nice run of games so you may want to position yourself accordingly.
Martin Skrtel will miss Liverpool's game this week and could be out until beyond christmas (knee). It is suggested that
Daniel Agger (5.9m) will replace Skrtel, though this is somewhat questionable with all the current
transfer rumblings. Agger would be a great addition if Benitez picks him and would be a sure fire way to make a bit of cash if you jump on him early.
Midfielders
Deco is still a doubt for this week having not featured for Portugal this week, though is still owned by a surprising 15% of owners. His value has crashed to 9.2m in recent weeks and he could be a nice pickup when he does return (though I'd hold off on this for now).
Deco's team mate Joe Cole
Tim Cahill will miss the next two weeks through suspension which is tough for owners with the lack of talent in his price bracket. A downgrade in price to the likes of Denilson, Valencia or Ireland may be a decent idea for the next couple of weeks.
Scholes and Carrick will definitely miss the visit of West Brom, and Hargreaves looks to be a doubt which could make Anderson (6.0) a steal. Anderson racked up 3 bonus points last week against Blackburn and has impressed when given a chance this season.
Gutierrez (5.9) could potentially return for Newcastle which will be a boost after his promising start to the season. With a decent run of fixtures on the horizon he could be a decent pickup for those looking for someone a bit different.
ForwardsAshton is out until the new year and should not be held by anyone right now, though he inexplicably is by 5.5% players. West Ham have added the once prolific Diego Tristan who could be worth monitoring over the coming weeks if he can force his way past the likes of Di Michele, Cole and Bellamy.
Drogba is still out (knee) and Anelka will lead the line in his absence. Anelka has scored 4 goals so far this season though owners have been dumping him in the thousands and his value has fallen to 9.3 which makes him a decent pickup this week against Boro.
Pavlyuchenko is out until the end of the month though I can't see why you would have the so far unimpressive big man anyway.
The Slovakian international is back in training and could be the must have buy this Christmas. We all got excited about Alex and Agger as cheap members of a legaue leading back four but each of them were only ever going to be stop gaps. Skrtel however is a bona fide starter and at 5.6m is incredible value.
