Fantasy Premier League 2013 Week 12: Players Who Are Struggling for Form

The most difficult aspect of your average fantasy season is not necessarily affording the "best" players, but constructing a line-up made of the Premier League's most in-form stars.

In that sense, a big price tag doesn't always equate to big results in terms of point production, and an expensive but out-of-form player can often be a bane not just to your wallet, but your results, too.

So that you're not caught out of pocket, read on for a breakdown of some of the English top flight's stars who are currently struggling for results and not worth splashing the cash on.

Gael Clichy

Value: £5.9 Million

Scoring goals hasn't been a problem for Manchester City thus far in the campaign, but keeping clean sheets has been a bigger ask and the club's 7-0 win over Norwich last week was the first league game they hadn't conceded in six matches.

Manuel Pellegrini is blessed in having two offensively effective left-backs in Gael Clichy and Aleksandar Kolarov, except the pair don't offer as much resistance as the manager might like to see.

Clichy has returned to the side as first choice in recent outings but is yet to contribute an assist this season and has only seen his value decrease as a result.

Paulinho

Value: £6.9 Million

Following a bright start to life in the Premier League, Paulinho has simmered off the boil slightly in recent weeks and hasn't been able to stop Tottenham scoring just five goals in their past six games.

The Brazilian was intended to form a part of Spurs' new-look midfield, the likes of which could challenge for title honours, but has instead simply helped in making the North Londoners look slightly stale of late.

One goal and two assists in 10 games isn't exactly the return that Andre Villas-Boas will have been hoping to see from his big summer expenditure, although that's not to understate the South American's value to the team outside of fantasy league terms.

Ashley Cole

Value: £6.3 Million

Such is the good form of Cesar Azpilicueta that Ashley Cole actually lost his place at left-back to the Spaniard for this weekend's 2-2 draw with West Brom.

As talkSPORT's Ian Abrahams suggests, it's something that could go on for a while yet, according to Jose Mourinho:

While that may not necessarily be due to a lack of form from the latter, the Blues haven't kept a Premier League clean sheet since mid-September, and that's during the time that Cole has been in the side.

Usually, the Englishman is right up there with Europe's top wing-backs statistically speaking, but the veteran is yet to register an assist or a goal this season, nowhere near worth his hefty price.