Premier League Fantasy Football 2013-14: Top Player Picks for Gameweek 12
It's been two weeks since the last episode of this season's English Premier League saga and the action resumes with the cast now knowing which nations will be at next summer's World Cup.
Following the play-off battles during the recent international break, certain players will be spurred on knowing that their country is Rio-bound. Consequently, they will be motivated by the thought of being in that squad.
Conversely, a selection of unfortunate individuals will have to wait another four years for their next chance.
Following the international break, however, there is always a palpable relief that domestic football is back: From Saturday's midday kick-off until Monday evening's game, it is a welcome return.
Conjoined with this euphoria, we also have the prospect of fantasy football recommencing: Mini leagues which have been ignored for two weeks will now receive an influx of attention and wild cards may be deployed.
Let's now take a look at the players who can play on and those who can play off.
Fantasy football stats from Fantasy Premier League.
In: Luis Suarez
1 of 6
Position: Forward
Club: Liverpool
Opponent: Everton (A)
Fantasy Price: £12.0m
Fantasy points so far: 64
There are two things certain about Liverpool's enfant terrible: He polarises opinion whilst also being a prolific goalscorer.
Now in his third season at Anfield, Luis Suarez has generated headlines for good reasons, bad reasons and downright ugly reasons.
"Bitegate" would probably fall into the latter. Against Chelsea at the tail-end of last season, the Uruguayan delivered a performance with which he has become synonymous: provided an assist, scored a late equaliser but marred this with a misdemeanour (namely sinking his teeth into Branislav Ivanovic).
A 10-game ban followed, as well as protracted transfer rumblings of whether he would defect to Arsenal.
Much to the delight of the adoring Anfield attendees, he stayed and has been making up for lost time: In the six games following the expiration of his ban, he has scored eight goals.
He has shoved team-mate Daniel Sturridge out of the limelight—deputising in earnest for Suarez, the English striker has only failed to find the net on three occasions in 11 league games—as to flex his credentials to the watching world.
The Merseyside derby is always a feisty affair and with neighbours Everton currently only three points behind, this season looks to be no different.
As the second most costly striker—behind Manchester United's Robin van Persie—Suarez does not come cheap. If it came down to a contest between United's Dutch master or Liverpool's Uruguayan poacher, the latter has a strong case.
In: Loic Remy
2 of 6
Position: Forward
Club: Newcastle United
Opponent: Norwich (H)
Fantasy Price: £7.8m
Fantasy points so far: 58
Life at Newcastle United can occasionally resemble a Shakespearean drama: full of twists, turns, heroes, villains, adulation and heartbreak.
Even in a week when domestic football was a corollary subject, Ryan Taylor managed to provide a bizarre interlude with his questionable tweet which pertained to the skin colour of certain team-mates, something which looks set to land him in hot water.
During the summer, though, it was the return of Joe Kinnear which had fans gripped to their news outlets. Ill health had seen him resign from his post as manager in 2009, but now in a more sedentary role of Director of Football, he is back on stage.
To continue the Shakespeare theme, comparisons to Bottom, he from A Midsummer Night's Dream, would be fitting: often means well but bumbling and easily misguided.
Presiding over transfer activity, though, Kinnear does appear to have pulled off a masterful coup in securing the one-year loan signing of QPR's Loic Remy.
Granted, he was the solitary arrival that Newcastle (and Kinnear) were able to bring in, but he has had a profound impact.
We gained a glimmer of Remy's abilities during his half-season at Loftus Road: Six goals in 14 games couldn't quite keep his employers in the EPL but did mark his arrival.
At St. James's Park, he has built upon this. Seven goals in eight league starts have aided his side's ascension to ninth place, only three points behind Manchester United in fifth.
A home encounter against a Norwich side only one point away from the relegation trapdoor is an optimal occasion for him to add to his tally.
In: Phil Bardsley
3 of 6
Position: Defender
Club: Sunderland
Opponent: Stoke City (A)
Fantasy Price: £4.4m
Fantasy points so far: 16
They say fortune favours the brave. After taking on the intimidating might of the fiery Paolo Di Canio, Phil Bardsley could have been perceived as being either incredibly courageous or downright dim.
Three months after Bardsley took to social media to deride his manager for an opening-day defeat, only one of them remains at the Stadium of Light. Such bravery (or absent-mindedness) is now reaping fortune.
As various players and managers line up to chastise Di Canio for his methods (the latest being his Sunderland predecessor Martin O'Neill, as reported by The Independent) it is certainly not him.
Following a mutiny by his playing staff, disillusioned at the Italian's "draconian" methods (a term highlighted by O'Neill, now Republic of Ireland boss, courtesy of Luke Edwards at the Daily Telegraph), Di Canio was ousted in September and replaced by Gus Poyet.
Bardsley was one of the first to be brought out of the cold by Poyet and, since then, the former Manchester United defender has been resurgent.
Unable to resist a parting shot at Di Canio during a recent interview with the Daily Mail, this was unnecessary as the Scotland international has been playing in a style which sticks a proverbial two fingers up to his former boss.
Now fully fit after suffering a broken foot in the summer, Bardsley has played the full 90 minutes in their last two games, even being rewarded with the captain's armband.
With his team having won three of their last four games, the Black Cats have been an unlucky omen for their opposition. And Bardsley, at just £4.4 million, is a cheap defender who is scoring points.
Out: Ashley Cole
4 of 6
Position: Defender
Club: Chelsea
Opponent: West Ham (A)
Fantasy Price: £6.3m
Fantasy points so far: 35
As Jose Mourinho triumphantly returned to Chelsea this summer, it is thought that the lobbying by the club's senior players of owner Roman Abramovich was crucial in orchestrating this second coming.
Whilst his former favoured charge Didier Drogba has left Stamford Bridge long ago, the core and trusted group of Mourinho's former players—with whom it is well-documented he kept in contact with in his six-year abstinence from wets London—still remain.
Petr Cech, Frank Lampard, Michael Essien, John Terry and Ashley Cole, who can attest first-hand to just how glorious the original Mourinho glory years really were, are still at the club and remain his faithful servants.
With an influx of youth players, though, this group has had their encore restricted or altered. Essien is yet to make an appearance whilst Lampard, the club's record goalscorer, requires a rest period between games.
As John Terry and Petr Cech remain, as ever, bullet-proof, it is the latter of this group who is now under fire.
Signed for just £5 million from Arsenal, Ashley Cole has had a very successful career. He is also a serial achiever in fantasy football, consistently scoring more than 100 points in each of last six seasons.
But Mourinho's faith in him is now waning. Following Chelsea's recent 1-0 loss to Newcastle, Cole was dropped for the next game (a Champions League tie to Schalke) and also the following EPL game, that contentious 2-2 home draw with West Brom.
Deputising for him at left-back was Cesar Azpilicueta, a player who is naturally right-footed.
If all these weren't reasons enough to transfer Cole out, he also took a blow to the ribs playing for England against Germany in the week and so, if fit, will not be 100 percent.
Out: Laurent Koscielny
5 of 6
Position: Defender
Club: Arsenal
Opponent: Southampton (H)
Fantasy Price: £5.3m
Fantasy points so far: 32
Of all the records and stats on offer, one of the more startling belongs to Arsenal's Laurent Koscielny: Of the three opening-day games he has played for the Gunners, he has been sent off in two of them and stretchered off injured in the other.
Such sentiments astutely summarise the Jekyll-and-Hyde character that is the Frenchman. Signed in 2010, he has experienced mixed fortunes in his time at the Emirates.
Now the first-choice partner for the gargantuan German Per Mertesacker at the heart of Arsenal's defence, Koscielny has performed admirably this season.
With his team at the summit of the table, the 28-year-old has been almost ever-present (save the game he missed for that opening-day dismissal, of course).
However, during the international break, Koscielny was on the receiving end of yet another red card, this time in a crucial World Cup play-off first-leg.
With only three clean sheets in his 10 appearances, no goals scored and no assists contributed, Koscielny simply does not warrant selection.
With that recent red card in mind, he may have a propensity to be shaky. Playing a physical Southampton side, you cannot afford to lose valuable points.
Out: Roberto Soldado
6 of 6
Position: Forward
Club: Tottenham
Opponent: Man City (A)
Fantasy Price: £9.0m
Fantasy points so far: 53
Whilst other international titans used the international break either to vie for one of the last World Cup berths or pit their wits against potential opponents, holders Spain were in Africa as they took on two teams who will not even be in Brazil.
Narrowly winning their first game 2-1 against Equatorial Guinea, they were then beaten 1-0 by South Africa as the Bafana Bafana looked resolute against La Furia Roja.
One player who did not play any part in either game is Tottenham's Roberto Soldado. Having also been omitted from the October international games, it is the second consecutive squad that Soldado has missed out on.
With Atletico Madrid's Brazilian-born striker Diego Costa now eligible to play for Spain, Soldado faces stiff competition if he is to be included in Vicente Del Bosque's squad next summer.
Signed for £26 million this summer, the former Valencia man has experienced a mixed start to life in the EPL.
The stats will decree that, having featured in all of Tottenham's 11 league games thus far, he has contributed four goals, registered two assists and contributed to their seven clean sheets.
However, of the four goals he has scored, three were penalties—the only time he scored from open play was against Aston Villa in October's 2-0 win.
Registering just over two shots per game on average, his pass success is an average 72 percent. One could argue that, being a "matador at the back door," he is yet to receive the service from Spurs' midfield.
Even so, with his price plummeting from a season start value of £9.5 million to his current price of £9 million, there are other more prolific replacements.
