Arsenal To Have Four More Games Shown Live on TV and Fantasy Football Tips

The international break is well and truly upon us now and with it comes the usual lack of Arsenal news. Luckily I've still got a few things to write about and I'll do my best to keep it as interesting as possible.

Firstly it was announced that four of Arsenal's games in December and early January will be shown live on TV which means that in all five games have had their date and time changed. The games away to "Manure", at home to Chelsea, away to Birmingham and at home to Man City have all been chosen for live transmission with date and time changes and the away game against Wigan had to be moved as well to give us a day off before we play them.

All the exact dates and times can be seen on the club site  but it is interesting that the "Manure" and Chelsea games are both at 8pm on Monday nights. Sky have regained the Monday night slot for this season and they must obviously have decided to put a few of the top notch games on Monday's. It doesn't make things easy for the fans but since when have they ever mattered to the FA or the TV companies. It also means that Arsenal will have no game on Boxing Day which is a bit of a shame as far as I'm concerned as I always liked the trip to the supporters club to watch them.

Fantasy Football Tips:

Regular readers will know my love of fantasy football and that I'm running a league in conjunction with 11Gunners and I thought I should share my ideas on what players are necessities in your team and what players should be avoided at all costs.

Before the season started I tipped Blackpool's Charlie Adam to be a bit of a bargain buy and so he has proved with 38 points in seven matches so far. He has managed two goals and two assists in those games but crucially he has also managed nine bonus points which are always a great boost to any player's score. Over the years playing fantasy football I have noticed that certain players always seem to get the bonus points when their team do well such as Richard Dunne at Aston Villa or our own Cesc Fabregas. These players are invaluable to fantasy managers and the more of them you can have in your squad the better.

So far this season Chelsea have obviously been the stand out team in the league as they have scored 23 goals and only conceded two. In my opinion it's an absolute must to have three Chelsea players in your squad with Drogba and Malouda certainties for me and then one of their defenders added too. My team has Alex In it as I simply refuse to even consider adding Cashley Cole to any team I pick. The other options from the Chelsea ranks would be Lampard or Essien but Lampard is very expensive as well as being injured and I just feel Malouda will get more points than Essien.

I would also think that Nani is a very good buy as he seems to have found a new gear in terms of his attacking play this season and he is now a certain starter with Valencia injured for the rest of the season. I know he's a diver and he feigns injury a lot but he is totting up the points very nicely this season and that's what it's all about. Other midfielders that are reasonably priced and will keep your points ticking over are probably Newcastle's Kevin Nolan, Aston Villa's Marc Albrighton and West Brom's Chris Brunt and they are useful to have in your team as subs as as a cheap alternative when all your money has been spent elsewhere.

The top two goalkeepers are Joe Hart and Peter Cech but they cost a fair deal and other alternatives that are scoring well are Ben Foster of Birmingham, Matthew Gilks of Blackpool or even Ali Al-Habsi of Wigan who has only conceded three goals in five games since taking Chris Kirkland's place in their team. I would advise against buying Arsenal keepers or defenders as they just cannot keep a clean sheet at the moment.

In defence besides the obvious Chelsea choices there are very few Man City players doing well as their defence has changed a lot from game to game due to injuries even though they are fairly solid at the back. A few possible bargain players are Ahmed Elmohamady of Sunderland, Antolin Alcarez of Wigan, Titus Bramble of Wigan and Christopher Samba of Blackburn who are all doing very well considering the price they are available at. I know Wigan can leak a lot of goals at times but the exclusion of Chris Kirkland from their team seems to have tightened them up a lot at the back and these players can always be your subs to fall back on when others don't play.

I've already mentioned Drogba as a must have in your team and Tevez is certainly a good partner up front for him if you can afford them both. On the cheaper end of the scale there is Johan Elmander who is scoring very well for Bolton and Peter Odemwingie of West Brom who is also performing admirably. Luke Varney of Blackpool is also well worth the money he is available at and Darren Bent continues to knock in the goals although his price is a little higher. Both Drogba and Odemwingie are scoring very well in bonus points too which is a great help as I said earlier.

Finally I have to say that once he is back playing at full fitness I don't think any player will be able to match the points haul that Cesc Fabregas will amass as I think he is a class above the rest of the players in the competition. Midfielders traditionally score the most points in fantasy football and one final player to consider is unfortunately playing for the Spuds. Rafael Van der Vaart has had a good start to his career at the Spuds and he is good enough to make a real impact but still available at a reasonable price for the moment. That's it for today. 

See You Tomorrow.