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Leaders & High Scorers
Holding onto top spot was Shaun Jackson and Pique Blinders. A brace each for Sergio Aguero and Zlatan Ibrahimovic has made this quite a high scoring week - luckily for Shaun, he had both of them! Andre Gray's goal against Liverpool made it a very potent week for the Blinders front three and they lead by one point. Just behind in second place is Maximo United FC, managed by Gary Thompson, who scored highly with the same front three as Shaun.
An honourable mention goes to Richard Wild and Xaxonz FC who were this weeks high scorers, earning 89 points. Richard was another one of many to earn big through Zlatan and Aguero but he also did well at the other end of the field, as Tom Heaton kept a clean sheet. Our game against Middlesbrough was also good for him, earning decent points from Patrick van Aanholt and Alvaro Negredo.
Strugglers
Who's that stuck at the bottom of the league? It's our own Simon Fenton! Team Simon did well at the back, as Nacho Monreal and Laurent Koscielny kept clean sheets but all of his strikers failed to score. It didn't help matters that Simon also spent some points to make a ridiculous amount of transfers. It's looking like a long hard season for him.
Just a couple of places above is another Roker Reporter! To be fair, Gav's Ice Cream Kone only joined us in week 2 so they always had some catching up to do. He hasn't made a bad start, earning 52 points, but it does show you how massive missing even just one week can be.
The Writers
We've discussed who did badly but who had a credible week?
Still leading the writers is Carl Purvis and Crystal Phallus who reside in 82nd, moving up four places. Zlatan was the main man for Carl, gaining him double points as his captain, while he was also one of the 9.3% of players to have Etienne Capoue, who netted for Watford. Also breaking into the top 100 was James Henchard's Blackened Roar Mass who climbed five places to 97th thanks to Aguero and Andre Gray. I'm breathing down his neck in 102nd place though, as Champagne Papy Bodji had Aguero as captain and also had Nolito grabbing a couple of goals against Stoke.
In the lower reaches of the first 200 were Jim Holmes' Giroud - Sandstorm in 182nd and Karl Maguire's Steel Panthers in 189th. Karl did have three big earners but the rest of his players failed to earn any big points and Jim's boys didn't have an awful game-week but his highest scorer was Hector Bellerin on 9 points.
Bringing up the rear, while still not being as bad as Gav and Simon, were Daniel Parker's 50 Shades Of O'Shea, Michael Lough's FlyOnTheWingsOfLove and Tom Atkinson's Sunlun, who are 218th, 233rd and 264th respectively. Dan's downfall was not putting faith in Sergio Aguero as his captain and wasting it on Roberto Firmino, who only brought in a measly 4 points. The same goes for Michael who didn't give his armband to Zlatan, choosing Romelu Lukaku who only scored 2. Injuries plauged Tom who saw Fabio Borini, Sadio Mane, Bacary Sagna, Aaron Ramsey, Dimitri Payet and Hugo Lloris all ruled out through injury. Suppose it's quite apt that he's named his team after The Lads.
We're getting there. Well, some of us are.
Who To Pick This Week
If you're having some problems up front and unable to afford Aguero or Zlatan, this could be the week Harry Kane opens his account for the season. Spurs host Liverpool in the early kick off and with Liverpool conceding five in their opening two, you'd fancy Kane to at least grab one goal. He may be the fifth most popular striker in the game, selected by 15.7% of managers, but that's still relatively low compared to the likes of the main men on each half of Manchester.
Etienne Capoue may be a doubt for the weekend but he's enjoying a good start to the season with two goals in two games. Even if he does miss out this week he still may be worth buying, as his price is still low at £4.6 million. Watford host Arsenal on Saturday so there good be goals in it for the former Spurs man, depending on what mood the Gunners are in.
If you need to change things at the back, I'd be taking a look at Manchester United players. They've only conceded one goal so far and even though they travel to Hull City this weekend, who've started well, I'd still expect them to bring the Tigers back down to earth. Luke Shaw has been brilliant for me and scored me 11 points at the weekend, he's available for £5.6 million and always is good shout for an assist.
Enter the code 1743023-485460 at www.fantasy.premierleague.com if you want to get involved.
