Tuesday will give way to Wednesday, and Wednesday will pave the way to Thursday, and so on and so forth. You get the drift. Game week 4 is upon us and with it a whole host of permutations and combinations for the Fantasy Premier League. T4O scout will duly bring you the in and outs every other week, and inform you of the picks you cannot miss for the weekends, and the players you need to get in, and the ones you need to ship out.
IN Harry Kane
Tottenham Hotspur
Price: 10.9
OUT Sergio Aguero
Manchester City
Price: 13.0
My editor, bless him, pointed out that Harry Kane seldom scores in August, and that it takes him till September to find his discarded scoring boots from the past season, under the clutter of his bed. With the addition of Moussa Sissoko, the Spurs’ designated sharpshooter needn’t come deep and play off Jansen. The cut and thrust the Frenchman will provide plenty of scraps for the Englishman to feed off in and around the box, and assist the playmakers, Christian Eriksen and Eric Lamela to stay in the attacking third to supply further ammunition for the England international. Spurs will be taking on Stoke, away from home, and we expect the Potters to shut up shop and try to hit the London club on the counter. Consequently, it could be a match with very few openings, and that’s exactly where Harry leaves his calling card behind.
The Argentine sniper will be missing the Manchester United derby due to West Ham’s Winston Reid impudently getting his face in the way of Sergio’s fictile elbows.
Mesut Ozil IN
Arsenal
Price: 9.5
Paul Pogba OUT
Manchester United
Price: 8.5
As we all come to realise that, Mesut Ozil is a bit of a flat-track bully; and while Southampton aren’t exactly pushovers, the German does turn on the style at the Emirates against teams of such standing. Searching for match fitness returning from the European championships, it looks likely that he’ll start. Playing 69 minutes against Watford and notching up 1 goal for his troubles, the natural progression would be him slotting right in, pulling the strings, in a Ramsey-less midfield. That being said, it would be rather interesting to note how Arsene Wenger accommodates both Xhaka, who doesn’t have any discernable tackling ability to back his talents, half of his attempts being more in hope than expectation; and Mesut Ozil, who, well, is wide-eyed and panting and takes the shine away from his incisiveness in the area, if asked to take on defensive responsibilities.
Being the most valuable player in the world, doesn’t necessarily mean that he’d take like a duck to water in the Premier League after his time in the slow-paced Serie A of Italy. Pep Guardiola of Man City would be garnering all his faculty to further extend that bedding in period for the Frenchman, as rush and the rude awakening of the big Manchester looms. A miss for this game week. The match may fly by him.
Cesar Azpilicueta IN
Chelsea
Price: 6.0
Wes Morgan OUT
Leicester City
Price: 5.0
Wes Morgan will have an unenviable task at hand – trying to peg down a Liverpool team playing in front of their home crowd for the first time this season, and that too, in front of that ginormous, monolithic, monument of a Main Stand. The Kop is no longer the only daunting end of the stadium, and the crowd would be in full voice, encouraging Juergen Klopp’s hounds from hell, being led by Senegalese man of war, Sadio Mane. There will be goals for the taking at either end.
Chelsea are away to Swansea, while there may have been a cause for worry under the past managements, of an upset – Tony Conte is fastidious and abrasively persistent with their breakdown of play and grinding down the opposition, and sniffing out the off chance. Azpilicueta will be one of the backbones of this new-look Chelsea side, and will go through a bit of a resurgence, as the Italian would be looking to deploy his working template of a 3-5-2 after procuring the services of David Luiz. In such a formation, the Spaniard’s attacking capabilities will come to the fore as well as his defensive ones. More than just a safe bet, he’s a smart bet.
