Once again there has been Champions league and Europa league games this week. Shortly Manchester City continued their routine with six-goal victories against Shakhtar Donetsk (6-0) while Manchester United did a remarkable turnaround in the last five minutes against Juventus in Turin to win 2-1. Tottenham Hotspur were in the same position, 1-0 down against PSV late in the game, but two late goals from Harry Kane rescued a victory that no keeps the hopes of qualification to the knockout stages alive.The only team to lose in Europe this week was the biggest favourite, Liverpool. Red Star from Belgrade asked them questions they couldn’t answer and the result was an embarrassing 2-0 defeat. Many FPL manager had hoped for optimistic performances from Liverpool assets ahead of the visit to Fulham in Gameweek 12, but they got the opposite, sloppy performances. Both Chelsea and Arsenal had to fight hard in their their EL matches against Bate Borisov and Sporting CP respectively. The outcome was an 0-1 win for Chelsea and 0-0 draw for Arsenal. Chelsea is now the only team in Europe not to have lost a game in all competitions this season.
Looking at gameweek 12 fixtures, even though Liverpool aren’t at their best, Liverpool’s home fixture with leaky Fulham is the standout fixture this weekend and Salah will be the most favoured captain choice. We should expect goals from Liverpool, at least a few, and it could even be worth doubling up on Mo Salah and Sadio Mane. It could also be worth considering doing the same with the Liverpool defence given that Fulham are not expected to score at Anfield.
Chelsea and Arsenal haven’t got the easiest fixtures, Everton and Wolves respectively, but we could though expect them both to score in their home fixtures with Everton and Wolves. Defence wise, Leicester, West Ham, Brighton and Watford have all got fixtures in which they should be able keep it tight and maybe get a clean sheet. So if looking at budget defenders it could well be worth considering players from these teams.
In the Manchester derby I got the feeling Mourinho won’t give away points easily and it could be a tighter clash than many believes. But on the other side I won´t be that surprised if City scores five past De Gea.
Gameweek 12 fixtures:
Match Previews
Crystal Palace - Tottenham
A London derby between Crystal Palace and Tottenham where Spurs are targeting a seventh win from eight Premier League away matches this season. Crystal Palace haven’t registered a win in the six last top-flight fixtures but are now trying to get an end to the run of losses. But looking at recent meetings between the teams there’s not much talking in favour of Palace. Spurs have won their last six PL matches against Palace, conceding only one goal. Spurs have also got five straight home wins in the London derby.
Palace have been awful at home this season and they have only managed to pick up two points from a possible 15 points. Thi is the worst of any side in the top flight so far. Manager Roy Hodgson though seems to believe they can turn this around. After their 3-1 loss to Chelsea last weekend Hodgson said that his side are performing well enough in matches and that the points will come, sooner or later.
A man that seems to like London derbies are Harry Kane (12.4m) who has scored 24 goals in 37 PL London derbies. His ratio (0.65 goals per match) is only bettered by Thierry Henry who scored 43 goals in 59 matches (0.73) for Arsenal.
It looks like Spurs will have to cope without the likes of Jan Verthongen, Danny Rose, Eric Dier and Mousa Dembele while Victor Wanyama is in contention for the the game. Palace have no fresh injury concerns but Christian Benteke, Joel Ward, Connor Wickham and Scott Dann will all remain on the sidelines.
Possible starting lineups:
Crystal Palace: Hennessey; Wan-Bissaka, Tomkins, Sakho, Van Aanholt; McArthur, Kouyate, Milivojevic, Meyer; Zaha, Townsend
Tottenham Hotspur:Lloris; Trippier, Alderweireld, Sanchez, Davies; Winks, Eriksen; Lamela, Lucas, Son; Kane
Manchester City - Manchester United
The match of the gameweek, a Manchester derby. Unbeaten leaders Manchester City are favourites and are comfortably looking for their fourth successive Premier League win. They local rivals Manchester United have also got form after struggling before the last International break. United are now looking for a third straight top-flight win. Both sides have played in CL earlier in the week and both sides put in a great performance so we should expect two teams with high confidence entering the pitch on Sunday.
Looking at the table Manchester United sits seventh and taking into consideration that Man City have not lost any of their last 53 Premier League matches against sides starting the day outside the top four (W44 D9 L0), since a 4-0 loss at Everton in January 2017 United will have to do something really different and put in a top top performance if they are looking to grab all three points from this match. Or just repeat what they did last season when they won 3-2 at the Etihad Stadium despite being 2-0 down. That was a crazy game of football and as a non-fan of either team I’m hoping for something like that also this time.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has never lost consecutive home league matches against a single opponent in his managerial career and Pep do not want that run to end, at least not against a Mourinho side.
For Manchester City Kevin de Bruyne is the only notable absentee.The Belgian suffered another knee injury during the EFL Cup victory over Fulham and is not expected to return until mid-December. A big blow for Manchester City and De Bruyne himself.
When writing the text there is not yet any update on Romelu Lukaku’s fitness. Lukaku has missed his teams’ last two matches through injury. Captain Antonio Valencia is back in contention after his injury scare.
Possible starting lineups:
Man Utd: De Gea; Young, Smalling, Lindelof, Shaw; Herrera, Matic, Pogba; Mata, Sanchez, Martial
Manchester City: Ederson; Walker, Stones, Laporte, Mendy; Fernandinho, Bernardo Silva, Silva; Sterling, Sane, Aguero
Steem-pick
You should never write off a football player. Alvaro Morata (£8.7m) is player that almost everyone has written of after his poor displays in the the second half of last season and the beginning of this season. Morata is an example of how much the confidence means for a football player, not at least for a forward.There has been a lot of “Chelsea-Torres” vibes around him and I don’t say there isn’t any longer, but at least he is now scoring and playing at level that is expected from him. Morata has four goals in his last four matches and impressive underlying statistics to back that up too. He was rested for Chelseas’ midweek game in EL and should start against Everton on Sunday. Morata is my steem-pick ifor gameweek 12.
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