Week 27: Easy Games

Early thoughts on Player Picks this weekend.

Barcelona v Zaragoza

Could see Barca doing a number on Zaragoza in the style of Real Madrid against Malaga. All their attacking players are worth a pick. Xavi is back to fitness. Pedro's value has dropped nicely to 17. Although, Adriano had a great game in his place at Valencia. (2nd top scorer for Barca behind Messi with 15 pts). Pinto has to stay in goal.


Racing Santander v Real Madrid

Real have been making a meal of it, especially away from home, until last night. The 7-0 mauling of Malaga should get them flowing freely again. But Racing are a stubborn side. Raul Albiol is the stand out bargain. Valued at just 4, he has started to pick up consistently good points in recent weeks. Naturally there's few other bargains to be had. It's a question of whether to hold on to the increasingly unreliable Adebayor.

All the othe fixtures seem painfully close once again. Several of the top 10 are facing each other and everyone immediately below Real Madrid are all in patchy form. Only Sevilla seem to be on the rise. Hercules v Almeria should be a safe bet for Trezeguet goals. Sporting Gijon should do well against ropey Getafe. David Barral has to be worth a go at 7.

Sat, Mar 5	Mallorca v Valencia
Sat, Mar 5	Barcelona v Zaragoza
Sat, Mar 5	Athl Madrid v Villarreal
Sun, Mar 6	Athl Bilbao v Sevilla
Sun, Mar 6	Sporting v Getafe
Sun, Mar 6	HER v Almería
Sun, Mar 6	LEV v Espanyol
Sun, Mar 6	Malaga v Osasuna
Sun, Mar 6	Racing v Real Mad
Mon, Mar 7	Deportivo v RSO

Week23: Gijon break Barca's record

Sporting Gijon 1-1 Barcelona
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Sporting Gijon 1 - 1 Barcelona

Last night, Gijon did the unthinkable and had the audacity to not lose to Barcelona. The game, which included two exquisite goals, ended Barca's 16 game winning streak. Forzafutbal have a great follow up piece telling us that we should not be all that surprised as Gijon have a wonderful ability to stick such spanners in the works. Of course, before their 3-0 defeat at Bilbao last week, they had previously thrashed Mallorca 4-0 in their own back yard and gave Atletico a surprise defeat courtesy of David Barral (see week 20). It was Barral again who gave Gijon the lead in this game, only for Villa to restore parity 10 minutes before time.

The fantasy stats from the game suggest Gijon truly snuffed out the Barca threat with the champions barely mustering a shot on target. It is a rare occasion where no Barcelona player scores more than 15 pts and a  few negative Fantasy Points records were broken for Barca:

Dropping Pedro a big mistake

• Victor Valdes (-5.5) and Pedro (eulogised by Sid Lowe this weekend) (-1.5) scored negative points for the first time of the season. 

It was the first time since week 15 that Pedro didn't manage a shot on target. Pedro started the game on the bench in the place of new signing Ibrahim Affellay. The dutch winger posted a negative return of -3. Pedro replaced Affellay at half time, but didn't manage any better. Dani Alves also scored a dismal 2.5, his worst score of the season.

All in all, the stats suggest Gijon did something tactically excellent in nullifying Barca's wing attack: something Arsenal will need to look at if they have any hope of overcoming Barca in their upcoming Champions League meetings.

• Messi scored 13 points. His lowest total in a game he's started since week 13.

• Also, despite scoring a goal, David Villa only got 10.5 points, on a return for a player worth 25. He's only scored more than 15 pts once since week 16.