Sunday, 28 November 2010

Newcastle/Chelsea

If the snow stays away we could be in for some intriguing Picklive action this afternoon.Both sides have been unpredictable recently which makes picking players all the more challenging.

Newcastle have moved from the sublime to the ridiculous with ease this season. A 5-1 thrashing of local rivals Sunderland last time out on Picklive was preceded by a 4-0 tonking by Arsenal at St. James' Park.Their Picklive performance was appropriate for both matches, all 5 of the top 5 in the former game, 0 of the top 5 in the latter.

One thing that does seem predictable is Kevin Nolan's goalscoring on Picklive games. Out of 13 league games 6 have been on Picklive - Nolan has scored 7 goals in total this season and all of those 7 have been on Picklive....

Newcastle have Williamson, Barton and Ryan Taylor out, all of whom would've been strong Picklive contenders. Enrique, Tiote and Guthrie seem the next best bets, the former two having solid Picklive pedigree, the latter picked up 56 points in match against Arsenal which was no mean feat.  Carroll can post big scores but needs at least one goal to be worth picking.

Chelsea also have some big players missing. Picklive goliaths Essien, Terry and Lampard are all suspended or injured. Picking defensive players seems the way to go for Chelsea recently. In their last two Picklive games their defensive six (Back 4, Mikel and Cech) have made up the top 6 points scorers in one (v. Sunderland) and 5 of the top 6 in the other (v. Liverpool). Only Malouda managed to get in amongst the defenders and he, along with Mikel and Essien is in the top 3 Chelsea players over time.

So, there are two big factors to consider today. One, which Newcastle and which Chelsea will turn up today? And so, based on that, which team will dominate - it really looks like to could go either way and I wouldn't be surprised by any top 5 combo winning.

The second factor is how many goals we'll see - if you think there will be very few then you should probably concentrate your picking around the Newcastle full-backs and central midfielders plus the Chelsea defensive 6 and Malouda. If you think there will be goals aplenty then Nolan and Carroll become more attractive picks as do the remaining Chelsea players.

Good luck!

BensBulls
(Ben Wraith)

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