Shinji Kagawa and Luis Suarez dominated the headlines with a hat-trick apiece in the 28th match weekend at the Premier League this season.
Kagawa's is an interesting story given that he's been in an out of reckoning all season because of injury and poor form. Going into the weekend's game against Norwich he had had only two goals entire season for Manchester United and not too many fantasy owners would have gotten him into their line-ups.
So while this Kagawa hat-trick may not change things around too much for those at the top of the league - given that not too many would have had him in their teams - his goal-scoring adds another dimension to the Manchester United team.
This will also add to the fantasy manager's headache, now that there is an extra option to think about.
Suarez's goals were not as surprising. The opponent was Wigan who have conceded goals by the buckets and once they were down by a goal in the second minute, the defense came hurtling down. From a personal perspective, the good news for me was that I had Suarez in my own football fantasy team; the not-so-good news - I opted to play Wigan goalie Ali Al Habsi for this round.
My sense is that many of the fantasy managers would have got in Suarez if they did not have him already given that the Reds are one of the very few teams which play three games this month - eight other sides feature in only two because of their FA Cup commitments.
The other game that produced a couple of high-pointers for the fantasy managers was between Everton and Reading. Marouane Felliani has shown good form recently and he not only opened the scoring for the Toffees in this game but also provided an assist for the team's second goal drilled in by Steven Pienaar. Pienaar himself then assisted Kevin Mirallas' third goal and had it not been for the 84th minute consolation from Hal Robson-Kanu for Reading, Everton could well have gotten themselves a clean sheet.
One of the players I had recommended for this week was Reading's Adam le Fondre who finally started for his side and nearly scored the game's first goal - rattling the woodwork early on. He later got himself a yellow card, much to the chagrin of fantasy football managers who had him in the side.
Wayne Rooney was another star of the week as he provided two of the assists for Kagawa's goals before rounding up the tally with a late goal himself. With Robin van Persie not looking his fittest self, Rooney's return to form will not only be of vital importance for the United for their game against Real Madrid on Tuesday but also give fantasy managers more choices through the month.
Defensively, I must say that it was a surprise to see West Ham not concede a goal to Stoke. West Ham's season seemed to have gone kaput after a bright start but more recent form has shown encouraging signs. Still, to win 1-0 was unexpected and a lot of credit must go to their goal-keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen who kept a clean sheet.
Interestingly, there wasn't much to choose from between the goal-keepers with all of Pepe Reina, Michel Vorm, David de Gea, Joe Hart and Petr Cech maintaining a clean sheet each.
Match-week 29 will have six matches only over the next weekend.
So while this Kagawa hat-trick may not change things around too much for those at the top of the league - given that not too many would have had him in their teams - his goal-scoring adds another dimension to the Manchester United team.
This will also add to the fantasy manager's headache, now that there is an extra option to think about.
Suarez's goals were not as surprising. The opponent was Wigan who have conceded goals by the buckets and once they were down by a goal in the second minute, the defense came hurtling down. From a personal perspective, the good news for me was that I had Suarez in my own football fantasy team; the not-so-good news - I opted to play Wigan goalie Ali Al Habsi for this round.
My sense is that many of the fantasy managers would have got in Suarez if they did not have him already given that the Reds are one of the very few teams which play three games this month - eight other sides feature in only two because of their FA Cup commitments.
The other game that produced a couple of high-pointers for the fantasy managers was between Everton and Reading. Marouane Felliani has shown good form recently and he not only opened the scoring for the Toffees in this game but also provided an assist for the team's second goal drilled in by Steven Pienaar. Pienaar himself then assisted Kevin Mirallas' third goal and had it not been for the 84th minute consolation from Hal Robson-Kanu for Reading, Everton could well have gotten themselves a clean sheet.
One of the players I had recommended for this week was Reading's Adam le Fondre who finally started for his side and nearly scored the game's first goal - rattling the woodwork early on. He later got himself a yellow card, much to the chagrin of fantasy football managers who had him in the side.
Wayne Rooney was another star of the week as he provided two of the assists for Kagawa's goals before rounding up the tally with a late goal himself. With Robin van Persie not looking his fittest self, Rooney's return to form will not only be of vital importance for the United for their game against Real Madrid on Tuesday but also give fantasy managers more choices through the month.
Defensively, I must say that it was a surprise to see West Ham not concede a goal to Stoke. West Ham's season seemed to have gone kaput after a bright start but more recent form has shown encouraging signs. Still, to win 1-0 was unexpected and a lot of credit must go to their goal-keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen who kept a clean sheet.
Interestingly, there wasn't much to choose from between the goal-keepers with all of Pepe Reina, Michel Vorm, David de Gea, Joe Hart and Petr Cech maintaining a clean sheet each.
Match-week 29 will have six matches only over the next weekend.
