Big guns fail to fire



Van Persie continues to score big in Sky Sports Fantasy Football

Robin van Persie was one of the few big names to produce the goods in a weekend where stars struggled to shine in Sky Sports Fantasy Football.

Following a week of speculation over his future, the Dutchman showed his importance to the Gunners with a brace earning them a 2-1 win over Sunderland.

By taking his tally to five goals this season Van Persie has now scored 21 league goals in 2011, the most from any Premier League player, while his 16-point haul makes him Sky Sports Fantasy Football's fourth highest scorer with 50.

Wayne Rooney and Sergio Aguero remain the biggest scores, with 71 and 69 respectively, but squad rotation and injuries have seen their points hauling halted.

While both the Manchester clubs have maintained their unbeaten starts to the campaign, recent weeks have illustrated the gamble of having one of their marksmen on board with both bosses rotating their frontlines.

While Edin Dzeko, who looked a banker to pick up points in City's clash with Aston Villa, was also benched, it was a similar story for the highest scoring midfielders with David Silva and Nani rested following their international double-headers, while Ashley Young picked up a solitary point.

In contrast, Van Persie's importance as Arsenal's skipper and only their player to score more than once this season, means his is the first name on the team sheet with the added benefit of his set-piece ability aiding his stream of goals.

Pilkington produces

The Gunners captain was, however, not the top scoring player of the weekend as Anthony Pilkington was the unlikely star of the show in bagging 17 points in Norwich's 3-1 win over Swansea.

The winger was the only other player to score twice over the weekend and also picked up Sky Sports' man-of-the-match award to more than double his points tally.

Pilkington now has 32 points, offering great value for his modest price tag of £4.5m, but few reaped the rewards with a mere 0.1% of Fantasy bosses selecting him.

Defender Ricky Martin got the other goal for the Canaries but is hardly likely to be attracting too much interest with his side yet to keep a clean sheet this season.

Defensive dillema

Saying that, it has hardly been easy to find a formidable backline this season with no side keeping more than four clean sheets.

Only two teams, West Brom and Stoke, managed to keep clean sheets over the weekend, with the Baggies' Billy Jones one of only two defenders to reach double figures with an assist in his first appearance of the season.

Blackburn defender Christopher Samba was the other with his header earning Blackburn a point at QPR and him the man-of-the-match award.

In the middle of the park, Adam Johnson and Chris Eagles each delivered 15 points with a goal, an assist and man-of-the-match awards apiece.

Matthew Etherington also delivered the goods with two assists helping him rack up 13 points in Stoke's 2-0 win over Fulham.


skysports.com