We are in the midst of a short week here as the next set of matches is coming up on Tuesday and Wednesday.  We here at Rotoworld are going to be providing you with most of the usual columns despite the short week but there will be some omissions from the usual content in the short week.  A big source of information this week will be our individual twitter accounts where we’ll try to link you to great info and give you all you need to know for the upcoming week.

Follow the RotoWorld_PL team on Twitter: Galin | Jeremy | Neal | Nik | Steve | Ben | Rob

Another important update is that the deadline for setting your lineup in the Yahoo! game is one hour before kickoff of the first match on Tuesday.  Plan appropriately.  Let’s now get to the Best XI!

Best XI

This is probably the correct time to address discounts since Diego Costa will be missing the midweek matches through suspension.  This week, as with most recent weeks, our Best XI was above our budget.  The kicker is that it could have been affordable if you had discounts.  Almost every week we’ve had to take great players out of the Best XI due to high prices – this week it was Mile Jedinak and Joe Hart. 

Another thing to note is the average price of the Best XI after the week (which represents the price you’d have to pay for this week’s Best XI for the following week without any discounts).  That price is £ 120M.  Discounts are huge.  Even though you have to sit Costa next week and play a 3-5-2 or a 4-4-2, you absolutely must keep him if you have him at a discount.  Don’t even think about it, bench him and move on.

Points

The average score in the first 13 weeks so far has been 234.5 points.  We were close to that with 228 this week.

Max Points

Cost

This week the BEST XI cost £ 94.82M* after the cuts.  The new price of our Best XI (if you were to try to create this team now after the price changes) is £ 130.65M.  That’s a 37.8% increase in price.

*Keep in mind the cost does NOT include any substitutes and is thus 96M instead of 100M.

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MVP

This week’s MVP was Glen Johnson.  It’s rare to see defenders here but Johnson kept a clean sheet and scored the game-winning goal for Liverpool, which was enough for 24 points.  Last week’s winner Yaya Toure and Manchester United forward Robin van Persie both scored 23 but were edged out by Liverpool’s Johnson.

Formation

This week we had a lot of low scoring games and thus a lot of high scoring defenders in the Best XI.  We don’t expect that to continue going forward.

Formation Count

Repeat Offenders

One somewhat random fact I’d like to point out here is that Mile Jedinak would have made this week’s Best XI had he been cheaper (he had the points to be here).  That’s yet another reason supporting my discounts rant.  Can you tell I’m driving this one home this week?

Follow the RotoWorld_PL team on Twitter: Galin | Jeremy | Neal | Nik | Steve | Ben | Rob | Aaron

Team Rankings

Manchester City take the lead here but not yet in the real Premier League table, where Chelsea are still in control.

How did your team do this week?