The Only One

Nicolas Anelka has something of a bad rep for a fantasy football striker. I've never been keen on having him in my squad - perhaps I bought into all those "sulking" rumours. Or the hype that he was going to be a hat-trick-per-game striker, and then felt let down when he wasn't. Or maybe its just cos he's French.

Normally my bias would rampage on unabated this season and I wouldn't for a moment consider him; but circumstances have conspired such that today we are looking at his chances of being a worthwhile striker in an FF team.

First up, lets look at his previous year's results.

06/07:
11 goals, 8 assists, 17 bonus points, 3012 mins

07/08:
11 goals, 8 assists, 11 bonus points, 2575 mins

So we see he is playing games, and actually scoring decent points. He also only picked up one yellow card over both seasons, a good disciplinary record.

Like Darren Bent, Anelka is coming into some good form during preseason. Further, Drogba's knee injury is going to keep him from participating until September, and Scolari has said he won't be playing Drogba until he is 100% fit.

That means Anelka is a very likely starter for the first two or three games of the season. Scolori himself said to The Times "In the last few games he has been making more runs through the middle than before. I asked him to do that and I wanted him down the middle, not down the left or the right. That is important because we have one striker, and that is Anelka."

So perhaps we can look at Anelka in another light. Avram Grant preferred to deploy him on the flanks last term, which he did not like and did not suit his style of play. But Scolori is eager to get Anelka up and firing in his natural position, especially given the injury problems of Didier Drogba, Andriy Shevchenko and Claudio Pizarro. Perhaps we can call him The Only One.

And it seems my bias against Anelka is not unique. Last season he ranked
12th top striker for points, 11th top for minutes played, 14th for goals scored, and 6th for assists. Yet this year he is ranked 55th for percentage of teams selected by.

Because so few players have him, his price will only climb and cannot fall - just like D. Bent. His preseason is working well, especially when linking up with his wingers. He scored four against an understrength AC Milan yesterday - see video below. He is going to be the starting Chelsea striker for the first two, and possibly three, weeks. He is going to earn points again this season, no doubt.

And yet without good reason, I still can't bring myself to have him in my team.

Here are the Chelsea - AC Milan goals, all 5 of them.