Fantasy Premier sigh of relief

Fantasy managers dread any break in the season when players go abroad to play for club or country and this week's World Cup Qualifying UEFA round had many key players in action. Unexpected transfers are often burned if players go down with injuries in matches outside the Premier League.
At the end of the day it would appear that just about all survived their call to national duty.
Frank Lampard continues to show how penalties should be taken. (RvP were you watching?) Granted it came against minnows Moldova, a country nestled in between Romania and Ukraine that does not recognize footie as a national sport.
Lamps also had a header for a goal while the other Three Lions' goals came from Defoe, Milner (his first international goal) and Baines.
Unlike his last game with Arsenal, Theo Walcott got to play, replacing Ox-C as a sub. John Terry, dealing with a neck issue, left the game late, after suffering an ankle injury. With all of England's subs already used, Terry stayed on the pitch until stoppage time. His availability on Tuesday and then next Saturday at QPR is TBA.
For Roy Hodgson, the 0-5 win was his first non-friendly international result, outside of Euro 2012, and a good tune-up for a more difficult time against Ukraine at Wembley on Tuesday.
Other top fantasy players on the pitch today:
Everton's Jelavic scored the only goal in Croatia's home result over Macedonia.
Newcastle goalkeeper Krul got a clean sheet as the Netherlands beat Turkey 2-0. Manchester United's scoring machine RvP headed in a goal at the 16-minute mark and Heitinga came off late for a sub.
France took Finland 0-1 with Arsenal's Diaby scoring the only goal in the 20th minute. Spurs' newly acquired GK Lloris got the clean sheet for France, while the Gooners' Giroud did not play and is dealing with a muscle pull. Koscielny also did not feature while Evra and Cabaye played for France.
Bosnia wiped out Liechtenstein and the big news involving Premier players is that Man City striker Dzeko scored a hat-trick in the 1-8 route.
Podolski was a late sub in Germany's 3-0 triumph over the Faroe Islands.
Man United's out-of-favour winger Nani was a late sub for Portugal. Pouting Ronaldo scored a goal in the 1-2 victory over Luxembourg.
Ireland registered a 1-2 result over Kazakhstan. Premier League players in action included O'Shea, Whelan, McCarthy, Walters, Long, Doyle, and Cox.
Belgium, the subject of Sir John's previous blog (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/blog/_/name/fantasypicks/id/100?cc=5901) took care of Wales 0-2. Kompany scored, as did Vertonghen (were you watching AVB?). Lukaku subbed for Mirallas and Dembele played part of the match for Belgium. James Collins got a straight red card for Wales.
Meantime, the United States went down in flames 2-1 in Jamaica. The only bright spot for Premier fantasy managers was that Clint Dempsey scored a goal in the early going for the Americans, but has a lot of work to do to get match fit for Spurs visit to Reading on September 16.
Fantasy managers now hope their rosters will survive the next round of international matches and we can get on with Week 4 of the Premier League.
Yours faithfully,
Sir John



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