Here are a list of Premiership defenders, who seem to be showing form this season, and should be at least on your watch list ?

Thomas Verlaelen is currently only owned by 15.7% of Fantasy Managers and averages 8.3 points a game. Having scored 3 goals and 1 assist, he is now the third ranked defender in the league with 40 points. His presence on set pieces has already reaped rewards, for those who have him on their team. He will no doubt score more goals for Arsenal this season, and along with the rest of the defense, should have a number of clean sheets against the lesser teams in the league. With a run of games against Blackburn, Birmingham and West Ham, coming up next ? this would be an ideal time to invest in this Dutch defender!

Glen Johnson is the Liverpool right back, who seems to be an integral part of their attack now. Since he started at Liverpool, he has scored 2 goals and assisted with 3. As the season continues, his assists will continue, as he continues to forage further up the field. With his price already at 7.9 million pounds, he is the most expensive defender in the league. 20% of managers already have him on their team, and this will continue to rise if he maintains his current form. With a hard run of games coming up for Liverpool ? Chelsea, Sunderland and Manchester United, I would wait before picking him up ? if you haven?t got him already.

Ashley Cole has started this season off in great form, and is Chelsea?s highest ranked defenders. He seems to have benefited from the new manager, with forays further up the field. 2 goals and plenty of bonus points have seen him become the 2nd ranked defender in the league so far. At 7.2 million he could be an ideal replacement for Glen Johnson, when Liverpool has a bad run of games. Chelsea has a solid defense, so I can see a lot of clean sheet bonuses for him as well. They play Liverpool, Aston Villa and then Blackburn, so it may be worthwhile waiting for one game before picking him up.

Joleon Lescott is a new Manchester City player. He made his reputation at Everton, where he was their best central defender for at the last 2 years. A constant threat off set pieces, he has yet to score this season. The inevitable will happen soon, and his new partnership with Kolo Toure looks set to blossom as well. Whether this is sooner or later is anybodies guess right now, but looking at their up-coming fixture list, it may be worthwhile picking him now, because their next 5 games are against Aston Villa, Wigan, Fulham, Birmingham and Bunley, which I fully expect them to win.

Richard Dunne is the new Aston Villa central defender. Having been at Manchester City for a large proportion of his career, the Irishman is now plying his trade for Martin O?Neill. He has started for Villa since his move from Manchester City, and looks likely to play regularly for them. Having accumulated? the most amount of bonus points as a defender last season, he has regularly been ranked in the top 5 for the last 5 years. I fully expect this to continue, and with Villa playing Manchester City, Chelsea and Wolves next it may be a good idea to wait for at least the first 2 games before purchasing him for a measly 5.3 million.

Leighton Baines the Everton defender who is profiting from set pieces because of the absence of Mikel Arteta has already scored 31 points this season. He has scored once and set up 3 goals so far, making him the 5th ranked defender in the league. At 6.3 million, he is relatively cheap. With games against Stoke, Wolves, Bolton, Aston Villa and West Ham, coming up and a double game week in week 13, he is definitely my current hot pick out of all defenders.

Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard both scored two goals each which confirms their high price in the fantasy game. Wayne Rooney was also a consistent threat, and also netted one of the goals. Another in form player, who had a good game for England, was the right back Glen Johnson. He had one assist in the game and looked a constant threat on the wing.

Arsenal captain, Cesc Fabregas marked his return from injury with a goal for Spain against Estonia. His 33rd minute strike was the only goal until the last 10 minutes, when Spain killed it off by scoring another two.

Denmark was held to a disappointing draw against Albania in Tirana. Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner gave the Danes the lead five minutes before half-time but Albania fought back and leveled the scores in the 50th minute.

Another Arsenal player who looks in good form is Andrey Arshavin. He setup the first goal for Russia which resulted in a 3-1 win over Wales.

Chelsea player and German captain, Michael Ballack was also on target, as he scored Germany?s first goal, from the penalty spot, against a hapless Azerbaijan. The Germans ended up winning that game 4-0, and although he scored from the penalty area, it should have provided him with confidence moving forward.

1) Shay Given – has started and played 90 minutes for every game for Manchester City this season. Having not conceded a goal yet and a new defensive partnership in front of him – Lescott and Toure – their defense can only get better. With their next 2 games against Arsenal and Manchester United it may be worthwhile to wait until you pick him up. After they play those 2 powerhouses they have a run of 6 easier games where you would expect him to pick up a lot of points. So my advice would be to pick him up from game week 7 onwards.

2) Glen Johnson – is already the highest ranking defender in the Fantasy English Premiership this season. Having played four games he has notched up two assists, two goals and four bonus points. That makes him joint 2nd place with Rooney as player with most points this season so far – Drogba is in first place. Liverpool have an easy run of games coming up with Burnley, West Ham and Hull. He would be a good choice to have now, as not only could they keep clean sheets, he seems to be a very big threat for them down the right hand side, and seems to spend a lot of time powering forward.

3) Aaron Lennon - one of the smallest players in the premiership, but most certainly one of the fastest. Two assists, two goals and four bonus points, give him the same statistics as Glen Johnson so far. The only reason he has less points is that Spurs have conceded more goals, and he is classified as a midfielder. With Manchester United and Chelsea next – it may be worthwhile to wait until game week 7, when they start an easier run of games – before you pick him up. They will then play Burnley, Bolton, Portsmouth and Stoke – where you would fancy your chances with him!

4) Emmanuel Adebayor – has started his Manchester City career with a bang, having scored a goal in every football game they have played so far. He is almost certainly going to carry on thumping in the goals for them, and should be on everyone’s watch list by now! The only uncertainty, with Manchester City, is how they will perform against one of the ‘top four’? With their next 2 games against Arsenal and Manchester United it may be worthwhile to wait until you pick him up- much like Shay Given above. The 6 games I mentioned above are – West Ham, Aston Villa, Wigan, Fulham, Birmingham and then Burnley. They will then face Liverpool in game week 13, which is a long time away.

5) Didier Drogba – has scored more goals for Chelsea than any other foreign player and is currently Chelsea’s ninth highest goal scorer of all time. He has averaged 8.2 points a game this season, and is always a threat in front of goal. I mentioned earlier in the season – “if he is on form, he can be unplayable for most defenders”, which I very much think is the case right now. No matter who they play he will continue with his goal scoring exploits. I expect the top three strikers at the end of the season to be Rooney, Drogba and Adebayor, so find time to get either all three or at least one on your team ASAP!

1) Jermaine Defoe – with his midweek hat trick for Spurs and two goals for England, the striker is very much one of the form players in the EPL right now. With his price at 8.6 million right now, he could be a good mid-price bargain. If you do opt to go for it and sign him – be warned, a purple patch, when the goals dry up, could result in a prolonged period on the bench as Spurs have a lot of attacking talent available. With West Ham and Burnley their next opponents – it could be a good idea in the short term, especially if his value is going up. But, also be warned the following two opponents are Manchester United at White Hart Lane and then Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

2) Cesc Fabregas – having only played one game in the league this year, his performance seems to have impressed most Fantasy Football Managers, as he is the most sought after midfielder for both the game weeks so far. This may have something to do with him scoring in the European Champions league qualifier against Celtic as well. With a tough run of games coming up with Manchester United and City after Portsmouth could be a downside to picking him up now. His price is certain to escalate if he does well in the next game and could be worth a chance against Manchester United, considering they lost to Burnley in game week two.

3) Stephen Hunt – the new Hull signing who’s value is now worth 5 million pounds. His value is about to increase tomorrow as he has impressed most managers by scoring in his last two league games. With a run of easier games, now with Bolton, Wolves, Sunderland and Birmingham, it could be a wise move to pick him up as a cheap midfield option for your team.

4) Sebastian Bassong – at 5 million pounds and being a defender who is capable of scoring from set plays has alerted a lot of Fantasy football managers. I have reviewed him in the last game week, and going to stick with my earlier review, that he could be one of the value buys of the early season.

5) Glen Johnson – although Liverpool lost their first game, he scored midweek in their thrashing of Stoke City, where he scored 18 points. Looks like with Lescott out for at least a couple of matches he would be an easy substitute for him. With feeble Aston Villa next, followed by Bolton, Burnley, West Ham and Hull, it could be a good couple of games where his points tally per game is very high. Definitely a gamble worth taking – if you ask me.