Week 17 - Tuesday

One moment of quality in a match desperately lacking in excitement, it's the reason Fernando Torres is probably the best striker in the world.

I was really looking forward to watching the game last night but it was one of the most boring games I've seeen this season. It wasn't even a case of the teams cancelling each other out, they just both played poor football. A draw would've been fair, but Villa didn't do enough as the home team so if one team were going to grab all 3 points I would've preferred it to be Liverpool.

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Week 17 - Monday

Another fantastic day of Premiership football yesterday, as Manchester City start to look like a side that really can break the top 4. But what about Spurs? Could they also be in with a shot of a Champions League?

...probably not, but it's bloody exciting!

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Week 17 - Sunday

The end of "Phase 1" for Week 17 & once again it has not gone too well for me. I only had 3 Arsenal players on Sunday, & they combined to give me an extra 28 points for a haul of 75 so far.

I still have another 19 fixtures for my players to play, but Rooney, Almunia, Diaby & Fabregas killed me yesterday as I dropped outside the Top 2000 for the first time since the first few weeks. Hopefully I can have a bit of a fightback in the next phase of games as I did in the last double week - I need it.

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Week 17 - Saturday

A tough day in the Premier League, with only 12 goals in 8 games...5 draws, only 3 wins & 7 teams keeping clean sheets.

In such a crazy season it's a bit of a disappointment that Boxing Day was lacking in action, but there are still 2 big games to go today which could help turn things around!

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Week 17 - My Team

Given

Alexander  Vermaelen  Faye  Steinsson 

Etherington  Arshavin  M.Taylor

Klasnic  Santa-Cruz  Eduardo

Finally set on my team after lots of chopping & changing this morning, and I decided to go with 4-3-3.

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Week 17 - Brief Summary

Very very quick summary guys...I'm still stuck on what to do.

The best I could do in 15 minutes is breaking it down from almost 70 down to 35 players..

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Week 17 - Player Picks

Christmas is here!

As you can imagine, I'm unbelievably busy with it being 2 days to go. I still haven't finished my shopping, I have loads of work to finish before the seasonal break & I'm also undecided on what to do about my fantasy football team this week after Yahoo confirmed it as a triple week.

As well as all this, I suddenly remembered this morning that I write a blog so I needed to get my players picks post done too...it's a stressful time of year!

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Week 17 - TRIPLE WEEK!

Yahoo have updated the fixtures for Week 17 & it seem to confirm it will be a Triple Week for Arsenal, Stoke, Fulham & Bolton.

This confirmation adds an extra dimension to what was already a tricky double week. Do we load up on triple gamers? Or do we assume that very few players are likely to play in all 3 games, making double gamers just as valuable?

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The Blog Cup - 3rd Round Results

So with the Wigan v Bolton match postponed I've been able to calculate The Blog Cup 3rd Round Results a little earlier than planned...and it's bad news for me as I failed to make it in to the Top 60.

UPDATE: Last night Yahoo corrected a mistake where they gave Jerome an assist when it was actually Benitez. This correction has changed the cutoff point by 0.5 to...

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Week 16 - Sunday

This week I scored 30 Points...let that sink in for a minute. THIRTY POINTS.

Have you stopped laughing yet?

Week 16 has turned in to the worst week I've ever had in my 6 years playing Yahoo Fantasy Football. I remember scoring 49 a couple of years ago but that was the only time I've failed to pass 50 (as far as I can remember).

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Week 16 - Saturday

Not really sure what to say about today. It has to be one of the lowest point scoring Saturdays in Yahoo Fantasy Football history. I sit on 20 points from 6 players...5 to go & one of them is Juliano "aint gonna get a game, what were you thinking AM?" Belletti. Yet I've only dropped 150 places....why? Because pretty much everyone else had an absolute shocker.

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Week 16 - My Team

Kirkland

Alexander  Neill  Vermaelen

O'Hara  Milner  Belletti  Arshavin

Drogba  Defoe  Rooney

Not particularly pleased with my final team this week. Having so many players at big discounts means I can't lose them & this also means I don't have much room for manoeuvre when it comes to my strikeforce & midfield.

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Week 16 Summary & Week 17 Preview

The deadline is fast approaching & I've got plenty of decisions still to make. I always like to try & cover all the teams with good fixtures games by having at least 1 player from each, but I'm struggling to find a way of doing this for Week 16 as I'm holding a lot of players at big discounts.

Anyway, here are the 24 players still under consideration...

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Week 16 - Players Picks

First off, a quick bit on Wednesday night's games.

I had a fantastic "2nd phase" for Week 15 with 6 goals coming from Rooney, Valencia, Kranjcar (2), Alexander & Defoe. Add to that my joy at Spurs' performance as they crushed Man City 3-0 & it's been a fine midweek!

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Week 15 - Tuesday

I was going to wait until the points were up to write this post, but I realised I could still write a summary & then add to it later.

4 games & 12 goals with wins for Birmingham, Man Utd, Bolton & an increasingly impressive Aston Villa. West Ham, Sunderland & Blackburn all had poor evenings & Wolves put their reserves out.

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The Drogba Dilemma

There have been some excellent posts in the comments & chat in the chat room regarding the game's top scorer; specifically by those who still own him at 10.66. The dilemma people are facing is whether to hang on to Didier Drogba during the African Cup of Nations, where he is likely to miss 4 Chelsea games.

Now, I had already assumed that I would sell him as I didn't think I could afford to take 4 weeks of zeros, but J Dunn & The Tigers have looked at the stats in detail & come up with some very interesting analysis.

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Week 15 - Sunday

Only one game on Sunday & it was another nail in the coffin that is Liverpool Football Club's season.

For 45 minutes I thought that was the best I'd seen Liverpool play since their great run back in April/May; they made life impossible for Arsenal with their pressing, played neat, quick football & fully deserved their half time lead...it should've been more than 1-0.

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Week 15 - Saturday

Firstly - how awesome is the Premier League?

Nobody can predict what may or may not happen this season...Villa beat Man Utd at Old Trafford, depleted Everton hold Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, Spurs lose at home to Wolves (bollocks), Bolton draw with Man City, Figueroa scores from his own half, Hull & Blackburn draw 0-0 (okay, maybe it's not that unpredictable) - but it really is the pinnacle of sporting entertainment at the moment & for pure excitement it's unrivalled in my opinion.

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Week 15 - My Team

Kirkland

Vermaelen  Bassong  Alexander

Valencia  Mikel  Larsson  Kranjcar

Drogba  Rooney  Defoe

Not much time today guys, so a quick summary of my Week 15 team.

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Week 15 Round-Up & Week 16 Preview

I had my work Xmas party last night so I'm sitting here with one terrible hangover. This will not be my finest piece.

First off, head over to Jeremy & Neal for a look at "The Week Ahead"...done? Right, now a quick summary of the 22 players I'm still considering from my initial list of almost 50...

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Week 15 - Player Picks

The double week we've all been waiting for is almost upon us & if you play Week 15 correctly if could help turn your season around.

You'll find that a lot will change over the Xmas & New Year period. We have 2 double weeks coming up in the next month, but people are always busy at this time of year so it often means they don't have the time to do much research on their team. If you can find the time you'll find yourself rising up the rankings as we enter 2010.

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Week 15 - Yellow Card Risks

I must point you all towards an outstanding piece of research by Alien2005 over on the http://www.starting11.com fantasy football forums.

I had planned to put together a list of all the players at risk of being suspended for the 2nd game of the double week if they are booked in the 1st game, but he has done all the hard work himself & it really is fantastic stuff!

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Injury Update 08/12/09

From the ever-excellent football365.com comes some fantastic injury news for Tottenham fans & more terrible injury news for Man Utd fans:

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The AM Challenge Cup - 1st Round Results

So, it's taken me longer than I thought, but finally I've compiled the results for the 1st Round of The AM Challenge Cup. Did you make it through!?

See below for the full table of results....

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Week 14 - Sunday

Only a quick post tonight - what an unbelievable game at Goodison today. I bet the last 20 minutes were great viewing for Everton fans/neutrals & a point away is rarely a disaster, but for me it feels like a defeat...definitely 2 points dropped.

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Week 14 - Saturday

Week 14 has been a slightly better week for me so far.

I ended Saturday with 78 points, with decent contributions from Richard Dunne, the quite excellent James Milner, Rooney, Vermaelen, Nasri, Alexander & O'Hara. Drogba was dissapointing & Kirkland received negative points for a loss after going off injured with the score at 1-0.

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The Jimmy Bullard Appreciation Post

For once, sod fantasy football...

Jimmy Bullard is a LEGEND.

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Week 14 - My Team

Kirkland

Vermaelen  Alexander  Dunne

Milner  Nasri  O'Hara  Duff

Defoe  Rooney  Drogba

No Fabregas. Mistake? Maybe, but with Fabregas in my team I had to have a filler (well, a midfielder at 5.89) & couldn't fit a Villa player in. With no Abou Diaby or Song I feel Fabregas could be dropped deeper alongside Denilson, nullifying his threat slightly, so I made the sensible choice. As we all know, the sensible choice isn't always the most successful - you always need luck.

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Week 14 Round-Up & Week 15 Preview

24 hours 'till deadline & once again it's proving a very tricky week....

Firstly, I've been really pleased with the feedback from my guest slot on The Week Ahead, with lots of positive comments on here & on FantasyEPL. I hope the experiment has led to new readers for both blogs!

Now so let's focus on whittling down my initial list of 45 to the remaining players I'm still considering:-

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Arsenal Injury Update

From the Press Association:

Arsene Wenger's problems this week have mounted with the news England winger Theo Walcott has picked up a hamstring injury and will miss Saturday's Barclays Premier League clash against Stoke.

Walcott, 20, played the second half of the 3-0 defeat by Chelsea on Sunday, with Gunners manager Wenger then selecting his fringe players for the Carling Cup loss to Manchester City by the same scoreline. 

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Week 14 - Player Picks

Bit of a twist this week, as I was invited to be the guest writer of The Week Ahead over on "The Original Bloggers" (Jeremy & Neal's) excellent Fantasy Premier League Blog...

...obviously, I jumped at the chance!

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Injury Update 01/12/09

From the injury files over on football365.com

Isn't it lovely when we can bring you some good news?

Well, that's good news if you're a Chelsea fan, or Ashley Cole, and we can only assume that he's reading. So hello Ashley, but you can skip over this next bit if you want, because obviously you'll already know it.

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