Not Again...

Bad news all round:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/8591081.stm

United's misery was made complete when Rooney limped off with an ankle injury.

And the England striker's injury could yet prove to be the major story of the night, with the 24-year-old apparently in severe pain after turning over on his ankle in the build-up to Bayern's winner. 

As an England fan, I remember this all too well.

Cheers,
AM

The Blog Cup - Quarter Final Results

Before I reveal the 10 team progressing to the semi finals of The Blog Cup, I'd like to quickly round up Week 28 having not had the chance to post in the past 48 hours.

Sunday began with Blackburn travelling to Burnley, a midday kick-off to prevent the supporters drinking all day & trying to fight each other.

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Week 28 - Saturday

Saturday saw another twist in the title race as Chelsea & Man Utd improved their goal differences dramatically while Arsenal were held at Birmingham. Arsenal are now 4 points (technically 5 with goal difference) behind the leaders & face an uphill battle once again.

Perhaps the most surprising thing was the victories for the top 2 came without Drogba & Rooney respectively - great news for the clubs that they got some rest but terrible news for fantasy managers, especially those with both players.

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Week 28 - My Team

Myhill

Ferreira  Berra  Bale

Arteta  Modric  Bullard  Malouda

Bendtner  Tevez  Torres

I found it quite tough to pick my team this week, especially after news of Pavlyuchenko's tight hamstring ruined the plans for my strike force, but I've settled on a team I'm quite happy with.

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Week 28 - Player Picks

I'm buzzing this morning. Last night was massive for Tottenham as they progressed past Fulham in to the FA Cup semi finals after a scintillating 2nd half fight back, with the added bonus of Man City & Villa dropping points in winnable home games in the Premier League.

On top of this, Week 27 has been the most successful week I've had since I started the blog last July.

A large proportion of the players I recommended did superbly (including all top 10 point scorers for the week, shown above) & for once I actually took my own advice, picked a fair few of them up & ended on 212.5 points as 6 goals last night moved me in to the Top 500 for the first time this season.

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Week 27 - Tuesday

A terrible night for West Ham United & Gianfranco Zola as they crashed to an embarrassing 3-1 home defeat to Wolves in the only Premier League game of the evening.

Hammers fans streamed out of the ground once the 3rd goal went in after just 65 minutes, chants of "You're Not Fit To Wear The Shirt" echoed round the ground & deafening boos greeted the full time whistle. It doesn't get much worse & West Ham are in real trouble.

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Week 27 - Sunday

After an excellent day on Saturday, I was brought back down to earth on Sunday as my four players (Drogba, Malouda, Terry & Adam Johnson) scored just 25 points between them.

All Premier League teams have now played once this week & I find myself on 108.5 points for the week, in 590th position overall. With Warnock, Terry, Milner, Johnson, Malouda, Arteta, Carew & Drogba to go it could still be a monster week so I shouldn't complain.

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Week 27 - Saturday

Another fantastic day of Premiership action brought loads of goals, a great win for Spurs & a lot of points as 7 of the players in my weekly picks post ended up in the top 11 points scorers for the week so far.

The day started at Villa Park as Wolves held Aston Villa to a 2-2 draw, with 2 goals for Carew, an own goal from Milner & 1 for Jody Craddock. Ashley Young grabbed great points but there was big disappointment for those who splashed the cash on Friedel.

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Week 27 - My Team

Kirkland

       Bale  Terry  Warnock

     A.Johnson  Arteta  Milner  Malouda

   Bendtner  Carew  Drogba

Not a lot of time so I'll be quick...

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Week 27 Update

I'm afraid I don't have time to update you on any injury/team news as I'm rushing off out this evening. Lucky for us, our friends Neal & Jeremy over on FantasyEPL have shown far more dedication to the cause & have a comprehensive run through of the stuff you should know about in their Injuries & Suspensions post.

I'm left feeling very annoyed about Defoe's injury, while the uncertainty over the Chelsea 'keeper situation means I'll probably have to go with Captain Kirk.

Good luck to all...I'll be back in the morning with my team post!

Cheers,
AM

Week 27 - Player Picks

Week 27 brings us more double week madness, but at least this week we have a bit of a choice when it comes to picking 2 games players. We have 10 teams playing twice, ranging from Chelsea right at the top of the league, to Portsmouth right at the bottom.

With time in the season running out it's more important to take advantage of double weeks like this (when you can pick from more than 2 teams) & not get too hung up on discounts. In approximately 6 weeks those discounts will be completely worthless - the season will be over - so you have to move now!

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The AM Challenge - 4th Round Results

The end of another week & I ended it on 148 points thanks to 61 points from my double gamers last night. Pretty much everyone provided decent points with the exception of Rodallega, who is now officially dead to me (didn't I say that last time?).

A decent weekly score, but lots of people had done very well this week, so would it be enough to get through to the next round of the AM Challenge as one of the top 60 scores from the remaining 125 teams...?

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Week 26 - Sunday & Monday

If ever there was a week that proved you can't beat spending huge sums on quality strikers, it's been Week 26.

The 3 best goalscorers in the Premier League really turned it on: Drogba = 2 goals / 29 points on Saturday, Rooney = 2 goals / 31 points on Sunday & Torres = 2 goals / 31 points on Monday. Of course, I had none of them.

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Week 26 - Saturday

Pretty good day all round for me as an unpredictable day brought some unexpected points with plenty of players still to come.

At the moment it appears the double load-up might pay off for me if Villa & Wigan can come up with some points midweek, but a hattrick from Rooney and/or Torres could see things take a bad turn, so I'm not counting my chickens just yet.

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Week 26 - My Team

Friedel

  Bale  Dunne  Figueroa  Fox

  Milner   N'Zogbia  A Young

  Bendtner  Carew  Rodallega

4-3-3 for me & 8 double gamers this week, as yesterday's news that Hilario was injured meant I had to completely rethink my approach. I'm well aware I've taken some big risks.

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Hilario Out

http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2010/0312/chelsea_westham.html

"Chelsea are without goalkeeper Hilario ahead of tomorrow's game against West Ham and that could lead to rookie keeper Ross Turnbull facing Inter Milan in the Champions League.

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Week 26 - Player Picks

Week 25 is over & I end it on 109.5 points, which I'll certainly take considering the zero from Bale & the disappointment of Torres, Nani & Berbatov. Fox grabbed me some handy points last night to keep me inside the top 950 overall.

We now move on to Week 26, another double week for 2 teams & the 4th Round of the AM Challenge Cup where the remaining 125 team will be cut down to 60! It's a big week, lots to get through, so lets start with a look at the fixtures...

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Week 25 - Tuesday

Darren Bent - Picked by me on 4 occasions this season & not once has he scored for me. I had him last week & he scored 4 points, so I drop him & he gets a hattrick.

Nicklas Bendtner - Picked by a load of us, he can't hit a barndoor in the league but of course in the Champions League where it doesn't really matter to us, he also bags a hattrick.

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Week 25 - Monday

Only one game last night & it was one to forget for Liverpool Football Club, as they deservedly slumped to a 9th league defeat of the season against a hard working Wigan side  - the only goal of the game coming from Hugo Rodallega,

As a Spurs fan I was delighted with the result, but it was a bad night for Yahoo manager's holding Liverpool players...especially those who splashed over £30m on 2 of them.

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Week 25 - Sunday

Only 1 game in the Premier League yesterday, as Everton comfortably overcame a woeful Hull side, hitting five goals at Goodison.

It was a good day for blog readers who backed Arteta, as he scored the opening 2 goals for a mammoth 28 points, the top score of the week so far. He helped move me on to 83 points for the week, up 80 places, sitting just outside the Top 1000.

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Week 25 - Saturday

Only 3 Premiership games fell on Saturday this week, but it was a rough day for me (and the man above) as my Friday trades let me down badly.

I had 6 players on display across the 2 matches; Fox, Fabregas, Lee, Bendtner, Nani & Berbatov...and it was the latter 2 who did the wrong sort of damage for my team.

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Week 25 - My Team

Gordon

Bale   Hutton  Fox

Arteta  Fabregas  Lee  Nani

Berbatov  Bendtner  Torres

Not a lot of time to write my post this week as I'm off out for the day...i'll quickly sum each area of my team.

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Week 25 Round Up / Panic

Admittedly...I'm in serious trouble. Usually by this point on a Friday I have a couple of selection headaches but the spine of my team is complete. This week, with just 24 hours until the deadline & I still have SIX positions that I'm uncertain on.

The only players set in stone are Bale, Hutton, Fox, Fabregas & Bendtner...everyone else is still open to change. Here is a full list of the players I'm still considering (I've thrown some defenders in even though I'm already set on my back 3)...I need your help!

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The Kellz + Regulars Appreciation Post

Hi guys - I'll be honest, aside from Kellz + the regulars, one of the main reasons I've posted this is because I love Jimmy Bullard, specifically the video above...how funny?

I'll add that I've noticed that we are now getting  100+ comments every week on the player pick posts, which is amazing - I appreciate you all so much & it's taking the blog way beyond what I ever thought it might become.

However, I have noticed something else . From the comments, only 15% actually offer advice to others. The other 85% of comments are always asking, which isn't a problem (after all, that's the point of the blog!)...but just a suggestion - how about if you ask for a bit advice about your team, you also try to answer one other person's question?

It's the blogger's dream! If everyone asks one question, but also answers one question, then it'll make the community even stronger & I'll bet it'll make an answer to your predicament more forthcoming. Of course I'm not saying you have to (let's be honest...it WILL NOT happen for everyone, life aint like that), but it's just a thought I wanted to share with you - mainly to take some of the heat off Kellz and the other excellent regulars. If this post does make the blog better for a few people then it's been worth it!

Back to business!...as we approach the deadline we're probably all fretting. Now Holden is gone, what do we do? Lee CY? Move to Eagles? Do we we want Torres AND Gerrard? Is Rooney worth £23m? Will Diamanti prove the correct pick? Blimey, loads to think about!

I'll be posting my Week 25 Summary tomorrow, but let me know how are things shaping up for you? Has the video made you want to pick Bullard? He's back...and it's tempting me :)

Cheers,
AM

p.s. C****khoor  - Nice disguise Bruce Wayne, but I've already seen you in the chatroom. Kellz is one of our best contributors along with "SteveBOB / Bojan / Mudwalkerz / Rukkie / Freddie / MikeB / Nanning / Doc.teeth & HansIndia". They are all part of our community & they all offer excellent advice...nothing wrong with disagreeing with their views constructively, but if you slag one of them off personally by calling them "jokers" then we don't really need you here.

Week 25 - Player Picks

Week 25 brings us quite possibly the least exciting double week of the season, but it's a week I need an improvement from...after the disappointment of just 80 points last week it's a chance to sort things out and get back in to the Top 1000

While it's not a Blog Cup or AM Challenge round, it is the FA Cup Quarter Finals, hence some teams finding themselves without a league game. Let's look at the fixtures...

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The Blog Cup - 5th Round Results

Just a quick post as my main post based on the weekend was up earlier today (see below this post on the main page "Week 24 - Saturday & Sunday").

Since then I've completed the Blog Cup calculations & can reveal the results of the 5th round below...

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Week 24 - Saturday & Sunday

Apologies for the lack of posts over the weekend - I've been really busy again so just didn't get a chance but hopefully things will return to normal this week.

It's been 48 hours of drama in the Premiership & we also had the Carling Cup final to enjoy - a thrilling game that United edged 2-1 with another Rooney header winning another trophy for Ferguson. Vidic maybe should've been sent off after just a few minutes but he escaped & United controlled the majority of the game after half time.

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