Week 3 - My Team

 Cudicini

Faubert  Skrtel   Bale

Walcott  Adam  Barton  Malouda

Carroll  Drogba  Berbatov

As I'm off on holiday to the South of France, my team (and this post) was done on Friday afternoon, so no last minute changes for me...and yes I've checked it was definitely saved! It means I won't be able to do any barndoor work, and you won't see any blog posts from me for a week, but I'm sure you'll cope :)

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Week 3 - Player Picks

Ok - Week 3 is where my season begins. Forget Week 1 when I picked Rooney over Drogba. Forget Week 2 when I picked neither Walcott nor Carroll, and where my ISP cost me 25 points...it all starts here. I really need a big score - after Week 3 we have a one-week gap before Week 4 due to international fixtures, and it's never fun to go in to a break doing badly.

Anyway, I'm writing my player picks post early this week, so there is a fair chance that some recommendations will be changed after the fall-out from the remaining Carling Cup/European games over the next 48 hours (suspensions/injuries etc). But there is one thing that won't change, and that's the Week 3 fixtures....there are some crackers for fantasy managers.

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Week 2 - Points Are In

The Week 2 points are finally in, and as you can see above there were some huge scores...the top weekly score of 240 is the highest I've ever seen in a one-game week - 13 goals is insane!

With so many goals/hat-tricks about it really wasn't a good week for my internet to go down, but I end on 116 points, which I'll take. I've done my calculations and the team I couldn't save would've got me 141, so only 25 points lost...it could've been far far worse.

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Yahoo! Technical Difficulties

My internet disaster on Saturday morning (costing me goals from Chamakh, Cahill & a Verm CS) combined with a lack of Walcott (because of the uncertainty over his starting status) or Andy Carroll means I wasn't in a huge rush for the points to come in on Saturday night, but it's now Monday and it's all getting a bit ridiculous.

We do however have an update on the YFF homepage...

MESSAGE TO ALL PLAYERS
We are currently experiencing technical issues with points scoring in Fantasy Football. Our engineers are fixing this issue and all points will be awarded correctly as soon as possible.

So fingers crossed we'll see an update after the Man City v Liverpool game tonight, but I won't be holding my breath.

After missing the Drogba hattrick in Week 1 things really could not have started any worse for me, but there were 2 things that did make me happy this weekend: (1) Spurs grabbing a vital win at Stoke despite missing 5 first team players, and (2) Discovering many of our readers had outstanding fantasy weeks, with some of you having as many as 10 goals...I expect to see many of you approaching the Week 2 Top 50, maybe even the Overall Top 50, which would be fantastic!

The whole point of starting this blog was to help people become more successful, so if my posts or the great advice from our community has helped in any way then it makes all the effort (and on this occasion, the devastation) all worth it!

Cheers,
AM

Week 2 - My Team + Blog Team

DISASTER - I'd written the "Week 2 - My Team" post this morning before I went out, but I never save my team until around 15 minutes before the deadline just in case there are any last minute changes and I decide to keep someone....it has backfired spectacularly this week as when I returned home my internet went down for 20 minutes and didn't come back up until it was too late. I was therefore unable save my changes, and I'm left with a team containing a number of players I didn't want.

The team I am stuck with is Jussi (didn't want him), Bale, Faubert, Kolorov (injured), Adam (didn't want him), Malouda, D.Jones (didn't want him), Alrighton, Petrov, Drogba, Kalinic

That was my barndoor team from last Sunday which has £9m still in the bank, and it's missing 4 players I had unsaved on my team page - Foster, Vermaelen, Cahill & Chamakh.

I went to the effort of writing my initial team post, so you may as well read it, but I feel it was a complete waste of all the effort I put in to the blog this week, I'm really gutted but need to just get on with it now and hope the damage is limited...somehow I doubt it seeing as I have ZERO Arsenal players and ZERO Everton players.

This is the post I had written for the team I was MEANT to have....

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Week 2 - Player Picks

I'm really struggling for time this week due to work commitments, so for now I've decided to do a quick analysis of the fixtures and just list my player recommendations. If I get time in the next 48 hours I'll try to expand on my suggestions as I usually do, but it might not happen (it happened!)

Firstly, how lucky are Spurs to still be in the Young Boys tie? The pitch wasn't great, but that first 30 minutes was as bad as I've seen us under Redknapp & it could've been 5-1 before Pav made it 3-2. We definitely have a chance now it's back at WHL, but I'm not counting my chickens after that performance.

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Week 1 - Monday

Just the one game on Monday night, as Manchester United ran out very comfortable winners over a Newcastle side who worked hard, but are going to struggle this season unless they can keep the ball...although Andy Carroll will prove a handful, especially at St James' Park

It finished 3-0 largely thanks to a Paul Scholes master-class, but in all honestly it should've been more had their finishing been sharper - I doubt Berbatov will have a better chance for an Old Trafford hattrick.

It was a match that cemented my decision to go with Wayne Rooney as a complete disaster; he failed to score and was subbed after just 60 minutes and 4 fantasy points. Had he scored one goal and gained maybe 15 points it would've certainly taken away some of the sting felt from Drogba's hattrick. But he didn't score, and to be honest he looked pretty damn poor all evening.

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Week 1 - Saturday & Sunday

The opening weekend of the new Premier League did not disappoint one iota, with plenty of great goals, shocks, controversy and drama.

As you'll probably know I've not had the best start after my worst fears stated in my Week 1 Team post....

Yes...I'm scared about a Drogba hat-trick.

...came true, but more on that later!

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Week 1 - My Team + Blog Team

Kirkland

Kolorov  O'Shea  Bale

Valencia  Adam  Malouda  M.Petrov

       Boselli   Rooney   F.Campbell 

My first effort of the season, and I imagine it will have a similar look to a lot of the teams around on the first week of the season. The injury doubt over Lampard meant I had to dismiss him from my thoughts, and I decided to wait a week over Drogba to see how fit he is. I expect both to play some part today and they'll probably score well, but that nagging doubt that they may no start/be fully fit meant I couldn't risk spending over £20m on either one.  

Yes...I'm scared about a Drogba hat-trick.

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It's Here

Just a little reminder to get you ready for tomorrow!

Week 1 - Update

It's been 5 days since I wrote my first player picks post of the season and while there have been some transfer & injuries since then, not that much has changed when it come to my player recommendations.

We've had a very slow transfer window, with only a handful of new signings that bring any real excitement or fantasy value, but I guess with almost 3 weeks still to go there is plenty of time for some new arrivals (it appears Mario Balotelli is finally on his way to Man City).

Anyway, the current list player's I'm still considering has been whittled down a bit...

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The AM Blog Team

As I mentioned., unfortunately my main team can only be in the first 3 leagues as I'm already in my own private league + Jeremy & Neal's private league, which = 5 (maximum). The 5 blog leagues that follow will be on my 2nd Yahoo ID.

The team I'll be running on the 2nd ID in leagues 4 to 8 will be AM Blog Team [AM.Blog], which is the team I want us to pick as a group each week. I have decided the best way to begin this is to run a poll each week to allow readers to vote for their top pick in each position. I will then work with a couple of the regulars (Mike B & Hans India) to take the poll results and fit as many of the players into this team as possible. We'll be limited by the £100m to spend so not all of the top 11 voted players will make it in each week, but we'll do our best to find a balance.

There will be no barndooring and we will be starting with a blank squad each week, so most weeks we will be buying 11 players at full price (unless we are picking the same player for consecutive weeks, in which it would make no sense to clear out a player if we hold him at discount).

Myself, Mike & Hans will be in the chatroom on Friday nights/Saturday mornings so we can discuss this with other blog regulars and settle on a team each week. This is very experimental so I expect we'll need to make changes to the process as we go along, but I feel we have a good starting point.

So without further ado, here is the link to vote in the Week 1 Player Picks Poll:  http://www.misterpoll.com/polls/496496

It could all go horribly wrong, but let's see what happens!

Cheers,
AM

Bits & Bobs

So much has happened since I posted my Week 1 Player Picks on Sunday, so I'll be posting an updated list of players on Thursday/Friday which will take in to account injuries, transfers, new players added to the game etc.

Some key things to note...

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Week 1 - Player Picks

Readers from last season will know my Weekly Player Picks posts normally appear a couple days before the weekend, Wednesday or Thursday, but with this being the first week I thought it would be nice to get them up early!

I'll start by saying that this will be the most difficult post I write this season. We have no real idea of starting XI's, we have no true indication of the form or fitness of individual players (pre-season tells us very little), we have no way of knowing if new signings will adapt to the rigours of the Premier League, so it's very difficult to produce a list I feel 100% confident with.

However, having analysed the Week 1 Fixtures in a previous post, I've identified the sides with favourable matches (Chelsea, Man Utd, Wigan & Aston Villa in particular), and put together my recommendations based on that. There's likely to be some players here who don't end up making the line-up come next weekend, but hopefully this will become apparent towards the end of the week as team news starts filtering through from the manager's press conferences (in Ancelotti's case, his actual starting team for the West Brom game - gotta love him!) and I can update accordingly.

So, for the first time this season here goes...

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Spurs Face Young Boys

Champions League play-off draw in full:
Young Boys (SUI) v TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR (ENG)
Sporting Braga (POR) v Sevilla (ESP)
Werder Bremen (GER) v Sampdoria (ITA)
Zenit St Petersburg (RUS) v Auxerre (FRA)
Dynamo Kiev (UKR) v Ajax (NED)
Salzburg (AUT) v Hapoel Tel-Aviv (ISR)
Rosenborg (NOR) v Copenhagen (DEN)
Basel (SUI) v FC Sheriff (MDA)
Sparta Prague (CZE) v MSK Zilina (SVK)
Partizan Belgrade (SRB) v Anderlecht (BEL)

Europa League play-off draw (British clubs only):
LIVERPOOL v Trabzonspor
CELTIC v Utrecht
DUNDEE UNITED v AEK Athens
Rapid Vienna v ASTON VILLA
CSKA Sofia v TNS
Odense v MOTHERWELL
Timisoara v MANCHESTER CITY

From BBCSport

Tottenham must beat Swiss side Young Boys in their two-legged Champions League play-off to land a coveted place in the competition's group stages.

Harry Redknapp's team avoided bigger-name sides such as Dynamo Kiev of Ukraine, Italian side Sampdoria and French outfit Auxerre.

Tottenham will play in Bern on either 17 or 18 August then host Young Boys at White Hart Lane on 24 or 25 August.

The Londoners have never before played in the European Champions League.

Neither club has played in the competition's group stages, although Tottenham did take part in Europe's top club competition 48 years ago - when it was known simply as the European Cup.

Young Boys got into the play-offs by beating Turkish side Fenerbahce 1-0 in Istanbul [3-2 on aggregate] in the previous round.

Last season's runners-up in the Swiss league are also well into their domestic season, which kicked off on 17 July, although they have failed to win any of their opening three games.

That was the best draw possible for Spurs as we avoided the tougher sides in our pot. It still won't be easy, but with the 2nd leg at White Hart Lane we have a fantastic chance of qualifying for the first group stage.

Cheers,
AM

Blog League 7 + Prediction League

It's 7PM UK time, so as promised...

AM Blog League 7
Click Here For Details

Official Fantasy Premier League
http://fantasy.premierleague.com/
Code: 101159-129333

'I Know The Score' Prediction League (only 50 spaces)
http://iknowthescore.premierleague.com
Code: FBD3A-HWL

If you are a Facebook user, please join our Facebook Group! 

Cheers,
AM 

Random Stuff

1. Jeremy & Neal are in the process of posting up their club-by-club previews (in alphabetical order - currently on Bolton) ahead of the new season, and they are bloody useful - I highly recommend everyone heads over to fantasyepl.blogspot.com to have read.

2. Blog League 7 will be opened tonight at 7pm UK time, so if you don't yet have a space in a league yet then please make sure you check the blog for the details tonight or tomorrow morning. If that fills up then the final Blog League (8) will follow next week.

3. If you happen to be playing the Official Fantasy Premier League game this season (I'm sure many of you do as it seems to be the popular option for office leagues), then please join the AM Blog League using code 101159-129333. There are unlimited spaces.

4. Something a bit different - I've also set up an "I Know The Score" League, which is a Premier League prediction competition.. It shares registration with the official fantasy game mentioned above so you only need to register once.  Note there are only 50 spaces in a prediction mini-league and I will be giving out the code for this league along with Blog League 7 details tonight at 7pm UK time.

5. If you are a Facebook user, please join our Facebook Group!

6. My Week 1 - Player Picks post will be worked on over the next few days and will hopefully be ready early next week. I'm a lot busier with work nowadays, so finding the time is going to be a lot tougher this season...please bear with me.

Cheers,
AM

p.s. Speaking of "Random Stuff", Liverpool to be owned by the Chinese government!?

Torres Commits To Liverpool

Great news for Liverpool fans ahead of the new season,:

Fernando Torres insists he is 'really happy' to stay at Liverpool and has stressed he is at 'the best club in the country'.

The Spanish striker's future at Anfield has been a source of speculation during the summer following Liverpool's failure to qualify for this season's UEFA Champions League.
 
Premier League rivals Chelsea and Manchester City have been linked with big-money bids, while reports have also claimed he could head back to Spain. However, after returning to training following his World Cup winning exploits, Torres confirmed he is not looking to quit Anfield before the close of the transfer window.
 
"This is the best club in the country so the targets and expectations are always high," Torres told the club's official website.
 
"Hopefully we can stay at our level. At Liverpool the aim is to fight for every title. It was difficult last season, but we are sure we can improve this season."
 
"I am really happy to be back, really happy to stay with all my team-mates. My commitment and loyalty to the club and to the fans is the same as it was on my first day when I signed. I am looking forward to the challenge ahead."

So apart from the hilarious claim that Liverpool are the best club in the country, it all sounds genuine and will be another huge boost along with the signing of Joe Cole & the news of an imminent takeover which will finally get rid of Hicks, Gillett & the debt they brought with them.

Could they be an outside bet for the title? There's no doubt the mood around Anfield has been lifted recently, and their starting XI is very good, yet I can't help but look at their squad and think it's too thin to mount any sort of challenge this season. I think any sensible Liverpool fan would accept 4th as a great achievement after last year, but things are definitely looking up!

Cheers,
AM

Week 1 - Fixtures

Those of you who were readers of the blog last season will know I usually begin my analysis of the forthcoming fantasy week by listing the Premier League fixtures (often within my Player Picks post). Unfortunately a new ruling means that if I want to list the fixtures on this blog I have to pay a licence fee to the Premier League (I'm sure they really need the money) which would add up to hundreds of pounds per season. I can't afford to do this, so I thought I'd give this brief explanation - they won't be appearing on the blog this year as I don't want to be sued for breach of Copyright.

However, I can link to them, so click here to view Week 1's fixtures. They also appear in the bottom right of the Yahoo Fantasy Football webpages, which is useful as you can refer to them as you select your players. As you will see, unlike the first week of last season, it's a single week for all teams.

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