Week 9 - Saturday

Unfortunately Week 9 is turning in to one of my poorest of the season, mainly due to the usually excellent Bale & Drogba. They returned a measly 9.5 points for a cost of £37m, which I don't need to tell you is really really bad.

Luckily the other £49m playing for me yesterday picked up a further 63.5 points to push me to a total of 73 so far, leaving me with £14m Nani to go today. If he can pick up his value of 14 points I'll get close to 90 for the week which I'd take after yesterday, but it still won't be great in comparison to other managers who had the man in the photo above (more on him later).

It started OK - Van Der Vaart grabbed a goal in the lunch-time kick-off and although Bale didn't do much I wasn't worried with all the Chelsea players I had to come. I was also satisfied with a draw against Everton after the midweek exploits Spurs had endured in Milan. Baines' free-kick was outstanding.

On to the 3pm's as Chelsea ran out 2-0 winners vs Wolves (who played well), with Bosingwa & Zhirkov returning more than double their cost (16 & 10) and Malouda chipping in with a goal for 14 points. I've already mentioned Drogba - he had chances but didn't look sharp after his illness so in retrospect is was an error spending so much on him. However, on another day he would've scored 30 points in a game like this so I can have no regrets and it won't stop me picking him again when I feel I need to.

In this week's player picks post I predicted wins for West Brom and Birmingham, and this turned out to be the case. Di Matteo's team inspired by Chris Brunt came from behind (after a Carson own goal) to beat Fulham and Birmingham had too much for Blackpool at St Andrews, claiming a 2-0 win. That clean sheet turned out to be the week's big turning point, as Ben Foster returned a quite magnificent 23.5 points, one of the main reasons my week is going to turn out to be a bad one. Congratulations if you had him, Brum defenders, Larsson or Zigic - great points all round.

Lots of us missed out on the Foster points as we took the Kirkland risk (mainly to accommodate Drogba, d'oh!) so at least he didn't go negative - not that zero points helps much. Another predictable results, Wigan 1 Bolton 1, good points for Rodallega, Elmander & Holden. Sunderland were lucky to take all 3 points over Aston Villa, a Dunne own goal the difference despite a second-half battering from Villa.

The final game of the day saw West Ham put in a quite pathetic performance in front of their home fans in a deserved 2-1 defeat to Newcastle. Obinna proved a waste of time but Barton, Nolan & Carroll were back in the points after a few quiet weeks.

So that was Saturday - we have Stoke v Man Utd (where I could do with a Nani hat-trick), Liverpool v Blackburn & Man City vs Arsenal today. I can see myself being outside the Top 1000 by the end of it (currently 740th).

I missed the barndoor but I have this on my Week 10 team page at the moment:

Kirkland, Bosingwa, Boateng, Bale, Adam, Nani, Malouda, Van Der Vaart, Fabregas, Chamakh, Carroll

You'll notice Drogba is gone at the moment as I'm thinking £23m for a tricky away game at Blackburn is too much. My defence & midfield are immense but one of Malouda or Bale are probably going to have to go too so I can get a playing keeper in.

If Malouda goes I'll bring someone like Holden or Barton in and upgrade Kirkland to Fabinaski (who faces rock bottom West Ham at home). If Bale goes (and he has a very tough game at Old Trafford) I'd perhaps swap him for Salcido at home to Wigan which would again allow Fabianski in. Or I might just take the Kirkland zero (assuming Al-Habsi comes back) and keep it how it is, not sure yet.

That's it - please let me know how you've done and who you have left to play today. Who came in on the barndoor?

Cheers,
AM