Week 35 - My Team

 Reina

    Skrtel   Luiz   Kolarov

Malbranque   Silva   Larsson   Pennant   Adam

Dzeko   Suarez

Really happy with this team - my only worry is Dzeko being benched, but I'm hoping Mancini gives him a start to build on the confidence from his winner at Blackburn. At 7.01 I felt it was worth the risk. I also went Meireles > Larsson which I think that's a sensible move seeing as I already have Reina, Skrtel & Suarez from 'Pool.

Now next week it's a double week for Man City & Tottenham, so remember that when you're doing your barndoor work. I'll probably load up on City players to be honest, Spurs are bang out of form at the moment, so VDV may be my only Spurs player!

Finally, to those of you slating me yesterday for not writing an update because I was at my mate's wedding - you're writing those insults anonymously because you don't want to be associated with your own comments. Get a fucking life!

Cheers,
AM

No Update...

...because I'm at one of my best mate's weddings and it is a very happy and proud day. Good luck tomorrow & if you fancy wishing Paul & Katie a happy life together they would massively appreciate it. Cheers guys

Week 35 - Player Picks

Week 35 sees us go back to a single week for all teams, and I'm pretty glad about that. The occasional double week is OK when it's for the majority, but skewing your team selection to just a couple of sides isn't all that fun, so it's good to be back to normal. Unfortunately it's another double in Week 36 (for Man City & Spurs) but we won't worry about that for now!

Before I get in to the fixtures, I'll quickly talk about the week just passed. I ended Week 34 on 136 points, which is probably below average (150 is par in a DW), but I'm generally pleased with that score after a terrible start saw me take just 57 from the first round of matches.

Dempsey, Pennant & Schwarzer did the business in their 2nd games, but Etherington was unlucky to pick up an injury that could see him miss the FA Cup final, Zamora's double benching left me wishing I'd gone for Kenwyne, and I was sorely lacking a good Stoke defender as Wilson proved why he's so cheap!

I now find myself drifting around just outside the Top 100, and my dreams of the Top 50 are disappearing quicker than Tottenham's dreams of a 2nd season in the Champions League. 40 points is a hell of a lot to make up with just 3 weeks to go, so I'm just concentrating on trying to secure my 3rd ever Top 100 finish.

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Spurs, Harry & Week 34 So Far

Excellent article that sums up my feeling on Spurs and Harry Redknapp at this point in time, specifically targeting Redknapp's recent comments about the fans, as our hopes of another season of Champions League football slip away...

Why Do Expectations Grate With Harry? - Such Small Portions Blogspot

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Week 34 - My Team

Schwarzer

Wilson   Hughes   Luiz

O'Hara   Pennant   Dempsey   Etherington   

Suarez   Sturridge   Zamora

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Good luck all!

Week 34 - Update

Sorry guys, I've been in Brighton all-day so I'm sending this from my phone as I'm not going to get back in time to write a proper update post tonight. I therefore recommend you visit the following sites for all the latest team & injury news.

Fantasy EPL - Jeremy & Neal always provide a great summary of injuries & suspensions.

FF Scout - Team news constantly updated throughout the day.

BBC Sport - Decent information on each fixture.

I'm not going to get a chance to update my team either so it will remain as it was earlier in the week:

Schwarzer, Wilson, Hughes, Luiz, O'Hara, Pennant, Dempsey, Etherington, Suarez, Sturridge, Zamora

How's your team shaping up?

Cheers,
AM

Week 34 - Player Picks

Apologies for the very brief Player Picks post this week. We're approaching the Easter Bank Holiday weekend & I'm off work for 11 days from Friday onwards, so I have work commitments that must take priority in the next 48 hours (hence why this entire post is being written in my one hour lunch break).

Straight in to it then, and as we know, four teams play twice this week...

FULHAM - @Wolves, Bolton
STOKE - @Villa, Wolves
WOLVES - Fulham, @Stoke
BOLTON - Arsenal, @Fulham

I know these aren't the four most glamorous clubs, but you all know the rule regarding DGers at this stage of the season - get in as many as you can!

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The Blog Cup - Final Results

The 2010/11 Blog Cup

800 team, 8 rounds, 1 winner!

And the winner is... 

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Bale Wins PFA Player of the Year

I'll throw in my opinion on Gareth Bale's PFA Player of the Year award as I've seen some lively debate in the comments section of a previous post.

I'm certainly surprised he won it, but it's the same fundamental problem every season. The PFA voting was conducted in the early part of 2011 and votes submitted by the end of February, so that always means the result is skewed towards the top performers in the first 4-5 months of the season rather than the "business end".

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Week 33 - My Team

Cech

Carr   Heitinga   Luiz   A.Cole

Ferguson   Wilshire   Lampard

Phillips   Van Persie   Torres

As we've all agreed in the chatroom & in the comments, this has easily been the toughest week of the season to pick a team. And as you can see, I've made big changes since yesterday. I now have 10 DGers; 5 Chelsea, 3 Birmingham, 2 Arsenal + Heitinga. I don't really like it but I think I may've felt that way no matter which way I'd gone.

The big news is I left out Drogba! I decided he might only start one of the two games with Torres starting the other, so I couldn't justify spending almost £20m on him - it could be the decision that makes or breaks my season. Cech is in so I'm really banking on two Chelsea wins & I probably have too many fillers (+ I dropped Kolarov) but in the end I just tried to get as many DGers in as possible... crazy things can happen when players play twice in a week!

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Week 33 - Update

Only a short update post this week as I'm very tired after a long day sitting my Prince2 exam and I'm finding it incredibly difficult to concentrate or settle on a team for Week 33. What I do know is we'll all be picking up players from the three teams with two games, so I'm focusing on their news.

Chelsea are going to be without Ramires & Alex for the first game at West Brom, but both could be back for the Birmingham game. This news is extremely annoying for anyone who had Ramires in their side as he was a great cheap DG option & enabled extra spending elsewhere.

So who replaces him? If 4-3-3 remains then it's likely to be either Benayoun or Zhirkov, with Benayoun the more likely. If the Israeli does start then Ancelotti could be tempted to start with Torres as the two had a great understanding at Liverpool, but then again, Torres was so awful in midweek it would be a big suprise if Drogba sat on the bench again.

Could Ancelotti use 4-4-2 again to accommodate both the strikers?  Would that means Essien & Lampard in the middle with Malouda left, Benayoun right? What about Anelka? The honest truth is we just don't know, so you're going to have to go with your own instincts on this one, but I'm now trying to fit both Drogba & Torres in my team, despite the fact it appears impossible.

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Week 33 - Player Picks

Welcome to the most boring player picks of the season!

"Why the most boring AM?" I don't hear anybody asking, because they already know. But I'll explain anyway.

It's nearing the end of the season and when you near the end of a season you need do everything you can to scrape as many points as you can. There are lot of games to squeeze in, so that means we're going to see a lot of double game weeks (note: Wk 33, 34 & 36) & in these double game weeks you must fill your team with as many DGers as possible, forgetting all but the best discounts (Adam @5, VDV @6, Kolarov @4).

So why does this make the Week 33 player picks boring? Well, it's because only three teams have two games, meaning almost all of my picks are from these three teams & therefore very, very obvious.

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Week 32 - Summary

A quick post to close Week 32. Saturday was a disaster for me, as Hernandez sat and the outstanding Sturridge struck twice, Lampard flopped completely & Bily was outdone by Hitz despite scoring a cracking goal. 30 points with only 5 players left & I'd dropped to 99th, but thankfully Sunday saw an improvement.

Van Persie started it with a goal and assist, before Young & Friedel added further good points in Villa vital 1-0 win over Newcastle. 48 points from those 3 players pushed me helped push me in the right direction & a further 15 from Kolarov & Suarez last night pushed me to 93.5, which isn't too bad after the start I had. I'm also delighted that Liverpool beat City, as it keeps Spurs' slim hopes of 4th alive!

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Week 32 - My Team

Friedel

Smalling   Luiz   Kolarov

O'Hara   Lampard   Bilyaletdinov   A.Young

Suarez   Van Persie   Hernandez

I so nearly made big changes this morning to get Nani in, but in the end I would've needed a filler to accommodate him - and I couldn't justify that - so my team remains as it was on Friday evening with one exception... I changed Hitzlsperger to Bily with under a minute to go. Not sure why, just got a hunch!

Overall I'm quite pleased with it and hopefully I can break 100 points for the first time since Week 28 to continue my push towards the Top 50 (currently 61st).

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Week 32 - Update

Sorry for the lateness of the update post this week. Unfortunately I suffered an ankle injury playing football last night so have been at the hospital for most of the afternoon. I am in a lot of pain so for that reason this will be a bit shorter than usual.

Firstly, a reminder that Week 32 is the FINAL of The Blog Cup! 20 teams remain, with the highest weekly score winning the trophy & the £20 prize. You can see who's made the final by clicking the link below:

http://yahoofantasyfootballuk.blogspot.com/2011/03/blog-cup-semi-final-results.html

Good luck to all our finalists!

Now, team news:

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Week 32 - Player Picks

What a disappointing end to a fantastic Champions League run for Tottenham Hotspur. The 2nd leg in North London next Wednesday is now a formality - this one is over. 4-0 did not flatter Real Madrid at all, they battered us in a way that was reminiscent of Barca's domination of Arsenal last month in a completely one sided game.

I knew we'd been in poor form so I'd predicted a defeat last night against a far superior side, maybe a couple of goals if we kept our discipline, 2-0 or 3-1, giving Harry a slim chance to turn it around at White Hart Lane. Sadly any hope of keeping things competitive were blown out the water thanks to two moments of stupidity from Peter Crouch, and to be honest it was all a bit embarrassing from then onwards, with the final 30 minutes really hard to watch.

It would be great to salvage some pride with a win next week, but you can see this Spurs squad is running on empty now and with 4th place looking further away by the week I'm fearful this was a one-off adventure. It makes me sad thinking that could be the case, because I've loved seeing my club up against the very best in Europe for the first time in my life.

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Week 31 - How Did You Do?

I've returned from my weekend away with the lads to find I scored a rather average 81.5 points, with my decision to switch Adam Johnson to Jamie O'Hara costing me an extra 18 - bollocks. Luckily it seems to have been quite a low scoring week, as I actually moved up to 61st overall.

Now I had time to barndoor Rooney on Saturday but apart from that I'll be paying full price for everyone I bring in for Week 32. Chelsea, Manchester United & Arsenal have the stand-out fixtures, so this is a very early look at my team:

Almunia, Smalling, Kolarov, Luiz, Hitzlsperger, O'Hara, Valencia, Lampard, Suarez, Van Persie, Rooney

Still got £3m left in the bank so I'll probably upgrade Hitz, O'Hara or Almunia. I'm obviously missing Nani, but unfortunately he's well out of my price range this week.

How did you do this weekend? How's your barndoor team looking?

Cheers,
AM

Week 31 - My Team

Almunia

Kolarov   Smalling   Luiz

O'Hara   Hitzlsperger   Dempsey   Giggs

Suarez   Tevez   Van Persie

Wow, I was very lucky I visited Twitter & the chatroom at 11:57am to see that Nani was on the bench, so I quickly switched him for Tevez (dropping Defoe) & brought in Giggs. That was the best I could do in the 100 seconds I had before the deadline - hopefully it pays off.

I'm off on my mates stag-do now so won't be around for the rest of the weekend. Good luck to all!

Cheers,
AM

Week 31 - Update

It's been a week of uncertainty with a number of major names struggling with injuries that may or may not have kept them our of Week 31's round of fixtures. The news is starting to filter out of the clubs via the manager's press conferences, so I'll be updating you with this information throughout the afternoon.

Lets start with the team with the most injury worries at this moment in time, Arsenal, and the player on most people's minds - Robin Van Persie. Arsene Wenger has confirmed that he is fit for tomorrow's clash with Blackburn after suffering no more than a dead leg in mid-week, getting a kick above his knee. I'd expect him to start the game with the 3 points essential.

Further good news for the Gunners is the return of Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott, Alex Song and Abou Diaby & Nicklas Bendtner. They are all in the squad, but whether they all start is another matter. Wenger did confirm one certain starter, and that is Manuel Almunia: "He will play tomorrow. I can announce that today, he will be in goal."

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