Week 9 - Sunday

Sunday completed a truly rotten week for me, as points rained in for players I didn't have and I missed my second barndoor of the weekend, stuck in traffic on the M25 on a Sunday afternoon.

The first game of the day was at Stoke where Manchester United grabbed a vital 3 points with a hard fought 2-1 victory. They have a new star in the making in Javier Hernandez, and his brace was enough to see off Pulis' men despite Tuncay's outstanding equaliser.

I was hoping for more than 10 points from Nani, but Chicharito delighted those who invested in him with a cracking 24 points. Pennant scored a decent 7.5 for Stoke, but that was about it. Oh yeah, Gary Neville should've been sent off.

Liverpool grabbed an even more vital win at Anfield, overcoming Sam Allardyce's stubborn Blackburn side by the same scoreline. Fantastic points for goalscorer Kyrgiakos and Torres along with Steven Gerrard, but not much for Blackburn seeing their goal was a Carragher OG (although Phil Jones continues to score well). The win wasn't enough to move Liverpool out of the relegation zone but it should ensure they start moving in the right direction.

The final game of the weekend was the big one - Manchester City vs Arsenal, and to be honest it was spoilt by Boyata's red card just 5 minutes in. He had to go mind you, and although City battled well you can't beat Arsenal with 10 men. Nasri, Song & Bendtner wrapped up the points despite Joe Hart saving a Fabregas penalty. Great points for Silva, Boateng, Fabianski & the Arsenal defence.

Nani's points gave me a well below average score of 83, the 3rd time I have failed to break 100 this season - not good! I had a feeling I would drop out of the Top 1000 and boy did I, down to 1078th, a fall of almost 400 places from Saturday.

My main frustration  however, was missing the barndoor once again after City v Arsenal (although I was able to grab Hernandez). This meant I missed out on a number of players I definitely wanted but now probably can't afford to get for Week 10; Fabianski, Boateng, Carroll & Brunt. Because of this I'll need to do something different to other managers, but I guess that may not be a bad thing.

Current side on my page:

Krul, Coleman, Bosingwa, Bale, Adam, Nani, Van Der Vaart, Fabregas, Hernandez, Carroll, Chamakh

With this team I have 3.2m in the bank and still hold Zhirkov & Malouda at discount. I may switch Hernandez to Brunt/Barton or Bale may go for Salcido (or even Boateng @6) to allow me to either keep Malouda or get a better keeper in with the spare cash. I'm almost certainly going to leave out Drogba @ 22 away from home.

The Blog Team had a far better week with 108 points moving us up towards the Top 2500. Huge thanks to Mike & Hans for continuing to manage this team in my absence! Also thanks to them for running http://www.ffchallenge.moonfruit.com/ where I understand I edged-out ToffeeDave in the KEO Cup Final - adding some much needed cheer to an otherwise terrible Week 9! :)

That completes my posts for Week 9. Please let me know how you did (I'm sure many of you far exceeded 100 point) and I'd also like to ask for advice on how I should approach my team given the current selection on my page, remembering I missed the barndoor/s!

I may not be posting too much this week as it's my 28th birthday on Wednesday, but my Week 10 - Player Picks will be up at some-point on Thursday.

Cheers,
AM