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The ScoutCast – Episode 31 – Certified PG

Mark returns brazen faced from gameweek 29 with a right cob on after skippering Bendtner; so much so that I’m forced to flash him a yellow for a foul-mouthed tirade that earns this podcast a parental guidance certificate…

Saturday’s Dugout Discussion

by Mark on March 13

The gameweek gets started at White Hart Lane with Blackburn Rovers taking on Spurs before the three o’clocks roll us on through to Arsenal’s trip to Hull at 5.30.

The team news finds Jermain Defoe restored to the starting lineup with Crouch dropping to the bench. Pavlyuchenko keeps his starting role then and Bale remains on the left flank by the looks of things. David Dunn returns to the Rovers lineup with Andrews making way and it appears that Olsson is back in a midfield role with Chimbonda looking likely to start at left-back. Diouf also drops to the bench to make way.

The Dugout Discussion chat room is now open and will remain so throughout the day to host the emotional rollarcoaster as today’s seven Premier League games take place.

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The Pre-Match Preamble

by Mark on March 13

Saturday starts with a big change. This pre-match preamble posts contains all the usual ingredients – a big dose of team news analysis from the morning papers, followed by a the usual array of match facts to throw your last minute fantasy thinking in turmoil. This post does however bring about a big change.

The new comment system is to be introduced on this post and possibly on this post only. Please refer to this morning’s earlier post on how to get involved. In a nutshell – you need to register with IntenseDebate and log in with this account below in order to post a comment this morning. Your existing login will not work but you can change your display name to your existing name on this site, should your username be taken in IntenseDebate.

I’ve opened up the Saturday Surgery in the chatroom early should anyone need some help with this in real-time. I’ll be popping in there while I prepare breakfast.

Now, on with the Preamble… [click to continue…]

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New Comment System Test Today

by Mark on March 13

With the last post at over 2000 comments and with the new comment system tentatively ready for it’s next round of testing, I’m going to try something this morning.

We’re going to put a new comment system through a “public beta”.

In a few hours a new comment system is due to “go live” on this site. There’s a very good chance that the new system won’t solve all our problems and hand us a load of new bugs to solve. However, I’ve decided to go with it this morning and hopefully over the Fantasy Premier League deadline period to see how it copes. The beauty of this new system is that it can easily be rolled back to what we have now if things should go awry.

The first thing to stress then – this is just a test. No decision will be made on whether this stays permanently as yet and there’s a 99% chance that we will revert back to our old comments system later today… [click to continue…]

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The Scout Picks

by Mark on March 12

With double gameweek’s for Villa and Wigan, plus some desirable home fixtures for Chelsea, Liverpool and United and the injury to Cesc Fabregas, the script for gameweek 30 almost writes itself.

Covering the Villa defence, with four clean sheets in six, looks essential. Covering the chances of Milner taking another step towards South Africa by winning more plaudits and Fantasy Premier League bonus points looks almost essential. The only real dilemma appears to be how you back those three big sides at home this week – with Drogba, Rooney, Torres, Gerrard and Lampard all lining their sights up on obliging opponents and big fantasy hauls, where does your big money go?

Here’s the Scout Picks to offer my two-penneth… [click to continue…]

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The Weekend Team News

by Mark on March 12

Hilario and Carvalho miss out but Zhirkov returns as Chelsea prepare for the Hammers. Cahill and Saha in the reckoning as Everton take the trip to St Andrews. Bowyer makes a recovery and should be in opposition. Agbonlahor comes through training as he readies himself for Villa’s double gameweek. Pulis hints at a shake-up for Stoke as they lie in wait for O’Neil’s men…

Today’s team news from around the grounds is almost complete. This new crop has been added to the earlier harvest and predicted lineups have been updated for the gameweek. Get over to the team news section for the latest and keep one eye on Greek Fan’s tweets for fresh goods.

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In case you haven’t been paying attention to Greek Fan’s impeccably updated twitter feed (Why not?), a few little fixture nuggets have traveled down the wires in the last day or so.

Perhaps most interesting is that one of the remaining few pending games being rescheduled into gameweek 34, giving us more double gameweek food for thought. The fixture to be played on Wednesday 14th April will be Fulham FC vs Stoke City.

Stoke will have two away days against Fulham and Wolves on the cards, while Fulham add the fixture in perhaps their most unappealing gameweek possible; their other match being against Liverpool at Anfield. That game on the Mersey could be postponed however if Fulham manage to snatch and grab a victory at Spurs in their FA Cup replay…. [click to continue…]

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Scouting the Doubles – Wigan Athletic

by SIR PAULOS on March 12

Next up in our double gameweek analysis is Wigan Athletic, a side undoubtedly buoyed by last Monday’s home win over Liverpool. Despite having beaten two of the “Big Four” this season, Roberto Martinez’s side have been blighted by an inconsistency that sees them sit just four points above the drop zone and will be hoping to string together a run of results in their fight against relegation…
[click to continue…]

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With the qualifiers for the Fantasy Football Scout Cup II, sponsored by Paddy Power, revealed earlier, all that is left is to do is to announce the first round draw itself. With help from my glamorous assistant greek fan, the draw was made, and is available to plot your opponents downfall here[click to continue…]

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Fabregas Needs A Hull Miracle

by Mark on March 11

It appears we can count Cesc Fabregas out of our gameweek plans with Arsene Wenger today declaring that it would take a “miracle” for his skipper to step out onto the KC stadium surface on Saturday.

Fabregas was regarded as 50-50 for the weekend prior to Wednesday’s Champions League win over Porto. Those odds have somewhat shortened over the last 24 hours according to the Arsenal boss… [click to continue…]

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For those of you eager to know if you’ve qualified for the first round of the Fantasy Football Scout Cup II, sponsored by Paddy Power, look no further. The magic score this gameweek, for the 1032 entrants, was 44 (after hits). If you achieved at least this, you have qualifed. If, however, you are one of the fantasy managers that scored 43 this gameweek, then your qualification status is dependant on overall rank… [click to continue…]

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Gameweek 30 – The FPL Captain Poll

March 11, 2010

Morning all. With gameweek brought to an unspectacular end at Turf Moor last night, here’s a timely reminder that the poll canvasing your views on the candidates for gameweek 30’s Fantasy Premier League captain is quietly buzzing away in your middle column.
Villa’s James Milner, with his double gameweek, currently dominates with Didier Drogba trailing. Wayne [...]

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The ScoutCast – Episode 31 – Certified PG

March 10, 2010

Mark returns brazen faced from gameweek 29 with a right cob on after skippering Bendtner; so much so that I’m forced to flash him a yellow for a foul-mouthed tirade that earns this podcast a parental guidance certificate…

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Wednesday’s Dugout Discussion

March 10, 2010

Better late than never, tonight’s Dugout Discussion has opened up its doors to you locals. Get yourself a seat at the bar and contribute your own thoughts on tonight’s action as Burnley take on Stoke at Turf Moor and United look for a quarter-final place against AC Milan in the Champions League.
As this is typed [...]

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Scouting the Doubles – Aston Villa

March 10, 2010

Last weekend’s brilliant second half fight back at Reading not only broke Aston Villa’s much-talked about March hoodoo, it also ensured Martin O’Neill’s boys gave us FPL managers the chance of selecting them for two consecutive DGWs.
Admittedly, at two-nil down at home on Sunday it seemed unlikely, but a sterling second forty-five [...]

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The Technical Area – The Real Arteta Stands Up

March 10, 2010

Mikel Arteta’s brace in the 5-1 demolition of Hull on Sunday reacquainted him with the fantasy fraternity and raised his profile on our radars.
The subject of a Watchlist article last month, visitors here have always been aware of his potential. The question we have to ask ourselves now is whether Sunday’s performance is just the [...]

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