Aug
16
Van Persie Benched
Robin Van Persie starts the season on the bench against West Brom today. The striker is apparently carrying a slight injury and hasn’t been risked.
Bendtner takes his place alongside Adeabyor, while at the back, Djourou makes a start with Toure not considered fit enough to start. Elsewhere the lineup is as expected with Nasri getting his full Premiership debut in midfield which could mean that Eboue takes a central role alongside Denilson. Ramsey is one of seven subs.
While the Arsenal lineup is full of surprises, West Brom line up as I predicted in team news with a 4-5-1 and Miller as their lone striker. Cech will play in midfield and could be worth watching considering he is classed as a defender across the fantasy games.
wow, there goes my captain, GREAT!
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Reply by Jyri on August 16, 2008 11:36 am:
Mine too, grrr.
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Reply by Phil Pino on August 16, 2008 11:43 am:
Mine too - bloody RVP, always injured…
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Mine aswell I am well Pissed off!
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Anybody else experiencing problems viewing other peoples team in the mini leagues?
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Reply by Richard on August 16, 2008 11:47 am:
nope Marc..Have you clicked on their team and then on Gameweek 1??? Last year if you clicked on their team name the squad came up but this season you have to click on the GW it seems…Hope this helps
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Reply by Andy on August 16, 2008 12:24 pm:
Im sure it will change back when they realise they havn’t put the code back from the pre-season stats.
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um. fuck. i have been tossing up between RVP and Adebayor all day and chose the former…
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Which bastards have Nasri on their teams?
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Van Persie could still come on I hope so he is my Captain FFS!
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Nasri - teams selected by 7 %
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Ok so get this. My opponent for the W1 H-to-H has selected D. James (POR) as their Captain?! Interesting choice seeing that they are playing MUFC at home.
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Reply by Mark on August 16, 2008 12:43 pm:
I’m not so lucky. My opponent has Nasri, although fortunately, and rather strangely, he went for Walcott as his captain.
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Reply by Will on August 16, 2008 10:00 pm:
pity because hes in the bloody dream team!
nasri that is
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Reply by Richard on August 16, 2008 12:49 pm:
That to me smacks of a novicey error Brad!! If you don’t select a captain i think it automatically selects your goalkeeper. Maybe he/she didn’t know about the whole captain thing and therefore didn’t make a selection…Just a theory otherwise what the hell were they thinking?? lucky you
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Reply by Lukeazade on August 16, 2008 1:12 pm:
wow my H to H opponent has van der sar, evra and fredinand in his starting 11, if untied keep a clean sheet im in serious trouble!
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Reply by Richard on August 16, 2008 1:35 pm:
shame you’re not playing him in GW3 - that’s an expensive set of benchwarmers he’ll have there!!
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Just got back from holiday without a computer, and Fabregas is my captain! Also my opponent has Nasri as their captain.
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Next week I’m playing head-to-head against Black Jacks Blue. He has Ljunberg, Rosicky and Drogba as starters(all OUT of the games). Maybe he can add Thierry Henry for next week as well
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“…RVP warming up”
oh baby…
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Yes come on Van Persie!
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Almost
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Adebayor looks sluggish to me. swap for tevez?
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His pace is fine but i’d definitely recommend some passing practice…
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Bale & Berbatov on the bench for Spurs
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Slapped my large gonads on the table and put Young as my captain instead of following the flock and going with Adebayor. Just need Young to come up with an asisst or goal tomorrow.So far so good..My next big call was putting in Fletcher and sitting Bent on the bench…1 for 1 so far fingers crossed this afternoon…
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ASHTON!!!!!!! makes me feel a lot better about having Adebayor as captain
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Reply by Steve on August 16, 2008 2:28 pm:
Me too, should gone with Marks recommendation and stuck Tevez as Capt. Or even better gone with my gut feeling and swapped Rooney for Tevez and made him Capt. Reckon Ronney will get a couple tomorrow. Well annoyed that ades didn’t bag a few in today, still at least i didn’t have RVP ;o)
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Reply by Steve on August 16, 2008 2:29 pm:
where’s my gravatar? is it case sensitive?
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Reply by Steve on August 16, 2008 2:29 pm:
aha, it would appear so
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What are Blackburn playing at scoring a goal! That wasn’t in the plan.
Hull too. Told you Geovanni was a good buy!
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Reply by Sam (Team Sam) on August 16, 2008 2:39 pm:
ditto on Geovanni. I’ve been going on about him all pre-season (at one stage I had him starting for the first game!), only to replace him with De Ridder to save 0.5mil
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Reply by Dr. Rog on August 16, 2008 2:41 pm:
i had steinsson but got rid of him as he was a risk not to play… gutted. could be worse i could have ade or rvp as captain!
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i had steinsson but got rid of him , and i had adebayor captain
ashton makes up though
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Yes. I had Ashton…. on the bench.
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i had geovanni,but i’m not worrying. He started off good last year for man city .
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Arteta :O noo , bentley had better do something in the second half !
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bugger i dropped cahill to the bench and played Baines instead!! Not so inspirational!! Cahill on his way to 9 points currently…
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Inevitably if you have been tinkering you had every player in your team.
The fact is they cant all be there (although i wish they could!) and your final lineup is your only lineup…
gutted that bolton are 3 up though and taylor still on 1pt!
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Reply by Sam (Team Sam) on August 16, 2008 3:03 pm:
Completely agree, I had half the league in my team at one point. Currently, the people I at one stage had that have done something good are:
Nasri, Arteta, Elmander, G.Cahill, Geovanni, and Gamst Pedersen…. come on Taylor and Bentley!!!
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iv’e never had nasri in my team , but i had Zaki
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Arteta and Zaki on bench. But, I was choosing one from them 2 and Giovanni so not too bad.
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Arteta is the only one who has performed on my team so far. Gera and Taylor has been disappointing in midfield. Adebayor and Bent Has sncked. Jagielka conceded two. Green one. Rest of the guys playing tomorrow. Letæs hope they perform better.
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noooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!! i have wheater and ashton on the bench i opted out for bale and bent! oh dam fpl why must you punish me!!
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Get in! Only this morning i predicted Huth would be a points scorer..1 game and he’s bagged a goal already. Good stuff Robert keep it up :o)
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Why did Bolton have to concede at the death… sloppy
-5pts
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What no assist from Bentley?? Come on FPL i’m desperate here i need the points…Been a very low points scoring day and that Stoke goal was a killer at the end…Jaaskelainen was my highest scorer!!!
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I hate Dawson… Why Ramos Why Ramos.. Why you have to let him play… Cant go to the office tomorrow… lots of gooners…
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Reply by Cerberus on August 16, 2008 4:14 pm:
You ar going to the office tomorrow?
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Every bloomin’ Bolton defender gets an assist or a goal. I had them all at one point! Wheater too!
Still, I’m glad to see my faith in Arteta returned. At one point Bentley was booked and the BBC website confessed that they hadn’t noticed that he was playing up to that point. Presumably he’ll get that assist though, so it’s not all bad.
Still, if I get a decent points return from captain Lampard tomorrow or a couple of points from Ashley Young I will consider the first week a modest success.
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hahaha…. I mean on monday… Luckily I got ashton and arteta in myteam… this website is awesome
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Can’t believe Stoke scored in the last 5 mins!!!!!!
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Reply by Richard on August 16, 2008 4:25 pm:
edit that - make it the last min!!!
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what an awful start
15 points so far :L 
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I got 21 points so far. Not to bad as i’ve got Laursen, Evra, A Young and Captain Tevez tomorrow, and the first few matches is anyones guess. Still I’m dissapointed that Taylor didn’t get any assists or goals against Stoke, and that i got fooled by Darren Bent’s pre-season.
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Reply by Dr. Rog on August 16, 2008 5:16 pm:
I think its worth persisting with Bent - this is only one game and was always going to be tricky - tottenhams fixtures are good
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Reply by Cerberus on August 16, 2008 5:36 pm:
I’ll give a couple of more chaces. Up front i’ve got Tevez, Ade and Bent, and my plan is to exchange one of the two really expensive ones for a cheaper one and upgrade my midfield with Fab when he’s cheaper and fit. Bent will probably stay until GW 10 if he’s not benched by then
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cant believe stoke robbed me of 8 points in last min!!
plus still no assist for bentley although they are bound to award it.
only 15 points from 6 players but feel they are my strongest 5 still to come.
wish i hadnt follwed advice to change captain from tev to ade….
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k
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Reply by Dr. Rog on August 16, 2008 5:18 pm:
yes please
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OK
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k
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Reply by cyberPUNK on August 16, 2008 5:28 pm:
yes, thanks.
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Stupid Stoke :(. I can’t believe all of my players only got the 2 points for making an appearance apart from Cahill.
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Reply by Steve on August 16, 2008 6:22 pm:
i know it’s gutting, i had jaskelienen and cahill, still 5 points for cahill is better than 2. And now to top if off Torres has scored away from home after i swapped him out for Tevez. Tevez better get a hatrick tomorrow!
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why no f***ing assist for bentley??????????I WANT ANSWERS!!!!!
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Reply by Andrew on August 16, 2008 6:47 pm:
Hopefully those in charge of FPL (I presume you are playing that game) will change it before the gameweek finishes.
Threy’d better, since I have him too! :@
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Reply by Will on August 16, 2008 10:06 pm:
did he get an assist?
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Calm down Joe, Bentley will be given the assist in due time on the premierleague.com FF game, quite a few weren’t given straight away last season. I believe that the Opta Stats system used doesn’t count assists for Own Goals but the premierleague.com FF game does.
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I’M THROUGH 3 PAPER BAGS FROM THE HYPERVENTILATING CHAPS:)
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Reply by Richard on August 16, 2008 7:07 pm:
You can put the paper bags away Joe he’s been credited with his assist!! :o) Boy did i need that. 16 points now then with 5 still to play. Been a tough 1st weekend so far..
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Reply by Will on August 16, 2008 7:22 pm:
Ashton scores 2, but doesn’t pick up a single bonus point…
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To be fair though, although I didn’t watch the game and don’t know how well Ashton played overall, I think there was too much emphasis placed on goals scored in the awarding of bonus points in previous seasons. I too had Ashton in my premierleague.com FF team and expected him to pick up at least a couple but it sounds as if Ashton didn’t get up to too much apart from the early goals so I can understand this.
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Reply by Will on August 16, 2008 7:38 pm:
True, I haven’t seen motd yet, so not sure how much he was involved after the goals, but was a bit suprised he didn’t even pick up 1 point. tbh, I’m just glad he scored, as his striking partners in my team were adebayor and RVP….
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Adebayor was in pretty much all my other FF teams and I put Van Persie as captain last night for my PL one so yeah, a wee bit disappointed.
Still managed 44 points with 3 left to play so not all bad, breaking the 50 point mark was my target for the opening gameweek.
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Just looked at the Overall Rankings and 1 place < 1 PLACE !! below me is my opponent in my head to head league .
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Well you spend hours tinkering with your team, weeks figuring out pre season friendlies, lose hair over selection dilemmas - and what happens?? You have a shocking week 1 and Patricia Bird tops the scout league :ol
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You got 79 points then?
Gee… although my team did shit, i’m still better off than more than half of the guys in the game.
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Bloody hell Alonso must have had a storming half..He didn’t come on till just after half time did he?? Managed to pick up all 3 bonus points…No points for Gerrard or Torres…easier to pick lottery numbers than it is to find players who pick up bonus points..I don’t have Clichy in my team but i thought he had a blinder this morning..How many bonus points did he get?? Zip, nada, the big zero!!
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I may not have had the greatest day, but at least I’m ahead of a certain Sutherns Comfort in the Scout league
. Even if it’s only for a day. 8 of the same starting XI and the same captain too - you must have been reading my mind, Mark. 
Oh, and who would like to own up to being the manager of Huffin and a Puffin? Mr Ed Aspinall, my chapeau is duly doffed, sir.
Looking forward to MOTD and finding out why Djourou, Warnock, Upson and Nosworthy were the players of the day.
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Reply by Mark on August 16, 2008 9:34 pm:
I’m a slow starter puffin - watch me rise to a magnificent mid-table place by January
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Reply by Bedknobs and Boomsticks (Naboombu Utd) on August 16, 2008 9:51 pm:
Not to mention Schwarzer. 2 saves, 2 goals conceded, and a defeat. Obviously a shoe-in for a bonus point.
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I’ve got two Bale and RVP in my team. What is the general feeling on Bale? Is he going to be a half time sub or a regular for spurs.
Any other goal/assist defenders that would be a better option.
Cheers lads.
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Weeks and weeks of deliberation… then? Day 1 an utter disaster!. 18th in my private league with 22 points.
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i’d kill for 22 points lol i’ve got 16!! Hoping for a better day tomorrow though - still got 5 players and my captain to come..can’t get much worse thats for sure..
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lol I think everyone on this site has exactly the same team. Except for the poor sods who picked RVP, and the lucky wanks who didn’t swap Ashton out for Bent.
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Wonder if Wheater could be this year’s Laursen/Lescott.
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Reply by Guy Incognito on August 16, 2008 10:22 pm:
Yes. They’re definitely all ugly, goal-scoring defenders. At least Wheater could be (if he scores from a few more set-pieces, obviously).
Have you seen any of the highlights? I assume you must get some over there? How I’ve missed that smug feeling of watching one of my players put in a great performance. Actually I’m not feeling that smug at the moment, I’ve only got 32 points, but I enjoyed Arteta’s free-kick.
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firstly im australian so i have to wait until sunday morning to see the results and whatnot but i have done alright on 43 points with 3 to play, being carv, neville and A.young so im confident. but go torres trusted in him as captain and he delivered!!!!!!
Team name is St.Lunatics in scouts league
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Reply by puffinboy on August 16, 2008 10:17 pm:
I hope you enjoyed the Brits rowing down the Aussies in the coxless fours, HJ. Best choke since Cadel Evans and Greg Norman.
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Reply by Guy Incognito on August 16, 2008 10:28 pm:
Nice one. I’ve learned not to gloat to Australians, they’re far too capable of embarrassing us in all kinds of different sports, so thanks.
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Reply by puffinboy on August 16, 2008 10:37 pm:
We must take our pleasures when they occasionally arrive. I think we have a shot at beating them this time. Famous last words.
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Reply by HJ on August 17, 2008 4:01 am:
oh yes i enjoyed it
thought it quite funny really.
it was also the type of choke that brought back memories of the ashes…but with a role reversal. and not just one choke. a decades worth.
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hey guys only found this website now ….. i did really really bad this week , wait for …… 17 point only so far please help me with my squad next week … in my team now i have. Kirkland ,Clichy, Richards , Bosingwa , Modric, Lampard, Dempsey, Fabregas, Van Persie, Berbatov, Defoe ….. this is my team for game week 2 . please help if i need to change anything
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Reply by Will on August 17, 2008 4:18 am:
well that is a pretty good team, and that 17 points doesn’t include lampard/bosingwa and defoe’s points, and whoever was subbed in for fabregas. Doing some quick maths tho, that team must mean that your subs are bargain basement. might be worth downgrading lampard/fabregas to young/arteta/downing/petrov so that you can upgrade dempsey-he only got as many goals as he did last year because he was being played as a striker for some of the time. Also, I think there are better £5.5 mil defenders than Richards-shorey for instance.
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damn i never thought middlesbrough would beat tottenham. had tottenham faired decently i’d be sitting on amuch better score right now.
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Reply by MrPDM on August 17, 2008 5:32 am:
wouldn`t we all
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Djourou got the star man as he was the best player on the pitch today and then Nasri.
Gutted about Stoke scoring in the last minute as 5 points going made a dent.
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Reply by Akers on August 17, 2008 10:08 am:
He didn’t deserve 3 bonus.
I thought Clichy, Sagna and Nasri should’ve got bonus.
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Anyone know the web address for the crack the code site, the link here doesn’t seem to be working.
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Reply by Dr. Rog on August 17, 2008 9:43 am:
Data looks erroneous:-
http://crackthecode.awardspace.co.uk/
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Your right it looks complicated. The lists appears out of date, anyone know how it works?
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don’t know who to transfer in torres , arteta , nasri ?
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Bosingwa has started for Chelsea. Is he expected to get many assist? Or would Bale be a better option?
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when is fabregas back? for the newcastle game….might have to start freeing up some cash now!
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whats crack the code website?
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Reply by Mark on August 17, 2008 6:31 pm:
Hi Whitey. It’s a site that helps you track when FPL players will shift in value. It’s a great piece of work and can be found here…
http://crackthecode.awardspace.co.uk/
I think it’s being tested out at the moment though so there are no values being tracked at the mo.
I’ve a guide, written by a visitor to this site, being published next week that should help you out if you’re looking to play the FPL player market.
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Hi Mark, thanks for the help. Yep the FPL is the game i prefer and im in.
i look forward to reading the articale about it, could be a very handy tool!
Also id like to say this site is great, i used it a lot last season and it must ‘ve helped me win many extra points! =0)
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Hi Mark!
Do you reckon van Persie will start next week? I’ve got the choice between him and Gary Neville to transfer out this week…
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Reply by Phil Pino on August 18, 2008 11:08 am:
Whilst i’m not Mark, i’d recommend holding onto RVP for a few more weeks whilst Arsenal’s fixtures look good. RVP was only withdrawn as he aggravated an injury, i’d expect him to be a nailed-on start otherwise.
Neville is likely to be rotated with Brown quite regularly so i think you’d be better shifting him for someone more reliable.
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That’s my thought as well. Tempting to sell RVP for Santa Cruz or Agbonlahor but hopefully Persie’s damage was minor
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Watch out about dropping Van Persie so quickly. Watch him get a brace, an assist, and three bonus points this week, and you’ll be banging your head against the wall for transferring him out. He is the only striker who is capable of getting 200 points besides Torres….if he stays healthy.
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