Site Features
Men At Work This Morning
Morning all. This is just a brief heads-up to inform you that we’re taking advantage of the international break to do some minor upgrades this morning. From about 9am there will be some tweaking going on which may effect what you see on the site. There will be a short period where the normal content is not available. The Members’ Area will be unaffected for those wishing to scan some statistical goodness this morning.
Thanks for your patience as always.
Read more...Sunday’s Dugout Discussion
Sky Sports brings you their first Super Sunday of the season and boy oh boy isn’t it …well it’s alright. Waking you up on this lazy Sunday afternoon will be the scotch broth of Owen Coyle and Alex McCleish going toe to toe as Birmingham make their visit to the Reebok Stadium to face off against Bolton.
We see an unchanged eleven from their successful trip to West Ham last week for Bolton, while Birmingham look like reverting to a 4-5-1 formation this afternoon with Lee Bowyer coming in for Nikola Zigic.
Bolton XI: Jaaskelainen; Steinsson, Cahill, Knight, Robinson; Lee, Holden, Muamba, Petrov; Elmander, Kevin Davies
Birmingham XI: Foster; Carr, Johnson, Dann, Ridgewell; Larsson, Gardner, Ferguson, McFadden, Bowyer; Jerome
As the clock ticks down on this fixture, away from your television screens arguably the two “best” matches of the day will kick-off. Roberto Mancini will take his Manchester City side to Sunderland this afternoon as Roy Hodgson stays a little closer to home with the visit of West Brom….
Read more...Saturday’s Dugout Discussion
The beginning of the end (of August, that is) starts this afternoon as our first month of fantasy management welcomes it’s final week – gameweek three. And with that, a whole host of games look to welcome your gasps, yelps and sighs, starting with Blackburn versus Arsenal…
Read more...Saturday Surgery Now Open
So there’s just over half an hour to go before Gameweek Three’s Fantasy Premier League deadline goes “ding”.
Are you still fidgeting over that last minute transfer or substitution? Need another opinion right here, right now? Then get into our Saturday Surgery where your Fantasy Football peers can help with their views.
The Surgery chatroom is now open here.
Read more...Gameweek 3 – The Captain Poll
In gameweek one many people took a wild stab at the continental flavours of Mauro Boselli as their candidate for captain – we all know how that turned out. In gameweek two Cesc Fabregas and Robin Van Persie drew more than their fair share of takers, only for Arsene Wenger to shackle them to the bench for an hour. So far then, gambling with the award of your armband has proved a mug’s game.
The safe and let’s face it, the most effective option so far has been to stick the captaincy on Didier Drogba and wait for the points to roll in. It’s no surprise to find the Chelsea man leaving all contenders in his wake in our poll right now then. The visit of Stoke to Stamford Bridge and the imperious form of the Cote D’Ivoire star speaks for itself. Chelsea won the corresponding fixture 7-0 last season. Chelsea have won 6-0, 6-0 so far this season. Throw those stats in with Drogba’s performances of three goals, three assists and five Fantasy Premier League Bonus Points and the maths add up to a simple solution – Captain Drogba….
Read more...Monday’s Dugout Discussion
The gameweek is brought to a close with a clash of titanesque proportions at Eastlands. Two top four contenders go at each other as Mancini’s City take on Hodgson’s Liverpool in what will hopefully be a cracker for neutrals everywhere.
It’s unlikely we will have too much Fantasy talent on show at this stage although all eyes will be on Fernando Torres as he looks to chase down Didier Drogba for the Golden Boot and our Fantasy attentions. The start for Torres has Hodgson put out an attacking looking lineup as Ngog keeps his place and there’s also starts for Dirk Kuyt and Milan Jovanovic. The omission of Javier Mascherano steals the headlines though, amidst allegations that he’s refused to be involved with speculation rife on a move to Barcelona.
As for City, Mancini looks typically cautious with his selection. Adam Johnson and James Milner both start but it looks like another 4-5-1 from the Italian with Carlos Tevez up front on his own. The three enforcers in midfield – Gareth Barry, Nigel De Jong and Yaya Toure all start. I reckon we will need an early Liverpool goal to make this the classic we’re hoping for.
The Dugout Discussion is open and available right here.
Read more...Members Area Updates
The Members area has now been updated with the Opta stats from all of Sunday’s games with just the Man City vs Liverpool stats remaining to complete the gameweek.
The Player Projections have also been updated to reflect form and starting lineups two weeks into the season. Look out for revised projections for the likes of Andy Carroll, Simon Davies, Morten Gamst Pedersen, Seb Larsson, Kevin Nolan, Chris Brunt and Johan Elmander among others.
The Next Five ticker has also been moved on for all visitors and Members can look forward to a new features which we hope to roll out by the end of the week. More news on that soon.
If you’ve yet to sign up as a Member you can of course get more information on what’s on offer right here.
Read more...Sunday Dugout Discussion
The fantasy train rolls on at full speed this afternoon as two more matches look to spoil or add a little more delight to your Sunday roast. Newcastle get the first chance to invite a team to St. James’ Park since their return to the Premier League and good friends Mark Hughes and Sir Alex Ferguson get to duke it out on the turf once more.
The news from Newcastle is that Chris Hughton keeps faith with his XI that lost to Man United on Monday as Peter Lovenkrands is only fit enough to make the bench. Kevin McDonald meanwhile makes one [enforced] change as Steven Ireland is drafted in to make his debut as a direct replacement for the departed James Milner. The full teams are as follows…
Newcastle XI: Harper; Perch, Coloccini, Williamson, Enrique; Routledge, Barton, Smith, Gutierrez; Nolan; Carroll
Aston Villa XI: Friedel; L. Young, Clark, Dunne, Warnock; Albrighton, Ireland, Petrov, Downing; A. Young; Carew
More than a few other news sources have picked up on the news that Wayne Rooney looks like he has been left behind in Manchester this weekend, so the onus may very well be on Dimitar Berbatov to lead the line and carry Manchester United later today – is he up to the job? We’ll know the situation for certain in just a few hours time.
As usual you can join the Dugout Discussion in our chat room this afternoon if that takes your fancy.
Read more...Saturday’s Dugout Discussion
Gameweek two is here and the team news is pouring in. The major headline is that Cesc Fabregas remains straining at the leash on the bench, along with Robin Van Persie as Wenger continues to rest the World Cup pairing. Blackpool are spared their brilliance for now at least then. That will come as a major disappointment to all those who backed the pair with the Fantasy Premier League armband today.
Elsewhere, Jon Walters makes his debut for Stoke with Kenwyne Jones ruled out. Jeans, Palacios and Kaboul all come in for the visitors as they look to steer through an injury crisis. Birmingham start with Zigic up front with O’Connor making way. At Goodison meanwhile, David Moyes springs a surprise, relegating Louis Saha to the bench and handing a Premier League debut to Jermaine Beckford. Both Osman and Fellaini drop out with Bilyaletdinov and Heitinga coming into the midfield. Hibbert starts for the injured Neville at right-back. Mick McCarthty is without Fletcher and Van Damme who both miss out for Wolves with injuries, so Elokobi and Doyle return.
At Upton Park Avram Grant rings the changes with Gabbidon, Barrera, Dyer (remember him?) and Piquionne all earning starts with Reid, Kovac, Boa Morte and Tomkins dropping to the bench. Finally at the Hawthorns new signing Peter Odemwingie is thrown straight in for his debut against Sunderland; Olsson also replaces Ibanez at centre-back.
Today’s Dugout Discussion is now open to suck up all your Fantasy Football emotions in real-time.
Read more...Saturday Surgery – Gameweek Two
It’s going to get hot in here around the Fantasy Premier League deadline. So, rather than take off all our clothes, let’s head to the Saturday Surgery chatrooom where we can vent our Fantasy Football concerns with other like-minded folk in real-time.
This morning’s Surgery is now open to take you right up to the 11.30 deadline and beyond.
Read more...Gameweek 2 – The Captain Poll
Fantasy Football managers everywhere are seemingly in one of two states right now…
a) Euphoria at having made the right picks in the first week, and most likely having captained Didier Drogba. or,
b) In the usual state of panic staring at the wildcard twitchily regretting not owning Drogba.
These lead us nicely into the captain’s poll for gameweek two and, unsurprisingly, after bagging a hat-trick at home to West Bromwich Albion the Ivorian might of Didier Drogba is currently top of the pops when it comes to your polling needs. However, he isn’t walking this contest, as Cesc Fabregas -at the time of writing- has approximately 50 votes less and that is without word on whether he will actually be playing this weekend…
Read more...Monday’s Dugout Discussion
Old Trafford is the venue for the final fixture of the gameweek as United take on Chris Hughton’s newly promoted Magpies in front of the Sky cameras.
Patrice Evra is dropped right in at the deep end having taken part in none of Manchester United’s Pre-Season fixtures, while Kevin Nolan leads out his Newcastle team-mates. the teams are as follows…
Man Utd: Van der Sar, O’Shea, Vidic, Jonathan Evans, Evra, Valencia, Fletcher, Scholes, Nani, Berbatov, Rooney
Newcastle: Harper, Perch, Coloccini, Williamson, Jose Enrique, Routledge, Smith, Nolan, Barton, Gutierrez, Carroll
As per usual we’ve got the Dugout Discussion Chatroom open for those looking to share the spills of this final fixture with their Fantasy Managerial peers. Click right here to join the party.
Read more...
