Premier Predictions (Weeks 18, 19, 20)

Christmas and New Year mega post.
Here are all the games over the Christmas period.
Usual rules, predictions in before the games kick off, so either do them all if you're likely to be away or drunk :) or by the week.
Week 18 - all games on Boxing day 26th.
Week 19 - 8 on Monday 28th, 1 Tuesday, 1 Wednesday.
Week 20 - 8 on Saturday 2nd January, 2 on Sunday 3rd.
After Christmas the FA Cup kicks off with more league games in the midweek following.

Week 18 - All Games 26/12/15

Stoke v Man Utd
Aston Villa v West Ham
Bournemouth v C Palace
Chelsea v Watford
Liverpool v Leicester
Man City v Sunderland
Swansea v West Brom
Tottenham v Norwich
Newcastle v Everton
Southampton v Arsenal
----------------------
Week 19 - 28/12/15 to 30/12/15

C Palace v Swansea
Everton v Stoke
Norwich v Aston Villa
Watford v Tottenham
West Brom v Newcastle
Arsenal v Bournemouth
Man Utd v Chelsea
West Ham v Southampton
Leicester v Man City
Sunderland v Liverpool
----------------------
Week 20 - 02/01/16 to 03/01/16

West Ham v Liverpool
Arsenal v Newcastle
Leicester v Bournemouth
Man Utd v Swansea
Norwich v Southampton
Sunderland v Aston Villa
West Brom v Stoke
Watford v Man City
C Palace v Chelsea
Everton v Tottenham
----------------------

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all :)
Hope you all have a good one.

R.I.P Jimmy Hill

Jimmy Hill sadly passed away today at the age of 87.
I have to admit that I didn't really like the man, but it cannot be denied that he had a huge impact on modern football.
He was responsible as the players union chief for the abolition of the maximum wage (£20 at the time) which at the time was a good thing, but with the current mega wages for some players now doesn't look so good.
He created the first all seater stadium (which is something I still hate), and was the driving force behind the 3 points for a win rule change which has been a good thing.
Also he had an amazing chin, always remember the joke by Jasper Carrott that Hill could get pickles out of a jar with it :)
But sad that another famous name has gone :(

Sad News

Everyone is gutted about the news

Premier Predictions (Week 17)

Week 17
7 Games on Saturday, 2 on Sunday and one on Monday.
Man City v Arsenal is the big game, followed by Leicester going to Everton.
A couple of big games at the bottom as well.

Chelsea v Sunderland
Everton v Leicester
Man Utd v Norwich
Southampton v Tottenham
Stoke v C Palace
West Brom v Bournemouth
Newcastle v Aston Villa
Watford v Liverpool
Swansea v West Ham
Arsenal v Man City

Sunderland need a 3-0 to overtake Chelsea,
that can't happen ... can it?

Good Luck All :)

European Club Draws

Here's the last 16 draw for this seasons Champions League

Arsenal v Barcelona
AS Roma v Real Madrid
Benfica v Zenit St Petersburg
Dynamo Kiev v Manchester City
Juventus v Bayern Munich
KAA Gent v VFL Wolfsburg
Paris St Germain v Chelsea
PSV Eindhoven v Atletico Madrid

Tough draws for Arsenal against the likely winners, and Chelsea having to play the team that knocked them out last season.
Man City's only complaint could be that Kiev are not allowed to have visiting supporters due to their racism against Chelsea fans earlier in the competition? surely a total ban would have been better? Yaya Toure won't be happy.

The Europa "Mickey Mouse League" draw, last 32

Anderlecht v Olympiakos
Borussia Dortmund v FC Porto
FC Augsburg v Liverpool
FC Midtjylland v Manchester United
FC Sion v Sporting Braga
Fenerbahce v Lokomotiv Moscow
Fiorentina v Tottenham
Galatasaray v Lazio
Marseille v Athletic Bilbao
Saint Etienne v Basel
Sevilla v Molde
Shakhtar Donetsk v Schalke
Sparta Prague v FC Krasnodar
Sporting Lisbon v Bayer Leverkusen
Valencia v Rapid Vienna
Villarreal v Napoli

Tough draw for Tottenham against Fiorentina the team that knocked them out last season.
Man Utd play Midtjylland from Denmark who beat Southampton in an earlier round.
 Liverpool play German team Augsberg, currently 13th in the Bundesliga.

 Sorry Paul :)

European Championship 2016 Draw

The draw for next summer's Euros.

Group A - France, Romania, Albania, Switzerland
Group B - England, Russia, Wales, Slovakia
Group C - Germany, Ukraine, Poland, Northern Ireland
Group D - Spain, Czech Republic, Turkey, Croatia
Group E - Belgium, Italy, Republic of Ireland, Sweden
Group F - Portugal, Iceland, Austria, Hungary

England and Wales drawn together, with Slovakia and Russia should be ok?
Northern Ireland got a tough draw with the Germans and Poland.
The Republic get "the group of death" with Italy, Belgium and Sweden.

Roll on the 11th June for England's first match against Russia :)

Premier Predictions (Week 16)

Week 16 and the only sure thing is that results are almost unpredictable, most years the top teams could be classed as dead certs but this season it is really open. Even Aston Villa got an away point last week :)

Games spread over 3 days.
6 on Saturday, 3 on Sunday, and Mondays game is the table toppers against a side at the bottom desperately needing the points (just proving what a weird season we are having) :)

Norwich v Everton
C Palace v Southampton
Man City v Swansea
Sunderland v Watford
West Ham v Stoke
Bournemouth v Man Utd

Aston Villa v Arsenal
Liverpool v West Brom
Tottenham v Newcastle

Leicester v Chelsea

Good Luck All :)

Fantasy Football Update

Here are a few League tables to throw at you.
First the complete Predictions League table

Current NBTF Fantasy Football Tables (FPL and TFF)

Finally a bit of self promotion :)
Having over 20 TFF teams this season I have joined multiple Super Leagues (as you are allowed to join 3 leagues with each team).
Here are my current leagues, with league position, Total members, and my current position in those leagues.

Premier Predictions (Week 15)

8 Games on Saturday, 1 on Sunday and 1 on Monday.
A few tough ones to pick (but it's never easy) Man City at Stoke, Tottenham at West Brom, also can West Ham get back on track at Old Trafford?

Stoke v Man City
Arsenal v Sunderland
Man Utd v West Ham
Southampton v Aston Villa
Swansea v Leicester
Watford v Norwich
West Brom v Tottenham
Chelsea v Bournemouth

Newcastle v Liverpool
Everton v C Palace

Good Luck All :)

Premier Predictions (Week 14)

A third of the season gone already.
This weeks games are 6 on Saturday, and 4 on Sunday.

Some good looking games this week as two of the best games last season were Leicester beating Man Utd 5-3, and Tottenham also beating Chelsea 5-3 :)

European fixtures could cause problems this week as Chelsea have to go to Israel on Tuesday (not the best place at the moment), and Tottenham face a six hour each way flight to Azerbaijan on Thursday night to play FC Carrier Bag? :) then be ready for a noon kick off on Sunday?

Other points, can Jamie Vardy score for the 11th consecutive game against the tightest defence in the league? and Pardew will be desperate for a win against Newcastle.

Aston Villa v Watford
Bournemouth v Everton
C Palace v Newcastle
Man City v Southampton
Sunderland v Stoke
Leicester v Man Utd

Tottenham v Chelsea
West Ham v West Brom
Liverpool v Swansea
Norwich v Arsenal

Good Luck All :)

Leicester v Man Utd last season.

Tottenham v Chelsea last season.

Premier Predictions (Week 13)

Back after the internationals with games every week until the FA Cup starts.
8 Games on Saturday and 1 each on Sunday and Monday.
A few tough ones to call this week, although Chelsea should be able to stop their losing streak against Norwich?
Important game for Bilic on Sunday as a win against the enemy will enhance his reputation, although all the injuries won't help :(

Watford v Man Utd
Chelsea v Norwich
Everton v Aston Villa
Newcastle v Leicester
Southampton v Stoke
Swansea v Bournemouth
West Brom v Arsenal
Man City v Liverpool
Tottenham v West Ham
C Palace v Sunderland

Good Luck All :)

FIFA

"Sepp Blatter may be replaced by Tokyo Sexwale" ?
Not a headline I ever expected to read :)

Premier Predictions (Week 12)

Just Saturday and Sunday games this week due to yet another International Break the week after.
The North London derby on Sunday looks the top game.
Chelsea go back to Stoke Saturday evening and at least they can't lose on penalties this time.
West Ham face bogey side Everton so put money on Lukaku to score as he always does against us.
The early game on Saturday already looks like a relegation battle, possibly Bournemouth's last chance to get any points before Christmas.

Bournemouth v Newcastle
Leicester v Watford
Man Utd v West Brom
Norwich v Swansea
Sunderland v Southampton
West Ham v Everton
Stoke v Chelsea

Aston Villa v Man City
Arsenal v Tottenham
Liverpool v C Palace

Good Luck All :)

Fantasy Football Update

Here are the latest standing in the Nothing Better Than Football fantasy leagues.

FPL - Gary still with a big lead, Paul had a good week and went 2nd
TFF - Ryan and Rob fighting it out, but I'm closing up :) Overall the League isn't doing well :(

Getting really pissed off with the Telegraph website, was working fine until the beginning of October but is now unusable on Firefox, frustrating on Chrome and just about usable on Internet Explorer.
I have contacted them on several occasions, but all they are telling me is that "it's in the hands of the IT Department" I've even told them how to fix it as they are using outdated TLS version which means that a secure connection cannot be established with up to date browsers :( 
That was 3 weeks ago and now it's worse.

Premier Predictions (Week 11)

This weeks games over 3 days with 7 on Saturday, 2 on Sunday and 1 on Monday.

Obvious big game is the early kick off on Saturday between this seasons big under-achievers Chelsea and Liverpool.
Chelsea with just 5 wins from 16 games including 8 defeats, and Liverpool with just 4 wins from 14 games (or 2 from the last 12 including a penalties win over Carlisle).
Could be Mourinho's last big stand? and it won't help that Costa went off injured tonight.
Man City should win, but all the other games on Saturday are hard to call.
Sunday sees a South Coast derby, which the Saints should win.
Monday should be an easy 3 points for Tottenham against Managerless Villa.

Chelsea v Liverpool
C Palace v Man Utd
Man City v Norwich
Newcastle v Stoke
Swansea v Arsenal
Watford v West Ham
West Brom v Leicester

Everton v Sunderland
Southampton v Bournemouth

Tottenham v Aston Villa

Here's an update on the full predictions table, with all the facts and figures :)

Premier Predictions (Week 10)

Week 10 already, 6 games on Saturday and 4 on Sunday.
Manchester and North East derbies on Sunday, Arsenal v Everton is the late game on Saturday and West Ham take on a bottom half team :)

Aston Villa v Swansea
Leicester v C Palace
Norwich v West Brom
Stoke v Watford
West Ham v Chelsea
Arsenal v Everton

Sunderland v Newcastle
Bournemouth v Tottenham
Man Utd v Man City
Liverpool v Southampton

Good Luck All :)

Exactly

Bayern Munich fans, finding out what really controls English Football

Injured?

I think Jose Mourinho would have had something to really complain about if this was his medical team.
Got a feeling this player might have been faking the injury before he was taken off, probably felt a bit worse after he got to the touchline :)

Howard Kendall

RIP Howard Kendall, sadly died today at the age of 69 :(

Remember him from when I was a kid as he was the youngest ever player to play in a cup final for Preston against West Ham.

Actually saw him play for Blackburn at Upton Park in about 1980 in the latter years of his playing career before he went into management.

Will probably be remembered best for being the Everton manager in the mid 80's when he took Everton to two league titles, despite city rivals Liverpool ruling the roost at the time.
Also during that period from 83 to 87 Everton were a really exciting team to watch.

Premier Predictions (Week 09)

Back again for another 4 weeks before the next International break.
The one advantage of Roy Hodgson totally ignoring West Ham players and picking reserves from his favourites is that non of them get injured playing for their country, unlike Man City who seem to have lost Aguero, Silva and Kolarov. Man United have lost 4 players with minor injuries, Newcastle have lost Tim Krul for the season, but probably good news for Chelsea as Ivanovic got injured meaning Jose wlll at last have to drop him? but hopefully he will back against West Ham the following week :)

This weeks games spread over 3 days with 8 on Saturday and 1 each on Sunday and Monday.

Tottenham v Liverpool
C Palace v West Ham
Chelsea v Aston Villa
Everton v Man Utd
Man City v Bournemouth
Southampton v Leicester
West Brom v Sunderland
Watford v Arsenal

Newcastle v Norwich
Swansea v Stoke

Euro 2016

Twenty teams now qualified for next year's European Championship, with the last 4 to be decided in November's play offs.

Hosts - France
Group Winners - Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, England, Germany, Italy, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Spain
Runners Up - Albania, Croatia, Iceland, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Wales    
Best 3rd Place - Turkey

Play Offs - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Hungary, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Slovenia, Sweden, Ukraine

So far so good for the Brits with England and Northern Ireland winning their groups and Wales finishing as Runners Up, the Republic will have to wait and see who they get in the Play offs.
Holland have missed out but the rest of the big names are there, so it should be tough.

Football Presenters

In England we get Match of the Day with Gary Lineker, Mark Lawrenson, Alan Shearer and Martin Keown.
Spanish speakers in the USA get República Deportiva with a slightly better looking presentation team :)

Fantasy Football

Here are the blog league standings so far.

FPL - Gary is flying at the moment with his 133 points this week which must be one of the best scores of anyone? I thought my 94 would have taken me to the top but didn't expect that.
So glad I told him how to play this game last season :(

TFF - Ryan leads and I've finally got a team in the top 5, overall the league has dropped badly.
The new scoring rules will affect the leagues with fewer players as you need 5 different players to have really good scores, where in previous years a couple of good players could carry the league.

That Was Quick

Had just finished my sack race post and turned on the telly to hear that Rodgers won.

Think it's a shame as I thought he was doing a brilliant job .. hehe :)
I wonder who'll be next through the revolving door of unreal expectation?
Probably too early to get Gerrard back, which means either going for one of the many failed English managers available or going foreign.
I guess Jurgen Klopp will be top of the list?
Dortmund had a poor season under Klopp last season, but up until today they were flying without him in the German league.
Maybe Big Fat Sam, he should keep them up :)

Sack Race

So Dick Advocaat walks before he was pushed, who will be the first Premier manager to get the bullet?
Obvious candidates are McClaren, Sherwood, Mourinho and Rodgers.
I think Steve McClaren will be given till Christmas although it seems the players don't want to play for him.
Sherwood hasn't really improved Villa, reaching the Cup Final probably bought him some time but I reckon his days are numbered.
Mourinho seems to be bored with Chelsea and is probably trying to engineer a move out of the door? the mainstays of the Chelsea team have either gone or got too old and most of his signings just haven't worked.
Brendan Rodgers still seems out of his depth at Liverpool, I'm sure he would be brilliant at a smaller club with less expectation but most Liverpool fans still believe they are a top 4 side?

Probably doesn't help Chelsea that they have to play a disabled player at the back?

Premier Predictions (Week 08)

7 Games Saturday and 3 on Sunday, before another International break.
Sunday's games look the best and a few years ago would have been the clashes of the season before the Billionaires moved in.

So do I carry on predicting away defeats for the Hammers? so far 100% wrong I'm glad to say :)

C Palace v West Brom
Aston Villa v Stoke
Bournemouth v Watford
Man City v Newcastle
Norwich v Leicester
Sunderland v West Ham
Chelsea v Southampton

Everton v Liverpool
Arsenal v Man Utd
Swansea v Tottenham

Premier Predictions (Week 07)

Games are spread over 3 days this week with 8 on Saturday and one each on Sunday and Monday.
Man Utd and Chelsea look like they have the easiest games this week, Arsenal and Man City have tricky ones and might come unstuck?

Tottenham v Man City
Leicester v Arsenal
Liverpool v Aston Villa
Man Utd v Sunderland
Southampton v Swansea
Stoke v Bournemouth
West Ham v Norwich
Newcastle v Chelsea
Watford v C Palace
West Brom v Everton

Good Luck All :)

Tables

Here is the full table from the Predictions Competition so far ..

and here are the standings in the blog Fantasy Football competitions

FPL - Longy leads the way, but all still close enough to challenge (sadly only 4 of us this season)
TFF - Rob leads narrowly from Ryan, early leader John slipping down a bit.
League up to 808th with 32 teams.
I do have 2 teams that could have been leading but didn't put them in this league, so personally playing catch up here. Got my teams spread over 20 different leagues so a lot of checking to do :)

Premier Predictions (Week 06)

7 Games Saturday and 3 on Sunday.
A few frosty handshakes this week?
The big game this week is Saturday evening 1st v 5th can the Hammers ruin City's 100% record?

Chelsea v Arsenal
Aston Villa v West Brom
Bournemouth v Sunderland
Newcastle v Watford
Stoke v Leicester
Swansea v Everton
Man City v West Ham

Tottenham v C Palace
Liverpool v Norwich
Southampton v Man Utd

Good Luck All :)

Hungry For .....

Premier Predictions (Week 05)

Premier League back for 4 weeks till the next Internationals, and a few good looking games this week. 7 On Saturday, 2 on Sunday and 1 Monday.
The early game might see a frosty handshake between Martinez and Mourinho over the Stones transfer, and a chance for Lukaku to impress his old boss.
Man City's 100% record will be under pressure at the ever improving Palace.
The late game on Saturday is not as big as it used to be, but Rodgers will be hoping for a win here to forget their last game.
Monday night will be interesting to see if West Ham can show a bit of away form at Upton park?

Everton v Chelsea
Arsenal v Stoke
C Palace v Man City
Norwich v Bournemouth
Watford v Swansea
West Brom v Southampton
Man Utd v Liverpool
Sunderland v Tottenham
Leicester v Aston Villa
West Ham v Newcastle

Good Luck All :)

Summer Transfers 2015-16

Transfer window shut, time to put up the list of all the ins and outs of the Premier League teams since the finish of last season.

Money spent - £835m
Money received - £425m
Biggest spenders - Man City £140.7m, Man Utd £97.7m, Liverpool £84.3m
Biggest Sellers - Man Utd £70.8m, Liverpool £61.7m, Tottenham £50.7m
Biggest Profit - Southampton £1.7m, Tottenham £0.3m
Biggest defecit - Man City £91.6m, Newcastle £45.7m, Watford £30.3m
Most players in - Watford 15, Aston Villa 13, Bournemouth 12, West Ham 12
Most players out - Chelsea 39, Man City 32, Liverpool 30

 ------------------------------------------------------------
Biggest Transfers In

Kevin de Bruyne [Wolfsburg - Man City] £52.5m
Raheem Sterling    [Liverpool - Man City] £43.7m
Anthony Martial [Monaco - Man United] £35m
Christian Benteke [Aston Villa - Liverpool] £32.5m
Nicolas Otamendi [Valencia - Man City] £29.4m
Roberto Firmino [Hoffenheim - Liverpool] £29m
Morgan Schneiderlin [Southampton - Man United] £24.5m
Heung Min Son [Bayer Leverkusen - Tottenham] £21m
Memphis Depay [PSV Eindhoven - Man United] £19.2m
Pedro [Barcelona - Chelsea] £18.9m
Georginio Wijnaldum [PSV Eindhoven - Newcastle] £14.5m
Baba Rahman [FC Augsburg - Chelsea] £14m
Aleksandar Mitrovic [Anderlecht - Newcastle] £13m
Florian Thauvin [Marseille - Newcastle] £12.85m
Matteo Darmian [Torino - Man United] £12.6m
Nathaniel Clyne [Southampton - Liverpool] £12.5m
Xherdan Shaqiri [Inter Milan - Stoke] £12m
Salomon Rondon [Zenit St P - West Brom] £12m
Toby Alderweireld [Atletico Madrid - Tottenham] £11.2m
Virgil van Dijk [Celtic - Southampton] £11m
Dimitri Payet [Marseille - West Ham] £10.5m
Yohan Cabaye [Paris St G - C Palace] £10m
Clinton N'Jie [Lyon - Tottenham] £9.87m
Petr Cech [Chelsea - Arsenal] £9.8m
Ramiro Funes Mori [River Plate - Everton] £9.03m
Chancel Mbemba [Anderlecht - Newcastle] £8.4m
Jordy Clasie [Feyenoord - Southampton] £8.4m
Jordan Ayew [Lorient - Aston Villa] £8.4m
Fabian Delph [Aston Villa - Man City] £8m
Jeremain Lens [Dynamo Kiev - Sunderland] £8m
James Chester [Hull - West Brom] £8m
Tyrone Mings [Ipswich - Bournemouth] £8m
Asmir Begovic [Stoke - Chelsea] £8m
Angelo Ogbonna [Juventus - West Ham] £7.7m
Shinji Okazaki [Mainz - Leicester] £7.7m
Jordan Amavi [Nice - Aston Villa] £7.7m
Fabio Borini [Liverpool - Sunderland] £7.49m
Ricardo Alvarez    [Inter Milan - Sunderland] £7.3m
Adama Traore [Barcelona - Aston Villa] £7m
Robbie Brady [Hull - Norwich] £7m
Max Gradel [Saint Etienne - Bournemouth] £7m
Connor Wickham [Sunderland - C Palace] £7m
Jordan Veretout [Nantes - Aston Villa] £6.93m
Michail Antonio [Nottingham Forest - West Ham] £6.65m
Bastian Schweinsteiger [Bayern Munich - Man United] £12.6m
Idrissa Gueye [Lille - Aston Villa] £6.3m
Robert Kenedy [Fluminense - Chelsea] £6.23m
Etienne Capoue [Tottenham - Watford] £6.2m
Danny Ings [Burnley - Liverpool] £6m
Jose Jurado [Spartak Moscow - Watford] £6m
Rudy Gestede [Blackburn - Aston Villa] £5.95m
Jonny Evans [Man United - West Brom] £5.81m
Obbi Oulare [Club Brugge - Watford] £5.76m
Joselu [Hannover - Stoke] £5.7m
Bradley Johnson [Norwich - Derby] £5.67m
N'Golo Kante [Caen - Leicester] £5.6m
Oriol Romeu [Chelsea - Southampton] £5m
Juanmi [Malaga - Southampton] £5m
 ------------------------------------------------------------
Biggest Transfers Out

Angel Di Maria [Man United - Paris St G] £44.3m
Alvaro Negredo [Man City - Valencia] £21m
Roberto Soldado [Tottenham - Villarreal] £11.2m
Filipe Luis [Chelsea - Athletico Madrid] £11.2m
Paulinho [Tottenham - Guangzhou Evergrande] £9.8m
Javier Hernandez [Man United - Bayer Leverkusen] £8.4m
Rony Lopes [Man City - Monaco] £8.4m
Steven Nzonzi [Stoke - Sevilla] £7m
Matija Nastasic [Man City - Schalke] £6.7m
Benjamin Stambouli [Tottenham - Paris St G] £6m
Thorgan Hazard [Chelsea - Borrusia Monchengladbach] £5.6m
Stewart Downing [West Ham - Middlesbrough] £5.5m
 ------------------------------------------------------------

One Day To Go

One day left in the craziest money go round seen in the Premier league's history.
Possibly a few mega deals to go through tomorrow?
Man City are the big spenders so far. thanks to 3 mega deals.
Man Utd started the transfer window spending but now seem to be balancing the books and are currently in profit (unless any of the reported deals actually go through).
Arsenal are still struggling to open their wallet (maybe they should just buy some extra doctors and physio's for their fragile players?),
Everton are probably broke and won't have long to spend the Stones money if they finally give in, and with Chelsea's current form they might be blowing some serious money tomorrow?
Every player West Ham have been linked with has gone elsewhere so I would be surprised if we get anyone.
Newcastle and Sunderland have spent big this window but at the moment it doesn't appear to have helped.
Same can be said of Liverpool, Villa and Tottenham.

Figures below from more accurate European sources rather than sensationalist newspaper figures which seem to be way off the truth sometimes, a couple of undisclosed fees to add when I find the info.

Money spent - £748m
Money received - £404m
Biggest spenders - Man City £140.7m, Liverpool £83.5m, Man Utd £60.6m
Biggest Sellers - Man Utd £69.4m, Liverpool £61.5m, Man City £49.1m
Biggest Profit - Southampton £11.6, Man Utd £8.8m
Biggest defecit - Man City £91.5m, Newcastle £46.2m, West Brom £27.2m
Most players in - Watford 11, Aston Villa 10, Stoke 10
Most players out - Chelsea 35, Man City 29, Liverpool 28

Finally

It's no lie to say I've been waiting for this result since the first time I ever said West Ham were my team at 4 years old, I'm an old git now and was wondering if it would happen in my lifetime?
Today is the day, fucking awesome :)

Premier Predictions (Week 04)

Last games before the first International break of the season, and with the transfer window shutting next week might be the last chance to see a few of your players?
This weeks games all on Saturday and Sunday for a change.

Newcastle v Arsenal
Aston Villa v Sunderland
Bournemouth v Leicester
Chelsea v C Palace
Liverpool v West Ham
Man City v Watford
Stoke v West Brom
Tottenham v Everton
Southampton v Norwich
Swansea v Man Utd

No real stand out games this week except maybe Man U going to Swansea who beat them both times last year?
I've been 100% wrong on my West Ham predictions so far, so I'll break the habit of a lifetime and go for a Liverpool win this week hoping my run continues :)

Fantasy Football

Here are the positions in the Fantasy Football

Early days for both leagues and I'm sure we will all improve.
FPL - just 4 signed up, so could really do with a few more.
TFF - 32 teams in, John has made a great start and I seemed to have picked my worst performing teams for this one (so far).

Still time to join in, leagues are still open if anyone else fancies a bit of competition.

Fantasy Premier League 2015/16
http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb.html
League name: Nothing Better Than Football
Code to join this league: 182536-48838
-----------
Telegraph Fantasy Football 2015/16
http://fantasyfootball.telegraph.co.uk/
League name: NBTF
Pin: 8072532
Medal for the winner (if you decide to join, I'll limit it to 5 teams per person max)

The Premier league game is free and open to everyone worldwide (as there are no cash prizes),
sadly the Telegraph game is UK residents only, 1st team is free only have to pay if you want more.

Pedro

Could not resist this, sorry Chelsea fans  :)
Everytime I've heard the name Pedro I've always thought Donkey after the famous kids character.
So the news that Chelsea have signed him means I get to upload this classic song.

Thanks Messi

Proud Dad moment :)
My son does the voice over on this new Adidas advert :)

Premier Predictions (Week 03)

Week 3 already, some good games this week.
Games spread over 3 days Saturday to Monday.

Man Utd v Newcastle
C Palace v Aston Villa
Leicester v Tottenham
Norwich v Stoke
Sunderland v Swansea
West Ham v Bournemouth
West Brom v Chelsea
Everton v Man City
Watford v Southampton
Arsenal v Liverpool

Hopefully Virgin will fix the e-mail before the weekend so I don't miss anything :)

Traffic News

There was a nasty bus crash in Manchester today :)

Premier Predictions (Week 02)

A few surprises in week 1 with some teams still on their summer holidays.
Week 2 starts on Friday night for some reason, so get your predictions in early.
Long drawn out weekend with 1 - Friday, 6 - Saturday, 2 - Sunday, 1 - Monday
Big game is Sunday's meeting of the top 2 from last season, although 2nd meets 4th at Upton Park :)

Aston Villa v Man Utd
Southampton v Everton
Sunderland v Norwich
Swansea v Newcastle
Tottenham v Stoke
Watford v West Brom
West Ham v Leicester
C Palace v Arsenal
Man City v Chelsea
Liverpool v Bournemouth

Gooners 0 Hammers 2

What can I say? outstanding performance :)

One game doesn't make a season and it's still way too early to get carried away, but if that is a taste of things to come just maybe I've been wrong about Bilic?
On the evidence of the Europa league games the players didn't seem to be buying in to his style of play and actually looked worse than some of the bad games last season.
But this was a supreme performance with everyone playing well even players like Zarate and subs Jarvis and Maiga who I thought should have been offloaded in the summer.

Reece Oxford has grabbed the headlines, but Noble, Kouyate, Sakho and Payet were brilliant and the defence was solid as a rock.
Arsenal were poor, but we made them look that way and it did help having agent Cech in goal (Mourinho must have been pleased).
I liked the comment in the commentary that Bilic was a master of the "dark arts", and the possible arrival of Joey Barton makes me wonder if there is a plan to make us compete with the diving, cheating players that most of the top teams have?

So a big smile for the rest of the week and who knows?

Premier Predictions (Week 01)

Here we go again :)
The all new prediction competition for the 2015-2016 season.
Usual rules apply - 3 Points for a correct score, 1 Point for a correct result.
Predictions League will be decided on weekly wins first, if 2 or more people share a weekly win that will be classed as a draw, if at the end things are still level the toal points for the season come into play.

Anyway enough of that :) hopefully the regular players will be back and anyone reading this blog is welcome to join in at any point, just let me know a name and club supported. Obviously predictions will only count if they are made before the kick offs.
Predictions in the comments please :) as always the comments are moderated to weed out spam and abuse so won't appear instantly, but I will get them done before kick offs.

So here is the first week of the new season, games spread over 3 days with 6 on Saturday, 3 on Sunday and a Monday night game. Might get confusing this season as there are going to be Friday night games as well :(
First game up looks a good one with Tottenham going to Old Trafford, will Van Gaal actually know his best team at last? and will Harry Kane show he wasn't a one season wonder?
Bournemouth have a fair chance of getting their top flight history of to a good start.
Hopefully West Ham will be back in time from their latest European trip with at least 11 fit players? but the excuse is already written if Arsenal roll us over :(

Man Utd v Tottenham
Everton v Watford
Leicester v Sunderland
Norwich v C Palace
Bournemouth v Aston Villa
Chelsea v Swansea
Arsenal v West Ham
Newcastle v Southampton
Stoke v Liverpool
West Brom v Man City

Good Luck All :)

Fantasy Football New Season

I've set up Leagues for Nothing Better Than Football "NBTF"
in the Premier league game and the Telegraph game.
If you would like to join either, here are the details -

Fantasy Premier League 2015/16
http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb.html
League name: Nothing Better Than Football
Code to join this league: 182536-48838

The Premier league runs it's own game "Fantasy Premier League" and it is free to play.
You choose a squad of 15 players in your budget, then pick a starting XI for each game, transfers are available during the season - 1 is free, anymore cost you points, wildcards are available twice a season to let you ship out several players at once if half your squad get sold to Real Madrid in January.
You can only have one team each, but you can put it in multiple leagues.
(Hopefully get more than the 5 who joined last season)
-----------

Telegraph Fantasy Football 2015/16
http://fantasyfootball.telegraph.co.uk/
League name: NBTF
Pin: 8072532

The Telegraph game tends to be the most popular amongst Fantasy football managers as you can tinker away all season with 36 transfers allowed and make changes to your team right up till the first kick-off of the day. You can have as many teams as you like, the first team is free but if you want more you can upgrade by paying a fee, the more teams you have the cheaper it is.
Many different cash prizes if your good enough.
(if you decide to join, I'll limit it to 5 teams per person max)
Had 41 Teams in it last season, and we finished 39th overall :)

The Premier league game is open to everyone worldwide (as there are no cash prizes),
sadly the Telegraph game is UK residents only :(

Season 2015-16

Season 2015-16 Premier League.
My thoughts on the upcoming season.

Chelsea should start as favourites as they were the only consistent team last season, although the defence is another year older they still look solid. If Costa's dodgy hamstring holds up and Falcao shows some of his old form the rest will be chasing again.

Man City look like they will be relying on Aguerro again and might have to trust Bony now it looks like Dzeko and Jovetic are going. The defence looked suspect last season and the midfield were lightweight, they will be hoping Stirling can produce some of the form they have paid a lot of money for.

Arsenal look the best of the rest just because they now have a decent keeper, Arsenal's main problem over the last few years has been that they rarely have a full squad to choose from with a host of very fragile players like Wilshere, Walcott, Oxlade Chamberlain and now Wellbeck. If Sanchez can reproduce last seasons form and the others can stay fit, they might be in with a chance.

Man Utd finished 4th last season without ever appearing to know what their best team was and rarely turning it on. Not sure if the big signings will add much when they really needed some good quality defenders and are short up front.

Tottenham will be hoping Harry Kane isn't a one season wonder as his goals were the main reason they finished 5th, Lloris's injury must be a big concern for them although with Kaboul gone the defence should be better.

Liverpool once again spending big to try and buy success, Benteke is a good player but considering Rodgers has said he doesn't like playing with a target man seemed a strange buy? if Sturridge can get and stay fit they might do something but replacing Gerrard and Stirling could be a big problem.
I'll make a prediction - Rodgers will be gone before the season is out.

Southampton shocked everyone last year after losing most of their players but buying well and bringing in a good manager, once again 2 top players have gone but I think they will be alright although the Europa league might get in the way?

Swansea over achieved last season but will probably have enough to see them safe this season, if Monk can keep the same team spirit and maybe find another bargain striker.

Stoke are another team who surprised me last season, Mark Hughes got them playing some nice football and although the team contains a lot of players deemed not good enough by bigger teams, they fitted together well.

Crystal Palace were rejuvinated by Pardew and if he can keep the squad together they should do alright. Seems to be a state of mind with Palace as they looked really good under Pulis but were awful under Warnock.

Everton really need to improve on last season, they have good players who really didn't click last season. Lukaku is hit and miss and the midfield didn't really perform last season.

West Ham have added a few quality players but I still don't think Bilic is a patch on Allardyce, and the early season Europa league games have shown virtually no improvement. Might be a good thing if we are knocked out of Europe early.

West Brom should be solid under Pulis and Lambert is a good signing after wasting his time at Liverpool last season, if they can hang on to Berahino it looks like a good strike force with some solid midfielders behind them.

Leicester have made a huge blunder getting rid of Nigel Pearson, the teams success at the end of last season was built on a settled line up and the siege mentality generated by Pearson. So they replace him with the Tinkerman Ranieri?

Newcastle have actually spent some money and appear to have bought well so far, although you never know how foreign players will react to the English game, Mitrovic could be the striking option Newcastle were lacking last season. Still don't rate McLaren though and he will need early good results to take the pressure off.

Sunderland must be one of the favourites for relegation and will be praying there are 3 worse teams? some of their performances last season were abysmal and I was surprised they stayed up.

Aston Villa fans must have been feeling good at the end of last season with the team turning in some really good performances and reaching the Cup final. But losing Benteke, Delph, Cleverley, Vlaar and Given is a big blow. Sherwood will be hoping the replacements he has bought in can adapt quickly.

Bournemouth will probably accept that it's going to be a long season, although Eddie Howe has spent some money this week the rest of the squad probably over achieved massively last season. Would love to see them do well but I fear it could be a one season trip to the top flight.

Watford seem to be pinning their hopes and a bundle of untried foreign players and Troy Deeney, might surprise a few teams but feel they will spend most of the season near the bottom.

Norwich have most of the players who were unlucky to get relegated 2 seasons ago, and probably look the most likely of the promoted teams to stay up and maybe do well. Might need to add a couple of players including a good striker.

Predictions :)
Top - 1-Arsenal, 2-Chelsea, 3-Man Utd, 4-Man City
Bottom - 17- Leicester, 18-Bournemouth, 19-Watford, 20-Sunderland

Summer Transfers

More detailed info ... coming soon, but here's an update

Premier League Transfer News up to 21/08/15

Money spent - £659m
Money received - £362m
Biggest spenders - Man City £87.8m, Liverpool £83.5m, Man Utd £66.9m
Biggest Sellers - Man Utd £55.8m, Liverpool £52.7m, Tottenham £45.9m
Biggest Profit - Tottenham £16.4m, Southampton £12.8m
Biggest defecit - Man City £47.4m, Newcastle £46.2m, Liverpool £30.8m
Most players in - Watford 11, Aston Villa10, Stoke 10
Most players out - Chelsea 30, Man City 24, Tottenham 21

The Money Go Round

Premier teams are starting to splash their TV cash, some more than others.
Arsene Wenger is still struggling to open his wallet, while Brendan Rodgers is well on the way to blowing another £100m to try and get 4th place.
Chelsea are currently looking like a selling club, although with their overblown squad they need to offload a few bodies before they can find room for anyone new in the dressing room :)
The 3 promoted teams seem to be having different thoughts about how to compete, Bournemouth and Norwich are being careful while Watford are splashing the cash.

Here's the current state of play in the money-go-round

Summer Movers

I've just been trawling through all the footie websites and putting together my summer transfers list, still a long way to go but some big spending already.
All the Premier league teams have spent some money, but so far only a few World stars have arrived here.
Biggest single transfer - Raheem Sterling from Liverpool to Man City for £43.7m although that could rise to £49m with the add ons.
Biggest spenders so far - Man Utd £68.9m. Man City £58.4m, Liverpool £51m, West Ham?? £23.3m, Sunderland £22.2m.
Holding out for a bargain? - West Brom £1.5m, Norwich £3m, Everton £4.3m

Shocked that West Ham are splashing the cash, but the stakes are big this year.
Payet, Ogbonna and Obiang have good reputations but are hardly household names, if they all adapt quickly to the English game they could be inspired moves but only time will tell? shocked that Downing left to drop a division after his best season in years? maybe things aren't as rosy as they seem?

I suppose one of the better looking deals was James Milner's free to Liverpool, I'm not sure I rate him as an England player but did a very good job for City and could be a great signing for Liverpool where I'm sure he will be a regular. The thing that annoyed me over this was that it appears Milner was already on a £100k contract and turned down a considerable rise from City to go to Liverpool whereas Sterling was on about £30k and turned down a £100k offer, but only one of them was branded a money grabbing Judas?

The Closed Season

Summer, hot days, a few months break from Football ... Well not anymore :)

1st July and the Champions league and Europa cup have already kicked off for the season.
Congrats to Sweden for winning the European Under 21's (we won't mention England)

Even I have been watching the womens World cup and at least for one more day I can cheer England on :)
Obviously hoping for a win in tonight's semi final but I think we will struggle,England have a couple of really good players but the rest are average at best, and the defence need to realise they don't have time to take 3 touches to get the ball under control before playing it ... but fingers crossed.

The Copa America final is on Saturday Chile v Argentina, Chile are the home nation and the refs have been a bit too leniant with them so they have a chance, Argentina have a dream team so should take the title?

Those teams that bought players from Central America are going to get some knackered players back as the CONCACAF Gold cup kicks off in about a week.

West Ham kick off in the Europa league tomorrow against Lusitanos of Andorra the game has been switched due to the 2 biggest teams in Andorra being drawn at home, so I assume they only have room for one stadium? West Ham only returned for pre-season training on Monday so this might be harder than it should be?

The Transfer market is hotting up, Man United are being linked with every player you've ever heard of, Liverpool are being linked with every player you've never heard of :)

Arsenal have bought a new keeper despite Ospina being the star keeper in the Copa America, Chelsea fans have been wishing Cech well in his new venture with death threats?
A few big transfers done already with Depay to Man Utd, Firmino? to Liverpool, West Ham picking up a couple of foreigners I've never heard of, and Bournemouth have been shopping in Poundland for extra staff :)

The Premier league kicks off in 39 days so not longto wait :)

Summer Break

Roll on the new season, I could say I'm missing football but there are still games on every night with the Women's world cup, Copa America and the under 21's.
Not forgetting West Ham's European tour kicks off in just over a week with a trip to Andorra :)

Sorry spammers I've just been deleting all those messages you're sending me, so probably not worth keeping it up :)

Bilic

So we've ended up with Slaven Bilic as the new manager trying to keep us up for at least another year.
I really hope I am wrong about him and he turns out to be a great manager.
It seems we have given him a 3 year contract which I doubt he will fulfill, if he's a success he will probably bugger off somewhere "where he will win things", if he's a failure he has to go before we get relegated.

He has just 3 weeks to get the team sorted before our first Europa league match, and we will be a few players short after the loan deals for Jenkinson and Song have ended, Valencia is still playing for Ecuador in the Copa America, and Carlton Cole, Jaaskelainen, Demel, Nene, Maguire, McCallum and Dan Potts have been let go.
Also Carroll, Sakho, Noble and Collins are all still injured.

Fingers tightly crossed for next season :)

Champions League

Congratulations to Barcelona for their latest Trophy win.
Must admit I was cheering for Juventus and did get hopeful in the second half, but overall Barca deserved it.
Thought the ref was being biased towards Barcelona for most of the game, but was shocked when he disallowed Neymar's handball goal. Yes it was technically handball but wasn't intentional, and after he'd fell for every dive by Suarez and Neymar I expected it to be given.
Messi was a class above everyone else, Ronaldo is good but Messi controls everything for Barcelona.

Sad for a Hammers fan to see Tevez and Mascherano playing in a Champions league final after the way we treated those two, yes Tevez became a hero but even he was left out when Curbishley first took over and Mascherano was never really given a chance :(

One final thing to tie up, here's the NBTF Champions league Fantasy Table.

Congratulations to Richard :) the rest of us need to try harder next year :)

Fantasy Football TFF

Exciting end to the TFF blog league with only one point in it the end :)

The medal arrived this morning and luckily I get to keep it :)
Thanks to all those that played this season, a record 41 teams.
We finished 39th overall which is pretty good going, we briefly got into the top 30 in February, but managed to hang in the top 100 for the whole second half of the season.

Golden Boot - Andrew (Tiki Taka Tree) 111
Starting XI - Shane (Lewies Lions) 1300
MOTW - Lee 12, Andrew 8, Ryan 7
MOTM - Ryan 3, Lee 2

Hopefully we can do this again next season, although I might lose some of the ex work colleagues as we've all gone our separate ways :(

Other league of interest (to me mainly) yeah I know :)

I guess it was the last year of the "Smoke Generators" works league, unless any of them contact me? which is a shame as works league always have the best banter and motivation to do well.
I suppose the others will be glad to see the back of me as I think I've won 11 of the 13 years I've entered, and only missed a clean sweep of the top 5 by 2 points this season. But it's been fun.
Rick's Challenge - Obviously more serious players in this one and I managed to pick 5 of my worst performing teams to enter this one, so Ryan gets his medal here :)
Lee League - Just me so every chance of winning this :)
TDAOCS - Me, family and a few friends with freebie teams.

Overall - my best team ended up 277th which is one of my better final positions, did feature in the top 100 for a few weeks but dropped away.
Main claim to fame this season was finishing 7th in the golden boot competition, and the same team coming 24th in the Twitter league which included the overall 35k winner (beat him in the golden boot) :)
Hoping to have learnt a bit more this season but still think it's a lottery at the start.

One table still not decided is the NBTF Champions league, which will be finalised after Saturday's final.
Richard will win barring a miracle :)

Shady Characters

So football is just a tiny bit less corrupt today?

Seven arrests at FIFA today but you know at least one man will remain squeaky clean.
A very rich well connected man will always be innocent, its the way the world works.
Although common decency would suggest he might retire gracefully ......

Managing West Ham

So it finally happened Fat Sam has gone, personally I think it's a mistake unless we can attract a better coach? and I don't think there are that many to choose from.
Some of the names being linked with us just remind me of the bad old days of Grant, Zola, Roeder and Curbishley.

Current Favourites with the Bookies -
Slaven Bilic, Roberto Di Matteo, David Moyes, Unai Emery, Steve McClaren, Jorge Jesus, Michael Laudrup, Brendan Rodgers, Harry Redknapp, Marcelo Bielsa, Frank de Boer, Jurgen Klopp, Tony Pulis, Rafa Benitez, Carlo Ancelotti, Andre Villas Boas, Mark Warburton, Aitor Karanka, Garry Monk, Leonardo Jardim, Gus Poyet, Eddie Howe, Dieter Hecking, Neil Lennon, Juande Ramos
The rest are the usual bunch of tired old has-beens that get mentioned every time.

Bilic - Read a lot of praise from "so called" West Ham fans who seem to have short memories, this cheating Judas scum bag dropped us like a stone when "big club" Everton came in for him.
Di Matteo - Chelsea couldn't wait to get rid of him despite winning the Champions league? also dumped by West Brom and Schalke
Moyes - Did a steady job at Everton, dropped in the deep end at Man U who even Van Gaal has struggled with despite spending fortunes. Might still be a decent manager
Emery - Seville coach, will be aiming bigger than West Ham
McClaren - You have to be joking??
Jesus - Need some divine intervention, but not sure the Benfica coach fits the bill.
Laudrup - Possibly, started well at Swansea but went stale after a year.
Rodgers - Probably still a good coach as long as you don't give him money to waste. Would be better off coaching a small team.
Redknapp - You really must be joking, you wouldn't trust him with a piggy bank.
Bielsa - Current Marseille manager nicknamed "El Loco" would be interesting but he hasn't won much over the years.
De Boer - Like the sound of him.
Klopp - Another one I like, but don't think we have a chance.
Pulis - Another Sam Allardyce, sideways move.
Benitez - Not sure about him, think he's a good manager but he's ahrd to like.
Ancelotti - He joked once about managing West Ham, think it was just a joke but I would love it if it happened, the only Chelsea reject I could accept.
Villas Boas - Doing alright in Russia, don't think he would want to come back here.
Warburton - Screwed over by Brentford, but should be setting his sights lower.
Karanka - Boro manager should stay there after losing to Norwich.
Monk - Appears to hate West Ham so he can stay where he is as well.
Jardim - Monaco coach, no idea?
Poyet - Nice guy but failed at Sunderland, so no point.
Howe - Too early, hope he does well next season with Bournemouth
Hecking - Wolfsburg manager, won't want to go anywhere
Lennon - Should stay at Bolton
Ramos - Has a good record in Europe, but he's ex-Tottenham so jog on :)

Phew!! after all that I'm hoping for Ancelotti, De Boer or Klopp
More likely to get Laudrup, Bielsa or maybe Rodgers.
Still not sure why the bookies make Bilic odds on? I'm a bit worried :(

Fantasy Football

The Fantasy Premier League competition has now finished.
The overall winner scored 2.470 points

Here is the final NBTF table, just the 5 of us played this season and none of us did particularly well.
Congratulations to Gary for winning at the first attempt (just to show Dad up).
Paul was runner up and I never recovered from a bad start.
I think Longy and Martin gave up early?

The Telegraph (TFF) leagues have one more week to run, with Arsenal and Villa players possibly making the difference.

The NBTF league is pretty tight, with 3 of us still in with a shout of the Medal (which I haven't received yet). Thanks to the Rick's Footy Challenge boys for making this a good competition this season. Always helps when you've managed to put your own best team in as well :)

Predictions 2014-15

Congratulations to Paul for winning this year's competition.
With 8 of us playing this year it was never going to be high scoring, but that makes it more interesting as everyone was still in with a shout up until the last few weeks.

This season I can finally award the NBTF virtual trophy.
It was stolen many years ago, and has just been found in a hedgerow in my overgrown garden by Tiddles the Cat :)

Paul's record this season was 4 outright wins, and 8 shared wins. With a total of 279 points from 381 games predicted.

The Minor Trophies

Outright Wins - Dave, Longy and Paul 4
Most 3 Pointers - Paul 44
Most 1 Pointers - Dave 152
Highest Week Score - John 16
Most Points - Paul 279
Best Points Per Game - Paul 0.732
Most Games Predicted - Dave and Lee 383




The Final Table

Thanks Everyone for playing, and hopefully you will all be back to do it again next season :)

Seaside Special

Congratulations to Southend :)

The Play Offs might not be the way most teams plan to get promoted, but it surely is the best.
Always feel sorry for teams that get the automatic promotion but miss out on the Trophy celebrations.
If Southend had held on to 3rd spot and not blown it on the last day of the season, they would have missed out on one of the greatest days in their history.

I was offered tickets for the game free of charge because it was my Birthday yesterday by one of my son's, but told him I didn't want to curse Southend as I seem to have done over the last few years.
Been to all 3 of their JPT/LDV finals and they have lost all of them without scoring a goal.
I had to work the last time they made the play off final and they won that one.
Also been to handful of home games in recent years and haven't seen them win for about 6 years, so I'm feeling like a bad luck charm :(

Yesterday's game had all the twists and turns that make it a classic :)
After a fairly average 90 mins Wycombe took the lead early in extra time with a flukey goal, Jacobson's free kick came back off the bar and hit Bentley on the back and went in, Southend really didn't look like getting back into it after that and Wycombe should have sewn the game up near the end but for a brilliant last ditch tackle by Ben Coker.
With just 20 seconds left of injury time, Joe Pigott got an equaliser with Southend's first real chance of extra time.
The penalties, at 1-1 Coker blasted his penalty down the middle but the Wycombe keepers foot got in the way, at 3-3 Dan Bentley made a great save to level things up.
Good penalties followed until at 7-6 Bentley made another great save turning Wood's penalty onto the post :)
As for next season who knows? I don't think the team is strong enough to challenge for promotion again and it could be a real anti climax, but hopefully the feel good factor will continue.

Would be great if that mystery Billionaire decided not to waste his money on Carlisle and brought his fat wallet down to the bright lights of Southend :)

Premier Predictions (Week 38)

Here we are the final week of the Premier league 2014/5 and NBTF Predictions league already.

Just one thing left to decide will it be Hull or Newcastle going down?
Hull need to beat Man Utd who mathematically still have a chance of 3rd place if they thrash Hull and Arsenal lose to West Brom.
Newcastle play West Ham, both teams have been on holiday for a few weeks so should be fresh :)
It will be interesting to see if the Hammers really want Europa league football through the fair play table, meaning they will be kicking off in 5 weeks time. Of course a few sending off's on Sunday will give the players a longer Summer break?
I remember Steve Bruce's reaction after his Birmingham team sent West Ham down many years ago, and I've never forgiven him and wished ill on all his teams ever since, so it would be nice if we could contribute to him getting relegated.

Anyway here are the games, all kick off at 3pm Sunday

Arsenal v West Brom
Aston Villa v Burnley
Chelsea v Sunderland
C Palace v Swansea
Everton v Tottenham
Hull v Man Utd
Leicester v QPR
Man City v Southampton
Newcastle v West Ham
Stoke v Liverpool

The Predictions league is still open to everyone, but sadly only 2 people can now win although the minor places are still up for grabs :)
To avoid any tactical predictions I won't be publishing Dave and Paul's predictions until after kick off (or when they've both posted) but will let you know when I've got them :)

Good Luck All :)

Premier Predictions (Week 37)

Here we are the penultimate week of the Premier league season and Predictions league.
Most things are decided in the Premier league, at the top the only question is who will take the possibly unwanted places in the Europa league.
At the bottom it's 1 from 5 for the last relegation spot.
Our competition is still undecided but time is running out to catch Paul.
Bonus game this week on Wednesday so it's an extended week 7 games Saturday, 2 on Sunday, 1 Monday and 1 Wednesday.

Southampton v Aston Villa
Burnley v Stoke
QPR v Newcastle
Sunderland v Leicester
Tottenham v Hull
West Ham v Everton
Liverpool v C Palace
Swansea v Man City
Man Utd v Arsenal
West Brom v Chelsea
Arsenal v Sunderland

Good Luck All :)

Birthday

Happy Birthday to Yaya Toure
We don't want him thinking we've forgotten do we :)

Premier Predictions (Week 36)

Just 3 weeks to go in the Premier league, and the NBTF Prediction competition.
Chelsea have wrapped up the title, and Arsenal and Man City should be playing Champions league next season. Liverpool have a small chance of pipping Man U for the other spot?
At the bottom Burnley and QPR need snookers but several other teams could still fill the last spot?
Here Paul is in prime position, but still anyone could win, although most of us need a miracle :)
This weeks games again over 3 days (7,2,1)

Everton v Sunderland
Aston Villa v West Ham
Hull v Burnley
Leicester v Southampton
Newcastle v West Brom
Stoke v Tottenham
C Palace v Man Utd
Man City v QPR
Chelsea v Liverpool
Arsenal v Swansea

Good luck all :)

Oh and here's the all singing, all dancing full info table for week 35 :)

The Popular Vote

So it appears West Ham fans are the voice of the nation?

Labour with their claret and blue background, and Cameron now claiming to be a Hammers fan?
Of course Cameron used to claim to be a Villa fan (because Prince William is) and the claret and blue just might be Villa colours?

So like all political commentary it's just one person's biased view :)
Enjoy your voting tomorrow.

Promotions And Play Offs Update

Championship
Up - Bournemouth (Champions), Watford
Play Offs - Norwich v Ipswich, Middlesbrough v Brentford
Relegated - Blackpool, Millwall, Wigan

Division 1
Up - Bristol City (Champions), MK Dons
Play Offs - Preston v Chesterfield, Swindon v Sheff Utd
Relegated - Yeovil, Notts County, Crawley, Leyton Orient

Division 2
Up - Burton (Champions), Shrewsbury, Bury
Play Offs - Wycombe v Plymouth, Southend v Stevenage
Relegated - Cheltenham, Tranmere

Conference
Up - Barnet (Champions)
Play Offs - Bristol Rovers v Grimsby

So congrats to Bournemouth nice to see someone new in the Premier league, and well done Watford.
The play off's throw up probably the biggest East Anglian derbies ever (in financial terms), also Brentford are still in with a shout?

In Div 1 Preston were unlucky to miss out, but I'm glad their defeat to Colchester meant that Colchester stayed up, former Hammer George Moncur grabbing the winner.
Congrats to Bristol City and the MK Dons for reaching the 2nd tier for the first time.

Div 2 - congrats to Jimmy Floyd's Burton + Shrewsbury and Bury.
Gutted that Southend blew it against bogey side Morecambe but hopefully they can overcome Stevenage and set up another Wembley game :)

Fantasy Football Update

Here's all the tables of blog interest in Fantasy Footie (as of 05/05/15).

FPL Blog League - Gary still leading from Paul by a smaller margin, looks like I've left my charge a bit too late.
TFF Blog League - Getting very tight between myself and Ryan, with Andrew coming up fast. The league is back up to 40th.
TFF Work league - Still looking good :)
TFF Europe - Rick still doing reasonably well, the rest of us not so good :(

TFF Personal - Back up to 7th in the Golden boot and only 2 goals off the money positions, but 8 behind the leader so doesn't look like a grand will be coming my way.
Still a reasonable 17th in the Twitter league.

Should Have Been Burnley

The Champions of the 6 top Divisions in the English pyramid have one thing in common.
Bournemouth, Bristol City, Burton Albion, Barnet, Bromley and Barrow.
The only one that mucks up the sequence is the Premier league , so where did it all go wrong Burnley :)

Premier Predictions (Week 35)

Four Weeks left and the Prediction league is still wide open, although the 4 of us on only 2 wins need to win 3 of the last 4 :(

Big game this week is probably Villa v Everton, Villa have suddenly dropped into the mix and Everton showed last week that they haven't given up yet.
Leicester, QPR and Burnley all have games against teams that are thinking about their summer holidays so it could be an interesting last few weeks at the bottom.
Chelsea should wrap up the league on Sunday before Arsenal play on Monday, so Hull might get an easier game?
7 Games on Saturday, 2 on Sunday, 1 on Monday.

Leicester v Newcastle
Aston Villa v Everton
Liverpool v QPR
Sunderland v Southampton
Swansea v Stoke
West Ham v Burnley
Man Utd v West Brom
Chelsea v C Palace
Tottenham v Man City
Hull v Arsenal

Good luck all :)

Football League

Championship
Watford are promoted and Bournemouth need to avoid a 19 goal turnaround to go up to the top division for the first time.
Middlesbrough and Norwich are guaranteed a play off place and Ipswich might need a point to join them. Derby, Brentford and Wolves will be fighting for the last spot.
Blackpool, Millwall and Wigan have been relegated.

Division 1
Bristol City are Champions, and it's between Preston and the MK Dons for the other automatic spot. Swindon, Sheff Utd and Chesterfield are guaranteed play off spots.
At the bottom Yeovil are down, plus 3 from Coventry, Crewe, Notts County, Crawley, Leyton Orient or Colchester.

Division 2
Burton and Shrewsbury are promoted, Southend, Bury or Wycombe are fighting for the last automatic spot. Stevenage are guaranteed a play off place plus one from Plymouth, Luton or Newport. Relegated to the Conference are Cheltenham and Tranmere.

Conference
Barnet are promoted, Bristol Rovers, Grimsby, Eastleigh, Forest Green are in the play offs.

So congrats to Watford and (probably) Bournemouth for reaching the big money league.

I will be praying for Southend against bogey team Morecambe, in 9 league meetings Morecambe have won 8 and drawn one, Southend's only win was in the Cup 2 years ago. So not the ideal place to go when you need a win :(

The Good Old Days

Just found this on You Tube, a compilation of full episodes of ITV's the Big Match and BBC's Match of the Day from nearly 30 years ago.
Back in the days when I was a regular on the terraces, so good memories :)

The Big Match features Chelsea v West Ham from Stamford Bridge back in the days when Chelsea couldn't afford grass and had to supplement their income from the half empty ground by using the ends as a car park and storage area for building supplies.
A good game with West Ham having Paul Hilton in defence (a defender we signed from a team we put 10 goals past in the cup?), Chelsea had left Hazard on the bench.
The other game is Everton v Newcastle with Sky's Martin Tyler commentating.

Match of the Day from the next week features 2 Manc v Scouse games first Man Utd v Everton again, followed by Liverpool v Man City.
Also the 2nd Division game Brighton v Portsmouth.
They also have Cricket with England getting hammered by the West Indies.

Premier Predictions (Week 34)

Bumper week this time with 12 games played over 5 days.
8 Games on Saturday, 2 on Sunday plus a couple of re-arranged games on Tuesday and Wednesday to prolong the agony :)
Big game of the week is Arsenal v Chelsea although after Chelsea's win last week it doesn't matter quite as much.  A chelsea win would leave them only needing 3 points in the last 5 games :(
Next best is the bottom of the table clash between Leicester and Burnley where both teams really need the points which might be really bad news for Hull especially as QPR face the misfiring Hammers, now that Harry boy is gone I'm sort of hoping Rangers stay up and send Sunderland and Hull down instead.

Southampton V Tottenham
Burnley V Leicester
C Palace V Hull
Newcastle V Swansea
QPR V West Ham
Stoke V Sunderland
West Brom V Liverpool
Man City V Aston Villa

Everton V Man Utd
Arsenal V Chelsea

Hull V Liverpool

Leicester V Chelsea

Good Luck All :)

Fantasy Football Update

Here's all the tables of blog interest in Fantasy Footie (as of 20/04/15).
FPL - NBTF League (5 teams), TFF - NBTF League (41 players), TFF - Ex Works league (22 players), TFF - Champions league (5 players)

FPL - Son Gary still leading from Paul, although not sure he will be able to pick his team now he's living abroad?
TFF - Getting tight between myself and Ryan, the league itself has dropped a bit to 50th.
TFF Work league - Still looking good for a 9th win in 11 attempts, although Shane is hanging on.
TFF Europe - Rick and myself have made reasonable starts but the results have been hard to predict?

TFF Personal - Still hanging on in 10th in the Golden boot competition but down to 37th in the One league, so probably not going to get any winnings this season. But overall a good season.

Premier Predictions (Week 33)

Nearly squeaky bum time, 6 weeks left and Paulo's win last week keeps everyone interested :)
Due to the FA Cup semi's this week there are only 7 Premier league games, so I've padded it out with both of those games bringing it up to 9, 6 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday.
Apart from the Semi's there is one real big game with in-form Man U going to Chelsea, if Chelsea avoid defeat in their next 2 games it's probably the title, if they lose both it could be a great end to the season :)

C Palace v West Brom
Everton v Burnley
Leicester v Swansea
Stoke v Southampton
Arsenal v Reading (FAC)
Chelsea v Man Utd

Man City v West Ham
A Villa v Liverpool (FAC)
Newcastle v Tottenham

Good Luck All :)

Edit: Cup games - What the final score is at 90/120 (if needed).
No points if it goes to penalties unless you went for a draw.