Liverpool v Hammers

That was a sickener,
I had built my hopes up and thought we had a chance before the game, even though we were missing a load of players through injury, no Tomkins, Sakho, Jenkinson or Kouyate.
Liverpool had left out Gerrard, and Sturridge was only on the bench.
Great to see Liverpool's other star turn Clattenburg wasn't in the middle :)
But come kick off every Hammers fan must have wondered why Noble was on the bench and Downing was stuck out on the wing, just so the anonymous Nolan could be on the pitch (I won't say play because I'm not sure he actually touched the ball).
The game itself was a bore, Coutinho and Sterling were the star turns everyone else was just average.
Sturridge will get the headlines after scoring on his comeback but the rest was a disappointment.
West ham lost another 3 players to injury Collins, Carroll and Reid and had a perfectly good goal disallowed at the end but really didn't deserve anything :(

Premier Predictions (Week 23)

Back again, here's this weeks fixtures for Saturday and Sunday only this week.
Big game is the top of the table clash on Saturday evening between 2 teams who both crashed out of the cup at home to lower league opposition last week, so maybe the big game is actually West Ham's attempt to break the 53 year hoodoo at Anfield ... COYI :)

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

F.A Cup

Well the FA Cup certainly livened up this weekend :)
Several of the so called big clubs got shown up by the little folk, proving it's only the bank balances that make the difference.
Anyway here's the 5th Round draw now we've finished laughing :)

Arsenal v Middlesbrough
Aston Villa v Leicester
Blackburn v Stoke
Bradford v Sunderland or Fulham
C Palace v Liverpool or Bolton
Derby v Reading
Preston or Sheff U v Cambridge or Man Utd
West Brom v West Ham

Arsenal, Liverpool and Man U still in the draw so it could be the usual dull final, but hopefully someone else will get a chance come May :)

So Steven Gerrard's birthday falls on the same day as the FA Cup final.
What a cracking send off it would be if someone could buy him a ticket :)

Fantasy Football Update

Fantasy footie update for week ending 19th Jan.
The FPL blog league is still led by son Gary with Paul 2nd, I totally forgot to change my team despite having 2 free transfers left meaning my African frontline sat on the bench along with 2 of my defenders :(
The TFF blog league is doing well sitting an all time high of 57th overall, luckily my top team is in this one :)

Here is a top 5's picture for relevant leagues, top two are the blog leagues and the other 2 feed my ego haha :)

Hopefully the colours look alright? I can't really tell as my laptop does not display white and turns everything shades of light blue :(

Premier Predictions (Week 22)

Another set of games over 3 days with 7 on Saturday, 2 on Sunday and a trip to Goodison on Monday.
Possible banana skins for a few of the top teams should make it a good week (hopefully).

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

First games kick off at 3pm for a change.
Another cup week coming up so back on the 31st, good luck all :)

January Transfer Window

The January transfer window (bring and buy panic sale) is just starting to hot up.
A few big fee transfers have just started to trickle through after a slow start, Bony to City, Defoe to Sunderland and Leicester spending £9m on a player I'd never heard of but the stats say he's pretty good?
As always the crazy money will start getting spent on the 31st (actually the 2nd February because the 31st is on a weekend), possibly without 'arry??

Here's the current in's and out's of the Premier league (I will update every few days)
** Updated 3rd February **

Arsenal
In - Krystian Bielik, Gabriel Paulista
Out - Lukas Podolski (Loan), Matt Macey (Loan), Yaya Sanogo (Loan), Benik Afobe, Joel Campbell (Loan)
------------
Aston Villa
In - Carles Gil, Scott Sinclair (Loan)
Out - Jordan Graham, Darren Bent (Loan), Gary Gardner (Loan), Chris Herd (Loan), Daniel Johnson, Callum Robinson (Loan)
------------
Burnley
In - Michael Keane
Out - Alex Cisak (Loan)
------------
C Palace
In - Yaya Sanogo (Loan), Shola Ameobi, Jordon Mutch. Pape Souare, Lee Chung-yong, Wilfried Zaha*, Keshi Anderson, Andreas Breimyr
Out - Alex Wynter, Lewis Price (Loan), Jake Gray (Loan), Zeki Fryers (Loan), Stuart O'Keefe, Jack Hunt (Loan), Barry Bannan (Loan)
------------
Chelsea
In - Juan Cuadrado
Out - Fernando Torres, John Swift (Loan), Alex Kiwomya (Loan), Tomas Kalas (Loan), Lewis Baker (Loan), Todd Kane (Loan), Mark Schwarzer, Nathaniel Chalobah (Loan), Andre Schurrle, Mohamed Salah (Loan), Ryan Bertrand
------------
Everton
In - Aaron Lennon (Loan)
Out - Hallam Hope, Mason Springthorpe (Loan), John Lundstram (Loan), Chris Long (Loan), Samuel Eto'o, Matthew Kennedy, Conor McAleny (Loan), Conor Grant (Loan)
------------
Hull
In - Dame N'Doye
Out - Greg Luer (Loan), Thomas Ince (Loan)
------------
Leicester
In - Mark Schwarzer, Andrej Kramaric, Robert Huth (Loan)
Out - Adam Smith (Loan), Jack Barmby (Loan), Callum Elder (Loan), Tom Hopper (Loan)
------------
Liverpool
In -
Out - Lloyd Jones (Loan), Kevin Stewart (Loan), Jack Dunn (Loan), Steven Gerrard (At end of season), Oussama Assaidi, Suso, Connor Randall (Loan), Sheyi Ojo (Loan)
------------
Man City
In - Wilfried Bony
Out - Matija Nastasic (Loan), Devante Cole (Loan), George Evans (Loan), Scott Sinclair (Loan), Jordy Hiwula (Loan)
------------
Man Utd
In - Victor Valdes, Sadiq El Fitouri, Andy Kellett (Loan)
Out - Sam Johnstone (Loan), Michael Keane, Ben Pearson (Loan), Will Keane (Loan), Joe Rothwell (Loan), Ben Amos (Loan), Darren Fletcher, Jesse Lingard (Loan), Marnick Vermijl, Saidy Janko (Loan), Wilfried Zaha, Anderson
------------
Newcastle
In -
Out - Hatem Ben Arfa, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Gael Bigirimana (Loan), Shane Ferguson (Loan), Kevin Mbabu (Loan), Remie Streete (Loan), Haris Vuckic (Loan), Davide Santon (Loan)
------------
QPR
In - Mauro Zarate (Loan)
Out - Jordon Mutch, Bruno Andrade (Loan)
------------
Southampton
In - Eljero Elia (Loan), Filip Djuricic (Loan), Ryan Bertrand*
Out - Jos Hooiveld (Loan), Jack Cork
------------
Stoke
In - Philipp Wollscheid (Loan)
Out - Brek Shea, Ryan Shotton, George Waring (Loan), Robert Huth (Loan)
------------
Sunderland
In - Jermain Defoe
Out - David Ferguson, Connor Oliver, Jozy Altidore, Mikael Mandron (Loan), Charis Mavrias (Loan), Scott Harrison
------------
Swansea
In - Nelson Oliveira (Loan), Matt Grimes, Kyle Naughton, Jack Cork
Out - Rory Donnelly (Loan), Ryan Hedges (Loan), Wilfried Bony, Liam Shephard (Loan), Jazz Richards (Loan)
------------
Tottenham
In - Dele Alli
Out - Grant Hall (Loan), Milos Veljkovic (Loan), Kyle Naughton, Dominic Ball (Loan), Kenneth McEvoy (Loan), Aaron Lennon (Loan), Jordan Archer (Loan), Emmanuel Sonupe (Loan), Nathan Oduwa (Loan), Dele Alli (Loan)
------------
West Brom
In - Callum McManaman, Darren Fletcher
Out - Bradley Garmston (Loan), Luke Daniels
------------
West Ham
In - Doneil Henry
Out - Mauro Zarate (Loan), Paul McCallum (Loan), Sean Maguire (Loan), Jamie Harney, Blair Turgott
------------

The Fallon D'Floor

Congratulations to Adryan of Leeds for winning the first official Fallon D'floor award :)
The initial foul might have caught him, but the theatrical rolls and flops were just brilliant.
See the winner and the nominated top 6 here - http://fallondfloor.com/?winners :)

S**t Kits

I was trying to think of the worst kits ever worn and most of them were in the 90's, remember seeing Brighton's pink pyjama look and Chelsea's grey and orange odd mix plus a few horrific goalie kits.
I came across this video which has some nightmares, I have to admit despite coming from Southend I don't remember the carpet style goalie kit from 1995 which is truly horrible :)

Premier Predictions (Week 21)

The Christmas period is out of the way so it's back to the weekly predictions comp :)
8 Games on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. Some very hard ones to predict this week :)

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

Good luck all :)

Fantasy Football

Update on the NBTF Leagues

TFF
1 Ryan - Morris Maple Leafs 940
2 Lee - Chip Shop Boys 933
3 Andrew - Tinkerman Fore 905
4 Andrew - Tiki-Taka-Tree 884
5 Ryan - Ryan's Rovers 859

FPL
1 Gary - Unreal Madrid 939 (987)
2 Paul - Wildcard United 932 (981)
3 Lee - Play To Win 868 (908)
4 Longy - CFCLongy 821 (856)
5 Martin - Baher 726 (726)
(Figures in brackets are overall scores)

A bit gutted that my lead in the TFF golden goals has gone :(
No Berahino means a drop from 1st to 23rd, it was good while it lasted.