2014 And All That

Not a bad year for footie, England going well in the Euro 2016 qualifiers, my own team West Ham looking almost safe already :)
The Premier league had a good ending to the 2013/4 season with 3 teams still in with a shout with a few weeks left, although City had the bottle to see it out, this season is looking like it's down to a 2 horse race already, Chelsea should have enough to win although Mourinho is having to resort to mind games earlier than I expected :)
Luis Suarez was the best entertainment on the pitch and oddly I miss him? the game needs characters.
The Brazil World Cup was one of the best ever, if you forget about England's underwhelming performance I enjoyed the majority of it. Germany were worthy winners and the 7-1 victory over Brazil was one of the games all time greatest results.
Hopefully in the rest of this season the Premier league will tighten up a bit with the likes of Man U, Arsenal and maybe even West Ham!! still challenging in May.
Tha FA Cup starts this weekend and I'm hoping for a few shocks along the way.

Personally the new year is going to start at the bottom (the only way is up?), made redundant today and now my dodgy shyster of an employer has declared himself insolvent meaning I won't be getting any redundancy pay or the money he owes me :(  so looks like I'm going to be doing some reading on legal matters.
Hopefully I'll get something sorted before I run out of money and have to start making cutbacks on essentials like Internet, phones, food etc
Happy New Year all :)

Predictions comp still open for tomorrow on the previous post, good luck all.

Premier Predictions (Week 17-18-19-20)

Merry Christmas to all :)

Here we go with a bumper Christmas edition of the predictions competition :)

Each set of games is separate, so you can either post all of them at once or do them individually, don't worry I will keep track (as long as the comment comes through).

Week 17 - Games played 20th-22nd December

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

Week 18 - Games played 26th December

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

Week 19 - Games played 28th-29th December

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

Week 20 - Games played 1st January 2015

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

The week 21 games are not till 10th January, after the elongated FA Cup weekend. So the next post will be then.

Good Luck All, and have a great Christmas :)

Headlines

I've been clearing out my e-mails from work due to my imminent redundancy :(
I get the feed from BBC Football, and these are the only ones I have bothered saving because I liked the headlines :)

Well Mourinho is always good for a quote :)

Blind Men

I thought Arsene Wenger had trademarked the "I did not see it" line.
A bad weekend so far for players after the fallon D'floor award and Ashley Young hasn't played yet!!
Chelsea led the way with at least 3 less than impressive dives resulting in 2 bookings and Chris Foy not seeing Gary Cahill's effort which should have given him at least a second yellow, especially after his red card tackle earlier had been dealt with leniantly?
Jose Mourinho says "my players did not dive" while wearing a blindfold :)

Classiest dive of the day was West Brom's Pocognoli which was a Suarez / Hazard style full legs in the air dramatic fall, trouble was he was yards away from the supposed tackler :)
Best result for the divers was Adam Johnson's "I've been shot" style fall to gain Sunderland a penalty :(
Let's see if today's games will bring some more Oscar winners?

Premier Predictions (Week 16)

Some good games this weekend, and with the exception of the Chelsea game all could go either way :)
3 days worth again, 7 Saturday, 2 Sunday and one Monday.

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

Good luck all :)

Coming soon :
Week 17 - Games played 20th-22nd December
Week 18 - Games played 26th December
Week 19 - Games played 28th-29th December
Week 20 - Games played 1st January 2015

Premier Predictions (Week 15)

Hot on the heels of the midweek games here are the fixtures for this weekends games.
Games over 3 days with 7 on Saturday, 2 Sunday and Man U's visit to the St Mary's Friends Provident New Dell Stadium on Monday.

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

Good luck all :)

Full table - Week 14

Premier Predictions (Week 14)

I know week 13 isn't over yet but I thought I should get these in quick.
6 games on Tuesday and another 4 on Wednesday (will post nezt weekends fixtures on Tuesday).
Can Sunderland follow up today's shock with another shut out against City?

Burnley v Newcastle
Leicester v Liverpool
Man Utd v Stoke
Swansea v QPR
C Palace v Aston Villa
West Brom v West Ham

Arsenal v Southampton
Chelsea v Tottenham
Everton v Hull
Sunderland v Man City

Premier Predictions (Week 13)

Week 13 Unlucky for some (probably me).
Just 2 days this week with 8 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday.
Who would of thought the big game on Saturday would be West Ham v Newcastle :)
Sunday's big match sees Man City going to surprise team Southampton.

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

Southampton v Man City
Tottenham v Everton

Fantasy Football

Probably time for an update on the Fantasy Leagues.

TFF - NBTF - 573rd
1 Ryan - Morris Maple Leafs 553
2 Andrew - Tinkerman Fore 541
3 Andrew - Tiki-Taka-Tree 534
4 Ryan - T-Boy NEFI    529
5 Shane - Lewies Lions    528
6 Shane - Lozzies Mozzies 516
7 Allan - Brainpharts    511
8 Ryan - Ryan's Rovers    509
9 Lee - Chip Shop Boys    507
10 Richard - Another Fantasy Team 499


FPL - Nothing Better Than Football
1 Gary - Unreal Madrid 556
2 Paul - Wildcard United 517
3 Lee - Play To Win 457
4 Longy - CFCLongy 437
5 Martin - Baher 401

Still having a pretty rubbish season myself, except for one team which is lying 2nd out of about 300,000 teams overall in the TFF Golden boot league :)

I've been playing the Telegraph weekender competition, but it all went to pot last night when the website wouldn't let me make my changes for last nights game :(
Got this reply today from the Telegraph (they obviously don't read what they write) :)
"As you are aware, there were some issue some technical issues with the Make Transfers page for the Weekender competition yesterday evening. We would like to offer our apologies for this technical issue and hope that it does not drastically affect your overall enjoyment of the game" .... I reckon they have issues :)

Premier Predictions (Week 12)

Oops! Thursday already, caught out by more Internationals.
Hopefully we've now got a few months of uninterrupted league action :)

Games over 3 days with 7 Saturday, 2 Sunday and 1 Monday.
Villa v Southampton is the game on Monday, on form that should be an easy away win but these things don't always happen :) In 11 games Villa have only scored 5 goals, and Southampton have only let in 5.

Chelsea v West Brom
Everton v West Ham
Leicester v Sunderland
Man City v Swansea
Newcastle v QPR
Stoke v Burnley
Arsenal v Man Utd

C Palace v Liverpool
Hull v Tottenham

Aston Villa v Southampton

Good luck all :)

Here's the complete predictions table so far if any of you wants to know exactly how you are doing :)

Premier Predictions (Week 11)

Week 11, last set of games before yet another international break.
Star game is the early kick off on Saturday with Chelsea off to Anfield where Gerrard will probably be checking his studs after last years disaster.
Hopefully the Hammers will continue Villa's bad run :)

6 games Saturday with the rest on Sunday.

Liverpool v Chelsea
Burnley v Hull
Man Utd v C Palace
Southampton v Leicester
West Ham v Aston Villa
QPR v Man City

Sunderland v Everton
Tottenham v Stoke
West Brom v Newcastle
Swansea v Arsenal

Good luck all :)

Premier Predictions (Week 10)

Ten More games for you, 7 on Saturday, 2 on Sunday and 1 on Monday.
The Mancs derby is probably the biggest game of the week, but a few other good looking games could go either way.

Newcastle v Liverpool
Arsenal v Burnley
Chelsea v QPR
Everton v Swansea
Hull v Southampton
Leicester v West Brom
Stoke v West Ham

Man City v Man Utd
Aston Villa v Tottenham

C Palace v Sunderland

Good Luck All :)

Quick 2

Another "better post this while it lasts" moment :)

Currently lying 4th out of about 300,000 players in the Telegraph Golden Boot league, and 1st in the Twitter league of 2,918.
I've had a few moments of glory in these competitions in the past, but I usually fade and die before the cash prizes are ready.

Awkward thing with this team is that it's my leading team in the works league (which is number one in the list of priorities) so I don't want to mess about with it too much chasing this prize :(

Other than this I'm having a rubbish season in both TFF and FPL, so I need to concentrate harder :)

Premier Predictions (Week 9)

Week 9 already and another 3 day week, 6 games on Saturday, 3 on Sunday and a trip to Loftus road on Monday for Sky sports viewers and possibly dodgy Harry :)
Pick of the games is Man U v Chelsea, Chelsea might not have any strikers fit but Man U don't defend too well so it should be a good game :)
West Ham will hope City have had a bad trip back from Moscow, but I think the days of being stuck in a snowbound airport for days have long gone :(

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


Good luck all :)

Getting Shirty

I watched the Stoke v Swansea game on Sunday which featured a couple more debatable penalties, and anyone who has been watching football as long as me knew exactly how both managers would see the incidents.
Gary Monk's version was refreshingly honest, apart from not seeing Rangel's hand on Moses which will no doubt get him into all sorts of trouble, as honesty is not looked on kindly by the FA.
Mark Hughes is becoming the new Neil Warnock (even though we've still got one), his version of the first penalty was that despite Shawcross trying to pull Bony's shirt off then pulling him down, that this happens half a dozen times every game and shouldn't be a foul? but if one of his players gets lightly touched and throws himself to the floor it's a penalty all day long?
Monk will probably get a fine for his comments but Hughes won't even be called up for his interpretation of the laws of the game.
Although if Chico Florist still played for Swansea I would have less sympathy :)

Something I've been thinking about for years would be the introduction of Velcro shirts with detachable sleeves, fronts and backs, so that when the dodgy defender grabs the attackers shirt it comes off in their hand leaving even the blindest referees in no doubt what had been occuring.
Although they would then probably book the players for taking their shirts off? :)

Quick

I will post this picture quickly before it changes, so that I can look back at the end of the season and dream of what might have been :)
Being a West Ham fan you have to take these small moments of excitement when you get them.
Much as I hope that we can stay around the top places, experience brings a sense of reality knowing that the big guns will overwhelm us and a top ten finish is what we should really be aiming for.
After the poor start with 2 defeats in the first 3 games you felt it was going to be another season of struggle, but it seems that this year's new faces have all hit the ground running and improved us beyond recognition.
If Nolan hadn't picked up his injury after the Tottenham defeat would Downing have been moved into the centre? this has turned out to be a revelation and the fact that Fat Sam has actually given game time to his new signings when in previous seasons they usually end up as bench warmers has been a pleasant surprise.
Sakho and Valencia have the pace to trouble any defence and hopefully Andy Carroll will be given longer to get over all his injury problems because at the moment we really don't need him.
Of course we play Man City next week which will be a true test of how far we have improved, a point would be great, a win would see me jumping around a bit :) but I'd just settle for us competing with the likes of City and hopefully making Upton park a place where visiting teams knew they were going to get a game.

Thanks

Thanks everyone, 100,000 Page Views in 4 years and 4 months.
Must have put something worth looking at here :)
I must apologise for a lack of content recently, but at least the predictions competitions keeps me coming back every week, so stay tuned.

Premier Predictions (Week 8)

This International break seems to be going on forever. But it's back to normality for the next 4 weeks.
Games over 3 days again, 7 Saturday, 2 Sunday and 1 Monday.

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

Good luck all :)

Premier Predictions (Week 7)

Wow!! doesn't time fly, Wednesday already, so slightly late here's the week 7 fixtures, the games are spread over 2 days this weekend 6 on Saturday and 4 on Sunday.
Top game of the week is Sunday's Chelsea v Arsenal, will Chelsea bang 6 past them again? especially as Arsenal have lost most of their midfield even before taking on the Turks tonight, could be more if Costa can manage 2 games in the week.

Hull v C Palace
Leicester v Burnley
Liverpool v West Brom
Sunderland v Stoke
Swansea v Newcastle
Aston Villa v Man City

Man Utd v Everton
Chelsea v Arsenal
Tottenham v Southampton
West Ham v QPR

Good luck all, especially Bio, Gobby and Paul who are all looking for their first win of this season :)

Premier Predictions (Week 6)

Week 6 already, this week the fixtures are back to 3 days,
8 on Saturday and 1 each on Sunday and Monday.

A few biggies this week with West Ham going to the backfiring reds, the North London derby and the Stanley Park North vs South battle, plus Will Villa do a Mourinho and park the bus? :)

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

Good luck all :)