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.

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 :)