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