Week 3 Results

76.5 points may seem to be nothing spectacular in any other week, but then again, this was no any other week. With goalkeepers like Craig Gordon (Sunderland) and Boaz Myhill (Hull) unexpectedly shipping in truckloads of goals at home, there were numerous fantasy players who suffered badly from these 'negative' players.

My selected strikers did their jobs competently, perhaps with the exception of Adebayor who couldn't buy a goal against a deflated Newcastle. My crown jewel of a pick, Amr Zaki, exploded against Hull and put up an amazing 2-goal 27 pointer performance. My second top scorer, Alfonso Alves, scored a spectacular free-kick to help himself (and me) to 16.5 points. The bonus was that most of my fellow league-mates did not choose either of these players, which made these valuable points all the more sweeter :) If only I had chosen 32-pointer Van Persie over his teammate from Togo!

I traded Turnbull (Boro) for Jussi (Bolton) at the last minute, and was rewarded with my 1st clean-sheet goalie selection of the season, which somewhat made up for the singe goal he conceded against Stoke in Week 1. Other selections underperformed and hardly came up with anything worth writing about, except for collecting needless yellow cards (Nasri, Deco and Bosingwa) and missing a penalty (stupid Downing). 'Fortunately' these were also common picks amongst other managers, hence the misery was equally felt.

This week's total was enough to allow the Chungking Express to leapfrog over competing managers into the 1st positions of every league. Mark my words, I will be staying TOP for the rest of the season!

Week 2 Selections

Think I was too long-winded the last time round, so let me try to keep it short this time :)

Paul Robinson at 2.87 units at home against Hull City? You've gotta be kidding me if you ignore him! No matter how poor his reputation is of late, he was after all England's Number One. High chance of clean sheet, even though Hull managed to squeeze out a 2-1 win against Fulham last week.

In defence, I've stuck with Gareth Bale and hope that Ramos will start with him this week. He looked promising when he came off the bench last week, and hopefully that secures him a much deserved start for Spurs. Dossena looked solid last week, and I regretted picking Bale over him. Managed to get him at 5.81 units pre-update, and he looks like a season keeper to me. I had extra units to spare, so I am splurging 8.01 units on Stephen Warnock. He did well for Blakcburn last week, and against Hull, I see him getting forward the left wing a lot and probably a clean sheet as well.

Nasri and Deco did really well last week, and seemed instantly at home in their new clubs. As long as they are not injured or suspended, I will probably stick to them for some time due to their cheap opening prices. Stevie Gerrard at 17.31 units may be a tad costly, but given how Robbie Keane is still stuttering at Liverfool, they will have to rely on Stevie G for some goals at home against Boro. I'm going for Bentley once again, and with a home match against Sunderland, Spurs can ill afford to lose this one and will attack the Black Cats right from the start. He should feature in most of the set pieces and crosses, and has the potential to get a 20 plus total, despite his abysmal outing last week. If i had 1 more choice I would pick Pedersen from Blackburn. He has resumed set-piece duty at Rovers and has the potential to do very well this week. Unfortunately I have no slots available for him, and therefore I hope he gets a yellow card and no goals against Hull!

I am again sticking with -1 pointer Darren Bent this week. If he puts on another 'negative' performance, I swear this will be the last I see of him in my team! Torres is almost an automatic choice for everyone now, so nothing to say about that. I got Santa Cruz pre-update, and am very sure he will be one of the top picks this week. With a morale-boosting new contract at Blackburn secured, he will be going into this one with a belly of fire. 2 goals for Santa against Hull at least!

Week 2 Predictions

Blackburn 3 Hull City 0
Liverpool 2 Middlesbrough 0
Newcastle 2 Bolton 1
Stoke City 0 Aston Villa 2
Tottenham 2 Sunderland 0
West Brom 1 Everton 1
Fulham 0 Arsenal 2
Wigan 0 Chelsea 2
Manchester City 1 West Ham 1
Portsmouth 1 Manchester United 1

Week 1 Results

Week 1 hasn't gone by too badly, though I was extremely disappointed with a number of picks. Arsene Wenger has decided to screw my arse by starting Van Persie on the bench, a move which made a mockery of one of my 'top picks' last week. Darren Bent somehow managed a -1, and Ramos might as well had put me on the field instead. At least I would have gotten 1 more point than Bent. Speaking of Ramos, he decided to bench Gareth Bale for some unknown 'cannot make it' left-back, thus resulting in his dismal 1.5 point return. Bentley also had one of his poorest YFF performance, and I had the misfortune to witness that in my team. My fault, since I have overestimated Spurs and underestimated Boro.

On a brighter note, Arteta proved to be an excellent choice with 21 points, Nasri and Deco had excellent debuts, and Anelka did his part with 14 points. Jussi was almost a great pick as well, till he let in a 90th minute goal form Stoke City. Paintsil surprisingly scored 6.5 pts though Fulham let in 2 goals, compared to Bosingwa who had 4.5 pts despite Chelski keeping a clean sheet.

A 96 point total is a decent start, and hopefully I can better that in week 2.

Week One Actual Scores

Arsenal 1 West Brom 0
West Ham 2 Wigan 1
Sunderland 0 Liverpool 1
Middlesbrough 2 Tottenham 1
Hull 2 Fulham 1
Everton 2 Blackburn 3
Bolton 3 Stoke 1
Aston Villa 4 Man City 2
Chelsea 4 Portsmouth 0
Man Utd 1 Newcastle 1

Week One Team Selection

At goal, Jussi Jaaskelainen wins my vote as Bolton kicks off against Stoke City, recently promoted to the EPL. I fancy him to have little problems keeping a clean sheet, and figured that if Bolton throws this away, they might as well deregister themselves from the EPL. I actually had Mark Schwarzer from Fulham in my team for a long while, but the more I think about Fulham's defence, the more I shudder at the thought, even against Hull, another newly-promoted team. Let's hope that Trotters boss Gary Megson doesn't whoop me in the ass and decides to go with Ali Al Habsi instead, since Jussi seemed to be dead set on moving to another club the WHOLE of last season...

In defence, I have decided to go for Gareth Bale (Spurs), Jose Bosingwa (Chelski) and John Pantsil (Fulham) this week. Bale is a decent defender and a superb dead-ball specialist who shone for Spurs when he actually played last season. At 5.75 units he is an absolute steal and looks like a season-keeper (unless he gets himself crocked again). Bosingwa, Chelski's new right-back, looked pretty solid and promising during the Euros, and being Chelski's most expensive buy this season and at 5.77 units, simply cannot be ignored. Pantsil? Let's just say that he would be my go-to man whenever I find that I have no units left. Just don't get yourself sent off and punish my 2.88 units 'investment' in you ok?

My midfield comprises of Sami Nasri (Arse), Deco (Chelski), David Bentley (Spurs) and Mikel Arteta (Everton). There were really good options available due to the glut of new signings by various clubs, and I eventually settled for Nasri and Deco, two attacking midfielders who will most likely figure in the attacking moments in their respective home matches against lesser lights. Bentley was a highly consistent YFF selection last season for Blackburn, and you can only see him rack up more points at Spurs this season. He has had a cracking pre-season with his new club so far, chipping in with the goals and assists that he is always capable of. Arteta for this week, would hopefully turn out to be the ace in my pack. With most YFFers looking towards the direction of the Gerards and Lampards, they may overlook the influential and potentially explosive Arteta. Everton plays a weakened Blackburn side, and while I do not see them scoring many goals, I do see Arteta getting many opportunities to pump in his deadly free-kicks and crosses against butter-fingered Paul Robinson.

In attack, I have finally settled for Robin Van Persie (Arse), Nicolas Anelka (Chelski) and Darren Bent (Spurs) after much deliberation. I changed my combination no less than 5 times, and had to painfully give up Liverfool's Torres and Bolton's Elmander in the end. Though it is a bitter pill to swallow, I have to admit that Torres is world-class and threatens to score against anyone, anytime. I'm sure he is a popular pick this week, which is why I hope Scouser-chewing Roy Keane will send his Sunderland troops to chop him down and knock the living daylights out of him in the Stadium of Light. Van Persie was the first name on my teamsheet, and I chose him over Adebayor as he has the added advantage of being Arse's chief deadball taker, given that Fabregas is injured. the flying Dutchman had a crazy first few weeks last season where he was knocking in goals for fun, before getting sent onto the treatment table for the rest of the season. Anelka is the lone striker in Chelski this week, and without the injured Drogba, he is a definite starter and would be counted upon to put goals into the Pompey net. Bent's pre-season form for Spurs was so stupendenous (12 goals in 8 games!) that he has even managed to force himself into the England reckoning based on that alone. Bent had a terrible last season with injuries and lack of matches, but without the departed Keane and departing Berbatov, he would be the main man for Spurs this time round to knock in balls provided by the likes of Bentley and Modric.

No Man United players from a Red Devils fan!? Without the injured Ronaldo, I can't see my beloved team score that many goals, even against woeful Newcastle. Man U has been traditional slow starters and Rooney and co. will need more games under their belts to get into their eventual free-scoring mode.

Whew, that was a mouthful of armchair footballing analysis... now watch my players shoot against goalposts and get themselves sent off, heh. That's it for Week 1!

Week One Predictions

I have included this for fun, to see how accurate (or not!) I am with my predictions:

Arsenal 3 West Brom 0
West Ham 1 Wigan 1
Sunderland 1 Liverpool 1
Middlesbrough 0 Tottenham 2
Hull 0 Fulham 0
Everton 1 Blackburn 0
Bolton 2 Stoke 0
Aston Villa 2 Man City 1
Chelsea 2 Portsmouth 0
Man Utd 1 Newcastle 0