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Monday, February 28, 2011

Monday Musings

What a nice change to see a genuinely entertaining domestic Cup final. Birmingham City's surprise 2-1 victory over odds-on favourites Arsenal was full of drama from the first minute to the last; great for the neutral, unforgettable for Blues fans, but a disaster for the Gunners who were ready to end their 6 year trophy drought.

Yes, Arsenal had more chances, but I can't help feeling Birmingham just about deserved the victory after they were incorrectly denied a 2nd minute penalty which should've seen Szczesny red-carded. 11 men v 10 men for 88 minutes on the huge Wembley pitch would've swung the whole thing in Birmingham's favour, but at least the linesman's error allowed for an end-to-end match packed full of chances, saves, and a farcical finish.

Birmingham started the game far better and despite the "non-penalty" they took the lead through Zigic, before the giant was denied a second goal as Szczesny saved well when one-on-one. Arsenal came back in to it and Van Persie equalised with a goal of technical brilliance, volleying in mid-air on his unfavoured right-foot. He appeared to suffer an injury in the process but came back on within a minute, looked OK, and Arsenal were then well on top. At half-time I though Birmingham's chance may have gone, the momentum was with the Gunners and I could only see one winner.

Arsenal pressed throughout the second half forcing a number of good saves from eventual man-of-the-match Ben Foster, but Birmingham had their own chances, with Fahey hitting the post from 20 yards. The tie changed on 70 minutes as Van Persie was surprisingly withdrawn, Arsenal's dominance subsided sightly - and as both managers made attacking substitutions - the game appeared to be heading for extra time.

It took the gaff of all gaffs from Szczesny and Koscielny to gift Birmingham the winning goal in the 90th minute. It's hard to even explain what happened - neither really left the ball, they both sort-of went for it - but both completely fluffed it, and the ball fell to Martins who rolled it in to the empty net to seal an unlikely but famous win for Alex McLeish's men.

The result ends Arsenal's dream of the quadruple, To add to Arsenal's woes, Wenger revealed he'd been forced to withdraw Van Persie because of the knee injury he sustained when equalising in the first half, and early reports suggest he's a doubt for the second leg of the Barcelona Champions League tie. With Fabregas & Walcott also struggling this really could not have happened at a worse time and you wonder what psychological impact this will have on the players and the manager.

For fantasy managers the Van Persie news is either good or bad. If you dropped him for this week's blank/double then you're pleased as it looks like he could miss further league games; if you kept him then you'll be waiting on the news and hoping it's no more than the Sunderland game next weekend. I feel sorry for the Dutchman as he's been sensational over the past few months and I hope it's nothing serious. As a fan of the Premier League I want to see the best players at the top of their game, and of course Arsenal need him if they want to sustain their title challenge.

In terms of Fantasy Week 28, it's gone really well so far. The gamble of picking 8 Manchester United players brought 94 points on Saturday and a further 13 from Kolarov & Dzeko yesterday leaves me on 107 points, up to 60th overall. With Carew to go tonight and hopefully 8 to go vs Chelsea (although Rooney could be banned after his stupid off-the-ball elbow into James McCarthy's head) it could be a really big week & I'm hoping it could even be big enough to push me in to the Top 50. I've NEVER seen my team on the Top 50 leaderboard in my eight years of player the Yahoo game, so I'd be delighted if I can finally make it.

Of course next week is potentially a double for Everton & Birmingham, so I was pretty annoyed I missed the barndoor on Saturday night, meaning I'm paying full price for Everton players. Still, I've managed to put together a team I'm reasonably happy with, with plenty of time to change things around.

Howard, Kolarov, Ridgewell, Coleman, Baines, Arteta, Bentley, Cahill, Carew, Beckford, Zigic

£1.5m left in the bank, so I may still think about Roger Johnson, Obafemi Martins & Louis Saha. A lot depends on injury news as a few of the players listed could be doubtful, but we'll have more on that later in the week.

I'll leave it there - please let me know what you made of yesterday's game. How are you getting on in Week 28? Who have you got left?

Cheers,
AM

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Stupid Football

And yet Tottenham lost 3-1. A week after beating Milan in the San Siro. Bollocks.

Fair play to Blackpool, a massive 3 points for them, but it's a result that puts a huge dent in our hopes of another Champions League spot. If Spurs had a striker who could score goals in the league then we would've won this one by 4 or 5, but we don't, so we didn't. In case you weren't already aware, Charlie Adam picked up his 10th booking of the season in the 93rd minute, so he is now suspended for 2 games. I've already dropped him @ 8.6.

The last thing I want to do right now is spend 3 hours writing about fantasy football, but I know I have to do this week's player picks at some point today, so they should be up tonight once I've calmed down.

Cheers,
AM

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Manchester United Injury Update

Ferdinand & Giggs Miss Out For United - Football365

Manchester United were without several senior players including Rio Ferdinand and Ryan Giggs as they flew out to Marseille for Wednesday night's Champions League match.

Ferdinand has not played since injuring a calf before United's Premier League defeat at Wolves on February 5, and his fellow central defender Jonny Evans also misses the trip, having been battling an ankle problem.

That meant Chris Smalling was in line to start alongside Nemanja Vidic in the heart of the United back four against the French giants.

Veteran midfielder Giggs was another absentee from the United party, which was also missing Michael Owen, who has a groin injury.

United midfielder Anderson was a non-traveller and could be facing a lengthy absence from the side after being substituted at half-time in Saturday's FA Cup fifth-round win over Crawley.

He reportedly suffered a knee injury which will need further examination before United can be sure how long he will be absent for.

However United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was able to include Brazilian twins Rafael and Fabio, despite the pair both coming off with injuries during the Crawley match, while youngsters Joshua King and Ryan Tunnicliffe were also selected, along with Gabriel Obertan and Bebe.

Squad: Van der Sar, Kuszczak, Lindegaard; Vidic, O'Shea, Brown, Rafael, Fabio, Evra, Smalling, Scholes, Gibson, Nani, Carrick, Fletcher, Bebe, Obertan, Tunnicliffe, Rooney, Berbatov, Hernandez, King.

So with no injury specified, is Giggs just getting a rest before the Premier League double header? Is Ferdinand missing out as a precaution or is his calf problem worse than first thought? Who's Fergie's first choice right-back, O'Shea of Rafael? Does Anderson's injury mean two starts for Scholes, Fletcher or Carrick? How the hell is Bebe considered a professional footballer?

All important question I'll be hoping to answer closer to deadline, but there is enough uncertainty for me to consider limiting my double gamers to go with more certain single gamers. Maybe something like...

Friedel, Kolarov, Smalling, Evra, Hitzlsperger, Pennant, Silva, Nani, RvP, Carew, Rooney

I'm fairly certain Smalling will play at Wigan so he's still good value even if Ferdinand comes back for Chelsea, while Evra, Nani & Rooney will play both. I suppose I could move Pennant to Scholes & switch Friedel to Van Der Sar, but whether that's smart or not is another issue entirely. More discussion on this in tomorrow's player picks & friday's team/injury update posts.

Which United players are you considering?

Cheers,
AM
(Just realised this is my 500th post - wow!) 

Additional News: 
Van Persie & Koscielny have been ruled out of the Stoke match tomorrow night.
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/37143/injury-news

Monday, February 21, 2011

Van Der Vaart To Miss Blackpool Trip

Rafael van der Vaart suffers setback and will miss Blackpool trip - The Telegraph

Rafael van der Vaart has suffered a setback with his calf injury and will miss Tottenham’s trip to Blackpool on Tuesday night.

The Dutch midfielder returned after a short absence to help Tottenham win 1-0 at San Siro against AC Milan last week.

However, he failed to finish the game and suffered a recurrence of the injury in training yesterday.

"Rafa did his calf again yesterday in training so he’s struggling," said Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp. "He missed a couple of games, played in Milan, got through 70 minutes and then yesterday morning didn’t feel good."

"It’s a blow; he a fantastic player and we need him, but we can’t get that run out of him."

It is indeed a big blow for Spurs & fantasy managers who held on to him - no game time across the double-week for VDV and of course Tottenham don't play in Week 28, so it's a frustrating triple zero for the Dutch star. My decision to drop him appears to have worked out ok for now, but it is a real shame that these injury problems continue to hamper him as they have done throughout his career.

Moving on, the double week is going well at the moment. Yesterday's West Brom v Wolves game brought some handy points for Olsson, Brunt & Odemwingie, moving me on to 146 points for the week & up to another season high of 78th overall, with Szczesny, Adam, Fabregas, Carew and RvP to go on Tuesday/Wednesday night.

We also have confirmation of the Manchester United double week after Everton knocked out Chelsea, so at the moment my Week 28 team looks like this:

Friedel, Kolarov, Smalling, Evra, Scholes, Silva, Giggs, Nani, RvP, Carew, Rooney

I still hold Adam behind the scenes, but I get the feeling he might pick up a booking vs Spurs (if not in the next few games), so that would mean a 2 game suspension on the horizon, making it easier to drop him for Giggs. As I said in a previous post I really hate picking a team when only one side has a double week, but needs must.

How are you getting on?

Cheers,
AM

Friday, February 18, 2011

All Eyes On Stamford Bridge

As we know, tomorrow's FA Cup 4th round replay between Chelsea and Everton has big fantasy football implications, namely it's effect on the Manchester United double in Week 28. If you've been hiding under a rock for the past 10 days, let me clarify the situation.

At the moment, Manchester United are the only team scheduled to have two games in Week 28. Arsenal, Tottenham & Birmingham do no play at all. If Chelsea beat Everton tomorrow then their 5th round tie against Reading would take place on 1st or 2nd March, meaning Chelsea v Manchester United would be postponed. This would leave United with a single week & Chelsea would be added to the list of teams that do not play.

Chelsea are clear favourites for the tie, so in all likeliness we will be dealing with a single week. In that scenario, I'd be going with something like this:

Friedel, Kolarov, Walker, Coleman, Adam, Silva, A.Young, Nani, Carew, Suarez, RvP

Obviously Van Persie will be taking a zero, but he is in sensational form & I'd never be able to afford him again given the current discount I hold. If Adam was booked vs Spurs he'd miss two games, so he'd be dropped. There would still be a few other changes to look at (maybe bringing in another Man City player, damn Tevez is expensive!) but that gives you the general jist.

If Everton pull off a shock & it remains a double, then perhaps:

Friedel, Kolarov, Luiz, Smalling, Adam, Silva, Giggs, Nani, Carew, RvP, Rooney

4 DGers in Smalling, Giggs, Nani & Rooney - that's probably the most I'd go for, although if Adam was suspended I'd probably switch him to Evra in a 4-3-3.

To be honest I'm hoping it remains a single week - I hate it when only 1 team has two games - so on this rare occasion I'll be hoping for a Chelsea win!

Have you thought about what you'd do in each scenario?

Cheers,
AM

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Arsenal 2 - 1 Barcelona

**VIDEO REMOVED**

If for any reason you missed Arsenal v Barcelona, here are 20 minutes of highlights from one of the best matches I've seen in recent times. Unfortunately the host site has now removed the video, apologies.

Try here instead: http://www.soccerclips.net/videos/arsenal-v-barcelona-extended-highlights

I still have the full game on Sky+ so I'll be watching it all over again tonight, it really was that good. Congratulations to the Gunners - I'm looking forward to the 2nd leg already!

Cheers,
AM

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

AC Milan 0 - 1 Tottenham

AC Milan 0 Tottenham Hotspur 1: Match Report by Henry Winter, The Telegraph

"This was a magical night, a wonderful evening in keeping with the great “glory, glory” traditions of Tottenham Hotspur. Defending with determination and intelligence, pressing relentlessly in midfield and attacking with pace and precision to score through Peter Crouch, Spurs conjured up one of their finest European displays."

I couldn't have put it better myself Henry!

What a magnificent performance. I know this isn't the greatest Milan side in history (although perhaps one of the dirtiest), but to go to the San Siro in the last 16 of the Champions League and beat them on their own patch is one of the greatest results in our history and certainly one of my proudest nights in my 24 years as a Spurs fan. The tie isn't over yet but we have an excellent chance of making the Quarter Finals in our debut season. Whatever happens, this game will long live in the memory.

In all my excitement/nervousness I'd not actually realised that Birmingham v Newcastle was taking place in the Premier League last night, but it was, and Newcastle gained a vital 3 points at St Andrews with an excellent 2-0 away win. I only had Bentley & Roger Johnson so I wasn't expecting too much when I saw the result, but they somehow provided 19 points between them. This pushes me up to 124 points & 94th overall with 8 double gamers to go - nice!

Now of course we don't have a deadline this weekend as we are still in an extended Week 27, so there won't be any player picks or team/injury updates, but there's still plenty of action to follow in the Champions League, Europa Cup & FA Cup, so I'll ensure I post anything I feel you may find useful. Arsenal v Barcelona tonight... I cannot wait for that!

What did you think of the game last night? Did you pick up any points from Birmingham or Newcastle players? Predictions for tonight? I'll go for another Emirates 2-2.

Cheers,
AM