Premier League Soccer goes GW 6

Football is great, fantasy soccer exciting, but some gameweeks you just wish you could forget as quick as you can. I've already had my share of those this season, as it seems my football team has faced it all: injuries, red cards, missed penalties... You name it, my make believe soccer team has done it....And I bet you know the feeling too, odds are you know it right now...

This GW I got 2 red cards (Klasnic, Adam) and a missed penalty by Rooney(also happened to be my captain so...) I'm not exactly happy with the players carrying my fantasy football jerseys. How about scoring a goal once in a while, boys!

Well, luckily there's always another GW ahead in fantasy soccer, so let's stop dwelling in the past and head forward, all the way to GW 6. Here come the tips for Fantasy Premier League!

Manchester City ended up with only a draw from Fulham, which I must say was the biggest surprise of English Premier League last GW. Now they return to their homefield and welcome Everton as their opponent. Everton took a convincing 3-1 win over Wigan but I doubt they'll be able to stop the team with as much goal scoring ability as Manchester City. Aguero really seems to be cashing in on the expectations, and is on his way of becoming another striker who you just have to have in your team to succeed in fantasy Soccer. It's really exciting to see, who will be the top goal scorer this season in English Premier League, Rooney or Aguero. If I was the betting type, I'd bet big on Manchester City, again.

Tottenham Spurs' first 2 matches didn't promise too much, but it seems they are getting the hang of it. Watching their EPL match it seemed Emmanuel Adebayor was all over the field against Liverpool and scored 2 great goals. Also Luka Modric scored along Defoe. Heading against Wigan, I think they'll continue on their newfound game and all three are to be considered for your own fantasy sports football team.

Queenspark Rangers go against Aston Villa, and that match is going to be English Premier League soccer at it's finest. Two teams that are just about getting their game working and both desperately wanting a win. Aston Villa's Agbonlahor has been in great form, and you should surely think about getting him for you Fantasy Premier League football team. Queenspark Rangers also have a few players that are hot picks right now. Wright-Phillips and Joey Barton. Cheap and very capable, sounds like premium fantasy soccer material.

Arsenal's defense is a mess, as you have surely figured out. But their offense is still quite powerfull. As Gunners play against Bolton, there is one player I'd have you check out before confirming your Barclays fantasy premier league football team. That player goes by the name of Mikel Arteta. This very skillfull midfielder scored a goal against Blackburn, and seems to be thriving in his new club. Also he's price of just over £8M is still actually not that bad for a midfielder of his calibre. Hottest tip this week I bet!

Fantasy Premier League Soccer - Gameweek 4 review

After the fourth gameweek there are still 3 teams that continue with a nice looking table, only wins. Chelsea, Tottenham and Man City are yet to experience the bitter taste of defeat as Bolton and Portsmouth still wait for their first taste of victory. Chelsea took the most convincing win of the week, as it beat Burnley 3-0. Burnley's great efforts came to an end as the Blues continued their winning streak with goals from Anelka, Cole and Ballack.

This gameweek offered 7 players that were able to collect over 10 points. 3 were defenders, 3 midfielders and one forward. But let's start with this weeks number one goalkeeper, or I should say goalkeepers, as both Green from West Ham and Sorensen from Stoke both collected 7 points. Sorensen is also the number one goalkeeper in the whole league with 26 points.

Defenders elite came from Chelsea, Everton and Wolves. Cole ended up with 14 points from clean sheet, one scored goal and 2 bonus points. Everton's Baines took home 12 points and Wolverhamptons Stearman 11. Both scored one goal and Baines even managed to assist one also.

Chelsea took the top spot also in midfielders as Ballack collected 11 points and Lampard 10. Lampard's 2 assists may be just what Frankie needs to rise to the level he was in last season. Tottenham's Lennon was the third 10-points man this gameweek. Lennon also climbed to the top of the midfielderss list looking the whole season with 27 points.

And last but not least. Only forward to go above the 10 point mark was Liverpool striker Torres. Goal and an assist together with 3 bonus points took Torres to 12 points. It seems 11.5M isn't all too much asked for him if he continues to play according to form he seems to be in.

Player of the gameweek: Fernando Torres, Liverpool

Gameweek 4 Player Tips

We're heading towards the 4th gameweek of the Fantasy Premier League soccer manager game. Again, there are soccer matches that look easier to some teams than others. So, time to see who you want on your team this gameweek.

Here are the fixtures:

Chelsea v Burnley
Blackburn v West Ham
Bolton v Liverpool
Stoke City v Sunderland
Tottenham v Birmingham
Wolves v Hull City
Man Utd v Arsenal
Portsmouth v Man City
Everton v Wigan
Aston Villa v Fulham

West Ham goes to visit Blackburn and I think they won't be too modest guests. Forward Carlton Cole is in great form, and is the most probable scorer in the game.
Chelsea is the hometeam against biggest surprise of the season, Burnley. Chelsea starts a clear favourite, and with forward Drogba in very good shape is bound to show the newcomers what it's like to play against one of the best English Premier League teams.

Manchester City has opened the season nicely, and will continue it's winning streak against Portsmouth. Hot tips for this game, forward Adebayor and midfielder Wright-Phillips.

And don't forget Tottenham's midfielder Aaron Lennon and forward Jermain Defoe. Both in very good form and very able to score goals.

Defender-wise, clean sheet is very close for Manchester City. So Dunne, Toure, Richards and Bridge are great names to have in your opening squad. Also Stoke has opened the season with promising results and maybe very tough to beat at their homefield. Goalkeeper Sorensen has been playing well and is going to get good points again.

Fantasy Premier League gameweek 3 review

Again 90 minutes of each game has been kicked and it's time to see who did well in Premier League Fantasy Football this week. Overall there were few big surprises and a few little ones. Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham continue with their no points lost-campaign. Bolton, Blackburn, Portsmouth and Everton still stand at zero.

The goalkeeper who gathered most points this week was Hull City's Myhill with 10 points. Clean sheet, 8 saves and 2 bonus points was a very decent effort. From defenders Aston Villa's Davies took home 10 points. Faye Ab from Stoke and Bikey from Burnley settled with 9.

King of the midfielders came, once again, from Arsenal. But this time it was Diaby who scored two goals and ended up with 14 points. Aston Villa's Ashley Young scored one and gave one assist for the total of 12 points. 5 forwards came home with more than 10 points this gameweek, Rooney from ManU and Jones from Sunderland at the top spot with 13 points. Chelsea's Drogba continued great efforts with 12 points, Anelka from the same team got 11 as did ManU's Berbatov.

Again, the choise is hard for the Player of the Gameweek, with many great perfomances all around. But the winner is...Didier Drogba, Chelsea.

Premier Fantasy League - Player Card - Frank Lampard

I thought I'd begin a new weekly post here on my Premier Fantasy League blog: Player cards.

And who better a player to start then mister Premier Fantasy League himself, Frank Lampard. O'l Frankie has been the key player in many Fantasy soccer teams for many years now.

Lampard begin his professional soccer career in West Ham United and was sold to Chelsea in the year 2001 for £11M. From thereon he appeared on field a record breaking 164 consecutive times. In Chelsea Lampard has played 288 times and scored 85 goals, to date.

In the 3 years of Premier Fantasy League Lampard has scored 34 goals, given 32 assists and collected 91 bonus points. He was the player with most points last season with 226 points.

He's in 29.7% of the teams and I suspect his price could be 20M and his success would remain the same. As for me, I can pretty much tranfer any player, but not Lampard.

Fantasy Premier League Gameweek 2 review

The second gameweek even though just "half a" gameweek turned out be an interesting one. Gameweeks number one goalkeeper was Burnley's Brian Jensen, who wasn't intimidated by the star power in the opposing team ManU. Jensen even saved a penaltykick and 14 points is a great score for a goalkeeper.

Top defender came from Liverpool, Glen Johnson not only kept a clean sheet, he scored one goal and gained an assist. The perfomance also got him 3 bonus points, to the total of 18 points. Now he would of made a great captain.

Gameweeks best midfielders also came from Liverpool, both Dirk Kuyt and Steven Gerrard gathered 11 points. Gerrard with 2 assists, Kuyt with a goal and an assist. It seems Liverpool is on their way to fight for the championship.

If Liverpool was the home for top midfielders, top forwards came from Tottenham. This season's first hat trick saw the light of day when Jermain Defoe scored 3 goals against Hull. That plus 3 bonus points add up to 17 points. Robbie Keane of the same team wasn't a whole lot worse with a goal and 2 assists, when he also got 2 bonus points, his total climbed to 13 points.

Choosing the Player of the gameweek was a tough job but let's give props to the debut team goalkeeper Brian Jensen.

Burnley surprises ManU - Gameweek 2 results

Tonight's games didn't go as I had figured. Burnley defeated Manchester United. Burnley's Blake scored the winning goal after 18 minutes of play, and ManU couldn't turn the game around after that. Surprises, surprises.

Tottenham and Liverpool both disgraced their opponents. Hull got defeated 1-5 in their home field with Jerome Defoe scoring a hattrick. Liverpool turned their course with a 4-0 win over Stoke City. Torres started the goalfest with 4 minutes played from Gerrard's assist. Kuyt scored one and collected an assist as did Johnson.

In the fourth game of the night Birmingham took a win against Portsmouth with McFadden's overtime penalty kick-goal.

Here are the nights results.

Birmingham - Portsmouth 1-0
Burnley - ManU 1-0
Hull City - Tottenham 1-5
Liverpool - Stoke City 4-0

Game preview Sunderland vs Chelsea

Both teams opened the season with a win, Sunderland over Bolton and Chelsea over Hull. Chelsea's Drogba scored twice and seems to be in good form. Sunderland's new signing Bent also started the season with a goal, but scoring against Chelsea might be a more difficult task.

Tip from Chelsea's squad to this game is Salomon Kalou, Kalou didn't start the opening game but had two great goal opportunities in the last 20 minutes he played. Kalou should be in the opening squad in this match and I consider him as the "black horse" who could earn decent points. Also Lampard wasn't in the top of his game against Hull but should do better now.

Chelsea is a clear favourite to win the match and Sunderland is just going to try and keep the game in 0-0 as long as they can.

Prediction:

Chelsea wins with two goals, so 0-2 or 1-3

Premier Fantasy League Gameweek 2 Tips

The second gameweek in this season's English Premiership Fantasy Football comes in just few days after the first, so be sure you remember to check your team for transfers and a captain change if the need occurs.

As said earlier this gameweek is a little tricky because only 12 teams have fixtures this week of English Premier League. The fixtures are:

Sunderland vs Chelsea
Wigan vs Wolves
Birmingham vs Portsmouth
Burnley vs Manchester United
Hull City vs Tottenham
Liverpool vs Stoke City

Any players that are not from these teams WON'T get any points this gameweek.

If you choose to make transfers, here are few hints who might be valuable additions to your Fantasy Premier League team: Let's start with defenders. Manchester United and Wigan are the teams you should choose your defenders from. Evra, O'Shea, Figureoa, Bramble are players that are very likely to get clean sheet points.

Midfielder choices are a little tougher task. Chelsea's season opening wasn't glamorous but I'm sure Lampard and the gang are going to get their act together versus Sunderland. Wigan's Koumas and N'Zogbia are great budget choices for your team with 5M and 5.5M pricetags.

From forwards Chelsea's Drogba might still be an advantageous play, along with Rooney from ManU. But if these 2 players are out of your pricerange, Wigan has a nice budget player from forwards also. Hugo Rodallega opened the season with a goal and 3 bonus points, and with the cost of 6.5M he might be a great player to purchase.

Players not able to play in Fantasy Premier League - Injury lookout

With still few days to go until the start of fantasy premier league, let's look the situation with notable injured players. Most of the players will begin playing in few weeks but it might not be good idea to buy these players just yet.

Edwin Van der Sar, ManU

ManU's number one goalkeeper will be out of the field till September because of a finger injury suffered in penalty shootout against Bayern Munchen. Van der Sar will miss at least 5 games from the start of the season.

Nemanja Vidic, ManU

Defender Vidic has suffered a calf injury and will be out at least from the season opening game against Birmingham. The injury isn't too serious so he'll be back playing in couple of weeks

Phil Jagielka, Everton

Jagielka is still suffering knee injured in April and wont be back until November. Even then he's is a risky bet, cause knee injuries can keep player from playing even if supposedly healed.

Samir Nasri, Arsenal

Arsenal's midfielder Nasri injured his leg in training camp and won't be back until October. With Arsenals heave artillary midfield, he might not be getting too much playtime even when fully healed.

Buying cost effective players in Fantasy Premier League - Player Tips - Midfielders

After suggesting goalkeepers and defenders for your Fantasy premier league team now let's get to midfielders. From these players you can usually find the biggest star and therefore most expensive players. But you have think carefully which few 10M+ players you want on your fantasy premier league team. Again here are a few tips on three price categories.

12.5M Frank Lampard Chelsea
Ol' Frankie. Lampard is worth every penny he costs. There is none more consistent players to gain points with. Lampard made incredible 226 points last season with 12 goals and 10 assists. But in bonuspoints he was unbeateable 46 bonus points last year tells that he gives his best in every game. A must buy.

8M Shaun Wright-Phillips Mancester City
And again, a player from Manchester City. I have high hopes for Wright-Phillips, last years 5 goals and 5 assists are ready to be duoubled this year, with a team, I believe will fight for the title.

6.5M Steven Pienaar Everton
Pienaar is a great gamemaker who made 8 assists last season, with a nice 4.2 points per game average. With 6.5M you could do worse. This player will make his way to many fantasy premier league teams.

Finding the right players in Fantasy Premier League - Player Tips - Defenders

Let's look at some defenders that will be a nice addition to your Fantasy Premier League team. While goalkeepers prices differ only little, the prices of defenders vary a little more. At the time of the writing the most expensive defender is ManU's Nemanja Vidic with 8M, even being injured at the time over 20% teams have selected Vidic. Usually you can get good defenders from winning teams for 5-6M. I have chosen 3 defenders from different price groups.

8M Nemanja Vidic ManU
Even though still little injured when this man returns he is defender to have in your team. One of the best defenders in the world in a well defending team with the ability to score goals, priceless.

6.5M Kolo Toure Manchester City
Manchester City's number one defender will be playing a lot of minutes and with my high hopes for the whole team, he'll be sure collect a lot points. A valid player for any fantasy premier league team.

4.5M Maynor Figueroa Wigan
Wigan played a nice last season, and while not conceding a whole lot of goals, the teams whole defense group is a good choice. I chose Figueroa because he's a sure starting formation player.

Fantasy Premier League Gameweek 1 Fixtures

Chelsea v Hull City
Aston Villa v Wigan
Blackburn v Man City
Bolton v Sunderland
Portsmouth v Fulham
Stoke City v Burnley
Wolves v West Ham
Everton v Arsenal
Man Utd v Birmingham
Tottenham v Liverpool

It's going to be tough opening for some teams. But for example Chelsea and ManU are clear favourites. I'm also waiting big things from Manchester City and they should win Blackburn by a wide margin. New teams Burnley, Wolverhampton and Birmingham are going to have a lot to show, so there might surprises. Especially Wolves are going to be tough to beat at their home field. More detailed previews from interesting games coming little later.

Strategies to do good in Fantasy Premier League

I have a few Fantasy Premier League strategies that I have used in past seasons. Of course you still have to gather information about teams and players, but these strategies are a good starting point for selecting your teams.

Here are 2 of those strategies...

Strategy 1

Uneven players.

Remembering that in Fantasy Premier League you have 100M to buy your 15 players, one strategy is to invest your money to only those player that you put in play. In other words, you buy as cheap a substitute players that you can find, hoping that there wont be any need for substitutions.

An Example

100M divided to 15 is 6,6M, but if you buy the cheapest substitute players (usually about 4M a player) you get to use the remaining 86M to 11 "playing" players. That's 7.8M per player.

Of course the risk of this strategy is that if a need for substitutions accur, you propably wont get too many points from your substitutions...

Strategy 2

Gathering money.

This is a strategy that can be taken into play after few rounds have been played. It means after a round you go and buy a player that has made a lot of points. Because the rises in players prices come slower. So each round the value of your players rises, and after a while you can use your money to buy more enpensive players.

Tips to succeed in Fantasy Premier League

There are many different strategies you can use in Fantasy Premier League soccer. However let's first start with a few tips that are the basic of many of those strategies.
TIP 1
When selecting players for your team, keep in mind that only players that get to play can earn points. So it's no point choosing players that don't get to run on the green, because of injuries or because they are simply not good enough. With few exceptions it's always wise to select players that are in starting formation for their soccer team.
TIP 2
Don't pay too much extra for players that are known names but who don't play to their ability.
TIP 3
Don't make too fast transfers, when you select a player be sure to give him a few weeks to show his abilities.
TIP 4
Some players are so called "bonus sharks", these players usually get good points from games even if they dont score, because of those bonus-points. You want these players on your team.
TIP 5
Keep eye on the fixtures. It's easier for players to score against weaker teams. Also a team full of defenders from a team playing against say Chelsea, is not a good idea.

Fantasy Premier League Season 09/10 is upon us

The 09/10 Fantasy Premier League football- season is starting next saturday. I dont know about you, but I'm pretty excited. This blog will tell you tips on how to play Fantasy Premier League with success. I'm going write about different strategies, team conditions, player tips and injuries, just about anything that has anything to do with football. I'll see you soon.