Scoreboard - Week 11

Last week, there was a team that was in the Top 50 for October, and I told him that if Rooney have a bad week, he might have a chance to clinch the top. How did Chew Howe Chen's Rob Rangers did for the week?

TFLTalk League - Week 11 (Overall)

With yet another impressive performance for the week, Rob Rangers overtook Ong Xin Zhong's TeamToday to secure top spot in TFLTalk League at end-Oct. Rob Rangers scored 4 goals and 2 assists from RVP, Suarez, Mata & Bale for 36 pts this week, while TeamToday only managed 1 goal and 2 assists from Suarez & Duff.

Eliya Handayani's Arek Suroboyo FC remained at 3rd spot with a 7 point gap from Chiau Ren Yu's Manchester Jurong United. His overall tally of 199pts meant that TFLTalk League has 3 teams that are in the Top 100 Overall Leaderboard! Well done guys!

4th placed Manchester Jurong United bounce back into Top 5 after his last appearance in Week 6, due to 3 goals and assists this week. The team has appeared in all editions of TFLTalk League Scoreboard, and looks to be a strong contender for the TFLTalk league title.

mika boy's MikaBoyz makes up the Top 5. Despite having only 2 goals and assists, his gamble to double-up on Man City defence paid off handsomely this week, though it's slightly negated by having the Chelsea duo of A.Cole & B.Ivanovic...

TFLTalk League - Week 11 (Weekly)

3 of the TFLTalk League Overall Top 5 appears in Top 5 Weekly Charts (Manchester Jurong United, Rob Rangers, MikaBoyz). 

The top 2 teams for the week, Gan Heng's Southside & huey chin Teo's Ajunied crescent united, both finished with 43pts, but Southside just nudged it due to 2 extra assist. This weekly highscore puts him just outside Top 10 at 12th spot.

TFLTalk League - October

With 8 goals and 13 assists, Chee Howe Chen's Rob Rangers finished 1st in October for TFLTalk League....and 8th in Overall Ranking for October, just 3 pts behind the MOTM Tan Kevin's Unicorn, who had 10 goals and 9 assists from his players. What's more amazing is that Kevin HAVE NOT MAKE A TRANSFER SO FAR.

On the other hand, how close was it for Rob Rangers? If Fellaini did not get injured, he wouldn't have swapped for Pienaar (-1), then swap for Carzola (+1), for a total of 0pts. Moreover, if he had kept Fellaini all the way, he would have gotten +4 points...and claim $500 for October Manager of the Month.

Ouch.

David Ngiau's Eat My Shorts Scoreboard (Week 11)

Yaya Toure 5

Frank Lampard 8

Story: David Ngiau has quoted that he will eat his shorts if Frank Lampard outscores Yaya Toure this season. If that happens, I'll personally sponsor a pair of shorts for his consumption.

Even with Frank Lampard injured, he still has more points than Yaya Toure.

Sunday Review - 28th Oct 12

All 4 Sunday matches produced plenty of returns from the fantasy favourites, so I guessed almost everyone should be pleased with their totals this week. I'll ignore the major talking points from the men in black & focus on the players in the following reports

Everton 2-2 Liverpool

- Luis Suarez's goal and assist pushes him to 33 points this season, tied-best striker with Newcastle's Demba Ba (more on him later), and even produced the Celebration-Of-The-Week.

- With all the attention on the Uruguayan, captain Steven Gerrard somehow went unnoticed. His 17 points in TFL makes him the 6th best midfielder, although being the most expensive midfielder meant that he'll be overlooked by cheaper options. 

- In lieu of Steven Pienaar's absence, it was down to Marouane Fellaini to provide the spark for Everton's midfield, and he rewarded those managers who kept him with an assist. 

Newcastle 2-1 WBA

- Be warned: Demba Ba was subbed out due to a nerve problem. As Newcastle manager Alan Padrew mentioned

"He just feels like there is a nerve issue going on, so we are going to have to inspect that and see what it turns up this week."

Even though the injury might not be serious, fantasy managers should wait and see before jumping on this bandwagon.

- Papiss Cisse was named as a substitute for the game, and only came on in the 61st minute. Until he regains his spot in the team, one should be wary on selecting him based on the gamewinning goal, his 1st for the season.

- After their bright start to the season, WBA find themselves with down to 9th spot, and no clean sheet in last 5 matches. Do note that their next 2 matches are against Southampton & Wigan, so you might want to keep your WBA defenders for a while longer.

Southampton 1-2 Tottenham

- If you have selected Maya Yoshida from the start, congratulations, he have earned you -6pts.

- I was right about Gareth Bale scoring, though I should have expected his celebrations to be muted, due to him facing his former club.

- This is Clint Dempsey's 3rd game in 4 matches which he produced attacking returns. At £5.2mil, he is £0.2mil cheaper than Bale, and might be a worthy alternative in the next game against Wigan, though the next 6 fixtures after that looks tough.

Chelsea 2-3 Man Utd

- Is Mark Clattenburg in the database yet? (Sorry, I couldn't resist...)

- Fantasy owners of Wayne Rooney take note: in this away fixture, he only has 10 touches in the final third of the pitch (from OPTA stats), as compared against RVP who has 33. So one can tell how deep Rooney will be deployed in away games.

- Juan Mata is on fire. He's the highest points scorer in TFL with 36pts from 4 goals and 5 assists in just 5 games. With him firing away against tough opponents like Spurs & Man Utd, he looks to be a fixture-proof player.

- ADDITIONAL NOTE: Ivanovic and Torres are only suspended in the League Cup, and will appear in the next Premier League game.

Saturday Review - 27th Oct 12

6 games on this Saturday, with the major matches (such as Southampton vs Tottenham) being played tomorrow instead. Here are the highlights for Saturday's matches:

Aston Villa 1-1 Norwich

- There was a match? Really?

- I can't find any fantasy value from either teams. Christian Benteke may have started & scored a goal, but he was taken out only after 69 minutes for Darren Bent, and they're facing Man Utd, Man City & Arsenal in the next 3 of 4 games.

Arsenal 1-0 QPR

- Stupid, stupid retaliation.

- Santi Carzola produced yet another fantasy blank, despite being one of the more involved players in Arsenal's attacking half. With Jack Wilshere returning to the starting lineup, there might be a lesser reliance on the Spaniard in the near future.

- Another player returning to the Gunners' first eleven is Bacary Sagna, who managed to pick up a clean sheet at the expense of Carl Jenkinson. Apologies to those who followed my advice in Picks of the Week.

Reading 3-3 Fulham

- Please do not jump onto the Chris Baird bandwagon. Prior to this season, he has only scored 5 goals in 237 games. Also, he injured himself when he slipped into an advertising hoarding during his celebration, which lead to his substitution.

- This is Dimitar Berbatov's 3rd goal in 4 starts for Fulham.

- Reading's Jobi McAnuff made his 4th assist this season, which makes him tied-3rd in the assist category for midfielders, behind Chelsea's duo of Juan Mata & Eden (HE'S NOT A STRIKER) Hazard. Valued at £3.7mil and with a moderately-looking fixtures in the next 5 weeks, he's one to consider for a budget midfielder.

Stoke 0-0 Sunderland

- I was right about Stoke's defence obtaining a clean sheet for this match, particularly since Sunderland has been dire in front of goal, and had ZERO shots on target in this match.

- What I didn't expect was Marc Wilson's serious injury, which makes my outside pick in Today Fantasy League useless within a gameweek. Hopefully the setback isn't that serious, and he'll be back sooner than expected.

Wigan 2-1 West Ham

- What's with Big Sam's famed defensive tendencies? West Ham have failed to keep a clean sheet in their past 5 games. Looking at their next 6 games, it'll be hard-pressed to see how West Ham might keep a clean sheet against Man City, Newcastle, Stoke, Tottenham, Man Utd & Chelsea.

- This is the 1st home game which Wigan conceded less than 2 goals.

- Nope, no Mauro Boselli yet.

Man City 1-0 Swansea

- In the longest ever Premier League match at 102 minutes and 42 seconds, only 1 goal separate the 2 teams, with Carlos Tevez netting his 1st goal in 6 games.

- The reason for the long game was due to serious injuries to Swansea's Michael Vorm & City's Micah Richards. 

- Gerhard Tremmel (£3.1mil) came on to replace the Swansea's custodian, but he is unlikely to attract plenty of fantasy manager's attention due to their tough fixtures.

- Kolo Toure (£4.7mil) replaced Micah Richards in the rightback role. With Pablo Zabaleta & Maicon still in the injury list, Man City is short on rightbacks at the moment, but do hold onto that transfer button till we receive more updates on the injury situation.

- Despite the missing personal, the Blues managed to keep their 2nd clean sheet for the season.

Picks of the Week - Gameweek 11

For Picks of the Week, I'll look into the gameweek's matches & form a team using £55mil budget. This can be a useful guide for those who are looking for a short-term transfer, or for captaincy choices.

Note: This picks are only for this gameweek & may not represent good value in the long-run.

Man City will be looking to bounce back from their disappointing loss against Ajax midweek, and they'll be back in their Etihad Stadium stronghold against Swansea, who went scoreless in 2 of 3 away PL games this season. As usual, I'll be recommending the safest player in their starting 11, Joe Hart.

Fulham might look vulnerable in their travels, but their last season's away form netted them 6 clean sheets, tied-3rd best with Man City & Newcastle. It might be time for their 1st away clean sheet as they travel to Reading. John Arne Riise, top fullback in Today Fantasy League with 19pts, looks likely to benefit from an opponent who only managed to score 8 and conceded 14 this season.

With the return of Bacary Sagna, Carl Jenkinson might use this last opportunity in order to impress the manager. Arsenal is facing bottom dwellers QPR, who have yet to win a game this season. However, there is the risk of Jenkinson being substituted before 75 mins, which means no clean sheet points, so Thomas Vermaelen might be a safer (though costlier) choice in centreback.

As mentioned in my weekly TODAY column, Stoke players are value-for-money due to their upcoming fixtures & their defensive strength. With their opponent, Sunderland, relying on just 1 player to provide scoring, as long as Robert Huth & company can shut him down, Stoke is likely to rack up another clean sheet.

Against a WBA side who has scored 3 away goals this season, Newcastle might be a good bet to keep a clean sheet at home tonight. Steven Taylor may not be a confirmed starter as he started in the midweek Europa fixture, but he's the best goal threat among Newcastle defenders.

The Guardian has an interesting article on Santi Carzola, which speaks about his impact in La Liga. QPR manager Mark Hughes warned his team on the backlash from Arsenal's poor week, and the Spanish playmaker will be the main threat in pulling the strings for the Gunners' attack.

I've already highlighted Gareth Bale & Demba Ba potential in my weekly TODAY column, hence I'll skip the description over here.

West Ham travels to Wigan, who have conceded 2 goals in each of their home game. Having scored 4 goals with 2 assists, captain Kevin Nolan will be a key player in West Ham's attack, and will likely be involved in the Hammers' goals, if any.

Dimitar Berbatov might not have scored last week, but he contributed to 3 goal attempts inside the penalty area. Against a Reading side who let in 6 goals in 3 home games, look for the Bulgarian to be in the thick of action for Fulham tonight.

Lastly, it might be hard to predict who Mancini might field for Man City with his constant tinkering, but Carlos Tevez have started for all but one Premier League game this season. Also, he had a 20 minute cameo in their midweek Champions League tie, hence he is the likeliest starter against a Swansea team who failed to keep a clean sheet in their past 6 games.

Scoreboard - Week 10

After missing Week 8 due to reservist (my bad) & Week 9 was an international week, let's zoom in to the TFLTalk standings for Week 10:

TFLTalk League - Week 10 (Overall)

After a month of dominating the standings, we finally have a new leader in Week 10. Ong Xin Zhong's TeamToday made it to the top of the charts thanks to his strong October performance of 76pts, out of which 50% comes from captaining Wayne Rooney. His overall total of 180pts puts him 15th place in the Overall ranking...WELL DONE!

Just a spot behind is my long-term rival from Hattrick, Chee Howe Chen's Rob Rangers, who is currently October's TFLTalk League leader with 87pts. The main contributor for the month has been Juan Mata, though he has yet to hand him the captaincy. His current performance puts him in Top 50 for both Overall and October standings. Good luck to him in the quest for October Manager of the Month!

The leader for the past 4 gameweeks Eliya Handayani's Arek Suroboyo FC slipped to 3rd spot due to a lack of Man Utd or Chelsea players in the starting 11, and is trailing the current leaders by 12 points.

4th place belongs to Muhd Khairul's El Nino XI, whose captain is unsurprisingly Fernando Torres. His transfers does seem a little too eager, with 10 transfers already being used, all performed within the 1st gameweek of the month. Do remember that you only have 20 transfers left in the season... and there's about 30 gameweeks to participate.

Rounding up the Top 5 is Hanna Hurwood's Anja Cabanja. The only team in the top 5 who has RVP, he could take advantage if the Dutchman performs well against Chelsea next week & snatch the top spot, though similarly, his team won't be able to make any more transfers till November.

TFLTalk League - Week 10 (Weekly)

My own name appears in the ranking for the 1st time!!! :P

& in a league-first, the team with the most goals & assists made it to the Top of the Week. Congrats to Rob Rangers once again!

TFLTalk League - October

As you can see, it's still early in the season where the standings are pretty fluid. Once you got a good run of 2 gameweeks, you could find yourself in the Top 1,000 of the overall standings, so don't be dishearten with a poor gameweek.

Yea, I have to keep telling myself that for the past few weeks.....

I won't be reviewing the Overall Leaderboard & Monthly Leaderboard, as I would prefer to leave this weekly article to be purely for TFLTalk supporters. Hope everyone doesn't mind this change.

Oh, there's one more scoreboard which I'm sure everyone is interested in

David Ngiau's Eat My Shorts Scoreboard (Week 10)

Yaya Toure 4

Frank Lampard 8

Story: David Ngiau has quoted that he will eat his shorts if Frank Lampard outscores Yaya Toure this season. If that happens, I'll personally sponsor a pair of shorts for his consumption.

Doesn't those shorts looks appetizing now, David? :P

Sunday Review - 21st Oct 12

Only 2 matches today, so it won't be a wall-of-text post unlike yesterday's review.

Sunderland 1-1 Newcastle

- Seen on Twitter: Demba Ba is Newcastle's top PL goalscorer this season, and now he's second top goalscorer for Sunderland.

- It's particularly worrying that only Steven Fletcher has scored for Sunderland. With him firing blanks & other early-season fantasy prospects disappointing (Stephane Sessegnon, James McClean), they could end up similarly to last season's Aston Villa.
- From OPTA: Sunderland had just one shot on target in this match, the fourth time this season they have done this, managing a total of just 12 strikes on goal in total so far in the current league campaign

- For those who might wish to select a differential in Papiss Cisse due to Newcastle's upcoming fixtures, do note that he was not featured in the Tyneside derby at all. On the other hand, Demba Ba made another assist, making him the highest scoring striker in TFL currently.

QPR - Everton

- Personal note: I've just swapped Michu for Steven Pienaar prior to this game...uurgh.
- If Marouane Fellaini doesn't recover by next week, Everton would be missing 2 influential midfielders...in the Merseyside derby against Liverpool. Uh oh.
- I guess if Harry Redknapp takes over QPR, he'll be tweaking the "2 points from 8 games" tagline from his Tottenham days.

Saturday Review - 20th Oct 12

The Premier League action is finally back, and so is Fantasy Football for all! I'll try a new point-form format for this week. Feel free to leave your comments! :)

Tottenham 2-4 Chelsea

- 4-2 minutes, I thought Tottenham was going to win.

- To the 3.9% of TFL managers who transferred in Gareth Bale for this weekend, your agony on his withdrawal would be nowhere close to his partner's childbirth pains.

- Bale doesn't have 2 weeks of parental leave, right?

- Juan Mata is on fire these few weeks. 12 points from a brace & an assist, and 31 points from past 4 games. Not to be left out, Eden Hazard also contributed to an assist, but for £1.5mil cheaper, you can get his Spaniard teammate instead.

- 6 out of 19 Chelsea goals have come from Defenders. Meanwhile, Fernando Torres' goal tally remains at 2.

Fulham 1-0 Aston Villa

- Last season, John Arne Riise managed only 5 assists. Tonight was his 4th assist in 8 games this season. Considering his price is only £3.7mil, and he has overtook Branislav Ivanovic as the top fullback performer, look for his ownership to increase in the forthcoming weeks.

- Personal note: I deliberated extensively on Friday night whether to swap Angel Rangel for Riise, and in the end, decided not to. What a costly 7-point differential...uurgh.

- This is the 3rd Clean Sheet for Fulham this seaon.

- Darren Bent starts, but could not find a way through Fulham's defence, and was duly replaced by Christian Benteke in the 75th min. Neither...in fact, none of the Villa's players are looking to be a fantasy prospect at the moment.

Liverpool 1-0 Reading

- As my TODAY article pointed out, even though Luiz Suarez may have a poor shot-to-goal ratio, but he makes lots of key passes, and in this game, one of it found Raheem Sterling for his 1st ever Premier League goal.

- Suarez's on-target shots is currently at 24% (12 on target out of 50 attempts). To put that in perspective, players who have worse percentage include Fabio Borini (22.2%, 2 out of 9), and Andy Carroll (20%, 2 out of 10).

- I see a trend here...

- Despite their poor performances, Reading do have easier upcoming fixture. With 3 assists this season, Jobi McAnuff @ £3.7mil might be a potential differential for fantasy managers.

Man Utd 4-2 Stoke

- Wayne Rooney was so bored, that he decided to score on both ends for a "hattrick".

- With all the focus on other high-scoring strikers, the most expensive TFL striker, Robin van Persie, has his 4th consecutive "scoring week" (assist or goal) due to his goal and assist in today's match. He's still the most selected player in TFL with 47% though.

- Then again, Rooney has amassed more TFL points at the moment (23 vs 20 for RVP), and is £0.5mil cheaper. His deeper role, especially in away games, might be a concern.

- & don't be put off by Stoke's defence. Prior to the game, the Potters only conceded 5 goals in 7 games, and will be having a run of easier fixtures.

Swansea 2-1 Wigan

- MICHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

- Even though he might have replaced Danny Graham, who was dropped, in the striker role, Swansea will be facing Man City & Chelsea in the next 2 games.

- Emmerson Boyce opened his goal account in the game. He already has 9 goal attempts this season (joint-2nd highest), though Wigan's defence & form aren't exactly in tip-top form.

WBA 1-2 Man City

- Edin Dzeko, Man City Legend.
- Seriously, his goal record is amazing considering the amount of gametime he's given. 114.8 mintes per goal last season, 60.8 minutes per goal this season.
- Yet again, Sergio Aguero was on the bench, and this time, he came off to provide the game-winning assist. This is another player who doesn't need much game-time to score fantasy points for teams.
- Only blemish has to be no CS for City, but it was an uphill task once they were down to 10 men.


West Ham 4-1 Southampton
- Finally, West Ham got their penalty, and Mark Noble hits it from the spot. He was a pre-season fantasy favourite, but his on-pitch performance didn't lead to any fantasy output...till this weekend.
- Instead, it was his captain Kevin Nolan that was the preferred West Ham midfielder choice. 4 goals this season makes him the 2nd highest scoring midfielder in Premier League, and he's currently the joint-3rd highest scoring midfielder in TFL...
- ...similar to Adam Lallana. who was the only shining star for Southampton in the defeat. This is his 4th consecutive scoring gameweek, and looks more assured than Ricky Lambert in the 1st eleven.
- Speaking of Lambert, even though he's cheap for a striker, but does a fantasy manager want to select someone who could end up on the bench in away games?


Norwich 1-0 Arsenal
- If someone told you that there will be a team who kept a clean sheet in this match, would you have guessed it was Norwich?
- Gervinho is back in the flanks again, which means he's a classified striker, which means you should take him out from your team.
- Santi Cazorla: 4 chances created, 3 goal attempts, 1 fantasy point return.

Normal Service resuming...now.

Apologies for the lack of articles; one does become lazy after 2 weeks of mindless reservist.

Do look out for the Weekend Reviews after tonight matches. Good luck! :)

Missing in Action (Again)

Sorry guys, due to my current reservist duties, I'm unable to promptly update the TFLTalk League Scoreboard on time, but the schedule will be back to normal once I outpro this Friday, then Saturday I can...

What ya mean it's the internationals?!?!?!

-_-"

Scoreboard - Week 7

Let's make it a quick one for the week:

TFLTalk League - Week 7 (Overall)

Last week's leader Eliya Handayani's Arek Suroboyo FC  (formerly known as Hangouts) kept his top spot, thanks to goals from Suarez, Ba & Gervinho.

No Money No Honey climbed up 11 spots to take 2nd spot after captaining Luis Suarez, which gave him 32 out of his weekly 56 points. MikaBoyz rose 3 spots to take 3rd place, while Anfield remained at 4th place with 105 points.

TFLTalk League - Week 7 (Weekly)

Yet again, the team with the most goals wasn't able to top the weekly ranking charts, though this time it's not due to clean sheets, rather it's due to the wrong captain choice. Despite having Luis Suarez, he captained Marouane Fellaini for a total returns of 2 points...

Overall Leaderboard - September

Congrats to Siew Boon See's Boony FC for clinching the Manager of the Month for September! His 155 points in September was good enough to beat nick bueno's Bueno FC by an amazing 13 points!

Interestingly, the QPR-West Ham match was not included in this gameweek, hence fantasy managers who have picked players from either teams will have a slight lead at the moment.

Overall Leaderboard - October

MIA - Missing in Action

Sorry guys, due to my current reservist duties, I'm unable to promptly update the TFLTalk League Scoreboard on time, and am unsure if I'm able to complete the Friday's edition of Picks of the Week.

Let's hope everything work out fine, yea? Apologies for missing in action.

Sunday Review - 30th Sep 12

With only 1 game, here's a quick review based on Sunday's fixtures:

Bent is not straight...

Started off surprisingly from the bench, Darren Bent came on to provide the spark to ensure Villa leaves the game with a point. His 2nd consecutive goal in 2 games will surely make Paul Lambert wonder if he should keep the star striker on the bench.

Go Long, not short

For WBA, Shane Long up front in place of Romelu Lukaku, and rewarded his manager by scoring the only goal for the Baggies. There could be more rotation headache concerning these 2 though, so be warned if you're planning to select WBA's attackers.

Decimiated by Injuries

Not only did neither team kept a clean sheet, but there's more worries for the Baggies backline, as defender Billy Jones was substituted to due an knee injury, while reports states Gareth McAuley "struggling" near the end of the game. With Chris Brunt getting subbed off with a leg injury, WBA's manager Steve Clarke will be hoping for some good news before next week's match against QPR.