Latest transfer news before the transfer window closes today...

• Adebayor is making a loan switch to Arsenal's rival Tottenham due to limited playing time at MC.. that'll make him more famous at Arsenal after last season's provoking of Arsenal's fans..

• Yobo of Everton is requesting a loan switch to financial-struck West Ham, weirdo..

• Ghanaian star and villain Asamoah Gyan has been seen at Sunderland

• Shay Given has decided to stay at MC regardless the limited playing time

• Gudjohnson has snubbed Stoke City and ended up on-loan at Fulham

• Tottenham is offering Robbie Keane plus cash for West Ham's Scott Parker but the deal is seen to be unlikely due to Parker's popularity at West Ham and WHU is determined to keep the midfielder.

This what happen, when you not wearing helmet in the battlefield!

Result - GW 3 1st blood-ed

I did not expect I can update GW's 1st-blooded result as early as the last game of GW 3 finished. Well.. This week's 1st-blooded award belongs to LHP (AGAIN!).. Never happen that LHP lose twice in 3 game weeks and he rather do pick up very slow this season.





The standing is the following:-


1) TKS (68 pts) - TKS did a good job this week by playing Terry, Walcott, Carroll, Nani and Drogba (C) in his starting line-up this week. Drogba continues to dominate the EPL striker's table and already priced at $12.9!!



2)TYS (65 pts) - Despite 1st-blooded in GW 2, he bounced back immediately and captained Torres correctly (scored the winning goal and bonus 3 pts vs WBA). His risky Chelsea's defensive tactics (3 Chelsea defenders!!) continues to be rewarding as Chelsea have 3 clean sheets in 3 games!! Although Ivanovic did not feature, Terry's assist in Stoke's game has bring him extra 3 pts + clean sheet to Ashley Cole and Terry. Walcott is another sharp pick too.



3)Apolle (56 pts) - It's no joke that Apolle did improve alot compared to last season and we do not have any reason to make fun of him anymore. Drogba (C), Torres and Nani did bring alot of points to him + Alex, Evans who has a clean sheet. Apolle has 3 x 3 bonus pts in his line-up this week!



4)CKW (56 pts) - Me myself regretted my decision to switch my captain last minute from Rooney to Bale and Rooney performed like never before and Bale performed badly which is not expected. Argh..!! I don't deserve this!! Anyway, my decision to stick with Anelka, Carroll, and Rooney have fruited. I have minus -12 pts this week due to unforeseen injury to Gomes which resulted me to bring in Cech which is a good pick but pricey. Newly transferred in Bale and Lennon is dissapointing.



5)LCW (47 pts) - Lucky for him to have Fabregas who play for only 67 minutes but scored 2 bonus points that helped him to avoid to be 1st-blooded. Malouda, Carroll and Anelka still is good pick buy Luke Young (14 pts) is kept at deep deep bottom.



6)Kvinz (45 pts) - Newcomer Kvinz Chin still survive the game and avoided to be 1st-blooded in this tight game this week despite captain's choice Lampard only scored 1 point due to a missed penalty. Anyway, Sorenson who saved the penalty earned him the 5 pts that Lampard should earn. His defensive line saved his butt as most of his points are from there.



7)LHP (43 pts) - Despite new pick Skrtel proved a good 1 and scored 2 bonus pts plus clean sheet, this does not help him to be 1st-blooded this week. Jerome is kept at sub (8pts) and Crouch did badly as a striker for Tottenham. Captain choice Milner did not bring any good outcome as a $180 million ManCity squad lost to Sunderland in a 90 minute penalty that is converted by Darren Bent. Sorry LHP... you chose to believe Birmingham but not their players...? Why..?

Gameweek Preview - GW 3

Blackburn v Arsenal

Since Wenger claimed that Blackburn are playing rugby instead of football, so be it!! Big Sam, emulate your last season tactic against Arsenal again if you are to take this 3 points. Fabregas may feature but Walcott will not score a hat-trick every week.


Manchester United v West Ham

Obinha has join West Ham but this will not affect anything as I expect MU to win this at Old Trafford. Rooney is the hot pick as he NEEDS to score in this easy game (as Avram Grant's West Ham is facing a bad run now in BPL) to break his goal drought! Berbatov will be another good choice as he has good form lately. By the way, do I abandoned Scholes?


Liverpool v West Brom

Gerrard and Torres again. But Gerrard is complaining a back pain. Expect Torres to get his first goal of the season in this game. First win of the season too to Roy Hodgson.


Chelsea v Stoke City

Last season Chelsea won 7-0 against Stoke at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea has scored 20 goals in the last 3 BPL games (including 8-0 hammering of Wigan on the final game last season). Do not expect another 6-0 as 3-0 is reasonable enough. Drogba and Malouda will be the obvious choice again.


Tottenham v Wigan

Bale, Lennon, Crouch may be the fit attackers as Defoe is having injury problems and will soon go under the knife that will keep him out for 1 month ++.. Captain Bale anyone? Don't try your luck on Wigan players, why??!? Because it is WIGAN...


Sunderland v ManCity

Tevez, Milner and Johnson are in my mind as they make ManCity's attacks lively. Bargain defensive stud will be Richards as he will be playing until Boateng returns. I do not expect Sunderland can hold down ManCity who are with high morale now after defeating Liverpool 3-0.


Aston v Everton

I prefer Everton to win this one to sack MacDonald away as Aston's reputation and talents deserved a better coach.. but expect Young to do some damage. Albrighton might shine in first game but will it be just mirage? Cahill, Arteta and Pienaar might gain some points too.


Wolves v Newcastle

Might be a bore game. Don't expect Carroll to score a hat-trick again. But a goal is possible for him due to his aerial ability that might break Wolves' defensive play at home.


Bolton v Birmingham

I insist to stick to Petrov and predict him to score at least an assist in this game. While Birmingham has just captured N'Zogbia, he might be contesting with Larsson in taking set pieces. Anyway, victory to Bolton I think.

Latest transfer news...

• Frenchmen Ben Arfa is set to join Newcastle for a fee around 5 mil Euros

• Charles N'Zogbia is set to join Birmingham after falling out with Roberto Martinez

• Adebayor has admitted he will be leaving ManC if any offers come

• Kuyt has commited to Liverpool but Mascherano is set to leave Anfield as he refused to play for Liverpool under Roy Hodgson to force a move to Barcelona

• Aquilani who has join Juventus on loan has admitted that he will be staying there even after the loan deal ends.

• Chelsea's transfers business has ended as told by Ancelloti after letting Joe Cole, Deco, Ballack, Carvalho go and only signed Ramires and Benayoun this season

Transfers and Injuries before GW 3 starts

Aquilani has returned to Italy Serie A to join Juventus (the club that pursue Benitez last season) on loan until the end of the season with an option to buy the player at 16 million pounds.


(Liverpool's 20 mil flop Alberto Aquilani)

Mascherano continues to work with his agent to engineer a move to one of the three possible destinations that can match Liverpool's valuation of him which are Real Madrid, Barcelona or Inter Milan.

Dirk Kuyt is rumored to join Benitez (who bids for Mascherano at the same time) and reunite at Inter Milan as Kuyt is persuaded by Sneijder to join him there as well.

Squillaci will be joining Arsenal soon. Can he force Konscielny out of Arsenal's starting 11? He has the experience to command at the defence line, which is a job done by Gallas previously, who has joined Tottenham on a free transfer.

Konchesky will be joining Liverpool if the bid for him is successful. He worked well under Roy Hodgson in Fulham and can fill in the shortage of fit left-backs at Liverpool's left flank now.

For other injuries and doubtful news about BPL players, please visit this website:
http://www.physioroom.com/news/english_premier_league/epl_injury_table.php

GW 2 - review and statistics

OK, another interesting week being only the 2nd week of the start of a new season, things has gone so so so interesting with 3 matches with 6-0 thrashing of opponents featuring Newcastle, Chelsea (AGAIN?) and Arsenal...

However let's start with Monday's nite football MC vs Liverpool first..

After watching the match, I would say that MC totally deserved the win as Liverpool played like a mid-table team with loose defence, semi-fit Fernando Torres, unsharp Steven Gerrard and a not convincing midfielder and defender line-up..

MC looked really really dangerous WHEN THEY PLAYED AS A TEAM against Liverpool on Monday nite. Despite unconvincing pre-season where they suffered quite some losses in their tours, their display in this match is superb and terrifying when such huge amount of money is invested in this squad that are full of expensive talents. No one-man-show in MC team tonight as they really work together and gel well to play as a team against Liverpool. Arsenal, ManU and even Chelsea need to beware of such display.



(Former Red Devil Tevez has already netted twice as Rooney still facing goal drought since March and spending time in the toilet with a stomach virus)

Rooney has dropped to $11.9 and Tevez to $10.4, but Tevez will be a better option if MC continues to play with such form and teamwork. Rooney still need to find back his touch and goalscoring touch if he was to live up to his price tag. My investment in Rooney seems to be a bad one and might consider trading him with some other in form strikers if his goal draught continues.

(Former Villans Barry and Milner has reunite at ManCity and Milner provided the assist for Barry to score the 1st goal against Liverpool)

Milner has a perfect debut for MC. Priced at only $9, he seems to be a regular first team player at MC and scored an assist and bonus 3 pts in his 1st game for MC.


(The future England GK has performed a triple saves against Gerrard, N'Gog and Torres if you did watch this game, superb!! Priced now at $6.1, you can expect more clean sheet from him if MC plays like this every match. Shay Given will warm the bench for quite some time)

WOW, impressive start for Joe Hart to land the 1st choice GK for MC. I can see his call for the England's GK post coming soon if his form continues like this and kept Given watching the game from the bench.


OK, back to other games' quick review. As mentioned earlier.. 3 x 6-0 in this single GW!!


("I may not score 3 in this game but I did score 3 assists and bonus 2 points")

WIGAN 0 - 6 CHELSEA

Drogba continues his good form and live up his expectation of $12.6 price tag's striker. (His price has increased to $12.8 for your information)

Don't miss out Malouda who is now $9.7 who worked well with Drogba, Anelka and Lampard and is now a regular scorer and assist provider in the well and matured Chelsea squad.



(This week's top gun from the Gunners, Walcott ($7) scored an amazing hat-trick with 21 pts, with all goals scored from the striker's position rather than flank, where he played as a right winger in Arsenal's line-up)

ARSENAL 6 - 0 BLACKPOOL

Walcott did well in this game, as well as Diaby. Although Chamakh ($8.2 now) has scored a goal and an assist, he did badly in this game playing against 10 ppl and a newly promoted Blackpool's side. The chances that he missed are awful and can be easily converted in by VPS. He seems to be a replacement for Bendtner to me though... (his ability too, as he missed badly using his foot but he scored a good header)

Arshavin looked quite quiet in this game but surprisingly, he was the penalty taker in that game.

Not to mention hot pick Fabregas who only featured as a sub and scored 1 point in this game.

(Carroll's hat-trick against Aston has ignited him as a main transfer target. England's new hope?)

NEWCASTLE 6 - 0 ASTON VILLA

Newcastle is a traditional big club and it is not unexpected if they did perform as well in this game against a O'Neill-less Aston Villa side. Aston 3-0 against West Ham earlier last week might just be some home ground advantage or terrible West Ham's poor side who lost 1-3 at home to Bolton

However, don't expect Newcastle will score such scoreline in many games to come. Carroll might be another good bargain buy at only $5.1 now. Chris Hughton is still not so well established in the top flight so we will see.

Try to avoid pricey Aston's defenders as they are no longer worth those price tags.



(Old might be, still a regular in SAF's squad and scored 21 pts in 2 games)

I wonder what happened with players at MU like Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Van Der Sar who can perform so well despite their ages. Scholes emerged as the "dark horse" in MU squad this season and already performed so well which resulted him to scored 6 bonus pts in 2 games. Already priced at $6.2 now, I think he still can keep his form for another few more games before his charges run out.

Result - GW 2 1st blood-ed

This week TYS was 1st-blooded.. thanks to the poor performance by an almost full-team Liverpool as he captained Stevie G.. (Although CKW and LCW has the worst captain selection with their captain each scoring 1 pts only.. Albrighton (emergency captain) and Fabregas)

Result for GW 2 :-

1) Apolle - 64 pts (5 transfer made)

2) LCW/Kvinz - 58 pts (LCW -1, Kvinz - 4 transfer made)

3) TKS - 57 pts (3 transfer made)

4) LHP - 49 pts (3 transfer made)

5) CKW - 47 pts (1 transfer made)

6) TYS - 44 pts (1 transfer made)

Compared to last season, Apolle has improved alot and made a fast pick-up to occupy the 1st half of the league table, meanwhile.. myself (CKW) and LHP picked up quite slowly compared to last season.. (to be honest.. its f-king very slow)

Despite the improvement, Apolle still capitalize on the advantage of transfering many players to gain higher points thru the sacrifice of points deducted per transfer, which has been a habit for him last season (average 4 transfers per gw last season)

Well, the season is still long and although all the so called "bug players" (regular scorer of points and bonuses) have appeared with only 2 games have past.. it is hard to determine yet as the race is still far from the finishing line.

Gameweek Preview - GW 2

ManC v Liverpool
Liverpool's 1st game at Anfield under Roy Hogdson showed good flow and great play during the draw against Arsenal.. (if not for a high-profile GK blunder for GK like Reina)

I might opt for a win for Liverpool this game.. some small margin due to defensive play under RH for Liverpool... 1-0 perhaps but a 1-1 draw is most likely

Liverpool's key player - Torres & Gerrard should make an impact in this game provided Mascherano is not leaving now to fill in the power dynamo defensive midfield role to allow Gerrard to advance in attacks. N' Gog shall make way for Torres if Torres is fit enough to play 70 minutes of the game.

ManC - Frankly speaking.. I felt MC squad is a total mess.. last week Yaya Toure was deployed as a RIGHT MIDFIELDER for god sake!!.. anyway.. established MC players like Tevez who is captain, free kick and penalty taker has the advantage over other MC players. His workrate is wonderful as well.


Others:-

Arsenal v Blackpool

Fabregas should be the bonus magnet if he does feature in this game. Chamakh and VPS somehow will not be played together. Anyway, VPS will be the better choice if he does play full 90-minutes

Will Blackpool stunned Arsenal again like they did against Wigan last week? God knows.. Arsenal had be stunned by Hull City in early season 2 seasons ago. Harewood and Adam will be good choices if you want cheap options as your striker & set-piece taker.


Birmingham v Blackburn

Might be a boring game. Birmingham have good defensive record at home. But Blackburn like to be defensive away too.

Look out for hot pick Larsson (set-piece and corner taker) and Blackburn's Jones to grab some bonus if the game ended in a 0-0 draw.


Everton v Wolves

Nothing else needed to be said. Stick to Arteta, Cahill, Pienaar as Wolves is AWFUL playing away.


Stoke v Tottenham

Stoke will definitely be defensive at home in this game. But Tottenham's left flank is the most convincing and notably good with Bale and Assou-Ekotto playing there. Robbie Keane ($5.5) might be a good cheap pick as Defoe is ruled as doubtful due to injury sustained in midweek.


WBA vs Sunderland

I feel a high scoring game will happen in this match. Dorrans and Bent are good picks. Fine assists might come from some 'cold door' players like Henderson and Dorrans himself.


West Ham v Bolton

West Ham might need some time to pick-up under Avram Grant. Martin Petrov might be a good speedy winger that might terrorize West Ham weak left link and defences.


Wigan v Chelsea

Seriously do I need to say for this match?


Newcastle v Aston

Carroll has cause some aerial problems for MU defences last week. If he is lucky enough, he might bag in a goal for Toons. Albrighton and Young will be Aston's hot pick for flank players after the departure of Milner to MC.


Fulham v MU

Yawn, Mark Hughes need some time to pick up with his unfamiliar squad left by Roy Hodgson. MU shall win this game if everything goes well. Berbatov is looking great. Rooney NEEDS TO BREAK HIS GOAL DRAUGHT AS... he last scored a goal back in MARCH 2010!!!

After GW 1 - Fantasy Statistics

After GW 1, the market has started to activate and statistics are fluctuating. As Drogba, Lampard, and Bent who are REPORTED NOT TO BE PLAYING due to doubtful injuries, instead all of them played and scored!!

Drogba scored a hat-trick on the opening days against newly-promoted West Brom. Aston Villa's win over West Ham is predicted, but a young-rising star and talented Albrighton's performance in that match is totally unpredicted. Is that pure luck and form on that particular day, or this will be another star of the season at bargain price as every season there will be more than one super bargain player who bug throughout the whole season with weekly bonus awarded to them. (such as Dunne,$5 last season and Ireland, $5.5 two seasons ago)

"What can I do other than scoring?"

(No longer a bargain buy at $7 especially when O'neill has left Aston Villa )

The fluctuation in the fantasy market is like the following:

Players transferred in (TOP 3):

Forwards:

1 - Drogba
2 - Harewood
3 - Chamakh

Midfielders:
1 - Albrighton
2 - Malouda
3 - Larsson

Defenders:
1 -Baptiste
2 - Assou-Ekotto
3 - Jones (Blackburn)


Players transferred out (TOP 3):

Forwards:

1 - Rodallega

2 - Tevez

3 - Rooney

Midfielders:

1 - Cole (Liverpool)

2 - N' Zogbia

3 - Fabregas

Defenders:

1 - Collins (Aston)

2 - Cuellar

3 - Figueroa


Due to the sudden flow of the market's transfer out of N' Zogbia, $0.1 has dropped (now $5.9)

As predicted, studs like Malouda and Drogba have increased their prices by $0.1... same to rising star Albrighton who now priced at $4.6..

(Grab him fast as this young star might be a bargain buy this season)

Result - GW 1 1st blood-ed

The result of GW 1 on the 1st day, start of the 2010/2011 BPL season:

1) YiSiong - 60 pts (rank 3/16 in 1st blood season 4)

2) LCW - 56 pts (4/16)

3) Apolle - 53 pts (7/16)

4) Chin - 49 pts (8/16)

5) CKW - 45 pts (11/16)

6) TKS - 41 pts (13/16)

7) LHP - 35 pts (15/16)


Congratz to LHP who is the hot pick to be 1st blood-ed on the 1st day opening of the new BPL 2010/2011 season...

Let's feast at any mamak all on LHP's treat on next outing.. ^^

BPL Fantasy Football - 1st Blood Season 4

BPL Fantasy has come into season 4. Congratz to my friends who have sticked to the game for the past 4 seasons.

This blog is created to post some 1st blood records, BPL news, injuries, predictions, etc and is dedicated to all fellow 1st blood members LHP, Dranzer, Sern, Yi Siong, and last-season newcomer and last in the table 09/10 Apolle. This season we will have another newcomer, Chin who will join us in this fun game.

Some brief overview of last season's (09/10) history.

1- CKW - 2268 pts (joined season 1)
2- LCW - 2167 pts (joined season 1)
3 - LHP - 2143 pts (joined season 1)
4- TKS - 1998 pts (joined season 1)
5 - YiSiong - 1860 pts (joined season 1)
6 - Apolle - 1856 pts (joined season 3, newcomer must learn some lesson 1 b4 proceed, hehe)

Get ready for the new season 2010/2011!!