GW 8 - review and statistics

Blackpool 2 - 3 Manchester City

Blackpool was among the candidate for relegation but after 8 games into the new season, the other 'pool' (Liverpool) was in the relegation zone instead. Blackpool's build up in attacks and defences are way better and entertaining than Liverpool.

Fighting against a club with £133 million annual wages bill (Blackpool only have £6 million wages bill annually), the Tangerines will just not give up and fight to the last minutes of the match. If it wasn't for Silva's classy goal, this match will end with both teams grabbing a point each.

Congratz to Tevez who performed so well and now the leading BPL goal scorer with 7 goals. Ferguson must be banging his head against the wall as he claimed the guy is not worth £25 million.

Fulham 1 - 2 Tottenham

Although Huddlestone's controversial goal was debatable, nevertheless this game resulted in Fulham's first defeat of the season.

Van Der Vaart continues his fine form. He cost $7.9 now.

Arsenal 2 - 1 Birmingham

Zigic started as Jerome was injured. The tallest striker in the BPL scored his first BPL goal with a nicely guided header with little jumping effort, due to his 6'8" height.

Chamakh, despicable - although he scored the winning goal, he dived to get a penalty which later converted by Nasri. So, where's Wenger now as everytime other clubs' players did something despicable he is the first one to come and criticise.

Manchester United 2 - 2 West Brom

Another relegation candidate shine in big matches against the "Big Four". After the victory against Arsenal in GW 7, West Brom grabbed a point away at Old Trafford due to some schoolboy error from Van Der Sar. Pathetic goal keeping.

ManUnited threw away another 2 goals lead and get their 5th draw of the season.

Nani and Berbatov continue their fine forms, but so do Brunt from West Brom.

Bolton 2 - 1 Stoke City



Nothing much to say in this game, it's a very close game for both team. The only thing that caught the headline is Ivan Klasnic, who scored the winning goal, then get booked twice in the injury time and get sent off.

Everton 2 - 0 Liverpool

Cahill and Arteta, the usual studs of Everton that perform consistently. Arteta's rocket ended Liverpool's hope for a come back and resulted Liverpool looming in the relegation zone at 19th place.

Roy Hodgson is a downgrade and all players he brought in are downgrades! (Out: Aquilani, Mascherano, Insua... Replacements: Poulsen?, Meireles?, Konchesky?).

You don't offload your playmaker who just got fit and wanted to prove himself in the BPL off for a £4.5 million Poulsen and dynamo powerhouse midfielder Mascherano who is SO VITAL to the team's midfield. Konchesky for Insua is a joke.

Aston 0 - 0 Chelsea

Without Drogba, Chelsea aren't threatening. Anelka can't do it by himself. Aston Villa's defence are getting tougher with the arrival of Houllier. No more 6-0 thumping will ever happen again.

Newcastle 2 - 2 Wigan

N'Zogbia came back to haunt his ex-club. Newcastle made it very late to grab a draw. Bad runs for Newcastle at the moment. Wigan show some recovery after a terrible start into the new season.

Wolves - West Ham

A fair result though. Nothing much to say.

Blackburn - Sunderland

Another fair result too. Blackburn's defensive tactics are tough to break. Sunderland's Elmohamady is another great addition to the club too.

Gameweek Preview - GW 6

Well, put aside the League Cup's shocks away that saw clubs like Chelsea (losing to Newcastle), Everton, Manchester City, Tottenham and Liverpool (a disgrace) out of the cup run in such early stage. We'll FOCUS back on the Premier League this coming gameweek.




- Fernando Torres ($11.5) has failed to make impact in games up to date and struggle to fulfill his lone striker role under the formation of 4-2-3-1 deployed by Hodgson which is similar to his predecessor Benitez. Poulsen a.k.a Lucas ver.2 was brought in and being positioned at the same position of Lucas. Mascherano's place will be filled either with the original Lucas or Raul Meireles.

- Anyway I still have great faith in Torres and he will got my captain armband for this coming gameweek against Sunderland. Although Sunderland performed well last week against Arsenal and shown a lot of threat in attacking, I do believe Roy Hodgson still have something left in his pocket and live up his expectation. Still remember the wonder goal Torres scored against Sunderland last season? :)




- It was reported that Mancini's defenders choices are very limited now and only Toure, Zabaleta and Kompany reported to be fit. Well well, $6.4 goal keeper Joe Hart will have a very busy day. Look at the "faster" Chelsea now, without Lampard (injured), they definitely play a faster style of football with Essien filling in Lampard's position. Anelka's and Malouda's swift moves are mouth watering and Drogba's beasty playstyle is threatening. Chelsea is on a goal scoring run (although they lost to Newcastle 4-3 by fielding a weaker side) and I think they can get something out from this game.




- The on-loan Marseille winger scored a stunning goal last week against Everton. He only cost $5 in FPL and definitely a bargain buy if he plays 90-minutes weekly. He has the class of Nani and definitely way more cheaper. Newcastle has gained momentum and on high-morale after defeating Chelsea in midweek's Carling Cup at Stamford Bridge.

- A win for Newcastle against Stoke? Likely... Barton, Nolan and Carroll are the few good choices too. Although it's not worth to get Carroll now ($5.7 now and I have sold him to fund others), Barton is still the set piece taker. Another player to be watched is goalkeeper Tim Krul ($4) who deputize Harper who might be out for up to 12 weeks. He is a good pick as Newcastle is a team who can get clean sheets at home and sometimes away.




- Nuff' said. It's time to bring Berbatov in. He is $9 now and if he can continue the run of form that outshone Rooney ($11.6 now) since GW 1, he can grab about 20 goals + 10 assists for the whole season plus bonus points. ManUnited have easy fixture ahead, don't they? (Bolton @ away, Sunderland @ away, West Brom @ home)




- Arsenal vs West Brom is an interesting fixture and many will bring Arsenal players in, thinking that this will be a free-scoring game and free points for those Arsenal players. But I doubt that, yea, Dranzer!, i really don't see that.

- Fabregas will be out for 2-3 weeks due to a hamstring injury. West Brom was in high spirit after sending ManCity out of Carling Cup in midweek. I know I know, most of you think that Arsenal's free-flow football style will tear West Brom's defence apart like Chelsea's 6-0 thumping.

-But since then West Brom have gained momentum and played well in the BPL. They only lost one goal to Liverpool at Anfield and came back from behind to defeat Birmingham 3-1 which made Odemwingie a player-to-watch. Dorrans did not live up to his expectation though, as I prefer Chris Brunt more if I was to choose a player from WBA.

- Nasri ($7.2) and Arshavin ($9.8) is the obvious choices if you think Arsenal will win like 3-0 or 3-1. But the worry is, will Nasri play 1st team after complete 120-minutes at White Hart Lane on tuesday night? Arshavin is substituted only after 57 minutes last gameweek (although he scored 1 in midweek after brought on as a substitute). They are the pro/con choices as we don't know what will be Wenger thinking =.= duh

- Chamakh ($8.4) will definitely playing 90 minutes so he is the safer choice, he is Bendtner ver.2 and he scores alot from headers. Oh ya.. Wilshere ($5) anyone?? He did shine in the Tottenham game in midweek.