If 2 weeks ago was all about the crazy number of goals, then last weekend was all about one goal in particular:

Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney said his wonder overhead strike that secured a 2-1 derby win over Manchester City was the best of his career. United boss Sir Alex Ferguson was gushing in his praise for Rooney’s goal, calling it the best he has seen at Old Trafford. “It was stunning,” he said. “Unbelievable. We’ve had some fantastic goals here but in terms of execution, you’ll never see that.”

There were also some incredible displays by the teams in Europe with both Tottenham and Arsenal recording memorable wins over AC Milan and Barcelona respectively.

The Tottenham game was insanely close and just 1 nil up with 1 minute to go, lets pick up the BBC reporting:

92mins: Unbelievable! AC Milan frontman Zlatan Ibrahimovc thinks he’s snatched a dramatic equaliser at the very death with a brilliant overhead kick… but the official’s flag is raised for a foul on Michael Dawson in the box. It’s a great decision, too. What drama.

93mins: FULL-TIME AC Milan 0-1 Tottenham

94mins: Wowzers. AC Milan midfielder Gennaro Gattuso has gone mad. The Italian greets the final whistle by marching straight over to assistant Tottenham coach Joe Jordan and head-butting him. Incredible. The two benches clash as a result as Gattuso is pulled away, but still he tries to get at the Tottenham bench. Absolutely staggering. What’s the Italian for bad loser?

Let’s join the Arsenal game with just 3 minutes to go as they lead 2 – 1:

87mins: And then out of nowhere Barcelona threaten an equaliser, Lionel Messi laying Dani Alves in on the right and the Brazilian’s slid effort kept out by Wojciech Szszesny. What a game.

88mins: Barcelona are pressing now… heavily…

90mins: Two minutes of injury time at the Emirates.

92mins: Is that handball? Arsenal substitute Andrey Arshavin might just have got away with one there as the ball strikes his arm in the box, but the referee waves play on… Dani Alves does play on and his square pass is almost forced home by Lionel Messi, but the Argentine’s shot is blocked.

92mins: FULL-TIME Arsenal 2-1 Barcelona

All great stuff and lots of points in our league – but I haven’t put the updated file online yet – suspense – but will let you know as soon as I do… I’ll leave you with a quote from Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp: “They lost their heads at the end there – they were rattled for sure – and I guess that’s a good sign. I know who I’d pick between Joe Jordan and Gennaro Gattuso anyway… Joe all night long. All night long.”

www.thisisfantasyfootball.com

Every now and again you find yourself watching or even being a part of something a little bit spectacular, something which you know will make the history books and that people will look back on in 50 years and say “remember when…”.

To give you a few examples, do you remember 2005 and the Ac Milan vs Liverpool Champions League Final? Held at Atatürk Stadium in Istanbul and with a monstrous 70,024 in attendance, Milan were regarded as favourites before the match and took the lead in the first minute through captain Paolo Maldini. Hernán Crespo added two more goals before half-time to make it 3-0. During the second half, Steven Gerrard, Vladimír Šmicer and Xabi Alonso scored three goals in six minutes for Liverpool to level the scores at 3-3. The scores remained the same during extra time, and a penalty shootout was required to decide the champions. The score was 3-2 to Liverpool when Andriy Shevchenko’s penalty was saved by Liverpool goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek. Thus Liverpool won their fifth European Cup. Regarded by many as the best match ever…

Or how about 1999 and the Manchester United vs Bayern Munich game? The action kicked off in Barcelona in front of a mind blowing 90,000 fans, but it was 1-0 to Bayern Munich throughout the entire match, until Man Utd score 2 goals in stoppage time to win the cup. United’s victory was the culmination of their Treble-winning season, after they had already won the FA Premier League and the FA Cup earlier in the month.

Or 2006 at the Cardiff Millenium Stadium, and Liverpool vs West Ham in the Cup? 71,140 in attendance and when West Ham went ahead 2-0, many thought it was all over. Even later on at 3-2 it looked like the match was sealed but Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard scored a goal in the last minute from 30-yards plus to take the game to extra-time and they eventually triumphed on penalties. It is considered by most who watched to be one of the greatest Cup Finals in the history of the tournament.

Ok one more for you, how about the Tottenham 4 Arsenal 5 game at White Hart Lane in 2004? Although Arsenal came out on top in a topsy-turvy north London derby, it was an amazing journey to the final whistle. Noureddine Naybet volleyed Spurs ahead before Thierry Henry levelled in first- half injury-time and Lauren’s penalty put Arsenal ahead after 53 minutes. Patrick Vieira added a third on the hour, and even though Jermain Defoe’s strike gave Spurs hope, Freddie Ljungberg restored the two-goal lead. Ledley King headed Spurs’ third, and even after Robert Pires hit Arsenal’s fifth, Freddie Kanoute was on target.

And of course only a few months ago, 30,000 plus faithful were treated to a record-breaking 9 – 1 game between Spurs and Wigan, where Defoe scored 5 goals and became only the third player, after Alan Shearer and Andy Cole to do so. Not just that but Tottenham scored eight times in the second half as Wigan sank without trace and Defoe notched a hat-trick in seven minutes, the second quickest since the inception of the Premier League in 1992. Oh good times and history was made.

Wow – that was a ramble – so back to last weekend and a very different kind of history being made. Sky showed the world’s first live 3D TV sports broadcast after being helped by the man behind the Hollywood blockbuster movie Avatar. With only 9 selected pubs in the entire country having this honour, it was with more than the usual happiness that I drank my beer whilst wearing special glasses to see the Arsenal vs Manchester United game in an extra dimension. What did I think? Well it had a lot of potential, I’m not sure the technology is quite there yet to stream 3D on the fly by the mili-second, but to be honest – bothered – because in 50 years time when its totally the norm to watch 3D TV, I’ll be able to say “I was there when it all began.”

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So it’s the end of the month, which means it’s prizes time. Kokbun Lee (£6) was the highest points manager with 271 points in the month, closely followed by Steve Dennis (261) and Chris Lyons (254). The £5 Highest Climber prize goes to Cerys Bowd (up 49 places) with Simon Laesser (up 43) and Sarah Groves (up 40) just missing out. There were also two lucky people who get £1 each for being on a multipe of 100, and they are Leigh Styles and Andrew Oestrich (800).

Well done to everyone, there is now less than 70 points between 1st place and 10th place – so it’s not long before some new history will be made.

You heard it here first, www.thisisfantasyfootball.com

Man U beat Chelsea, Arsenal got another 4 goals, Aston Villa another 5, Liverpool still to play tonight and there’s only 10 points between 17th place in the Premiership and a European 5th spot!!!

Add in the excitement as England and Wales lost to Australia and New Zealand in two intensely close international rugby games – and the fact that David Haye became boxing’s heavy weight champion beating his 7ft Russian opponent – and you could say it was a glorious weekend.

And that’s without mentioning Murray winning the Valencia Open tennis title or Zenyatta sensationally winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic, the richest race on the two-day card at Santa Anita, becoming the first female to win the Classic in its 26-year history!!!

But enough of that, in our league the November transfers all came into effect but position 1, 2 and 3 all stayed the same as Luan, Andy and Anna looked solid. Nathan D was the only new entry in to the top 10 whilst M Davey continued his recent great performance climbing another 3 places into 6th. Dan Jones logged a strong result, up 12 places into the money spots (17th) and both Martyn Jenkins and Dave Thomas rose 14 places, just outside the top 20.

No need to mention names but 5 teams saw minus points this weekend whilst “Aubrey Town” clocked a giant 72 points to climb 30 places!!!

Metro readers today would have seen the following myths debunked: you should drink 8 glasses of water a day, eating at night makes you fat and swallowing gum stays in your stomach 7 years.

So I’ll give you one more myth…

Success in Fantasy Football correlates to your football knowledge.

Keep the faith.

www.thisisfantasyfootball.com

Do I comment on Liverpool beating Man U… Stoke beating Spurs… or Villa, Arsenal and Man City all being held to disappointing draws?

Perhaps I should focus on the fact that 5 of our top 6 managers are ladies and that there are none in the bottom 10?

Or maybe you’d be more interested to know that in 1843, a Parisian street mime got stuck in his imaginary box and consequently died of starvation?

I thought so. Here are a few more amazing facts for you…

A cat’s purr has the same romance-enhancing frequency as the voice of singer Barry White.

Ben and Jerry’s sends the waste from making ice cream to local pig farmers to use as feed. Pigs love the stuff.

The original Sanskrit word for “war” means “desire for more cows”.

Babies are born without knee caps.

Almost a third of all people flush the toilet while they’re still sitting on it.

The Bible is the number one shoplifted book in America.

The commonly used @ symbol in email addresses is called a “chiocciolina” in Italy meaning “little snail”, a “klammeraffe” in Germany meaning “spider monkey” and a “‘kanel-bolle” in Norway meaning “a spiral shaped cinamon cake.

And just to prove that it’s not all non-football randomness…

Tottenham Hotspur didn’t have a single player sent off in a Football League match between October 27th 1928 and December 4th 1965.

Keep it real.

www.thisisfantasyfootball.com

Controversially perhaps Blackburn Rovers came out top of this league that measures fans’ tension levels. Although this was put down to the team underperforming and the fans willing them to succeed.

The research measured the heart rate and levels of cortisol (a stress hormone) among supporters of all the teams.

Some fans’ pulse rates hit 132 beats per minute during games – juts 5 shy of those expected on a theme park ride – in the dark – with no seatbelt – sitting in between Freddie Kruger and Michael Myers.

The top 10 went like this: Blackburn, Arsenal, Man U, Wigan, Bolton, Liverpool, West Brom, Chelsea, Man City, Stoke.

What does all this mean… it means get your team sent in… or you too are going to miss out on the rollercoaster ride that is Fantasy Football.

The force is strong with this one…

Although much of the galaxy was immersed in the 6 Nations battles at the weekend, the true fights for domination were going on as follows:

Man Utd 0 – 0 Tottenham (Man Utd win 4-1 on penalties)
Middlesbrough 2 – 0 Liverpool
Chelsea 2 – 1 Wigan
Aston Villa 2 – 2 Stoke
Arsenal 0 – 0 Fulham
Bolton 1 – 0 Newcastle
Hull 1 – 2 Blackburn
West Ham 1 – 0 Man City
Everton 2 – 0 West Brom

This led us to the end of the month prizes:

Supreme Commander (most points): Steve Kellman (250). With mention to runner up Chris Bevan (223) and 3rd Mark Edgerley (211).

Heroic Soldier (most positions): Tom Jones (up 26). With mention to runner up Alex Higgs (23) and Gary Baker (19).

Fallen Warrior (biggest faller): Carys Schleising (down 21). With mention to runner-up Rich Thomas (down 20) and 3rd Simon Laesser (down 19).

Space Cowboys (Fun Game 1): Kirsty Wheeler
Space Cowboys (Fun Game 2): Rhodri Evans

Bounty Hunters (Lucky Dip Group 1): Emma Gallagher
Bounty Hunters (Lucky Dip Group 2): Paul Hollands
Bounty Hunters (Lucky Dip Group 3): Jake Alexander

Until next time….. STAY ON TARGET!!!

27 days to Christmas!!! Don’t panic!!! Breath deeply and remember that Christmas is fun – it’s about eating so much turkey your sides hurt or watching The Princess Bride for the 100th time on Boxing Day or simply about kicking back, putting on some Dean Martin carols and chilling before it all starts again in 2009…

With that in mind, there are a few teams out there who could use the Festive period to take stock…

Sunderland fell to their 3rd consecutive loss against West Ham, whilst Blackburn saw Spurs make it no win in 8 games, Arsenal continue to see their title challenge turn to dust as Man City gave them a 3 nil whooping, whilst Man U, Chelsea and Liverpool were all held to nil all draws with whilst West Brom have now taken just 1 point from the last 21 after a loss to Stoke.

In our League, “It’ll All End In Tears, Again” has stolen the top spot, whilst Stacey and Anna continue the ladies assault on the top 10 – both up 2 places. The “One Lungs Chicken Legged Klaimers” continue their fall, whilst Rhodri, Keivan and Emily all see good rises in the top 20 but with “O’Sheas Sharpshooters” clocking the biggest rise up 25 places.

If case you were wondering – and why wouldn’t you – about the origin of the word Christmas – it originated as a compound meaning “Christ’s mass”. More interestingly, in early Greek versions of the New Testament, the letter Χ (chi), is the first letter of Christ – so since the mid-16th century Χ has been used as an abbreviation for Christ. Hence, Xmas is often used as an abbreviation for Christmas.

Today’s lesson was brought to you by the number 27 and the letter X…

Have a great weekend people.

www.thisisfantasyfootball.com

p.s. today is the last day to get your guess to for the first fun question – so get online – and leave your guess as to how many points we’ll all get this month. link here

p.p.s. Looking for a new t-shit, check out http://abduzeedo.com/inspiration-20-awesome-t-shirt-illustrations-glennz

you don’t have to be rich to be cool (http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/3699/coolmodivatepg0.jpg)

In the football you got a real sense the league table was beginning to shake itself out, with Hull continuing their losing streak and Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal all breaking clear at the top. It was a weekend for doubles with Sanli, Anelka, Bent, Nasri, Saha and Keane all bagging 2 goals each. This means that in our table, Scally and Ian C climb into 2nd and 3rd, closely followed by Lyons and with Stacey breaking into 9th place. Iwan and Kokbun are also putting pressure on the top 10.

More games mid week so let’s just leave it at that shall we?

Indeed.

www.thisisfantasyfootball.com

A bunch of European games this week – don’t even get me started on Tottenham’s continuing shambles – I genuinely felt that we could have achieved the same team performance by fielding 5 angry monkeys, 4 lemmings, a giant sloth and by putting in goal a small child with an intense fear of round objects who is standing on ice and has cunningly decided to cover his gloves in baby oil. What a bunch of clowns.

Anyway, Villa won their game, Portsmouth took a 3 nil beating, Liverpool were held to a late draw, Chelsea squeezed 1 pass Roma, the Arsenal young guns ran rampant and got a tally of 5, whilst Man U convincingly put Celtic to the sword. Newcastle and Man City drew 2 all on Monday too. This all means, Jon Ed and Dicky T rise 6 a piece into 4th and 5th. “The cruaders” climb 29 places, “mmm… unexplained bacon” climbs 30 places and the “Alcatraz Swimming Club” continue their rise up 37 spots. A bunch of fallers are grouped together, Oz, Cameron, Leigh and Rob all down over 15 each sitting at 114th to 117th.

As some of you may be aware, we are almost into “Movember”, a wonderful time where each year for charity men grow a moustache (or other facial hair). Apparently it started in Australia but has now grown into a global event throughout the month of November. Its pretty easy – start on 1st November clean shaved and over November gradually (or rapidly depending on “hirsuteness”) grow a moustache. No beards, no goatees, although “ticklers” are allowed!

I thought in honour of this I should share with you this absolute beauty…

http://www.biggerbetterbeards.org/ (brilliant!!)

Also reminds me of that classic fact:

There is no chin behind Chuck Norris’ beard. There is only another fist.

Have a great weekend people.

I’ll be starting to grow my Ming the Merciless beard or maybe it’s time to bring back “The Handlebar”?

www.thisisfantasyfootball.com

[remember to enter the fun competitions - it's not hard - and you could be quids in…]

A good weekend of sport with Hamilton winning the Chinese Grand Prize, Murrary taking his second Masters title and Tottenham continuing to show the kind of form you would normally need a pooper-scooper for. I’m sure any of us could be paid millions of pounds to lose 8 games on the trot but they did it with style on Sunday and had two players sent off and another knocked unconcious – leaving the pitch with an oxygen mask. Not only that – the injury was suffered during a collision with his own goalie. I just made £500 on that – thank you You’ve Been Framed.

Anyway it was an entertaining event elsewhere with Aresenal netting 3, Liverpool 3, Man U 4 and Chelsea 5 with goals from the likes of Kalou, Lampard, Rooney, Ronaldo, Berbatov, Kuyt, Van Persie and Walcott.

In our League – Sibley, Bickel and Edgerley all step up into the top 10 – with Alex, Stacey, Ricky, Rawlings and Dean all clocking up some 25+ position climbs whilst Lloydy did indeed “Dance with the devil in the pale moonlight” and came off worse – down 20 places.

In fairness though, football isn’t for everyone – so perhaps you should try watching or take part in one of the UK’s 10 weirdest sports – including wife carrying, cheese rolling and chess boxing. To learn more, please check out: http://www.weirdlevel.com/2008/10/10-weirdest-sports.html – I think you’ll agree there’s something for all tastes. Mine’s edam.

Game on.

www.thisisfantasyfootball.com

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Remember: the two fun competitions are underway for the month so go online and leave your suggestions. You’ve got to be in it to win it. No limit on entries. It’s all for fun.