2011 is upon us and that means we can do another tasty update. This file goes up to the first week of January – so again there’s been a lot of movement.

Before we do that though, let’s take a look at these 10 things that the World Sports Network told us to watch out for this season:

1. Chelsea wins back to back titles
2. Drogba to score 25+
3. Rooney to get extremely frustrated
4. Sir Alex Ferguson to retire at season’s end, will complain on the way
5. Roberto Mancini’s job to come under question
6. New owners and excitement for Liverpool
7. Chicharito to secure best young player of the year award
8. Intense battle for 4th
9. Newcastle to stay on top, Blackpool relegated
10. 25 Player cap, 8 homegrown

Well if I had to rattle through those I’d say:

1) In Drogba’s dreams
2) Ssshhh… he’s still sleeping
3) Rooney = Frustration
4) Fergie is immortal, he will never retire
5) The only manager who will never be questioned is Fergie
6) Liverpool have more new owners \ managers than Blackpool has supporters
7) The anti-roooney
8) Spurs don’t need 4th place – they’re going to win Europe on first attempt
9) Blackpool to take 4th spot
10) What do you call 8 English players on a bench? A football team.

In our league, it’s uncomfortably close, with just 27 points seperating 20th place and 11th place, just 32 points seperating 30th place and 21st place, just 17 points seperating 40th place and 31st place – need I go on?

Remember: Pain Heals, Chicks Dig Scars, Ferguson Lasts Forever

Also: Use those transfers

Peace out.

www.thisisfantasyfootball.com

Anyway the latest round of transfers have now been put through for the start of January and here is the latest points update:

Tom Jones stays in top spot but is closely followed by Luan, Anna, Steve D (biggest scorer in top 10) and Steve W.

There were also a lot of strong performances from those in 11th to 20th places, with the likes of Ksenia, Carys, Lyons, Kokbun and Millo all recording strong results to close the gap on the big money spots.

Drogba remains the highest scoring player – although his absence with the African Nations, may see the likes of Rooney, Fabregas, Lampard, Dunne and Tevez come through.

Best value player is now R Johnson, but again S Carr, J Craddock, L Bowyer, M Etherington and J Hart are all close behind – all looking to be this seasons top wild card.

So all in all, things are hottening up nicely this season – with friendships being tested like never before – and with some people already walking on waifer thin ice after their over-the-top banter!! But just remember, that win or lose, it’s all fun, but if in doubt, punch a dolphin in the mouth.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/dolphin_punch

Until next week, unleash the Karate Kid inside you…

www.thisisfantasyfootball.com

According to my sources… drama, intensity, change and travel will be the keywords for 2010. Unfortunately, world conflicts and disasters tend to feature during Tiger years also, so it won’t be a dull 12 months for anyone. The Year of the Tiger will bring far reaching changes for everyone. New inventions and incredible technological advances have a good chance of occurring. Of all the Chinese horoscope signs, this year is one to be active – seizing opportunities and making the most of our personal and very individual talents. Everything happens quickly and dramatically in a Tiger year – blink and you could miss an important chance of a lifetime!

Deep stuff, I think you’ll agree!!

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, 2009 was massive too… Barack Obama became the American president, the world economy crashed like never before, Michael Jackson died, swine flu became a world health scare, the war in Afghanistan raged on, the Tiger Woods brand took a major hit, Twitter became a phenomenon…

An intense year all round.

And in the world of our fantasy football league, it has been much the same… teams have risen and fallen… the lines between luck, idiocracy and skill have blurred like never before… and the banter that makes it one of the greatest events of the year has eclipsed even the story of Lindsay Lohan breaking up with that Ronson girl.

This latest update includes two weekend of games and some mid week action, so it’s not surprising that there has been some big movement – with Dai Spesh quickest off the mark with 168 points (up 54 places), followed by Dave T, Emma G and Cameron B all over 150 points each. On the flip side it was a bad fortnight for Stacey with just 15 points (down 21 places) and also Baker, Jalal, Rhys and Danielle all scraping 30 points-ish.

Liz & Laura Crispie had a tough week down 26 places, as did Ian Graham. Leigh and Craig also had a poor run of form down over 20 places each. But it was a tale of two halves, as Matt J, Danielle R, Louise D and Chris J all climbed a healthy 30 ranks each.

So going into the New Year, it’s interesting to see that Lampard is the most chosen player (in 88 teams), closely followed by Stevie G (85) with a bit of a gap then down to Rooney (57), Owen (53) and Bent (52). The top scoring player is currently Drogba (190 points) but with a month out for the African Nations will he stay there? After him, its Rooney (155 points), Dunne (132 points) and Vermaelen (131 points).

But what it really comes down to are the value for money players, those little bargains that the select few have found, those wild cards that have come good. Interestingly the best value player at 74 points per £1million is someone called Craddock – who features in not a single team!! After him, its Johnson on 65p/£ (26 teams), Bowyer on 56p/£ (in just one team), Carr 51p/£ (again just one team) and Etherington 48p/£ (astonishingly also in just one team!!)

So I think I’ll leave it there for now and just wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

Ho Ho Ho…

www.thisisfantasyfootball.com

GOAAAAALLLLLLLL!!!!!!

It was a beast of a weekend in the Premiership with 33 goals to thrill the crowds including a hatrick from Torres during the 7 goal match against Hull, 4 goals from the mightly Robbie Keane during Spurs 5 nil demolition of Burnley, and a raft of goals from the likes of Van Persie, Gerrard, Babel, Geovanni, Saha, Berbatov, O’Shea, Jenas, Bramble, Drogba, Bent, Jones, Samba, Dunn and Agbonlahor!!!

So back in our magical league, it was a massive case of mixed fortunes, as you can see…

“El Nino’s A Coming” up 78 points and 49 places
“Champagne Super Rovers” up 76 points and 46 places
“Cupcake Cuties” up 75 points and 45 places
“Bees Knees” up 69 points and 39 places
“Shinys Giants” up 67 points and 37 places

“Bayern Bru 2″ down 4 points and 42 places
“Weezeh’s Wanderers” down 2 points and 39 places
“Airwolf” down 1 point and 37 places
“Sarah’s Guys” down 1 point and 34 places

At the top of the league, Faye and Millo both enter the top 10, whilst Luan climbs into 2nd place and Carys also performs strongly climbing to 5th.

Due to the fact that the weekend is falling mid-week, I will accept transfers for next month, up to the end of this Friday with transfers coming into effect for the weekends games. All you have to do is drop me an e-mail with the name(s) and number(s) of the player(s) you want out and the name(s) and number(s) of the player(s) you want in. Remember your team must still add up to £50m or less.

Also if you haven’t already done so, please transfer in your team entry money.

Monday’s just got a whole lot better.

www.thisisfantasyfootball.com

BAM!!! Torres seals a 3 – 2 win for Liverpool over West Ham.
BIFF!!! Vermaelen, Eduardo and Fabregas pound Wigan 4 nil.
KAPOW!!! Owen breaks hearts in 96th minute in 4 – 3 Manchester derby thriller.
WHAPP!!! Chelsea still unbeaten thanks to Cole, Ballack and Drogba.

Holy-smokin’ corner flag Batman, what does that mean?

It means that although I stay top of the League, the gap has closed massively as I got a measly 35 points whilst the Oestrich family were on fire, with Luan getting a massive 102 points at the weekend (up 15 places) and Caden getting 86 points (up 32 places). “The Human Miscalculators” were also up 90 points (51 places), “Robo’s Relegation Squad” up 85 points (38 places) and “Green Giants” up 84 points (29 places).
The Jokers of the pack this week were Adrian D with just 4 points, Adrian T with 13 points, Jack R with 16 points, Oz 16 with points and Gemma with 18 points. Fear not though, it is very early days in the season and so much can change. For example you know all those teams above you that have Drogba, Robinho, King, Modric, Rafael, Heskey, Van Der Sar? Well they’re all injured. DOUBLE-BOFF!!!

Golly Batman, what else has been going on?

Well, transfer requests have started to come in – and these will come into effect from the start of October.
We’ve also started to receive everyone’s £5 team payment – but as I only gave the bank account details last week, I’l give to the end of the month before we start naming and shaming.

To the Batmobile…

www.thisisfantasyfootball.com

Again, it’s been a bit of a wait for this update as the International games got in the way – but the weekend saw normal service restored to the Premiership.

A late goal from Agbonlahor gave Villa a win away at Birmingham, whilst Fulham came from behind to beat Evertons early lead through Cahill. Diouf oponed the scoring for Blackburn during their 3 – 1 win over Wolves, whilst Benayoun fired off a hatrick during Liverpools 4 – 0 win over Burnley.

A six goal feast between Man City and Arsenal saw the likes of Van Persie, Bellamy, Adebyor and Wright-Phillips all score. A last minute goal from Cahill sealed a first win for Bolton away at Portsmouth, who still need to get off the mark.

Chelsea came from behind and needed a 4th minute of extra time goal from Malouda to continue their unbeaten start to the season. Spurs meanwhile lost their first of the season to Man U with an early bicycle kick goal from Defoe cancelled out by goals from Giggs, Anderson and Rooney. Wigan beat West Ham with Rodallega the only scorer.

In our league, (other than me) Tim Radford also had a good week with 72 points and up 43 places, as did Joanne Sheen, Dan Jones and Nathan Davies. Unfortunately this week saw two negative points movers in the form of Craig Robson and Adrian Till. Dark times indeed for these two managers.

In terms of positions, Chris Rawlings also had a good week, up 51 places – as did Jamie Keddle up 39 places. But for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction and this week it was was Dave Heylings down 34 places who suffered the most.

It’s also time for everyone to pay… I don’t want everyone handing me five pound notes all over the place – as these never seem to make it to the bank – so instead can I ask that everyone do a quick transfer to me online. Details are:

Sort Code: 40 08 28
Account Number: 514 174 28
Please add your name in the reference so I know its from you and then I’ll mark you off.

I’ve also had a huge amount of feedback regarding transfers. And so here is how it’s going to work. As with previous seasons, each team will be allowed 4 transfers – which can be made at the end of any month – with effect from the start of the next. So feel free to start sending any transfer requests in and they will come in from the start of October.

Cheers

www.thisisfantasyfootball.com

Click Here for Latest League Table

Our fun little league has gone from strangth to strength each year – but with 162 people last year, it looked like we had maxed out – but no, this year we have managed to reach 171 teams!!!

This first update actually consists of two updates – I did one after the first weekend – and another today once The Sun DreamTeam website was sorted out – so your “streak” will be based upon the movement between these two…

The early leaders all have the likes of Defoe (phenomenal hat-trick in one game alone), Rooney (3 goals) and Drogba (3 goals) but it is Dan Marshall who takes an early lead this season on 164 points – closely followed by Jo and myself.

Because it is such early days I won’t start mentioning everyone who’s gone up loads or down loads but I will share with you a few interesting statistics – all of which are available in the file.

Lampard and Gerrard were the two most popular players with 87 teams choosing each one. After that came Owen (75), Torres (51) and Arshavin (51).

The most popular teams that players were chosen from went likes this: Man U (286), Chelsea (276), Liverpool (220), Arsenal (144), Everton (116) and Fulham (115). Is this a sign of how the season will finish? Who can say?

The best value players at this early stage are Jensen (23 points per £1m), Shawcross (17 points per £1m), Johnson (13 points per £1m) and Carr (13 points per £1m). Who are they you might well say?

I think we’ll leave it there for now…

Remember to leave any banter on the site – that’s what it’s all about.

www.thisisfantasyfootball.com

(please note that when you open the League file – available online – you may see an eggtimer appear once you click an option – just be patient…)