Chelsea struggling for defenders

Chelsea's Andre Villas-Boas struggling for defenders after Branislav Ivanovic injury | Mail Online

Branislav Ivanovic will miss Chelsea’s first game of the season with a thigh injury, leaving Andre Villas-Boas with a defensive headache ahead of Sunday’s trip to Stoke.

Ivanovic has not trained fully since pulling a muscle in pre-season and missed Serbia’s friendly in Russia.

His absence leaves Villas-Boas low on central defensive cover against Stoke’s aerial attack because Brazilian pair Alex and David Luiz have both had their pre-season programmes interrupted.

Chelsea have a winnable, if tough, match at Stoke but then face West Brom and Norwich at Stamford Bridge. For me, this news makes Bosingwa a viable option at the back. Though it worries me that Ferreira has gotten time at right back this preseason too, including the latest match against Rangers.

Premier League Match Postponements

LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Images

Everton game postponed - News Articles - Tottenhamhotspur.com

Following ongoing discussions with the necessary authorities regarding this weekend's Premier League home match against Everton, it has now been confirmed that this fixture will be postponed due to safety concerns relating to infrastructure of the High Road and access to the stadium caused by last Saturday's riots.

This was a stay-away match for fantasy anyway, but sad to see it be cancelled for the fans.  No word yet on the other matches, but we'll update this post as needed.

UPDATE:  All other matches cleared to be played.

The other nine games scheduled for the opening round of fixtures will go ahead as planned, the Premier League has confirmed.

A statement read: "Following on-going discussions with the Metropolitan Police, statutory authorities and clubs in London, the Premier League can confirm that, aside from the postponed Tottenham Hotspur v Everton match, all League games in the capital will go ahead as scheduled this weekend.

Provisional Line Up

You know, I don't hate this team... yet.

I'm looking to move my premium pick from Nani to Robin van Persie but I'm afraid that's too many eggs in the Arsenal basket.  They have most players away for internationals today, then at Newcastle a the weekend with a tough but oh so vital Champions League qualification match against Udinese on Tuesday.  I worry about their focus.  Also, I think there's more value at the 6-something range at forward than in midfield.  That being said I could swap Holt for Formica.  However, while Formica has been good in pre-season, I'm hesitant to gamble on him and Rovers, even at home, against Wolves.

Oh, and specifically about the Ramsey pick...

FCB will pay 40m euros (30 fixed+5 variables+5m that Cesc will take off wages). Only little details to confirm but been told done by weekendless than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet ReplyGuillem Balague
GuillemBalague

What do you think, and how is your starting XI shaping up?

Season Preview - Wolves

Quick Reminder, Real Life

Despite a load of money spent on transfer window signings, Wolves found themselves in the relegation zone on the last day of the season but miraculously survived - finishing the season with 40 points - only one more than both Birmingham and Blackpool. Despite a -20 goal difference on the season, Wolves had some memorable wins at home (they beat Manchester United and Chelsea) and the form of winger Matt Jarvis and (when fit) striker Steven Fletcher went a long way in cementing the club’s Premier League status for one more year. The likable Mick McCarthy has won more games than he’s lost at Wolves - dating back to his time managing the club in the Championship, and despite the poor results for a majority of the 2010-2011 campaign, always displayed a sense of calm and confidence in his players.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

Starting at the back, George Elokobi was a decent 5th defender in the Official PL game - coming in at a bargain basement price and chipping in with a few goals and assists but it was further up the field - specifically Jamie O’Hara on loan from Tottenham - who really provided the fantasy spark. When fit, O’Hara was instrumental in creating chances for his Wolves teammates and his delivery from set pieces earned him much praise. His strike against West Brom was a ‘goal of the season’ contender. The well-known forwards Kevin Doyle and Steven Fletcher combined to score 15 league goals but lacked the season-long consistency necessary for prolonged fantasy investment.

Summer Changes

Season Preview - Wigan Athletic

Quick Reminder, Real Life

Wigan avoided relegation last season, just barely, finishing in 16th thanks to some late season heroics by Charles N’Zogbia (now an Aston Villa player) in a dramatic come from behind victory against relegated West Ham. Aside from N'Zogbia and goalkeeper Ali Al-Habsi, who had a breakout season and has proven to be a very reliable Premier League goalkeeper with a nice arsenal of quite acrobatic highlight reel saves to his name, there wasn't much joy around Wigan. Hugo Rodallega took a step back and didn’t improve on his breakout 2009-2010 season and the likes of Gomez and Moses didn't step up. All things considered, however, Wigan did just what they set out to do - survive. A small budget club where television viewers can often witness empty seats at the DW Stadium, Wigan were able to do just enough.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

N’Zogbia was one of the best value plays in Premier League history last season (along with Blackpool’s Charlie Adam) but is now gone. Hugo Rodallega chipped in with just 9 goals but did manage 18 bonus points - a nice return. Ben Watson scored a few goals and picked up a few assists on set-piece duty proving to be a ‘poor man’s N’Zogbia’ from his midfield role, and Al-Habsi kept a few 7 clean sheets and managed the position well after Kirkland's disasterous start to the season.

Summer Changes

Season Preview - West Bromwich Albion

Quick Reminder, Real Life

The two most important words on any West Brom fan’s lips last season must surely have been: Peter Odemwingie. What a breath of fresh air in the Premier League. Odemwingie arrived at The Hawthorns and was an instant hit. The club dismissed manager Roberto Di Matteo half-way through the year in the thick of a relegation battle, and Roy Hodgson came in, steadied the shape, and guided the Baggies to a mid-table (11th) finish, but it was all Odemwingie all the time. The Nigerian scored 15 goals in 32 league games. Chris Brunt scored twice (both penalties) in the memorable 2-1 win over Liverpool as Roy Hodgson took down his old club in April, and ended the season in form as he supported Odemwingie from wide attacking and central positions. Yussuf Mulumbu was also a consistent newcomer to the Premier League and steadied the ship in midfield throughout the ups and downs while former England international GK Scott Carson (now playing in Turkey) saw a majority of the action between the sticks.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

Peter Odemwingie was so consistent, racking up 5+ points per game in the Official PL game and giving the likes of Tevez, Bent, RVP, and Rooney a run for their money on a consistent basis as the league’s highest scoring weekly striker. Brunt, Jerome Thomas, and Mulumbu took turns chipping in with reasonable scoring from midfield positions - West Brom were solid last year in the middle of the pitch - and Somen Tchoyi even got in on the scoring fun, managing 6 league goals in just 800+ minutes of action, a superb return. James Morrison scored 4 goals from midfield - a typical return for the Scotland international who is a pacy right winger and productive in ‘real life’ but never seems to have that 5+ or 6+ goal breakthrough from a fantasy perspective to set him apart from his colleagues.

Summer Changes

Season Preview - Tottenham Hotspur

Quick Reminder, Real Life

With Manchester City a stronger outfit it was always going to be difficult for Tottenham to repeat their Top 4 finish - especially with their first Champions League campaign running in parallel - but they didn’t do themselves any favours in the Premier League. They added quality/experience in Van Der Vaart and Gallas and had Bale, Modric, Dawson and (the underrated) Assou-Ekotto performing at the top of their game much of the time, but failed to invest in a 20-goal-per-season-striker. The result was a season of missed opportunities; raising their level to compete against the top teams and having a decent run in early 2011, but lacking a clinical finisher (Defoe was never the same after his early season ankle injury) they failed to put away the sides in the bottom half, gaining just one win in six games against the three relegated clubs and 9 home draws in total, the most in the league. Harry Redknapp could be accused of tactical naivety due to his inability to change things when they weren’t going to plan, Gomes’ erratic form didn’t help and in the end 5th place and a Europa League spot was as good as they could muster - and the most they deserved.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

Van Der Vaart was a fantasy sensation throughout the season, taking set pieces away from Bale, taking on penalty duty, scoring/creating goals and making those of us who picked him up cheap early in the season very happy indeed. Much like his league form, Bale was a better producer pre-Xmas and quickly became very expensive in Yahoo’s game but popped up with his fair share of big weeks thanks to a return of 7 goals. Gomes scored consistently despite the catalogue of mistakes referred to earlier but it was slim pickings aside from these three, with Defoe, Pavlyuchenko & Crouch rotation risks and in poor form when given opportunities. Lennon had a disappointing year and Modric has never been prolific when it comes to Yahoo’s scoring system, although he did OK in the Official PL game thanks to a plethora of attacking bonus points. Defensively there was very little to get excited about in either fantasy format.

Summer Changes

Season Preview - Swansea City

Quick Reminder, Real Life

Finishing in a dead heat (on points) for third in the Championship with Welsh rivals Cardiff City, the Swans made the grade in the playoffs on the strength of a Scott Sinclair hat trick against Reading. An odd team, they were the 2nd strongest defensive team in the league and managed an impressive 23 clean sheets. On the other hand, when they were scored on it was at a clip of nearly 2 per match. Not sure exactly how that will translate to the Premier League. Regardless, the Premier League will have a trip to Wales to contend with this season which is a nice change of pace.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

With Swansea not in the division last season it’s hard to figure exactly how their players would have performed in fantasy. The defenders and keeper obviously would have done well with all those clean sheets. Sinclair scored 22 goals in 42 matches in the Championship which certainly should translate to something. He isn’t much of an assist guy (2) so his upside is being a poor man’s Darren Bent. Darren Pratley had a nice season (10 Goals, 5 Assists) before leaving for Bolton and a more certain spot in the Prem.

Summer Changes

Season Preview - Sunderland

Quick Reminder, Real Life

What started brightly with a forward line of DBent, Gyan, and Campbell came closer to the relegation zone than anyone who watched the first half of the season or looked at the final standings would ever have guessed. February, March, and the first half of April were an unmitigated disaster with the club earning exactly 1 point between Feb 1 and April 16. If you’re looking for causes, the sale of talisman Darren Bent to Villa combined with an injury to Campbell and a lack of many additional attacking options were a big root cause. A solid run from mid-April through the end of the season that saw them win three of their five matches saved their bacon and even got them a nice-looking 10th place finish despite their miserable run.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

Darren Bent was Darren Bent when he was there (leading one to wonder why they agreed to sell him to a non-"big" team or why DBent wanted to go). Gyan was OK but nothing great. Bardsley had a nice fantasy season that ended with some big matches in the second half despite Sunderland’s generally miserable play in the real world. Otherwise, it was a bit of a fantasy wasteland at the Stadium of Light, highlighted by Sessegnon's never making it into the sytsem! Just to give you an idea of how bad, most of Sunderland’s first page of options in Yahoo are players new to the team. Jordan Henderson had a solid fantasy season but certainly not one that helps explain the price Liverpool were willing to pay for him.

Summer Changes

Season Preview - Stoke City

Quick Reminder, Real Life

Fortress at home, inept on the road. Slightly fewer wins than losses. Slightly fewer scored than allowed. By far the fewest goals allowed in the bottom half of the table (their 48 were 8 fewer than next closest Bolton). Lots of tall players and lots of bruising defending. Yup, it was a Stoke sort of season. Never really in danger of relegation but never really likely to do anything more than mid-table. Given that they’ve only been back up since 2007-08 it must be said that having solidified themselves in the top flight and not fretting over relegation is a big deal. With that goal achieved though, one wonders whether there is a next achievable goal along the path or if this is it. They are in the process of qualifying for the Europa League so maybe a protracted European campaign is the next thing they can treat their fans to. Hopefully, they can use it to catapult themselves into the top half rather than it becoming a distraction that sees them dip closer to the relegation zone in the league.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

As usual at Stoke, there wasn’t an exceptional fantasy performer. There were, however, a few fairly solid performers between wings Etherington and Pennant, forward Jones, defender Huth, and keeper Begovic. The only downside to the season was that Pennant’s arrival and the typical injuries detracted a bit from Eth’s season. He took fewer kicks and the attack was focused down the left side of the field less because there was a second competent option for the first time in a while. Aside from the review of the regulars, Danny Higginbotham was excellent in limited duty. He managed two matches where he went over 20 points. Who would have guessed?

Summer Changes

Season Preview - Queens Park Rangers

Quick Reminder, Real Life

It was a bit of an odd ride to clinching the Championship title last season with the threat of 10 point penalty hanging over the club until the waning days of the season. With that disaster averted, Rangers are free to celebrate their return to the Premier League on the back of a particularly stingy defense which conceded 10 fewer goals than the next closest competitor. Next stop, the big time.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

If the defense were getting points, they’d have had a great fantasy season on the back of 24 clean sheets. That’s 24. Not bad at all. Throw the crazy season from Adel Taarabt that saw 19 goals and 16 assists credited to his account and you have some solid fantasy promise coming into their return season in the Prem.

Summer Changes

Season Preview - Norwich City

Quick Reminder, Real Life

The beginning of last season was OK but the real damage was done in the second half. After losing 2-0 at home to Pompey on December 11th, Norwich only lost one more match for the rest of the season (@ fellow promoted side Swansea City in early April. Not bad for a team in their first year back in the Championship.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

Since Norwich wasn’t in the league last season we don’t have any Premier League fantasy stats to regale you with but here are some statistical highlights from their successful promotion campaign. Grant Holt registered an impressive 21 goals and 14 assists while finishing as a close runner up to Adel Taarabt in the league’s POTY race. Canadian International Simeon Jackson chipped in 13 goals despite starting only 20 matches (he came in as a sub in an additional 18). Wesley Hoolahan added 10 goals and 9 assists from midfield. Despite their success, clean sheets were not a regular feature for the Canaries with the club registering only 11 over the course of the season (compared to 15 by 2nd place PL finisher Chelsea in 8 fewer matches).

Summer Changes

Season Preview - Newcastle United

Quick Reminder, Real Life

 A better than expected return to the Premier League for a team that was in all sorts of disarray when they went down two seasons ago. Incredibly a similar cast of odd characters that managed to get relegated amongst dysfunction and squandering of talent came back and not only stayed up but were good for 12th place despite losing their first choice keeper for a long stretch, their big off-season attacking acquisition for nearly the entire season, and selling their best forward in January. I don’t think even the most optimistic Geordie would have expected that finish if you’d told them that news ahead of the season.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

 Joey Barton and Kevin Nolan had great return seasons in both the Premier League for real and as fantasy standouts. Their performances continued to be strong their prices came up but both were exceptional bargains for the first half of the season. Likewise, Andy Carroll was a revelation early in the season before getting hurt and then sold off to Liverpool for a ton of money in January. The lone real disappointment was Hatem Ben Arfa who got hurt early before we got much of a chance to find out if he might live up to the hype that surrounded his move to the Prem from Ligue 1.

Summer Changes

Community Shield "Live" Blog

As I did with the Valerenga/Liverpool pre-season match, I'm going to "live" blog the Community Shield.  Even though it happened this morning, I'm just now getting a chance to watch.  But don't worry, I've been under the Cone of Silence all day so my reactions will be genuine.

And my first reaction is "WTF!?!?!?!" Kolarov starts over Clichy?  I thought the one nailed on spot was going to be Clichy as the starting left-back for Citeh.  If there's going to be rotation there... and it seems like there is now... I'm not so sure I want to gamble on either player starting against Swansea next week.  Looks like I'm going to spend a similar amount of money on the real sure thing - Kompany.

So neither defence is as expected with Smalling lining up at right back. Maybe that's temporary as Rafael was injured but does make the bench.  However, we saw Phil Jones line-up wide right last week and now Smalling.  Is Sir Alex just exploring all his options or does he have Smalling on a short-list for the position?

Further forward, Welbeck lines up with Rooney while Berbatov continues to be a £30 million squad player. It will be interesting to see how Welbeck and Rooney dove-tail.  Is the "Rooney needs to be a lead striker" argument over and replaced with the recently popular "he's more natural and effective playing behind the striker(s)"?

On to kickoff...

Another Forward To Chelsea

ESPN Soccernet - On The Move: "20.40: Anderlecht striker Romelu Lukaku has confirmed he will be having his Chelsea medical tomorrow. Just to recap: the clubs have agreed a fee, but he's still to pass his medical or agree personal terms (although reports in Belgium on Friday suggested he may have already agreed terms)."

It would appear that Lukaku is on the move to Chelsea in the very near future leaving one to wonder not about the wisdom of the move in isolation (he's apparently the next big thing) but of their priorities. They seem to need midfielders with upside much more than they need yet another forward who won't see any playing time. On the plus side, you have to figure that Sturridge will be on his way somewhere he'll get a game (e.g., back to Bolton, Newcastle, Spurs in part exchange for Modric).

Since this one seems like it is real (having a medical) vs. being speculation it seems OK to write about it.

Observations on the Community Shield

Starting Line-ups

If this is any indicator of starting line-ups - minus injuries (Rafael/Chicharito) or late returnees from tournaments (Aguero) - then we might make the following assessments about both teams:

• Micah Richards started at RB and is priced very reasonably at 7.35 in the Yahoo game - not bad for a starting RB for a top 4 team.  Especially a team starting at home against a newly promoted team.  Just saying.
• Anderson looks like he'll finally get his chance to shine and prove Jeremy right (or horribly wrong) once and for all.  Jeremy has been holding out hope that the Brazilian will make the big step up for a few seasons now and with Scholes gone he seems to have his chance. 
• Welbeck has apparently earned a promotion up into consideration for serious playing time.  With Chicharito out, I have to admit I was surprised that he got the start over Berbs who doesn't appear on any injury reports.  With Chicharito likely out for a while longer, you'd think this would be SAF's chance to get the first team playing together - you don't think that means Welbeck has moved past Berbs, do you?
• Looks like all of the "DDG is not necessarily our #1" talk from Ferguson was just a motivational tactic to make sure that the kid kept playing and training hard.  I can't think of a single reason they'd start him in this match and then not do it again when the curtain raises for real.

Set Pieces

• United: They seemed to go mostly to Ashley Young with Nani taking the occasional attempt - particularly the direct kick from about 25 or 30 yards in the middle of the first half that deflected off Dzeko and ended up going just a shade wide.  
• City: Silva and Kolarov split duty with Silva taking most of the attempts from the right side of the field and Kolarov from the left. Silva's cross for Lescott's opener was very nice. 

Season Preview - Manchester United

Quick Reminder, Real Life

A record breaking 19th league title and a Champions League Final appearance. Sort of speaks for itself, doesn’t it? These are even more impressive accomplishments since a lot of neutral observers would agree that it happened in something of a transition year for United. Their central midfield lacked an above-average talent (which Barca made abundantly clear in the Champions League final) and they featured a lot of very young (Rafael, Fabio, Smalling, and Chicharito) and very old players (Scholes, Giggs, and EvdS) all over the pitch in regular roles. The breakout star of the season and likely the difference between winning the title and not, was Mexican forward Javier Hernandez. Chicharito’s gift for efficient scoring saw him displace Dimitar Berbatov, the league’s joint top-scorer, as a starter. The only downside other than the loss in the final to Barca was a frustrating and non-Ferguson-like tendency to lose leads late on the road. “Fergie Time” just wasn’t quite the same when the Red Devils left Old Trafford last season. Still, with the title in the bag, that’s really just nitpicking isn’t it?

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

Nani was a fantasy stud for the first half of the season but ended it as only a part-time starter. Berbatov had matches where he was incredible followed by long barren stretches that caused fantasy managers to pull out the hair Rooney ultimately had transplanted in. Vidic was excellent but expensive. Park was incredibly effective for the price in limited duty. After a disasterous first half of the season, Rooney came back and had at least a pretty good second half (although still not up to his standards or price). Chris Smalling had a very nice run of production for a cheap price as injuries sidelined Ferdinand.

Summer Changes

Season Preview - Manchester City

Quick Reminder, Real Life

This was the season when all of the money invested started to pay off in a big way. Lots of shiny new objects came into the squad with the corresponding spare parts mostly going out on loan. Some of them fit - Yaya Toure, David Silva - while some of them didn’t - Jerome Boateng - and the jury is still out on others - Edin Dzeko, Mario Balotelli, and Aleksander Kolarov. Still, at the end of the day, the money produced results in the form of an FA Cup trophy and an invitation to Europe’s biggest dance, the Champions League, for the upcoming season. Can’t really argue with that... unless you are turned off by teams just buying big names like the real world were just a big game of fantasy football.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

Given their results on the pitch, you’d think that there would be more fantasy success around this group but that’s just not the way it turned out. The size of the squad and the frequent rotation between very good and pretty good players kept fantasy output low. The unquestioned fantasy studs were Joe Hart and Carlos Tevez with Kompany and Kolarov putting up solid numbers as well. Beyond that, players like YToure and Silva were much more productive on the real pitch than the virtual one.

Summer Changes

Season Preview - Liverpool

Quick Reminder, Real Life

What a crazy season it was for the Reds. To do it justice you’d probably have to write a book (and I hear Jeremy thinking to himself that this preview is entirely likely to turn into one the way I write). In the quick version we find the first half low-lighted by poor performances, the disasterous Joe Cole signing, Roy Hodgson being in over his head, a contentious change of ownership between two groups of Americans, and numerous debates online and in the press wondering whether Liverpool could possibly go down under the weight of all of the above.

As bad as the first half was, the second half was that good. New owners, back office staff, and manager made the bold move of selling off star Fernando Torres and replacing him with the excellent-so-far Luis Suarez and full-of-potential-but-overpriced Andy Carroll. The results improved dramatically and Raul Meireles proved to be more than adequate cover for oft-injured captain Steven Gerrard. All the drama aside, Liverpool had two major weaknesses last season - their left back position and playing away from Anfield where they could neither score nor keep the ball out of the net.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

As crazy a season as it was for Liverpool on and off the pitch, it was no different for fantasy managers trying to figure this team out. Reina’s fortunes mimicked those of the club (bad early, better late). Meireles and Suarez had excellent second halves of the season while Carroll had a great first half while playing for Newcastle but injury dragged down his second half pretty badly. Finally, out of almost nowhere, Maxi Rodriguez had an absolutely amazing last two weeks which saw him get about a third of his overall output for the season. On the defensive side of the ball Martin Skertl was ever-present and had an OK season but the rest of the defenders were seemingly on a carousel due to injuries and general mediocrity.

Summer Changes

Season Preview - Fulham

Quick Reminder, Real Life

An odd season at Fulham saw them lose their very successful manager to Liverpool where he was a flop. His replacement managed them to a very solid 8th place finish in the standings with no reason to expect that it was either a fluke or that a huge regression was coming but then he left too. On the pitch, the season saw US International Clint Dempsey stake his claim as one of the top few players outside the top six clubs. He joined Brede Hangeland (also born in Texas) in that category as the big Norweigan had another strong season at the center of Fulham’s defense. The Hangeland-led defense was good enough to tie Arsenal for 4th in the “goals conceded” category. Of the teams below them in the table, only Stoke were even close to being as stingy and they conceded 5 more goals (about 12% more).

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

As noted above, Dempsey made the leap from occasionally spectacular fantasy player to consistently dangerous. Hangeland gave you exactly what you expected - albeit for a higher price as his price caught up to his output. Guys like Mark Schwarzer, Chris Baird, and Damien Duff were solid in stretches and very much viable options when Fulham were home to modest opposition. The interesting developments for Fulham in fantasy last season were at the forward position. When healthy, Bobby Zamora and Mousa Dembele were productive options. We’ve seen it before in stretches from Zamora. It was a little less clear as to whether Dembele was just hot for a stretch at the start of the season and then cooled down to what will become his normal level of production or if his early season form was the norm with the rest of the season derailed somewhat by injury.

Summer Changes

When Is It OK To Boo?

I had an interesting interaction via Twitter with Georgina Turner who writes about the Premier League for Sports Illustrated on the topic of the booing of ones own team. The cause of the conversation was the ugly conclusion to Arsenal vs. New York Red Bull in the final match of the pre-season Emirates Cup. For those who didn't watch (or read about it), Arsenal supporters channeled their inner Philadelphian and let out a chorus of boos as, for the second straight day, catastrophic defending late in the going saw Arsenal snatch a draw from the jaws of victory against a team with significantly less talent.

Here is the "transcript" of the Twitter conversation on the topic of booing between Ms. Turner and me:

@GeorginaTurner: Why do (an increasing number of) fans boo every single (mildly) disappointing result these days? 

Season Preview - Everton

Quick Reminder, Real Life

Stop me if you’ve read this before but Everton didn’t start out the season particularly well. Shocking, I know. This time around, it took them a little longer to revert to being a top half team but they got there eventually with a late charge up the table well after there was any chance of them challenging for a Europa Cup spot. Still, they finished 7th in the table which is something for a team that hasn’t spent much money on their squad in a few years. Throw in the injuries to key players like Mikel Arteta, Marouane Fellaini, and Louis Saha (although the latter’s frequent absences can hardly be considered a surprise at this point). Of note during the season, Leighton Baines continued to be exceptional going forward while being a very solid defender on the left. Tim Cahill did what he always does with a brief injury interruption. Jermaine Beckford took a while to adapt to the Prem but ended the season with solid goal numbers that belied the reputation he earned early as “in over his head”. Finally, Seamus Coleman moved into a more regular starting role - split between right midfield and right back - and played pretty well.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

Baines was an absolute stud with 5 goals and 11 assists and a ton of phantom points for the formats that count those sorts of things. Coleman was the unquestioned value play in the squad since he was listed as a defender but played in midfield more often than anywhere else increasing his chances at both attacking and defending points. Quietly, Osman had a nice run of starts in a more advanced role and good fantasy production late in the season that reminded us that he can be a valuable player if injuries provide an opportunity for regular starts. On the down side, Tim Howard (incredibly inconsistent as a fantasy keeper) and Arteta (not as productive as he used to be and still just as expensive) were disappointing to fantasy managers who fondly remember better seasons from both in the past.

Summer Changes

Season Preview - Chelsea

Quick Reminder, Real Life

Sort of an odd season at Stamford Bridge wasn’t it. Never REALLY in the race for first but never REALLY out of it either. The Blues big names down the spine of the formation - Drogba, Lampard, John Terry, Ashley Cole, Essien and Cech - were all less than their best for varying reasons but all were still above average Premier League players when they played. The names brought in to supplement that core also had their ups and downs. Florent Malouda had a great first half but only an adequate second half. Anelka and Kalou were effective in spells and invisible over other spells. Ramires wasn’t ready. Mikel may never be ready. Big winter signings Torres and Luiz cost a lot of money with mixed results at best. Luiz was by far the better of the two although he seemed to have a penchant for making one big mistake per match. Torres was an unmitigated disaster. Chelsea are clearly a team between “generations” of players with half a roster of players heading toward the downside of their careers a few decidedly on the upside and precious few healthy and at their prime. It just wasn’t enough to compete with United.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

You expect a lot from Chelsea players when it comes to fantasy. Lots of goals, lots of clean sheets, and expensive prices. Of note, FloMal was one of the best players going for the first two months of the season. Drogba closed the season very well. Luiz scored some goals which will be a great addition to defending points if he can settle down a bit, hold on to a place in the starting line-up, and avoid the bad cards and fouls in the box. Anelka degraded throughout the course of the season leaving us to wonder what his fate will be this coming season.

Summer Changes

Season Preview - Bolton Wanderers

Quick Reminder, Real Life

A hot start to the season seemed to fall apart when rising playmaker Stuart Holden was injured and Elmander, who started the season blazing hot, cooled dramatically. Bolton fell to 14th in the final accounting. Much-ballyhooed summer signing MPet (Martin Petrov) failed to recapture the form he demonstrated in his first season with Manchester City. Kevin Davies kept doing what Kevin Davies does.

The problem is that Bolton found themselves stranded between Owen Coyle’s attacking style and personnel left over from Big Sam’s grind it out style. That could potentially be a great thing or an ugly thing and last season it seemed to transition from being the former to being the latter. It could have been worse but Chelsea's Daniel Sturridge scored a flurry of goals after coming over in January on loan.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

If you put Elmander (first half) and Sturridge (second half) together, you’d have had one great forward (18 goals). Holden had a very nice early season run of putting up “phantom points” in the Yahoo scoring system - tackles, corners and fouls won, successful crosses, etc. Gary Cahill, Jussi Jaaskelainen, and Matty Taylor were typically solid but ended the season a bit on the overpriced side based on their production.

Summer Changes

Season Preview - Blackburn Rovers

Quick Reminder, Real Life

What an ugly season. They dropped from 10th place in 2009/10 to 15th in the standings last season. They fired a solid if not spectacular manager in Big Sam and replaced him with Steve Kean who excites exactly nobody. They didn’t score well, they didn’t defend well. Really, the only thing that went even passably well was their defending at home which was the sixth most effective in the league. Sadly, their scoring at home was tied for second from the bottom so even the thing they did well didn’t help THAT much other than allowing them to avoid relegation.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

A slight return to adequacy by Morten Gamst Pedersen and continued fantasy excellence from Christopher Samba were notable performances, as was the emergence of David "Junior" Hoillet. I suppose you could say Robbo rebounded from a long while in the fantasy wilderness. It would be stretching to get excited about much else as occasional fantasy stalwarts like Nelsen and Dunn were injured more frequently than usual.

Summer Changes

Season Preview - Aston Villa

Quick Reminder, Real Life

Last season started out with an odd choice for manager (Houlier) who didn’t make it through the year due to health reasons. The team that had been excellent the year before regressed terribly despite a lot of the same talent and they hovered just above the relegation zone for a good part of the first half. In January they added Darren Bent as a front line of John Carew/Emile Heskey and Gabby Agbonlahor just wasn’t getting it done. The new acquisition helped them climb from the depths of the table to 9th. Still, a disappointing finish given the talent on hand and the expectations created in 2009-10 when they flirted with a Top 4 spot until well into the season.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

BFAY (that’s Blog Favorite Ashley Young to the newly initiated), Downing, and DBent were exactly what you’d expect (very good) but also fairly expensive at this point. Albrighton and Clark were excellent values when they played. Friedel was a bit of a disaster in the first half but as tends to happen, his numbers improved along with the team’s fortunes in the second half. The forwards who started the season - Gabby, Carew, and Heskey - didn’t show much. Kyle Walker, a loan signing from Spurs, came on in the second half of the season and provided some good value when he was in the line-up. Left back Stephen Warnock disappeared after a very good 2009-10.

Summer Changes

Season Preview - Arsenal

Quick Reminder, Real Life

As we are all constantly reminded, Arsenal experienced what is becoming their typical season again last term. They looked to be contenders on a number of fronts from August until about February and then everything pretty much fell apart. The injuries mounted, the tragi-comic errors re-surfaced, and all was lost in about the time it takes to soft-boil an egg. Lest we forget all the positives, Luke Jack Wilshere matured significantly, Aaron Ramsey returned and at least showed signs of his pre-injury reputation coming good, Johan Djourou had a solid spell of being very good before an injury seemed to derail his progress, and Wojciech Szczesny showed enough that I won’t be terrified if he starts the season as the #1.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

Robin van Persie was fantasy gold when healthy (which was more than usual). Samir Nasri was a stud in the first half but dropped off significantly in the second half. Cesc Fabregas was solid but nowhere near his fantasy peak, though he was still priced as an elite fantasy player. Wilshere reminded us that you can be both talented and effective but still be mediocre for fantasy purposes. The combination of injuries and attacking rotation - Theo Walcott, Andrei Arshavin, Marouane Chamakh, Niklas Bendtner, Tomas Rosicky, Denilson, Abou Diaby - meant that there was little long term value to be had but plenty of fantasy points still scored.

Summer Changes

Malbranque joins St Etienne

Malbranque joins St Etienne - Yahoo! Eurosport

St Etienne have confirmed the signing of Steed Malbranque from Sunderland.

The Ligue 1 outfit have agreed a two-year deal for the 31-year-old midfielder, who returns to his native France for an undisclosed fee.

A statement on www.asse.fr read: 'It's official. Steed Malbranque is a St Etienne player. The midfielder is committed to ASSE for two seasons.'

We don't usually comments on transfers OUT of the Premier League, but this deserves special mention. Malbranque was a fantasy stud back in his Fulham days, and an early member of the "French winger" club that we love so much. Other founding members include Robert Pires and Fabrice Fernandes, but Steed outlasted them all. It was clear that he wasn't at his best with Sunderland. I believe he has the distinction of being the player who had the most shots on goal last season without actually scoring.  Best wishes to him back in Ligue 1, or should we say, "bon chance" and "mercis pour l'expérience".

Blackburn Rovers sign Goodwillie

Blackburn Rovers | News | Latest News | Latest News | Rovers sign Goodwillie

In a boon to headline writers and 13-year olds everywhere...

Blackburn Rovers have today completed the signing of Scottish international David Goodwillie from Dundee United.

He was scoring about a goal every third match for Dundee United, which isn't THAT impressive, but still represents a big upgrade for Rovers. No offense to Jason Roberts, of whom I'm a big fan, but I would expect Goodwillie to go right to the head of the Rovers attacking pecking order.

Oh, I might as well use this moment to announce my "player that I'm unreasonably excited about in week one" of 2011. "Distinguished" past winners include famously Marek Cech against Arsenal.

Congratulations to Mauro Formica, who has been playing pre-season as a withdrawn forward and has scored a few goals for Rovers. Welcome to my week one fantasy line-up. Hosting Wolves will be a good early test for both sides. Goodwillie will become an interesting choice if he is posted to the games in time, but Formica is my pick.

Two More Private Leagues

I'm not sure if there are any spaces still open but two more private leagues have been posted.  Here's the info.

YFF Blog League 11
Group ID#: 6517
Password: footy

YFF Blog League 12
Group ID#: 6518
Password: blog

Cheers - Neal 

Notes on Valerenga v. Liverpool

After the first ten minutes....

• Nice to see Agger back to fitness and back in favor.
• All the early play down Liverpool's right with Downing and Johnson. I think the idea is that Downing will tend to cut inside on to his left foot and Johnson can overlap and exploit that space.  Might be something to watch when the season starts. Johnson is very expensive for a defender (13.37) but he will look to get forward. For the money I'll go with Zabaleta in week one and then Arsenal host Liverpool in week two, but your mileage may vary.
• Downing taking corners from the right, not Adam, but not taking them very well at all.
• Henderson is the midfielder breaking forward to try to support Carroll and Kuyt.
• Nice to see Kuyt getting a game at forward, but it's hard to see him playing there when Suarez returns.  Indeed it's hard to see him getting the wide-right berth back either, which is a bit of a shame.
• No Meireles today because of injury. I wonder if he would have played had he been fit, and who would make way -- the question we'll likely be asking all season about any number of Liverpool midfielders.

Valerenga 1 - 0 Liverpool

Newcastle Fall-Out Follow Up

In the wake of Joey Barton's being transfer listed by Newcastle United and Wayne Routledge signing for Swansea, I've been running the rule over the squad trying to piece together how they'll play in the upcoming season. This may get repeated in our season preview, but so be it. This is really more of a first draft documentation of my thought-process.

So it might be messy.

Barton Available for Free after Twitter Outburst

Newcastle United have confirmed that Joey Barton has been made available on a free transfer.

Relations between the club and the outspoken midfielder had already been strained following a breakdown of contract talks over the summer, with Barton taking to Twitter to air his frustrations.

The 28-year-old did so again following Sunday's friendly defeat at Leeds, hinting at widespread dressing-room discontent towards the Newcastle hierarchy, before saying he would make an announcement on his future at 4pm on Monday.

But the club pre-empted whatever Barton was going to say by announcing he is able to leave St James' Park a year out from the end of his contract.

Some of the "offending" tweets included these:

If only we as players could tell the fans exactly how it is, without them above fining us lots of money. There will be a time and a place.less than a minute ago via Twitter for BlackBerry® Favorite Retweet ReplyJoseph Barton
Joey7Barton

And again it would be left to those magnificent fans to pick up the remnants of their once great football club. #hadenoughofcertainpeopleless than a minute ago via Twitter for BlackBerry® Favorite Retweet ReplyJoseph Barton
Joey7Barton

If I wanted to leave, I'd just come out and say "I want to leave" Things need addressing as am not prepared to go through a relegation againless than a minute ago via Twitter for BlackBerry® Favorite Retweet ReplyJoseph Barton
Joey7Barton

And he's at it again today.

One day the board might realise, what the shirt signifies. HONOUR and PRIDE. Thanks for your continued support........... #toonarmyless than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet ReplyJoseph Barton
Joey7Barton

So... where will he end up? Liverpool is the obvious answer as they're collecting every English midfielder they can get their hands on. [To that point, do you think they're regretting the &poind;24 they've spent on Henderson and Adam?]

But seriously, what club couldn't use his talents? But what club will take the chance on him after his washing out with Manchester City and now Newcastle United?

Who are we kidding. Barton on a free? ANY club would take a chance. It's not even a question of who has money to spend! This is going to get silly, quickly!