I don't think I had any players involved in competitive matches so I was hoping to have fully fit squads after the international break . Seem to be carrying more injuries than ever though. Plenty of mixed reports around but it looks like the injury news is starting to settle down now. Looks like being a weekend for keeping a close eye on the line ups as they're announced as I'm sure the odd star man decisions will need changing before kick off.

Saturday, 21 November 2009, 12:45
Liverpool v Man City

Saturday starts with Liverpool desperate to get back to winning ways against draw specialists Man City. Of the popular picks Gerrard will be back to pick up the armband, but Torres seems to be struggling to make the starting line up. Those looking to Kuyt will be hoping he'll break out of his recent 2 point-a-game form, while plenty will be looking to Johnson and Reina to steady the ship at the back.

For City there won’t be too many managers shedding tears at Bellamy’s absence, although Adebayor, Tevez and Wright-Phillips may fancy their chances of getting on the score sheet against an uncharacteristically generous Liverpool defence.

Saturday, 21 November 2009, 15:00
Birmingham v Fulham
Burnley v Aston Villa
Chelsea v Wolverhampton
Hull v West Ham
Sunderland v Arsenal

A frustrating fixture to miss for those managers who’d pencilled in starring Drogba or Lampard at Stamford Bridge . Not to mention anyone who’s replaced Gerrard with Lampard in recent weeks With the injuries and the African Nations on the horizon I imagine there’s going to be increased interest in last year’s golden boot Anelka. This fixture also looks like the best opportunity for starring a defender with Terry, Cole and Carvalho leading the way if fit to play.

Elsewhere managers may well be sending the armband to the Stadium of Light with Bent, Fabregas and Arshavin all in contention.

The most selected striker on show in this flange looks like being Carlton Cole who’ll be looking to continue his good start to the season at Hull.

Saturday, 21 November 2009, 17:30
Man Utd v Everton

The late kick off will be an anxious wait for those managers looking to star Berbatov. With the midfield options somewhat less appealing than in previous years the main choice in this flange has to be Rooney where plenty of managers will be hoping to see his new goal celebration. But will it be a rocking the baby, thumb/dummy sucking or will Crouchy have shown him a few moves during the recent England trip?

Sunday, 22 November 2009
Bolton v Blackburn, 13:30
Tottenham v Wigan, 15:00
Stoke v Portsmouth, 16:00

Yet more pain on Sunday as we’ll only know the lineups for the first game, although I suspect most of us will be looking towards White Hart Lane for a star man. Having seen a poor return so far, all the managers who’ve transferred in Lennon in the last couple of months will be hoping he's back in the starting lineup. The most popular choice here for Spurs is Defoe with Keane and Crouch less favoured than Rodallega so far this season.

What do I do this week?

I have Van Persie, Drogba, Lampard, Lennon and Bent? Out

I need to get rid of Van Persie, but can I risk not replacing the others?

Lennon and Bent are due to play, according to all the team news. And in this game you don't waste a transfer for a player who's only going to miss 1 or 2 games (as Lampard and Drogba are reported to). But yeah ditch RVP.

Cheers Chocs . No more international breaks for a while which is nice. Just when things are starting to get going there seems to be another of these tedious breaks, but with the fixtures coming thick & fast now so it feels like the season is about to get properly started. Hopefully my squads will too which all need a kick up the backside! As for the weekend I've got more Drogs than Lamps across my squads so was gutted at Ancellotti's press conference earlier ruling him out, a clear starman choice down the swanny so better get the thinking cap on!

With Drogba out, I am thinking of Van Persie out and Eduardo in.

Only problem with this would be Bent vs Eduardo today. At least it gets rid of my issue of having 3 strikers in the same flange.

So this is where I need your help, what would you do with the following:

GK - Reina and Given
CB - Carvalho, Hangeland and Bassong
FB - Evra, Warnock and Insuna
Mid - Lampard, Kuyt, Milner, Cahill, Barry, Valencia
Str - Drogba, Bent, Van Persie and Rodallega

Thought I had Lennon, but got rid of him for Milner.

Not sure what to make of that lot today, mine got fairly similar scores with 63, 56 (ISO), 52, 48 & 40. Got a right mixed bag to star tomorrow.

Good day for my best team, 76 points with 2 to play today.

58 and 54.

Better than average as both in top 1000 again.

Never thought I'd resort to starring a keeper in a 5 game Saturday 3pm set with Arsenal and Chelsea in it but it paid off!

Cheers Chocs.

Below average scores for The Animals on Saturday - ranging from 29 to 62.

Hoping for better scoring today

Scores of 96, 126 and 104 for me this weekend.

No need to guess which match I got most points in!

damb!! defoe U............

where wigan playin 10 men up front??

bet everyone transfers him in...and then he has a drought...

out of an injury weekend...everyone gets a point lift as if all players were used...

Defoe starred in my bottom 2 squads, that 60 point haul from him alone will hopefully see those 2 teams move up...

Had Lennon in top team, 32 points not bad from him either. Average weekend apart from that so will see what if any movement occurs when the updates happen tomorrow.

Took Van Persie out for Eduardo, nearly went for Defoe.

I'll be very interested to see how many of the top 100 had Defoe on star, when the scores are updated tomorrow... No Defoes for me leaves me hoping for not many...

Exactly the same as me LT. Had to star Boateng in another though so my scores range from -6 to 61 today

Weekend scores of 90 (ISO), 56, 67, 110, 109

guess we are all in the sme boat...
ironically starred defoe in my 2nd best team
lennon in best team...hopefully lennon scores 4 next week


tryna get rid of RVP in my bottom team by the way...don't know who to bring in...can't rely on arsenal strikes

cole?? zamora? keane?

I can confirm there's at least one

Nice one, Art.

Takes me back to the day when a Defoe* hat-trick + KC took me to the top of the TFFO Leaderboard.

Unfortunately, this time, I only had Lennon* in my non-ISO squad.

Coincidentally, I had a few beers with Grandad on Friday night and (as before the Southampton game in 2004) predicted that Defoe would fill his boots against Wigan. I did bring him into my CYKI team - but I really wish I'd done it in YTM as a score of probable Van Persie->Defoe swaps have knocked me out of the Top 50 in that one.

Big spread of scores this weekend from 47 to 107.

Still holding onto 4th place overall, but a missed opportunity for me yesterday. I’d been looking to bring in a new striker at the weekend and had narrowed it down to 2. The one I went for scored and I was feeling happy with my decision. The striker I didn’t go for also scored, 5 times , and suddenly not feeling quite so good.

Made some in roads with 97 for my leading squad but still only in the 200's at this stage. Other scores were 94 (ISO), 55 & 39
Brought in Keane for RVP instead of wanting Defoe in 2 of my teams & paid heavily for that faux pas

Not much action for my leading team for Wednesday nights games but ISO a shout if Dunn can keep up that tidy form.

Come sunday night and both are well outside the top 1000. Guess who I don't have....

Looks like 36% have Defoe. Getting 60 points from 1 game is astonishing, more than some defenders are likely to get all season the way it's going. Just shows with the right big boys starred at the right time things can change very quickly.

Only my bottom 2 sides had Defoe, my ISO starred Lennon which I thought would be nice but actually dropped a few places. My best effort is 148th and the others are all lingering around 40-70 points behind that. The leaders do seem to be getting further away which isn't good, but at the same time my side which finished top 10 last year was about 500th at this stage so still very early days.

Just checked my top 10 team from last year to try and console myself similarly. In week 15 it slipped from 44th to 56th. Not much hope there for my teams in 1100+.......