F1 – Saturday 12:45 pm
Stoke v Wigan

Stoke have a solid home record but will the James Beattie distraction have an impact on them? Either way, a hard result to predict IMO as Wigan can be pretty inconsistent. Rodallaga, NZogbia and the odd Scharner for Wigan or Sorensen (the highest scoring GK so far ), Etherington and Beattie (?) for Stoke would seem the likely captain choices.

F2 – Saturday 3:00 pm
Birmingham v West Ham
Bolton v Man City
Burnley v Fulham
Chelsea v Everton
Hull v Blackburn
Sunderland v Portsmouth
Tottenham v Wolverhampton

Chelsea’s home record is 7 wins out of 7… Everton’s away form is 5 Prem losses out of 7... Add to that, Drogba has been scoring at an average rate of 7.5 points per game and it’s a straight bat for me! My second choice this weekend might well be Defoe… Tottenham’s home record is pretty good this year and obviously Defoe is in good form. I’m sure there will be a few striker clashes in this flange… Adebayor, Saha and Bent in that order (on an average points per game basis) could each cause benching and captain dilema’s for many. IMO Bent, who’s been in pretty solid form all season, must be a good bet for a goal against Portsmouth. Other than the above, I guess a few Drogba-less teams might captain Lampard or Anelka. Maybe a cheeky Lennon… but that would be pretty left field IMO. Other form wildcards might be Larsson or Bowyer as Birmingham are solid at home and West Ham have been leaking goals lately. FUL are on good form, specifically Dempsey but IMO Burnley will keep the game pretty tight.

F3 – Saturday 5:30 pm
Man Utd v Aston Villa

Man United normally win this fixture and score 2 or 3 goals in the process.
Rooney, the in form Valencia or Giggs would seem obvious captain choices. Probably better to avoid a Man U defender this week if you have one that’s fit. If you fancy a United hiccup… anyone from Agbonlahor, the in form Milner or Young.

F4 – Sunday 4:00 pm
Liverpool v Arsenal

Liverpool have won or drawn this fixture for the last 5 years. Last year Arshavin scored 4 goals in a 4-4 draw, but it's Liverpool again for me, despite recent form. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Liverpool put on a good show against Arsenal on Sunday before slipping up against a conventionally inferior side a week later LOL. Anyway, assuming he starts, for me the returning Torres is the stand out pick, closely followed by Gerrard, Kuyt or Benayoun. IMO a choice of Fabregas or Arshavin might also yield good points as I don’t expect any clean sheets from the game... cue the 0 - 0 draw

Tidy preview MV

Actually hoping Eduardo at least turns up sooner than later as that RVP transfer is starting to sting deep

Leading team will probably see Defoe get the armband, but in the later game I believe there are question marks over Rooney's hamstring which may make things a little less straight forward for managers in that flange for star billing

As you said, who knows what to expect with Liv. V Ars. 0-0 all my favoured result

All the best boys

Cheers MV,

A selection of star men across the 3pm flange with Bent, Defoe & Drogba getting the armband – Am benching Ade in favour of Drogba & Bent in my ISO – Cue an Ade hat-trick at Bolton! Let’s hope Rooney wears his cycle shorts & keeps that hamstring warm so he can play!

Not sure re the Pool vs Gooner game, I agree 0-0 is unlikely but all depends on confidence. Pool well, we know how they have been this season & the Gooners aren’t the best vs the big teams lately so it might be a bit of a cat & mouse game to start. An early goal could make all the difference!

As Worm says, good luck lads this weekend.

thanks MV
going to be a tricky weekend i suspect
can't decide between bent and ade for the 3pm flange - i'm starring drogba and playing bent at the moment but reckon ade might come good against bolton and can see portsmouth pulling off a miracle at sunderland...
decisions, decisions - hope i make the right choice as i am currently stuck at 500 and can't seem to make any progress whatever i try [which is a pity 'cos my mate has hit the top 50 and is beginning to pull way clear of me!]
good luck all!

Cheers MV.

With games coming thick and fast over the remainder of the month it will be intriguing to see who is still in with a shout of the major honours when the game, shortly, turns into the back straight.

Desperation times - I did a transfer and set my team at 12:44 and a bit (otherwise an unmanned flange). I can't check if it went through can I?

I was leaving it late and then realised I couldn't afford Plan A so rapidly cobbled together Plan B!

Anyone put Boyce down as a Starman?

Nope! Only had N'Zogbia playing in 1 team this lunchtime. Some may have Shawcross though. Bloody good goal by Figueroa though!

MISSED PENALTY (Rodallega) - My starman has cost me ten points.

We've all been there murf. No, unlike last season, you cant check previous teams. If the transfer was shawcross - hope it works out for you

My buy/captain got -2. Hope I was late

More Death by Drogba, for any squad that doesn't have him - although Zamora + Bent was a reasonable alternative - but it was amusing to see Berbatov outscore Rooney today.

Some very lucky bonus points for those of us with Sorensen . How on earth did the officials not spot that he was a yard off his line even before the taker's run up was complete? Should have been a Yellow Card and a re-take.

Still, anything a blind match official can do is easily matched by a TFF/TFFO Man of the Match award. This week I see that Dawson got the bonus points for allowing a leprechaun to head in a corner kick.

only 10 points? what of the minus points for missing the penalty..

i had him on star too...

-5 * 2 = -10

(appearance points means that is -6)

I starred all the wrong players today:

Rodallega
Defoe
Valencia

Bad day for my sole team

49 (ISO), 47, 36, 34, 13 for me. Where I starred Drog I was also pegged back by some horrible minus scores so won't be moving very far come the update. Hopefully get more joy from the battle of the bridesmaids tomorrow and after todays results a win for either would do them the world of good, the Arshavin holders might fancy their chances!

Not such a good weekend for me so far:
Lowest 22 pts, average 36 points and highest 55 points

My leading team & ISO fetched just over 30, so no somersaults here

Will need Liverpool to salute with a CS to make any atonement for the poor Saturday

considering the negative points.....
am so dissapointed with cech, not only does he concede 3 he concedes an own goal
but what's the worst that coulda been, Drogba(star man) made up for that with 2 goals and MOTM
40 points.....and climbing 12 places not so bad.....
imagine the difference that -13 points could hav made.

My dilemma today is starring an Arsenal or Liverpool man, both hav had poor runs.

So who do I star today:

Eduardo or Kuyt?

Last weekend it was 2 missed penalties, this week it's 2 own goals! Luck is definately out this season.
Can't see many scoring much today unless they have arshavin or kuyt! (So far...)

Yesterday actually was an ok day & am only 44 points of top 100 again which was over 100 a couple of weeks ago. Roll on the many xmas games & the hope of making up some ground!

I starred Kuyt and everything was looking great at 1 nil to Liverpool.

I'm not even going to look at the update, not sure if I even made double figures

What a bizarre weekend for most of the top 100... and probably everyone else come to think of it...

My final scores for the weekend range from a low of 24 pts , an average of 42 pts and a highest of 57 pts. By the looks of it an average of 42 seemed to end up an ok score and happily my top team scored the 57 pts.

Also worth a special note is my manager of the month team for december... it scored 8 points for the weekend... breaking my all time lowest record for a full fixture set LOL

Only managed 2pts in my top team yesterday (Own goals & bookings!), taking it to 53pts for the weekend which, on the looks of it was above average! 50 points off getting back onto the leader board now.

56 points this weekend for my one and only team. Amazed to rise from 20 to 12. Getting vertigo. I like the unpredictability of the league this season. It really is possible to score next to nothing with all the own goals, missed penalties and bookings that go on.

Impressive progress tommyp & welcome to the forum. We're a pretty friendly bunch on here - if a little quieter than in previous seasons.

Well played to MV who has managed to give himself a nice little buffer at the summit. 100 points now seperate the top 23 teams. Too early to predict a winner but would be surprised if it's anyone from outside the top 100. Not impossible but they have to make up 147+ points on MV and that's just for starters

I got 15 points at the weekend

I think in the best part of a decade playing this game that's got to be a record low. From 38th to 260th in 2 weeks

I thought my 25 was bad. At least you have the consolation of being in a loftier perch to start with. After missing out on cash by one place last year my aim this year is just to get back in the top 1000. Kill me now.

Highly unpredictable weekend.

I got 0 points in both the tipping competitions that I play (inc. FISO goals), but had a decent weekend in TTFFO, TFF, YTM and CYKI (but not SDT).