Graph

[matty23!]

Yes, concur excellent work maintaining this thread.
As the owner of the team ‘Real Madras 4’ I thought it was time to come out of lockdown and break cover to outline why the fall from grace was so dramatic.
The team was heavily stacked with Leicester players (inc a block defence). Due to their excellent start to the season my team suddenly became a MOM regular contender. So I pursued this approach with gusto inc burning 80-90% of my transfers through November-Jan, unfortunately never successfully getting over the line in the MOM race.
Due to the team set-up and v.heavy use of transfers I then ‘somehow’ found myself top of the league going into lockdown (after several weeks in that lofty position). An amazing achievement BUT I was left with no transfers and three players RED flagged (and not even due back until next season, Aguero, Periera etc). When loose lockdown plans were announced and with no transfers and the split kick-odds I knew it was game over and so have unfortunately had to watch the team fall from grace dramatically.
Hey-ho, it was a rush, I enjoyed it thoroughly and onto the next one (has it started yet!!!!!).
Well done to all those who showed patience, tortoise/hare etc.

[brencarr]

Thanks guys, and thanks Matty for the story behind the team, I figured you'd run out of transfers but not to that extent.

[brencarr]

Week 1 - Salah hat trick
Only 8 games for week one as the two Mancunian clubs were given an extended break.

Two of the promoted clubs were beaten 3-0, West Brom lost at home to Leicester thanks in part to two Vardy penalties and Fulham lost at home to Arsenal. They will both have easier fixtures but it's not a great start. Leeds had the more difficult fixture, away at Anfield, but fought valiantly to eventually go down 4-3, thanks to another player with 2 pens to his name - Mo Salah. The Egyptian off to a great start with a hat trick.

Nothing much else to add for now as the Stats page on the TFF site is 'Coming Soon' and I'm not even sure if the scores are finally settled but they seem to be....
Our first leader of the season is Anthony Wiggins (Tooting Yellows), with an impressive 118 points; 100th spot has 88pts; the 1k is around 67 and the 10k is on 48.

I'll have more for you next week but this will act as a placeholder for now until I get sorted.

Things aren't perfect, but it's nice to be back

[brencarr]

Week 2 – Goals galore; Son scores four

The set of 10 games played this week broke the record for the number of goals scored in a Premier League week, which was 43, set in February 2011. Jesus’ late clincher at Wolves made it 44 – it certainly makes picking defenders tricky. Here are the details .... as it was a record .... 8 players scored 2 or more goals

..................(DCL 3, Rodriguez, Keane) Everton 5-2 West Brom (Diangane, Costa Periera)
.............(Helda Costa 2, Klich, Bamford) Leeds 4-3 Fulham (Mitrovic 2, De Cordova-Reid)
.............................(van de Beek) Man United 1-3 Palace (Zaha 2, Townsend)
............................(Lacazette, Nketiah) Arsenal 2-1 West Ham (Antonio)
..................................(Ings 2) Southampton 2-5 Spurs (Son 4, Kane)
........................................................Newcastle 0-3 Brighton (Maupay 2, Connolly)
..............................................................Chelsea 0-2 Liverpool (Mane 2)
(Barnes, Pieters o.g., Justin, Praet) Leicester 4-2 Burnley (Wood, Dunne)
.........................................(Konsa) Aston Villa 1-0 Sheff United
..............................................(Jimenez) Wolves 1-3 Man City (KDB, Foden, Jesus)

Another aspect of the Premier League which has got off to a fast start is VAR .... I may be recruiting a few more penalty-takers into my team if they are going to continue the way they have started. That penalty re-take in the Man United v Palace game was picky to say the least

We have a new leader this week amongst the ‘hares’ ....

Lead position up 81 to 200 pts - averaging 100.0 .... Rovers of Rachel (Rachel Jeffery)
100th up 61 (149 pts)
1k up 55 (122)
10k up 49 (97)

Still no graph at the moment as usual after just 2 weeks, but it should be here in the next week or two, once there are some meaningful/visible lines, and I have decided on a reasonable ‘target’ line with the reduction in key contributions, which will lower the overall total .... probably.

[brencarr]

Week 3 – Vardy hat trick

Leicester City are top of the early league table, just ahead of Liverpool & Everton on goal difference as the 3 of them win their first 3 matches. The Foxes went to the Etihad and thrashed Man City 5-2, thanks in no small part to the finishing of Jamie Vardy, who scored only the third hat trick against a Pep Guardiola side .... he also scored one of the previous two #Nemesis. This was also the first Premier League game in which a team scored 3 penalties, and not one of them was for a debateable handball.

Liverpool beat Arsenal 3-1 with new boy Jota on the scoresheet, and Everton won 2-1 at Palace with Dominic Calvert-Lewin (DCL) keeping up his goal-scoring start to the season – he and Vardy are on 5 after 3 games. Everton have won their first three Premier League games since 1993/94, the same season they avoided relegation on the final day, so let's not get too carried away just yet

The surprise package in 4th place is Aston Villa who are 2 from 2 after a 3-0 win at Fulham, who are bottom of the early table, one of 3 teams with no points (Sheff United & Burnley).

Man United (won 3-2) had a penalty awarded to them after the final whistle at Brighton Bruno Fernandes' goal at 99:45 is the latest scored in the Premier League since Juan Mata's strike for Chelsea against Norwich in August 2011 (100:03) .... this United game had everything
• Five goals.
• Two penalties.
• One penalty overturned.
• Two goals disallowed.
• Brighton hit the crossbar 5 times – Trossard with 3 of them
• Two times blowing for full-time

A quick mention about VAR (again), the penalty for Newcastle v. Spurs (1-1) was ridiculous. When a manager says ‘Football has lost the plot with handball’ you may not be surprised, but given this was Steve Bruce, whose team was awarded the spot kick, it gives you an idea of how bad it was

There are a couple of other high-scoring games which deserve a mention. West Brom were 3-0 up v. Chelsea (Callum Robinson with 2) before the blues rallied to draw 3-3 and West Ham thrashed Wolves 4-0, Jarrod Bowen scoring twice.

Top of the pops for this week were ....
Vardy 17 points
Robinson & Bowen 12 pts
Mings on 11, with 4 other players on 10 pts

Top of the early season-long scorers list are ....
Vardy & DCL on 31 points
Bamford on 27
Kane & Son on 26 pts

As is the way early on, we have another new leader ....
Lead position up 70 to 270 pts - averaging 90.0 .... Olympique Biscuit (Ben Murphy)
100th up 43 (192 pts)
1k up 39 (161)
10k up 35 (132)

[brencarr]

Week 4 – Watkins (perfect) hat trick

Another gameweek with over 40 goals. This season is bizarre (/bɪˈzɑː/) adjective – very strange or unusual.

Everton (played 4) and Ason Villa (3) are now the only teams in the Premier League with 100% records and sit 1st and 2nd in the table.
The Toffees beat Brighton 4-2 with DCL on the scoresheet again and new hero James Rodriguez with a brace. Villa pulled off the shock of the week/season/decade by beating Liverpool 7(seven)-2 The win included a ‘perfect’ hat-trick (left foot, right foot, header) for Ollie Watkins (£4.4m striker), Grealish scored twice and got 3 assists. Alisson was missing in goal (as was Adrian) and Mane & Thiago were both absent with the Coronavirus. This was the first time since April 1963 that Liverpool have conceded seven goals in a match (7-2 v. Spurs). After 4 games, Liverpool’s goal difference is 0
Next week .... Everton v Liverpool

Leicester are in 3rd place after they crashed back down to earth. They beat Man City 5-2 last week, and lost 3-0 at home to West Ham this week Arsenal beat Sheff United 2-1 and are in 4th.

Man City are in 14th place after a 1-1 draw at Leeds. Normally this would give Man United fans a chance to mock, but United are in 16th after losing at home to Spurs .... 6-1 Kane & Son with 2 each, Martial with a red card and Lamela with an Academy award! There were several records broken in this game, including Spurs being the first visiting team to score 4 goals in the first half in a league game at United since 1957 .... when they themselves did it

At the bottom of the table 3 teams are still pointless.
Fulham lost 1-0 at Wolves and are at the bottom on goal difference, Sheff United lost 2-1 at Arsenal and can’t keep a clean sheet this season, and Burnley were beaten 3-1 at Newcastle with Callum Wilson scoring 2.

14 players got into double figures this week, the top scorers were ....
Grealish – 21 points
Watkins – 20
Rodriguez, Kane, Son, Chilwell, Wilson all on 15

The overall leaders after 4 games are ....
Kane & Son - 41 points
DCL – 38
Salah – 36
Vardy – 33
Wilson & Maupay - 31

We have another new leader ....
Lead position up 51 to 321 pts - averaging 80.25 .... Hugh Knew 1 (Hugh Tibbs)
100th up 55 (247 pts)
1k up 49 (210)
10k up 42 (174)

[brencarr]

The Graph

So – I’ve had a long hard think about this and I’ve come up with some numbers for this (/bɪˈzɑː/) season.

First of all, for the uninitiated, I count each set of 10 games as a ‘week’, or an FA Cup weekend, or combination of the two when we get to the latter stages of the cup. This means I can compare each season to the previous one(s). TFF will count each Tuesday-Monday as a week, so sometimes that leads to confusion.

Each season is made up of 41 weeks plus the FA Cup final weekend (week 42), which is obviously lower than the average, as it’s just the one game (except when Man City beat Watford 6-0!)

For the last 4 years the winning score has been made up like this ....

2016/17 .... 41-week average of 54.95 + 18 = 2,271 (Graham Dolan – Fairmbe)
2017/18 .... 41-week average of 55.17 + 21 = 2,283 (Simon Allen – Destiny)
2018/19 .... 41-week average of 58.15 + 54 = 2,438 (Adrian Frost – Live Mix)
2019/20 .... 41-week average of 52.95 + 12 = 2,183 (Dean Burdin – Salsoul)

That’s a 4-year average of c. 55/week plus 28 for the final = 2,294

With just the one ‘assist’ now instead of ‘key contributions’ the scores will be considerably lower, it could be much lower actually – 3 KCs was 9 points – easily achievable in a single week, or even in a single game! Even with the crazy goal-fest of a start to this season, the tracked positions are already behind those of the previous season.

So, without too much statistical analysis I have decided on a target of 48 points per week for the (41 week) season, plus a nice 32 points for the FA Cup final, which gives a predicted score of exactly 2,000.
This may still be a bit high given everything I’ve said, but if it was any lower it would be a score I feel I could get .... and that can’t be right! Time will tell, but I couldn’t resist the nice round number

[brencarr]

Week 5 – Draw-fest

This week we had 6 draws in the 10 games, we had a 0-0; two 1-1s; a 2-2 and two 3-3s

The Liverpool derby at Goodison was the 2-2 draw, Everton twice came from behind to win the point which keeps them top of the early table .... DCL was again on target for them.

Aston Villa are now the only team left with a 100% record in the Premier League thanks to a 91st minute goal from Barkley which snatched a 1-0 win at Leicester. The Villans are up to 2nd in the table, just ahead of Liverpool. Man City beat Arsenal 1-0 thanks to a Sterling goal .... and Aguero is back

Chelsea were 2-0 ahead within half an hour (Werner 2) at home to Southampton, but managed to end up 3-3 thanks to a late Vestergaard equaliser. Spurs made an even bigger mess of a lead as they were 3-0 up with 10 minutes to play at home to West Ham .... and drew 3-3. The good news for non-Spurs fans though was the fact that Kane (2) and Son were both on the scoresheet.

Man United also had a late flurry to win their game at Newcastle (4-1) with 3 goals in the last 5 minutes, with Marcus Rashford MBE netting the last of them. Bruno Fernandes scored – and also missed a penalty

At the bottom of the table Fulham and Sheff United drew 1-1, and now they both have one point, along with Burnley who drew 0-0 with West Brom (the first 0-0 of the season). These four teams are the bottom 4, and may be for some time.

Top of the pops this week were ....
Kane & Werner - 15 points
Rashford – 13
Son, Adams & Kilman - 10

The early pacesetters are ....
Kane – 56
Son – 51
DCL – 45
Salah – 43 .... these four are 10 points clear of the rest

Our leader held on to top spot this week ....
Leader up 93 to 414 pts - averaging 82.8 .... Hugh Knew 1 (Hugh Tibbs)
100th up 59 (306 pts)
1k up 56 (266)
10k up 49 (223)

[brencarr]

Week 6 – Bamford hat trick

The Premier league table this week echoes a certain government directive, in that various areas of the country are in separate ‘tiers’. The Liverpool teams are sitting 1st and 2nd; the midlands in 3rd & 4th; the London teams are mainly 5th-12th in the table and the Mancunian teams are locked down in 13th & 15th

Everton remain top despite losing (2-0) at Southampton, Liverpool came from behind to win 2-1 at Anfield v. Sheffield United. Aston Villa remain 3rd despite losing 3-0 at home to Leeds thanks to a Bamford hat trick – that now means that every team has lost at least once after just 5/6 games .... it’s going to be another crazy season

Leicester won 1-0 at Arsenal thanks to a late Vardy goal and Man United drew 0-0 with Chelsea. Man City drew 1-1 at West Ham where the second part of the Aguero hokey-cokey was enacted as he limped off at the break

At the bottom, Burnley, Sheff United & Fulham still have just 1 point each and already look in trouble .... I predict a couple of changes of manager before Christmas.

It looks like defending has been reintroduced in the Premier league for this season as the goals have dried up somewhat this week. 16 out of the 20 teams scored 1 or nil, and only Leeds managed to score 3

Unsurprisingly the top scorer of the week was Patrick Bamford (£4.2m), what is surprising (to me at least) is that he is in as many as 10.19% of teams

Bamford – 17 points
Zaha – 10
Ings and Mane – 8
.... followed by 35 players on 7 pts

The overall leaders are ....
Kane – 61pts
Son – 58
Bamford – 47
DCL – 46
Salah – 45

After a low-scoring week, you-know-who is still at the top ....

Leader up 46 to 460 pts - averaging 76.67 .... Hugh Knew 1 (Hugh Tibbs)
100th up 48 (354 pts)
1k up 43 (309)
10k up 39 (262)

[brencarr]

Week 7 – Liverpool hit the top

Liverpool came from behind to beat West Ham 2-1 at Anfield – Jota again on the scoresheet. That win lifts the reds above their Merseyside rivals Everton, who lost by the same score at Newcastle, thanks to a Callum Wilson double.

A Youri Tielemans brace helped Leicester win 4-1 at Leeds, which saw the Foxes quietly move into 2nd spot in the table. That game was tight until the 76th minute but it was over when Under knocked it over for Vardy to slip it under the keeper (I’ll get my coat )

Gareth Bale scored his first goal for Spurs in over 7 years as they overcame Brighton, and a debatable VAR-assisted decision, by this week’s favourite score (2-1) – Spurs are up into third, ahead of Everton.

Southampton almost blew it, with a 4-3 win at Villa, after leading 4-0. That’s 4 wins from 5 for the Saints, who are up into 5th place.

Arsenal (won 1-0 at Old Trafford), Man City (won 1-0 at Sheff United) and Man United are languishing in mid-table. United have failed to win any of their first four league matches at Old Trafford this season – the first time since 1972-73 .... they finished 18th that year

At the bottom, Burnley’s woes continued as they lost 3-0 at home to Chelsea and remain on one point along with Sheff United. Fulham beat fellow strugglers West Brom 2-0 and have jumped above them and out of the drop zone.

The overall leaders in TFF this season are ....
Kane - 68
Son - 60
DCL - 53
Vardy & Salah - 52

Hugh Tibbs hangs on to the top spot but is now being strongly challenged by Chris Jenkins who is in 2nd place .... and also 3rd, 4th, 10th and 12th

Leader up 43 to 503 pts - averaging 71.86 .... Hugh Knew 1 (Hugh Tibbs)
100th up 54 (408 pts)
1k up 49 (358)
10k up 46 (308)

[brencarr]

Week 8 – Three teams go top

On Friday night, Southampton beat Newcastle (2-0) to finish a day at the top of the Premier League table for the first time in the club’s history. Another Friday game saw Burnley and Brighton play out a 0-0 draw – it was never going to get much better for Burnley mind, as they haven’t won on a Friday since 1926

Saints’ lead at the top only latest a day though as they were overtaken by Spurs, who won 1-0 at West Brom .... who in turn were pipped by Leicester who beat Wolves by the same score, with Vardy scoring one penalty and having another saved by Rui Patricio . Harry Kane scored the Spurs goal - only Shearer (212) and Aguero (217) scored their 150th Premier League goal in fewer appearances than Harry Kane, who did so in his 218th match in the competition.

The performance of the week, arguably went to Aston Villa who won 3-0 at Arsenal and moved ahead of Everton into 6th .... didn’t Everton used to be top They lost 3-1 at Goodison to Man United thanks in part to a Fernandes brace and have now lost 3 in a row. Another team on the slide is Leeds. They lost 4-1 at Palace and are now down in 15th after a promising start.

For the first time in 160 games (a run of four and a half years), Mark Lawrenson predicted Liverpool would lose .... and he was wrong. Liverpool & Man City drew 1-1 at Th’Etihad, thanks to a missed penalty. KDB agreed that the VAR decision was ridiculous and put the penalty wide in protest .... stunning and brave. That point moved Liverpool ahead of Southampton, into 3rd spot. Another thing that came to mind after that game, if Klopp can play a 4-2-4 formation, why can’t we .... TFF

At the bottom of the table, Sheff United lost again and are still on 1 point. They went down 4-1 at Stamford Bridge with Ziyech impressing. Chelsea are 5th at the end of the week and could go well if their new signings settle in. Burnley’s point at Brighton doubled their points tally to 2! West Brom, on 3 points, make up the bottom 3, with Fulham just ahead of them on 4 points after losing 1-0 at West Ham, this game saw one of the worst penalties you will ever see. Fulham's Ademola Lookman decided a Panenka-style penalty with the last kick of the game was the way to go .... turns out, it wasn’t

Looking at Week 8 from last season you’ll see I predicted the imminent demise of OGS as Man United manager .... wrong again I do note from that week though, that the leader at the time had an average of 72.9 points/week. I think that shows that this season, without the extra KCs, the scores will end up significantly lower. This week’s new leader has an average of 67.25 even with the higher number of goals we are witnessing – time will tell.

Top of the pops for this week were ....
Fernandes – 14 points
Fabianski & Watkins – 12
Doherty, Targett & Eze – 10
Ziyech – 8
.... and then, 47 players scored exactly 7

The overall leaders in TFF this season are ....
Kane - 75 points
Son - 62
Salah - 59
DCL - 58
Vardy - 57
.... remarkably, the first Man City player in the list is Sterling, on 26 pts, outside the top 60


We have a new leader this week ....
Lead position up 35 to 538 pts - averaging 67.25 .... Trophies Over No Trophies (Chris Jenkins)
100th up 50 (458 pts)
1k up 47 (405)
10k up 45 (353)

[brencarr]

Week 9 – Spurs go top

Spurs beat Man City 2-0 to head the table after this week, Son was on the scoresheet again. City continue their worst start since 2008-09 (currently in 13th place) Leicester went to Anfield in the game of the weekend and a weakened Liverpool side looked there for the taking .... and promptly beat the Foxes 3-0. Jota scored again and became the first player in Liverpool’s history to score in each of his first 4 home top-flight appearances.

Chelsea are in 3rd place after a 2-0 win at Newcastle. Southampton are in 5th after a 1-1 draw at Wolves. Theo Walcott got the Saints goal, his first for them in almost 15 years (when Tony Blair was PM).

At the bottom, Burnley were the big winners as they were the only team in the bottom 4 to win .... 1-0 v Palace, Turf Moor was indeed a happy place this week Sheff United remain last on 1 point after losing 1-0 v West Ham .... they are the third side in Premier League history to pick up just one point (or fewer) from their opening nine games in a season, after Man City in 1995-96 and Sheffield Wednesday in 1999-00 .... both of those sides were relegated

West Brom lost 1-0 v. Man United (Fernandes pen) and Fulham lost 3-2 at home to Everton – after missing another penalty (their 3rd of the season). DCL with a brace there to keep up his excellent start to the season.

Top of the pops this week were ....
DCL with 12 points
Robertson – 10
Milner - 8
.... and then 47 players on 7 points

Season long leaders ....
Kane – 79
DCL – 70
Son – 69
Vardy & Salah – 59


We have a new leader this week .... kinda .... Chris Jenkins is still top but with a different team; he is in fact currently holding the top 3 spots in TFF which is a great effort. His two other teams are letting the side down though as they are way back in 21st & 27th

Lead position up 41 to 579 pts - averaging 64.33 .... Mikel’s Magic Men (Chris Jenkins)
100th up 48 (506 pts)
1k up 48 (453)
10k up 43 (396)

Only 73 points separate the top 100

[brencarr]

Week 10 – Mahrez hat trick

This week saw the death of Diego Armando Maradona (a.k.a. The Golden Boy), one of the best players of all time.

A rare occurrence at the top of the Premier League this week – none of the top 6 managed a win Chelsea & Spurs played out a 0-0, Liverpool drew 1-1 at Brighton in a game where Maupay missed a penalty before that man Jota hit the target again. Liverpool were odds-on for the win but a last-gasp-VAR-approved penalty (Gross) saw the champions drop 2 points. Neal Maupay became the first player to start a Premier League game, miss a penalty, and be subbed off before half-time since Dennis Bergkamp (a.k.a. The Non-flying Dutchman) against Derby in April 1998.

Leicester entertained Fulham in the home-win-banker of the weekend and lost 2-1 .... Fulham maybe motivated by the news that old-boy Papa Bouba Diop (a.k.a. The Wardrobe) had also passed away this week. Southampton were best-placed to take advantage of all the slip-ups as they were leading Man United 2-0 at half-time. OGS brought on Cavani (a.k.a. The Matador) at the break, and a brace from him won the game for United.

Burnley went to the Etihad as huge underdogs, having lost their last 3 league games there 5-0 .... a hat trick from Mahrez helped Man City to another 5-0 win. City are still not in the top half of the table

At the bottom, we had a mixed bag. Sheffield United lost 1-0 at West Brom and remain on 1 point .... from 10 games The Baggies win moved them above Burnley, but they remain in the bottom 3.

In the final game of the week it took Ogbonna just 1 minute 50 seconds to give West Ham the lead in the David Cameron derby https://www.bbc.com/news/av/election-2015-32462250. Watkins had a bad day, he missed a penalty and had a late ‘goal’ wiped off by VAR – the Hammers won 2-1, the former PM no doubt celebrated .... probably

In other news - congratulations to Marine F.C. of the Northern Premier League Division One North West – they are only the 2nd team from the 8th (eight) tier of English football to get to the 3rd round (proper) of the FA Cup .... and have drawn Spurs at home.

Top scorer this week was of course Mahrez with his hat trick ....

Mahrez – 17
Cavani – 14
B. Mendy – 12
Walker; Wilson; Fernandes; Bowen; Joelinton; Neto – 10 points

Season-long leaders .... not much happening here ....
Kane – 81
DCL – 72
Son – 71
Vardy & Salah – 64

Leader up 62 to 641 pts - averaging 64.10 .... Mikel’s Magic Men (Chris Jenkins)
100th up 44 (550 pts)
1k up 42 (495)
10k up 40 (436)

[Yorkshire Exile]

same leader is sat 3rd in sky game..... he has used all his transfers in that too

[brencarr]

Week 11 – Supporters return to the stadia (yes, stadia, not stadiums - it's from the Latin)

Real crowds at last, long may it continue

At the top of the table .... nothing much changed. Spurs won the North London derby 2-0 to remain top, thanks to the dynamic duo of Kane & Son again. Harry Kane is now the all-time outright top goalscorer in North London derbies (in all competitions) with 11 goals.

Liverpool easily saw off Wolves 4-0 at Anfield to stay in 2nd spot, the only surprise was the absence of a Jota goal (he did only play 20 minutes to be fair). Chelsea beat Leeds 3-1 to remain 3rd and Leicester heaped more pressure on hapless Sheffield United thanks to a late Vardy winner. The Blades are still on 1 point

The two Manchester clubs moved into 6th & 7th this week – United won 3-1 at West Ham, Pogba scored but apparently wants to leave .... I thought he left some time ago to be honest City beat Fulham 2-0 with KDB looking the business; there was also a goal for Sterling, who won the penalty for de Bruyne’s goal .... he has won more penalties than any other player in Premier League history (20) .... he’s either very clever, too quick for defenders or a cheat – depending on which team you support

Southampton beat Brighton in the final game of the week to leapfrog City & United into 5th spot. There was some VAR controversy in this game as a free kick on the edge of the box was upgraded to a penalty after review .... it was, or wasn’t, a clear and obvious error depending on which team you support Ings (returning from injury) smashed it in.

In the bottom half, the only team who had a win were Palace, and quite a win at that. They won 5-1 at West Brom with a brace each for Zaha and Benteke The game between Villa & Newcastle was postponed due to Covid. Burnley were the only other team to get a point after a draw with Everton – DCL on target again.

There were only 3 teams that kept a clean sheet this week – Liverpool, Man City and Spurs, so defensive points were relatively rare

Top TFF scorers of the week ....
Zaha – 15 points
Matip & Benteke - 12
Kane, Son, Sterling, KDB, Salah - 10

Leaders so far this season ....
Kane - 91
Son - 81
DCL - 79
Salah - 74
Vardy - 70

We have a new leader this week as transfers run out for the hares ....

Lead position up 52 to 693 pts - averaging 63.00 .... Tweedbank Pong Utd (Graeme Rigg)
100th up 50 (600 pts)
1k up 52 (547)
10k up 47 (483)

The crazy Christmas calendar looms large.

[SamD]

Thanks for stats, brencarr.

Leaderboard points and averages are down on last season, perhaps because second KCs/assist are no longer awarded.**
After Week 11 and 107 PL matches, approximately a quarter of the TFF campaign this year:

...
Lead position up 52 to 693 pts - averaging 63.00 .... Tweedbank Pong Utd (Graeme Rigg)
100th up 50 (600 pts)
1k up 52 (547)
10k up 47 (483)

Week 11 figures last season, extracted from post on 4 Nov 2019 in this thread:

Leader up 69 to 722 pts - averaging 65.6.... Suspicious Mince (Oliver Clifford)
100th up 56 (626 pts)
1k up 53 (569)
10k up 51 (516)

.... but, the scores are still well down on last season.

** With every FA Cup tie being settled on the day this time - ie no replay - points tallies in May could be further reduced.

[murf]

An increase in rotation will also decrease points to a noticeable degree over a season.

As, arguably, could an increase in injuries if we then have less transfers left to 'waste' on tinkerish improvements and bonus game grabbing.

The less fluid timetable could also reduce bonus game grabbing (less 3 for 0s etc) but we have 3 games already to be rearranged (2 for Villa!).

[brencarr]

Week 12 – Tight at the top

Here’s a little snapshot of the top half of the table before we embark on 50 games in 20 days, just 7 points between 1st and 10th ....

Spurs & Liverpool are on 25 points
Leicester 24
Southampton 23
Chelsea 22
West Ham, Everton & Man United 20
Man City 19
Aston Villa 18 .... who are going really well with 2 games in hand

The top 2 missed an opportunity to pull ahead this week, Liverpool drew 1-1 at Fulham and Spurs did the same at Palace. Kane scored – assisted by Son, the pair have now combined for 12 Premier League goals this season - only Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton have ever linked up for more in a season (13 in 1994-95)

Leicester & Southampton both won 3-0 to jump above Chelsea who lost 1-0 at Everton. The Foxes beat Brighton with Vardy & Maddison the stars of the show, and the Saints added to Sheff United’s woes.

The Blades remain on one point and are surely doomed already. The big winners at the bottom were Burnley who won 1-0 at Arsenal, the Gunners have now lost four home league games in a row .... for the first time in 61 years

There was a bit of a slugfest at Molineux, starring Mike Dean .... 7 yellows, 2 reds and a stoppage time penalty to give Villa the 1-0 win.

Oh yeah – and the Manchester derby was on this week. It was just as well there were no supporters allowed in for this one as it was a bit of a bore-draw

Top TFF scorers of the week ....
Vardy – 13 points
Maddison - 12
Bednerak & Justin - 10

Leaders so far this season .... and pulling away from the field
Kane – 98 (scored)
Son – 86 (assist)
DCL – 84 (assist)
Vardy – 83 (scored and 2 assists)
Salah – 81 (scored)

The top Man City player is KDB on 45

The scores were pretty flat this week ....

Leader up 44 to 737 pts - averaging 61.42 .... Tweedbank Pong Utd (Graeme Rigg)
100th up 47 (647 pts)
1k up 45 (592)
10k up 44 (527)

[brencarr]

Week 13 – Slavan Bilic sacked

In the top-of-the-table clash, Firmino grabbed a late winner for Liverpool to see off Spurs 2-1, Son & Salah on the scoresheet again. Southamptons 1-1 draw at Arsenal was enough to move them above Leicester into 3rd place. That was the 273rd Premier League match to be played at Emirates Stadium, one more than the 272 Premier League matches played at Highbury

Leicester lost 2-0 at home to Everton, which was enough to move the Toffees up into 5th spot. Manchester United (won 3-2 at Sheffield Utd) are the first team in EPL history to win six away games in a single season after conceding first .... and they've done it in six consecutive matches The moved ahead of Chelsea who lost 2-1 at Wolves despite getting the first goal.

This is now Manchester City's worst points tally at this point of the season since 2008 They were held 1-1 at home to West Brom, a good result for the Baggies .... who promptly sacked manager Slavan Bilic in favour of Big Sam .... 2020, what a year

You have done well if you’ve hit a big score this week, the top scorers were....
McGoldrick & Rashford – 12 points for a brace each in the same game
Holgate – 11pts
Rodrigo, Martial & Harrison – 10
.... and 37 players scored 7 pts.

The season-long leaders are still ....
Kane - 100
Son - 93
DCL - 89
Salah - 88
Vardy - 85

It was unlucky week 13 for more than ‘some’ this week, as the scores fell of a cliff .... maybe I didn't have such a bad week after all

Leader up 27 to 764 pts - averaging 58.77 .... Tweedbank Pong Utd (Graeme Rigg)
100th up 33 (680 pts)
1k up 33 (625)
10k up 33 (560)

[brencarr]

Week 14 – (Brackets)

Liverpool had a nice day out at the Palace this weekend, they won 7 (seven) nil. Firmino & Salah both scored twice, Mane scored against the Eagles for the 7th consecutive game – only RVP has managed 8 (v. Stoke City). All 7 (seven) goals were assisted by different players

Leicester won the crunch game of the weekend 2-0 at Spurs. The Foxes are up into 2nd place. Chelsea saw off West Ham 3-0, with Abraham scoring twice, and Everton beat Arsenal 2-1.

Another team having a wonderful Christmas time are Man United who beat Leeds 6 (six) – 2, Meslier doesn’t look that much of a bargain at the moment! McTominay scored twice in the opening 3 minutes of that game but couldn’t manage the hat trick

The losers at the top this week were Southampton who lost 1-0 at home to Man City. The Saints have slipped down to 7th spot just a point ahead of City.

At the bottom of the table, Sheffield United managed to double their points tally for the season despite playing a half with 10 men, they drew 1-1 at fellow strugglers Brighton. West Brom didn’t do so well with 10 men for an hour, as they lost 3-0 at home to Villa. Fulham also had a man sent off in their 1-1 draw at Newcastle .... lots of players looking for Christmas off? The big winners were Burnley who .... well, won .... 2-1 v. Wolves. I don't think referee Lee Mason is on Nuno Espirito Santo's Christmas card list. Burnley move out of the bottom 3 and are just a point behind Arsenal

In other news – Messi reached another milestone. The most goals by a player for a single club ....
1. Pelé (Santos) — 643 goals
2. Lionel Messi (Barcelona) — 643 goals
3. Gerd Müller (Bayern Munich) — 566 goals


Top scorers for the season so far ....
Kane & Salah – 102 points
Son & Vardy – 95
DCL – 93
Fernandes – 84
Bamford – 81
Wilson – 74
Zouma – 71
Grealish – 70


Much better scoring for this set of 10 games, and we have a new leader – kinda – it’s the week 3 leader, back in the big time ....

Lead position up 61 to 825 pts - averaging 58.93 .... Olympique Biscuit (Ben Murphy)
100th up 55 (735 pts)
1k up 52 (677)
10k up 50 (610)

Carabao Cup quarter finals for 6 Premier League clubs over the next couple of days, and then we’re back on Boxing Day.

[brencarr]

Week 15 – Boxing Day fixtures - too much of a good thing

There were 5 draws this week, included in those 10 teams were 4 of the top 5. Liverpool were held 1-1 at home by Big Sam’s West Brom ; Spurs drew 1-1 at Wolves and Leicester & Man United drew 2-2 at King Power Stadium (featuring supersub Edinson Cavani). Chelsea failed to take advantage as they lost 3-1 at Arsenal, thanks to goals from Laca, Xhaka & Saka

So – the big winners for this ‘week’ were Man City, who won 2-0 v. Newcastle; Aston Villa who beat Palace 3-0 and Everton who won 1-0 at hapless Sheffield United. The Blades continue to set records, after losing 1-0 to a late Everton winner at home, they now have the joint-worst start to a season ever by any club in England's top four leagues (2 pts from 15 games)

There are only 10 points separating the top 10 and remarkably – after a poor start to the season – if Man City win their game in hand they will be in 2nd spot, 3 points behind Liverpool .... unless Man United win their game in hand and then THEY will be 2nd, 2 points behind Liverpool .... unless of course Villa win their 2 games in hand in which case THEY will be 2nd, just one point behind

Top TFF scorers of the week were ....
Hause – 12 points
Watkins – 11 .... mainly by scuffing good chances to his team mates for assists
Saka – 10
Fernandes – 9
.... and then 41 players on 7 points.

The season-long leaders are ....
Kane & Salah – 104 points
Vardy – 100
Son – 97
DCL – 94
Fernandes – 93
Bamford - 88

Leader up 53 to 878 pts - averaging 58.53 .... Olympique Biscuit (Ben Murphy)
100th up 38 (773 pts)
1k up 37 (714)
10k up 33 (643)

There’s just time for a quick lie down before we ‘go again’

[brencarr]

Week 16 – Covid cancellations – Happy New Year

Everton v Man City and Spurs v Fulham were both postponed at relatively short notice this week, which made a bit of a mess of this week’s scores, and my teams – especially in ‘the other place’ where I had Kane & Son as captain & vice That means we have the following fixtures already postponed to fit in at some point ....
Burnley v Man United
Man City v Aston Villa
Aston Villa v Newcastle
Everton v Man City
Spurs v Fulham

Despite not playing, Man City & Spurs will be pleased to have seen Liverpool draw 0-0 at Newcastle, Leicester draw 1-1 at Palace and Chelsea v Villa end 1-1. Man United almost joined the club – they managed a 93rd minute winner to overcome Wolves at Old Trafford – The Red Devils up into 2nd place, 1 point behind Liverpool, with a game in hand

Southampton captain James Ward-Prowse is now the outfield player on the longest run of consecutive Premier League matches, this week saw his 73rd successive appearance in the competition for Saints .... who also drew .... 0-0 with the Hammers.

With the 2 postponed matches there were only 12 goals this week – and Leeds scored 5 of them The 5-0 defeat was not what Big Sam was hoping to get for Christmas.

At the bottom, Sheffield United lost again, 1-0 at Burnley – who were the big winners at the bottom. The hapless Blades keep setting unwanted records each week, they have now equalled Queens Park Rangers' record of 16 games for the longest winless start to a Premier League season

Top scorers of the week ....
Mee – 12 points
Bamford – 8
.... then a load of 7s

Season-long leaders ....
Salah - 106
Kane - 104
Vardy - 101
Fernandes - 98
Son - 97

Scores were understandably low (again) this week ....

Leader up 23 to 901 pts - averaging 56.31 .... Olympique Biscuit (Ben Murphy)
100th up 25 (798 pts)
1k up 29 (743)
10k up 27 (670)

.... and the lines following our tracked positions have taken another dive ....

[brencarr]

Week 17 – Thomas Henderson Docherty (24 Apr 1928 – 31 Dec 2020)

Tommy Docherty died on New Year’s Eve, aged 92. He played for Celtic, Preston, Arsenal & Chelsea as well as winning 25 caps for Scotland. He managed around a dozen clubs but I remember him mostly as the Man United manager – including for that famous shock 1-0 FA Cup final defeat, by Southampton – although they did return to beat Liverpool the following year. RIP ‘Doc’


The headline from week 17 last season was – ‘Unbeaten Liverpool go 10 points clear’ – this season is proving to be somewhat trickier for the Hasenhuttl look-a-like. The defending champions have only taken 2 points from the last 3 games and are now only ahead of Man United on goal difference. Liverpool were beaten 1-0 at Southampton thanks to an Ings goal, and a couple of decisions which had Herr Klopp bemoaning their luck. Saints are back up into 6th place.

Man. United beat Villa 2-1 with the aid of a penalty which would rate significantly below ‘stonewall’ on the ‘was that a penalty’ scale, Fernandes did the rest .... penalties awarded in Premier League games since the start of the 2018-19 season .... (from BBC Sports website)
Man United .... 32
Leicester .... 24
Man City .... 18
Liverpool .... 17

Leicester won 2-1 at Newcastle to remain in 3rd spot, just a point behind the leaders. Spurs beat Leeds 3-0 to remain 4th, with Kane and Son the stars of the show again. It was Son’s 100th goal for Spurs and Kane has now scored against all 30 Premier League sides he has faced. It was also the 13th time the pair have combined for a goal this season – equalling the record set by Sutton & Shearer in 1994-95 Leeds are in 12th place and are probably going to stay clear of any trouble – and I think most neutrals hope they do – they’re bonkers

Man City won 3-1 at Chelsea, that’s 3 wins in a row for City who join Spurs on 29 points (along with Southampton & Everton). Chelsea have only taken 4 points from their last 5 games and are down into 9th place .... Roman won’t be pleased

At the bottom of the table Sheffield United lost 2-0 at Palace and continue to rewrite history on a weekly basis .... they are the first English top-flight side to fail to win any of their first 17 games in a season since Bolton Wanderers in 1902-03 Next up in the league for the Blades are Newcastle, Spurs, Man United & Man City.

West Brom lost at home 4-0 to Arsenal and remain in 19th place with just 8 points. The Gunners have won 3 in a row and have gone from being relegation contenders to now being just 10 points off top spot In that game Kieran Tierney got 15 points for a goal, an assist and a clean sheet .... now that I’ve got rid of him Fulham’s game at Burnley was the latest to be postponed due to the Coronavirus. Brighton and Wolves drew 3-3.

The top points in the season so far ....
Kane - 114
Salah – 108
Son - 107
Vardy - 106
Fernandes - 105

The scores for this set of (9) games are slightly improved, but that average is still coming down ....
Leader up 43 to 944 pts - averaging 55.53 .... Olympique Biscuit (Ben Murphy)
100th up 46 (844 pts)
1k up 44 (787)
10k up 43 (713)

Next up we have League Cup semis and then the 3rd Round (proper) of the FA Cup, an opportunity for the Championship, Football League and even non-league germs to rub shoulders with their Premier League counterparts Stay home – Protect the NHS – Save lives

[SamD]

Thanks for stats and pen-notes, brencarr.

Week 17
.... penalties awarded in Premier League games since the start of the 2018-19 season .... (from BBC Sports website)
Man United .... 32
Leicester .... 24
Man City .... 18
Liverpool .... 17
....

Figures to Round-17 this season show Leicester (and Vardy) are the new penalty kings.

Code: Select all

Club	Pen-For Pen-Agnst Scored Missed/Saved
Leicester  10      1        8       2
Brighton    6	   6	    5       1
Man Utd     6	   4	    5	    1
Liverpool   5	   5	    5	    0
Chelsea     5	   2	    3	    2
Newcastle   4      2        4       0

[brencarr]

Week 18 – FA Cup 3rd Round (Proper )

Colin Bell, MBE (26 Feb 1946 – 5 Jan 2021) a.k.a. The King of the Kippax, died this week. He played for Bury, Manchester City and also won 48 caps for England. As a youngster standing in the Kippax, he was my hero. RIP Nijinsky

In the FA Cup, Aston Villa were wiped out by Covid and sent their youngsters out to face Liverpool .... the average shirt number for the Villa starting XI was over 55 . Despite having Curly, Larry & Mo (something like that) in midfield, the reds struggled somewhat and were being held 1-1 at half time; but they were never really in any danger of losing, and goals from Salah & Mane helped them to a 4-1 win.

Leicester won 4-0 at Stoke with Justin scoring along with his clean sheet. Man United beat Watford 1-0, Wolves beat Palace 1-0. Emile Smith-Rowe got sent off for Arsenal and then scored in extra time as the Gunners beat Newcastle 2-0 – it’s a VAR thing

Man City & Chelsea eased past lower-level opposition. Bernardo Silva scored 2 in the first 15 minutes to see off Birmingham City (3-0) and Timo Werner scored in Chelsea’s 4-0 defeat of Morecambe – nice to see Zouma playing in that one for a handy 7 points - he’s only £2.9m and in the top 10 season-long scorers

Alfie Devine scored for Spurs to become their youngest-ever goal scorer (16 years 163 days) in their 5-0 win at Marine, Vinicius helped himself to a first-half hat trick but let himself down with an Mbappe-style celebration .... against Marine .... c’mon man

Newport ‘keeper Tom King would have probably dreamed of saving 2 penalties in a shoot-out against Brighton .... unfortunately, his opposite number Jason Steele saved 4 (four ) to see Brighton overcome Newport after a 1-1 draw.

The Premier League losers were .... Leeds, dumped out of the cup (3-0) by Crawley Town . The League 2 side were able to bring on TOWIE ‘star’ Mark Wright for the last 20 minutes – I bet Bielsa was well-jel West Brom are also able to concentrate on the league now as they lost on penalties at Blackpool after a 2-2 draw.
Premier League teams out of the cup so far .... Aston Villa; Crystal Palace; Leeds; Newcastle & West Brom.

Top scorers this week ....
Vinicius – 17 points
Dawson; Mane; Bernardo Silva & Justin all on 12 pts

Season-long leaders, of which, only Salah played ....
Salah – 115
Kane - 114
Son - 107
Vardy - 106
Fernandes - 105

We have a change at the top of the leaderboard but it’s not a new face ....
Lead position up 35 to 979 pts - averaging 54.39 .... Tweedbank Pond United (Graeme Rigg)
100th up 31 (875 pts)
1k up 31 (818)
10k up 28 (741)

The average score over the last 4 seasons of the team in 10,000th place after week 18 is 864.8 points .... this season there are only 164 teams who are above that score

[Canaryfan]

The Premier League losers were .... Leeds, dumped out of the cup (3-0) by Crawley Town . The League 2 side were able to bring on TOWIE ‘star’ Mark Wright for the last 20 minutes

He only came on in stoppage time - it was a different Wright who came on earlier (I believe it may have been his brother as I think he plays for Crawley too).

[murf]

The Premier League losers were .... Leeds, dumped out of the cup (3-0) by Crawley Town . The League 2 side were able to bring on TOWIE ‘star’ Mark Wright for the last 20 minutes

He only came on in stoppage time - it was a different Wright who came on earlier (I believe it may have been his brother as I think he plays for Crawley too).

It was. His debut too.

[brencarr]

Week 19 – One-nil to-the .... Man United, Man City, Sheffield United, Brighton, West Ham, Chelsea .... almost everyone BUT Ar-se-nal

I’ve had to do a bit of jiggery-pokery this ‘week’ as the games are being cancelled and re-arranged in a haphazard fashion. My next 2 ‘weeks’ will each have 10 or 11 games in (when the music stops). This isn’t in line with TFF’s ‘weeks’ and some teams play twice in one week, others miss out altogether and there’s an FA Cup replay thrown in for good measure .... but it helps with the comparisons to other seasons.

The Premier League table is all over the place at the moment with teams having played 15 to 19 games. At the top, Man United hit the front with a 1-0 win at Burnley with Pogba playing well and scoring .... I guess that confirms the transfer window is definitely open Leicester beat an injury-hit Southampton at the King Power (2-0) to move into 2nd spot above Liverpool – who haven’t had a game yet, but have 2 next ‘week’ – if you’re still following me

Man City scraped past Brighton at the Etihad, 1-0 thanks to their top scorer this season – Phil Foden City move up to 4th. Sterling continued his career-long form in front of goal and sent a last-minute penalty into orbit Hurry back Sergio. Everton are in 5th after a 2-1 win at Wolves.

Harry Kane scored Spurs’ goal in a 1-1 draw v. Fulham; in so doing, he became only the 3rd player to score 25 Premier League goals with each – left foot, right foot & head (Robbie Fowler & Andy Cole). Maybe Scott Parker should try preparing less for future games, as it seems to be working for him (eye roll). Spurs were due to play Villa but Covid led to that game being postponed. Aston Villa players could be in demand later in the season when they have re-arranged games to be played (although they’re out of the cup).

At the bottom of the table there was a much-needed win for the Blades, 1-0 against 10-man Newcastle (for 45 mins) but they’ll take it. They are still 6 points behind West Brom who won 3-2 at Wolves (not a good week for Nuno), and 11 points from safety. Fulham’s point at Spurs was followed-up by a 1-0 home defeat v. Chelsea. Frank Lampard’s team just getting the win despite playing against 10 men for the 2nd half .... Werner is a flop and after I ‘bigged up’ Kurt Zouma last week he was nowhere to be seen – hopefully just a rest

Now that we are getting used to the farcical situation with VAR each week, the ‘powers that be’ have decided to mix things up a bit by banning players from celebrating after scoring a goal. So, you can rub shoulders with the opposition but not with you own team .... that you’re in a bubble with .... ok

Top TFF points scorer this week, and the only one to make double figures ....
Matheus ‘Costa’ Periera, who scored 2 penalties for West Brom in their 3-2 win at Wolves – 12 points.

Season-long top scorers, there are 6 that have broken the ton ....
Kane – 121
Salah – 115
Son – 109
Vardy – 108
Fernandes – 106
Bamford - 100

.... in week 19 last season the top 5 were ...
Vardy 136
KDB 108
Rashford 105
Aubameyang & Mane 104 .... only 3 of them were in the top 5 at the end of the season (KDB, Vardy & Aubameyang)


The scores continue their downward trajectory (Week 19 last year had an average of 57.5) ....
Leader up 37 to 1,016 pts - averaging 53.47 .... Tweedbank Pond United (Graeme Rigg)
100th up 37 (912 pts)
1k up 34 (842)
10k up 31 (772)

[brencarr]

Week 20 – Liverpool lose at Anfield

Man. City had 2 games this ‘week’ and they made the most of the first one, beating Palace 4-0 at the Etihad to move into 2nd place. Another clean sheet for City’s defence and a huge bonus of 2 goals for John Stones who is having a great season alongside Ruben Dias. Liverpool and Man United drew 0-0 which was a great result for the chasing pack.

Leicester beat Chelsea to go top on Tuesday night (38 pts), Man City beat Villa 2-0 to go top on Wednesday night (on goal difference) and then Man United won 2-1 at Fulham to regain top spot a couple of hours later (40 pts). Exciting times

Liverpool, now back down in 4th place, had a serious blip, they lost a league game at Anfield for the first time in 3 years & 9 months (68 matches); that was Burnley’s first win there since 1974. Barnes’ penalty was Burnley’s 1st this season, and only their 6th penalty in 132 Premier League games Liverpool have also gone 4 league games without scoring - for the first time in 20 years

Spurs won 3-1 at Sheffield Utd to remain 5th, with Kane & Son in the points again

At the bottom, Brighton won 1-0 at Leeds to pull a little further away from trouble. They are now 5 pts ahead of Fulham although they have played a game more. West Brom lost 2-1 at West Ham and are 6 points from safety and looking as lost as Sheffield Utd.

The season-long top scorers list still only has 6 players on 100+ points ....
Kane – 128
Salah – 118
Son – 114
Fernandes – 113
Vardy – 110
Bamford - 100

Better scoring all round this ‘week’ and we have our first new leader since week 10 ....

Lead position up 66 to 1,082 pts - averaging 54.10 .... fantastico (Marius Ionita)
100th up 61 (973 pts)
1k up 61 (913)
10k up 52 (824)

Up next is the FA Cup 4th Round, in the corresponding weekend last season (week 26) the average score for our tracked positions was around 20 points, good luck all.

[brencarr]

Week 21 – FA Cup Round 4, Abraham hat-trick

The biggest tie of the 4th round saw Liverpool go to Old Trafford. They played out a 5-goal thriller with a brace for Salah not being enough as a late Fernandes free kick won it for United. That’s 1 win in 7 for the affable Herr Klopp – who’s surely not in any danger of the sack Man United on the other hand have now only lost 1 game in the last 13 .... a far cry from OGS’s early days in the job when he was getting sacked every week. A manager who HAS been sacked this week is Frank Lampard, despite beating Luton 3-1 thanks to an Abraham hat-trick ... Werner had a penalty saved to add to his own personal woes

The Premier League clubs did well this round with no slip-ups against lower league opposition – 8 of them also managed to score 3 or more goals. Here are the results and some of the top points scorers ....

Chorley 0-1 Wolves (Kilman 10)
Southampton 1-0 Arsenal
Brighton 2-1 Blackpool (Alzate 10)
Sheff Utd 2-1 Plymouth (Sharp 10)
West Ham 4-0 Doncaster (Fredericks 13)
Cheltenham 1-3 Man City
Chelsea 3-1 Luton (Abraham 17)
Brentford 1-3 Leicester (Maddison 10)
Fulham 0-3 Burnley (Rodriguez 15)
Man United 3-2 Liverpool (Salah 12, Rashford 10, Greenwood 10, Firmino 8)
Everton 3-0 Sheffield Wed (Mina 12, Rodriguez 8)
Wycombe 1-4 Spurs (Ndombele 11)

Aston Villa managed to get a team back out on the pitch after a running battle with Covid-19, they beat Newcastle 2-0 in the league.

That brace by Salah and goal from Fernandes has shaken up the top 5 a little ....

Salah - 130
Kane - 129
Fernandes - 119
Son - 118
Vardy – 110

Graeme Rigg won’t take ‘no’ for an answer as his team hits the top of the table for the third time this season ....
Lead position up 30 to 1,112 pts - averaging 52.95 .... Tweedbank Pond United (Graeme Rigg)
100th up 40 (1,013 pts)
1k up 37 (950)
10k up 36 (860)

The Premier League is up next, in about 20 hours as the games continue to come thick and fast.