Fantasy Premier League Blog

The Week Ahead, Part 1 - Schedule Analysis

2011-10-12T13:02:00.003-04:00

As with everything blog-related, you can find this week's post at our new home over at www.NeverManageAlone.com (a part of SBNation.com). We hope you'll join us there. http://www.nevermanagealone.com/2011/10/12/2485570/the-week-ahead-part-1-the-schedule Cheers - Neal

Barn Door Team - Week 8 Revised

2011-10-11T09:08:00.001-04:00

Check out this post at our new blog home, Never Manage Alone. The original is after the jump, but really you should check out the new version. With Emmanuel Adebayor struggling with a hamstring injury after the Arsenal match, and seeing his price coming back down to cost, I'm playing with a new line-up for next week. Franco Di Santo has been hit or miss this season, but hosting a

English teams watching Brek Shea

2011-10-10T10:13:00.000-04:00

So this rumour has made it from Twitter to the larger web. English eyes on US starlet | Sky Sports | Football | Transfer Centre | Speculation: Skysports.com understands a host of Premier League clubs are tracking American hot-shot Brek Shea. The FC Dallas ace is regarded as one of the best young talents in America and is already an established member of Jurgen Klinsmann's USA side. The

Wenger As England Manager?

2011-10-06T14:07:00.000-04:00

Perhaps because it is an international week. Perhaps it is because reporters are tired of writing about Arsenal's demise on the pitch. Perhaps they are tired of digging into the books and trying to figure out how many years it will be until the long-term, and now out-dated, deals made to pay for the new stadium will be keeping Arsenal's football revenues from growing at the same pace as their

Barn Door Team - Week 8

2011-10-05T12:17:00.001-04:00

It's international week, but that doesn't mean we're not already looking ahead to the next gameweek in ten days time. Here's my team, assembled over the course of last weekend. There are injuries here, and some questions. Look for changes, and the (surely faulty) reasoning to come.

Thierry Henry: Class is Permanent

2011-10-03T13:11:00.001-04:00

First XI - What We Learned During Week 7

2011-10-02T22:20:00.000-04:00

This column is getting long enough in its own right so I'm not going to write much of a preamble this time around. Before we get to it though, I'm going to solicit feedback on two aspects of the column. I've added what I'm thinking will be regular fixtures under #1 and #2 . I have been mixing fantasy and reality comments in this column thus far this season. That isn't going to change but I

The Barn Door Live - Week 7

2011-10-01T07:27:00.001-04:00

&lt;p&gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&amp;amp;task=viewaltcast&amp;amp;altcast_code=9ad55d15e5" &amp;gt;The Barn Door Live - Week 7&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Week 7 Team

2011-09-30T23:53:00.000-04:00

After lots of thought, but surely little understanding, here's my week 7 team. Good night, and good luck.

Arsenal Financials: Dead Weight Wages the Issue

2011-09-30T13:10:00.000-04:00

BBC Sport - Arsenal financial future secure - Ivan Gazidis: So, even in a "down" year that happened during a down economy, Arsenal are extremely profitable. Here is the big question that their numbers should be stirring up as everyone focuses their time talking about the transfer dollars in and out: What has the impact of the transfers in and out on the "rising wage bill" been? I'm sure Nasri,

Injuries and Suspensions

2011-09-30T10:21:00.000-04:00

No big intro today, other than to highlight the fact that Rooney and Chicharito being back probably has us all scrambling to figure out how to align our teams to get as many United players as possible into our line-ups against Norwich. Man United vs. Norwich Rooney, Chicharito and Evans are back and should all start. Not good news for Norwich OR people hoping to pick up Welbeck as a cheap

The Week Ahead, Part 2 - Player Picks

2011-09-29T21:48:00.000-04:00

I have to admit that my first experiences watching a Roberto Mancini-coached team was a good one. It was in a pre-scandal Italy (at least the recent one). Inter Milan were still a plucky 3rd or 4th best team fighting to keep up with Milan and Juve. The thing that I remember enjoying about them is that you could see just about anything from them on any given weekend. They could play the

Holden Injured Again

2011-09-29T12:08:00.000-04:00

American midfielder Stuart Holden to miss another six months with knee injury - Soccer Insider - The Washington Post: It is rare that I get to link the blog of my favorite writer on US Soccer as there aren't many cross-over topics between his blog (mostly focused on the USMNT and MLS) and our Premier League and Premier League Fantasy blog. Sadly, my opportunity comes on the occasion of

The Week Ahead, Part 1 - The Schedule

2011-09-28T20:05:00.000-04:00

Good to see Olof Mellberg again. It's been a while. In case you hadn't guessed, I am watching Arsenal vs. Olympiokos on DVR as I write this column. I figured I'd better watch because I need to catch up on all the midweek excitement that I started missing out on yesterday while I was on the road for work. Jeremy wrote about the drama at Manchester City and we've started to see stories

Week 7 Barn Door Team

2011-09-28T11:22:00.002-04:00

I have three different options for you to choose from this week. Please vote in the comments below. First there is the real Barn Door team, the one I came out of the weekend with: I was nervous about going all in on the North London derby, but surely there are goals there. Then came the news about Tevez and Dzeko, and all of a sudden Balotelli (God help us all) looks like a great

Tevez and Dzeko in hot water with Mancini

2011-09-27T19:05:00.000-04:00

Exit stage right. The news coming out of Manchester City's 0-2 loss to Bayern Munich is explosive. Evidently, Carlos Tevez refused to come on as a substitute. As a result, Roberto Mancini tells the post-match press conference that Carlos Tevez will "never, never play for City again". In addition, it's also being reported on Twitter that Dzeko will also be benched. It won't get as much

Rooney could miss 'weeks'

2011-09-26T11:00:00.001-04:00

Sir Alex Ferguson: Wayne Rooney could miss 'weeks' - ESPN Soccernet Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed that Wayne Rooney could miss "a few weeks" of Manchester United's season. United served up a surprise at Stoke on Saturday, as they arrived at the Britannia Stadium without their star man. Ferguson told ESPN after the 1-1 draw that the club had endured a "nightmare" training session on Friday.

First XI - What We Learned in Week 6

2011-09-24T14:57:00.000-04:00

Sometimes there's no substitute for a good old fashioned lesson/reminder about what not to do in picking your fantasy team. The first lesson I (re)learned this past weekend is that Friday trading with no additional information will generally lead to you out-thinking yourself. What do I mean? On Friday, without any news from Wenger, I got it in my head that Gibbs might not start and that I

The Barn Door Live - Week 5

2011-09-24T07:12:00.001-04:00

The Barn Door Live - Week 6

Injuries and Suspensions

2011-09-23T10:53:00.002-04:00

We're finally back on schedule here at blog headquarters and since it is Friday morning on the East Coast of the United States that means it is time for all the news that is fit to print, err, type and link to about injuries and suspensions and how they impact your fantasy choices for the weekend. Arsenal vs. Bolton Sagna and Ramsey back for Arsenal while Yossi and Djourou are both out with

The Week Ahead, Part Two - Player Picks

2011-09-23T08:32:00.000-04:00

Sometimes we, and by we I mean the blog, pay the price for this not being a full time job. There are times when the job that pays the bills takes precedence over the enjoyment of bringing you blog posts so long that your bosses, significant others, non-fantasy-playing friends, and children complain about the time spent on them on occasion. I enjoy writing them as much as (I hope) you enjoy

The Week Ahead, Part 1 - The Schedule

2011-09-22T10:08:00.000-04:00

I have to be honest, I'm not feeling much in a ranting mood today. A mid-week full of Carling Cup matches doesn't provide a lot of fodder for a good rant. So, in the interest of keeping it brief (for once) I'll move directly to the schedule analysis which, I know, tends to go a little long anyway. The Home Teams Chelsea vs. Swansea - I'm still not "all in" on Chelsea being a realistic

Agger out for a month

2011-09-20T11:56:00.000-04:00

Rib facture sidelines Agger | Liverpool Football Club News, Fixtures, Results, Gossip Liverpool defender Daniel Agger could be out for up to four weeks after fracturing a rib in Sunday's 4-0 Barclays Premier League defeat at Tottenham. The Denmark international sustained the injury when he fell heavily in the first half and had to be substituted before half-time.Evidently Daglish is

Hatem Ben Arfa set for Newcastle return

2011-09-20T09:11:00.000-04:00

We're as suprised as anyone. Hatem Ben Arfa set to return to action for Newcastle - ESPN Soccernet Hatem Ben Arfa will finally return to the Newcastle side almost a year after suffering a double leg break against Manchester City. ...Now he will pull on the black and white shirt on Wednesday night as Newcastle travel to struggling Championship side Nottingham Forest in the Carling Cup. It

First XI - What We Learned in Week 5

2011-09-19T17:05:00.000-04:00

In theory when you're a journalist you don't root for teams and therefore all you're looking for is an angle, something interesting to write about that will get people to buy your newspaper, click on your link, or head to the Facebook page to make some pithy comments about your genius idiocy. As much as we'd all like to believe that our journalists stick to this standard (because they tell us