Fog Dude

The results went into the opening post on Sunday night, and the table was updated soon afterwards. I've left in the FPL Cup Group Stage from September too, as a reminder of how things stand heading into the next few weeks of fixtures in that competition. Scoring looks higher this time out, but in truth it's augmented by Seph's successful bet that he's already gloated about in here. He was obviously top scorer, but ultimo would've been the best performer without those bonus points, and the only participant into double figures and with more than one exact scoreline right.

Nonetheless, because of the D2D, he actually drops to third place. MVP RULZ remains ahead not just on alphabetical order, but because slightly fewer points of his derive from bonuses. In a normal season, if it finished like that I'd probably invite the top two back for a Mastermind-style five-match play-off... but this is already set to be the longest continual season ever (2019-20 finished later but had a 3-month gap in the middle), so I'd probably accept that as a winning margin. 

Vegeta moves off the bottom at the expense of Nicko, and he also leapfrogs Rory in the process. Shy Dad was lowest scorer but has enough of a cushion to stay firmly inside the top half. Still a bit of a comedown from where he was just a few weeks ago, mind.

The 'wildcard' match was the draw in the Women's FA Cup, so there were no extra bonuses awarded this week. To give an idea how remarkable it was that Millwall even got that close to an upset, Burnley and Wolves avoided shocks emphatically in outcomes that were generally good for one-pointers, alongside expected wins in the league for Newcastle, Arsenal and Manchester United's male sides. The Belles' failure to cause a surprise caught a few people out.

As was already mentioned, the stalemate at Ashton Gate was only helpful to one participant in particular. Progress for Diego Simeone's embattled Atlético proved fruitful even if it was narrower than people thought beforehand, whilst 'fallen giants' Deportivo showed that they might not be done with falling down El Pozo (the well) just yet. Apparently their first-choice keeper is injured at the moment, but that's no excuse for going down meekly to defeat in an unpronounceable village with a sub-6,000 population in the middle of nowhere. They truly are the Timmy O'Toole of Spanish football. And of course their loss led to a dud for all of us.

===

New card will be up in the first post shortly, but first, you voted at the start of the season that the next 5 rounds should count in full towards the classification, so let's look at what the various leagues have left us with: 

England – everything below the top 2 divisions carries on despite some clubs as low as League Two receiving call-ups, then mercifully the Champ comes back halfway through; 

Scotland – the Premiership is off for 4 of the 5 weeks even though they didn't qualify but everything else continues as normal The 3 o'clock blackout still stands, so if you watch the first half of France v Denmark north of the border, you're technically breaking the law;

Spain – probably the place we'll rely on most for padding out the card with continental games since the Segunda is ploughing on as usual; 

Germany – all the top 3 divisions are now on hold and return on consecutive weekends in January. Brutal, efficient, logical, just as you'd expect from the Germans; 

Italy – Serie B seems to be persisting with fixtures, and like the Scots, they've deigned to bring back the top flight before the end of the tournament by virtue of another hilarious failure to qualify; 

France – some cup ties this weekend but then it's all off until a (rare) "Boxing Day à l'anglaise" round of games. Like the Germans, they re-introduced rubbish promotion/relegation play-offs recently so all the divisions involved have to finish on the same weekend, meaning if Ligue 1 takes a break, so do all the rest;

The Americas – the Copa Libertadores, Brazilian Série A and the USA's MLS somehow all ended about a month earlier than usual to accommodate the World Cup, so no dice there for us; 

Australia – in a fit of pessimism, the A-League is returning on the 9th of December, presumably on the assumption that the Socceroos will be long gone from Qatar by then, so we could always dip Down Under if we get desperate.

So how about internationals and the tournament itself? Only the middle of the group stages really works out in terms of the scheduling, which will mean one 'hybrid' round of 5 World Cup matches and 5 club games. There are some friendlies this weekend, but the Home Nations appear to be sitting them out, so we won't bother including any of those. 

And the bringing forward of the opening ceremony by one day means we can feature that too, so at last, let's crack on!

On 11/10/2022 at 9:28 PM, Fatty Facesitter said:

We get unlimited transfers during the World Cup break - effectively a second wildcard chip. This will allow us to make changes right up to Boxing Day when the league resumes and covers us in the event of any injuries. Absolute touch. 

I've blown all of my chips now - you're absolutely right that patient pays off with them and I've learned the hard way. But I'm a petulant child and I saw nothing but green arrows in my eyes for the short term...I don't think a single one of the chips has really worked out for me, sadly. But I wasn't too fussed about Bench Boost - it's a bit of a shit chip so I wasn't bothered about blowing it early. 

Ah, well that first bit of news is good to know! Will definitely be making use of that once Boxing Day is approaching. 

I agree that Bench Boost is a bit rubbish. I think it's only survived because they want there to be 3 of them and it's better than All-Out Attack and whatever the other old Chip used to be. That said, with a whole matchday having been wiped out in September then it might we worth holding onto this season if those games are all played in the same midweek. If they end up scattered across various random dates then in that case, you were probably right to throw it away nice and early.

But yeah, green arrows can be a tempting dopamine hit. I saw a bit of red partway through the latest gameweek but then recovered to go up in all my private leagues except one – and wouldn't you just know it, the exception was the Chippy Tea League. I'm on 57 points, above average again, among the top 1.4m players for the week, into the top 30% globally and with 832 points overall heading into the World Cup break. Would love to have hit a cool thousand by now but it never really looked on the cards.

Anyway, as expected, Fulham's Serbian star didn't play, so I got Martinelli's 6 points from the bench instead. I was right to leave Zaha out considering his missed penalty, but I should've started on-form East Midlands duo Henderson and Castaigne on a half dozen each, ahead of Lloris and Cancelo who both finished with a point apiece. Haaland was no good as the captaincy pick. My vice-captain Tripper got 7 alongside his fellow Newcastle defender Schär. 

Mac Allister with 9 points or Kane on 11 would've been even wiser choices as captain, whilst Saliba and Almirón were again solid on 6 points... but Groß could also only muster a single point. It's not hard to figure out which teams will welcome the long pause and which ones will be frustrated at the loss of momentum. 

That's the last you'll hear of the Fantasy League from me for a good while. Big Predictions League update coming later tonight... 

On 11/9/2022 at 10:10 AM, Fatty Facesitter said:

Finished with 77 points last week in the end with a bench boost. Would have been more had Newcastle held on for the clean sheet against Southampton because I had Pope and Botman in m squad as well - luckily Trippier had been subbed just beforehand and kept his clean sheet and bonus points. Up to 4th in the Chippy Tea mini-league and up to 1.2million in the overall standings. Only one week to go until the unlimited transfers for the World Cup come into play. 

Any reason for using Bench Boost this early on a random weekend? I really think patience pays off when it comes to making the most of the Chips. Also, what's this about unlimited transfers?!? 

I've swapped out Robert Sánchez for Dean Henderson anyway, just for the sake of making a change this week. Schär, Saliba and (in a bit of a risk) Mitrović are all restored to the starting line-up in place of Castagne, Martinelli and Zaha. And yes, I'm aware two of those are actually on form at the moment but I'm basing it on how tough their fixtures are. Does this mean my formation's now a more attacking 4-3-3? Yes it does, Garth. Haaland is captained as it's his last chance to impress for a while, whilst Trippier, fresh from being named in a World Cup squad again, gets the nod as vice-captain. 

===

In the first bit of housekeeping for next season – the EPL announced this week that the 2023-24 campaign will begin on the 11th or 12th of August and end on the 19th of May. That will give us an opportunity for slightly shorter Predictions and Fantasy League terms than the current one, and a brief return to relative normality before the new "Champions" League format comes into force in 2024-25. There's a split round in January (5 matches one weekend, the other 5 the next) but we'll treat those as normal because Winter Breaks are silly and ought to be done either properly or not at all. There should be 2 fewer Prediction rounds than this season too, with Easter once again the only Double week. 

As for the D2D, since we now know Seph has gone for a cowardly bet of a draw – albeit understandable after Tuesday night – I'm going to curse us with a bit of pre-break optimism as part of my picks: 

Premier League

Newcastle United 3-0 Chelsea 
Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-3 Arsenal 
Fulham 2-1 Manchester United 

Championship
Bristol City w/out seph 2-0 Watford 

Women's FA Cup First Round proper
Doncaster Belles 1-0 Huddersfield Town 
Shrewsbury Town 1-2 Wolverhampton Wanderers 
Tranmere Rovers 2-3 Burnley 
Millwall Lionesses 0-2 Gillingham 

Spanish Cup Round of... 112?
Guijuelo 1-3 Deportivo La Coruña 
Almazán 0-1 Atlético Madrid

The final scores went into the first post on Sunday night as usual, and the table was recalculated soon after that. In a low-scoring round, the only bit of movement involved top scorer ultimo going up two places into second, but nobody got more than one exact score or made it anywhere near to double figures. MVP RULZ still leads, and Vegeta remains a point adrift at the other end. I do wonder if poor ultimo is now in need of a Sherpa. Sure there's enough oxygen up there mate?? 

Luckily, the 'wildcard' fixture wasn't one of the many duds. Match #2 at Stamford Bridge had its outcome guessed correctly by a majority of participants, even if none quite managed the correct scoreline of 0-1. They all get a bonus point. The only person to bet (wrongly) on a home win was our resident Chelsea fan, which would've been unthinkable 3 months ago, but it's indicative of how both sides' seasons have gone so far. 

Elsewhere, wins for Leeds and Bayern were generally good for one-pointers. No player foresaw that the former would end up a seven-goal thriller, but I was closest with my guess of 3-2. Home reverses for Spurs and Ajax left more of a mixed bag of picks in their wake, whilst a victory for The Old Lady against the form book caught all participants out. 

I think we've all got used to not plumping for draws in cup ties in recent years, so 3 replays among our contingent this time out did us no favours. The other 3 ties I was considering including all had a definitive winner on the day... but two of those were in favour of the underdog, so it still might not have done us much good. I was almost tempted to opt for a shock at Chippenham, but as I'm no longer based in the Westcountry – and don't pass through that railway station up to 3 times a day (don't ask) like I did a few years back – I decided against it. Obviously I now regret that, because it would at least have saved me from being outright lowest scorer.

Huge new set of 10 that you're probably gonna hate will appear at the top of the thread in short order. There's a D2D, it's our last chance to feature the EPL for 6 weeks, and the English Champo is off for half that time too... so naturally a majority of games are again gonna be cup ties. Enjoy!

14 hours ago, Supremo said:

Bring back the Mean Street Posse, you cowards!

In an alternate timeline where Shane inherited the company upon Vince's retirement instead of HHH, I'm sure that would've happened already. 

On 11/5/2022 at 9:59 AM, Shy Dad said:

I hate the FA Cup

Ha, Hereford had a lot of us believing for a few minutes on Friday night though! As it turned out, the Cup sprinkled its magic quite liberally elsewhere in a way that might make everyone who takes part in our little competition hate it too. But more on that tomorrow.

===

In the meantime, let's get a Fantasy League update out of the way instead, since this one of the last chances to put that in the spotlight before the World Cup. Both my goalies scored 2 points each so it didn't matter which of those I picked either way. I was right not to start Mitrović (who didn't play, and has been off form since the last international break anyhow) but should've played new signing Saliba (8 points) over Castagne (on 6). The Arsenal player I did start with, Martinelli, only scored 3.

Of my Newcastle defenders, giving Trippier the nod over Schär ended up as an emphatically good decision, with Zaha joining the former player on a dozen points as he continued to prove why it was wise to ship out all those West Ham players a while back. Almirón and Kane also continue to deliver the goods on 8 points apiece, even if the latter was on the wrong end of a bad result this time. 

Mac Allister did nothing special at Molineux so got just the standard 2 points, though at least another goal for Groß in the same match softened that blow by putting him on a score of 9.

And so we come to the pivotal game: Man City-Brighton. I thought it was the kind of fixture where Cancelo had a good chance of popping up with a goal from defence, and a decent possibility for a clean sheet too, so I captained him. It soon became apparent I'd have no such luck this week. A harsh 'double punishment' red card meant his minus 2 points 'double up' (double down??) to -4, then later Haaland's 25-minute cameo produced a rollercoaster of emotions. A disallowed goal, a booking but a successfully converted penalty at the death left him on 5 points, and therefore he was worth starting after all. 

The combination of the above leaves me on 63 points for the round, still above average but could've been so much better with one clever swap at the back and a smarter pick for the armband. Overall I've now got 775 points and creep into the top third of global teams. I'm just about up in a majority of my private leagues and again static in the rest. Actually quite pleased that it feels like ages since I went downwards in one of those.

Boringly, my squad is still worth exactly £99.9m with £0.1m in the bank I need to use at least one of my free transfers before the next matchday but once more, I'm not sure how I'm gonna use it yet. Will keep you posted when I make my predictions towards the end of the week.

On 11/2/2022 at 12:28 AM, Shy Dad said:

I'm also thankful Hereford Pompey got moved because I would have got shafted this week.

Yeah, it might not shock you to hear that I've pencilled in a league game for you further down the line, but if the broadcasters had somehow left the match at Edgar Street alone then I'd have been sorely tempted to bring your D2D forward to this round. And of course now the Bulls have extra impetus to "do it for Ronnie" so the BBC will be even more glad that they chose it for live TV coverage. 

On the Fantasy League front, I'm back to having 2 free transfers after using the Wild Card a couple of weeks ago, so I thought I'd better use one of them up. I've binned off Eric Dier and looked across North London to swap him for William Saliba who's scored more but costs less so it was a pretty simple decision in the end.

Sánchez, Mitrović and Schär (who's an injury doubt anyway) all drop to the bench, with Lloris restored in goal. Cancelo and Kane also return to the starting line-up as captain and vice-captain respectively. Haaland gets the nod up front again despite still being listed as suffering from a knock. 

===

Premier League

Leeds United 3-2 Bournemouth
Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal 
Spurs 2-2 Liverpool 

FA Cup First Round
Chippenham Town 1-2 Lincoln City
Fylde 0-3 Gillingham
Solihull Moors 0-2 Hartlepool United
Weymouth 1-3 Wimbledon

Imitation Bundesliga
Hertha Berlin 0-0 Bayern Munich 

Serie A
Juventus 0-1 Inter Milan

Eredivisie
Ajax 2-1 PSV Eindhoven

On a rainy evening in (appropriately enough) Lorraine, Metz ran out 2-1 winners so the original post was updated again a few hours ago and we can actually now work out the table too. Everybody went for an away win in that match, but nobody got the exact scoreline so everybody has one more point than they did on Sunday night. Indeed, three-pointers were extremely difficult to come by in this round. Nicko just about manages to haul himself off the foot of the standings by a single point, whilst the only other movement sees Shy Dad leap up into second spot, albeit behind MVP RULZ by a full twenty-two points (it feels like one of those seasons... )

That said, he and fellow nearest challenger seph do have their first-choice D2D still to come, so all is far from lost. Now for the 7 matches not yet mentioned so far in this post or the previous one: 

Spurs' comeback at Bournemouth salvaged a point for everybody except me, with Newcastle's drubbing of Villa going one better and earning a point for the entire field. It would've proved more fruitful if the stalemate had come at Selhurst Park instead of Craven Cottage, but both matches were still decent for a few one-pointers. The score draw at Brentford turned out to be just as tough to foresee, but it did also account for both the Dads' exact score guesses, which were the only ones of the entire round aside from the pick that nabbed the leader those extra bonus points.

Milan's defeat in Turin ended up as a dud outcome, and somehow nobody quite landed on 3-0 as Bordeaux eased into the next round of the Coupe de France in one of their city's own suburbs – well, in a banlieue at any rate, which doesn't have quite the same positive connotation that it does here. At least everyone managed to nab a point from that tie, with the actual upsets (as well as a lot of favourites sneaking through on penalties) happening elsewhere.

The next card, including some men's FA Cup ties and a few huge clashes from the continent, will go up at the top of the thread very soon. 

Nine results went into the opening post last night. On Friday evening, a centrally appointed public official for the Vosges département called off the Metz match at under 24 hours notice due to "insufficient security personnel" even though Metz had offered to reverse the tie in case that was going to be an issue. Don't think the Chief Executive of County Councils can cancel events the night before like that over here, but France is weird like that. I only found this out when looking for the result on Saturday. I wouldn't have included the game had I known it was gonna be postponed or if the higher-division side had been allowed to play the tie at their ground.

That said, what's even stupider about the situation is that it's due to be completed tomorrow. I fail to see how a midweek fixture after the clocks have gone back will be safer than it would've been to go ahead with the original plan on Saturday afternoon, but hey-ho, it does at least mean that people's guesses for that tie will still count. Regardless of the outcome in the Grand-Est, MVP RULZ will still be top as he nabbed the 'wildcard' bonus points all for himself this week. Most participants went for a Juve win at Lecce, but only the current leader thought it'd be a nervy 1-0 that eases the pressure on Max Allegri after the Champions League exit a few days earlier.

Closer to home, TildeGuy emphatically got his Brighton-Chelsea D2D bet wrong as the form book since both those sides changed managers was flipped on its head. A minority of other players correctly disagreed with him, and some of those only plumped for a draw. Nobody got the exact scoreline right from the AmEx, unsurprisingly enough. I'll round up the remaining matches and link to the table tomorrow night.

===

In the meantime, let's have another Fantasy League update. Let's start with that same match at Falmer, where Mac Allister only scored 2 but a late goal for Groß bumped his haul up to 7 points.

I also picked Sánchez over Lloris in goal correctly. In fact, even though Spurs got away with it in the end at The Vitality Dean Court, I was right to leave all 3 of their players that I've got on the bench as they all scored 1 point each. 

Haaland didn't play after all, so his team-mate Cancelo was swapped in for him and was good for 6 points. My new signing Castagne got just 2 in the Foxes' losing effort in that game. In two of Saturday's less eventual meetings, Zaha and Mitrović scored a mere 2 and 1 points respectively.

The pivotal clash was Newcastle Utd-Villa, where my trio of Magpies filled their boots. Almirón's dozen doubles up to 24 as he was captain, Trippier managed 11 on top of that and even Schär nabbed 6 points for a clean sheet. He is now listed as an injury doubt for the next matchday, mind.

From the Sunday fixtures, my squad's sole involvement was from Martinelli who added a further 8 points as part of Arsenal's emphatic win. All of that left me on 74 points for the week, above average again and up in most of my private leagues, static in the rest. Not sure what I'm doing for Gameweek 15 since it's only Monday, but I'll keep you posted.

In the Fantasy League, Haaland did well for me again, but he's selected by most people so I'm not sure how much of an advantage that is. Captaining him certainly helps as his 13 points doubled up to 26, but since he's now listed as a slight doubt I've downgraded him to just vice-captain for the coming Gameweek. Almirón was also into double figures, with Kane on 8 and Mitrović on 6 as the other decent scorers. 

The four players I left on the bench scored 6 points between them (not each), but 7 players I did start also failed to bag more than 2 points, including Jonny who nabbed a big fat zero despite playing as it became clear that Bruno Lage at Molineux might've been a West Brom agent all along. Of course I started the season with West Ham, Villa and Forest players but gradually shipped them out. The round's Team of the Week therefore naturally contains two Hammers and two Villains plus a Tricky Tree in goal. 

I've binned off Jonny who was already in the last chance saloon before that shocker at the weekend, and brought in Leicester's Timothy Castagne now that the Foxes seem to be back in some form after a couple of wins on the bounce, including that thrashing of Wolves. Almirón gets the armband. Perhaps I've gone crazy but I've dropped all 3 Spurs players to the bench alongside Cancelo. 

I got 60 points overall, slightly above average again. It also puts me inside the top 25% of weekly players once more and keeps me in the top half globally for the season. I'm up a notch in 4 private leagues (including one of the UKFF ones) but static in the rest.

===

To be fair to Tilde, I ought to be point out that the match I originally pencilled in for his first D2D was scheduled for Week 7, hasn't been played yet and when it is, it'll probably be in midweek so it won't concern us. Just thought I'd note that here in the interests of transparency. Anyway, my picks: 

Premier League

Bournemouth 2-0 Spurs
Brentford 3-0 Wolves
Brighton & Hove Albion 1-0 Chelsea w/TildeGuy
Crystal Palace 0-0 Southampton
Newcastle United 3-1 Aston Villa
Fulham 2-1 Everton 

Serie A
Lecce 1-1 Juventus 
Torino 1-2 Milan 

French Cup Seventh Round 
Raon l'Étape 0-3 Metz 
Stade bordelais 1-3 Girondins de Bordeaux (in Le Bouscat)

On 10/22/2022 at 10:15 AM, RoryFice said:

Never heard Kilwinning described as a "delightful village" before!

Lived there for the first 25 years of my life and although I ended up supporting/running Ardeer, I'm hoping that the Buffs can spring a surprise today. I know plenty of folk who'll be at the match.

I was staying in Greenock during the 2014 Commonwealth Games but didn't have tickets for any events on a couple of days. On the first of those I naturally went and 'did' Edinburgh but on the second I woke up not knowing where I'd end up, stuck a pin in a map of nearby locations and was drawn to Kilwinning for whatever reason. Saw the old weaver's cottage, Bobbins café and the Scout hut and recall being left with a good impression. Sounds like a good age at which to escape it too though!

Anyway, a few people were as optimistic as we were about a shock result, but as it turned out the upset came in the other Cup tie at Fraserburgh, which nobody foresaw. That must have been an unhappy long journey home for Stranraer. Another dud outcome was match #4, Spurs v Newcastle Utd, which was the random 'wildcard' fixture. No-one went for an away win there, which explains why there are no further bonuses beyond the extra D2D points this time.

Indeed, it was a low-scoring round overall with three second-tier draws producing only a single correct exact score guess between them. Apart from that, it was just the odd one-pointer. A comfortable home victory for Everton, a last-gasp equaliser that barely crossed the line for Man U at Stamford Bridge and Arsenal dropping points with a rare draw all caught everybody out. 

A majority of participants got three or more points from the D2D game at Loftus Road, mind, as Stinky Dad settled on the safer bet of a draw but QPR still triumphed and everyone except (you guessed it) Rory rightly disagreed with him to claim their bonus points. As is often the case, that left Stinky as the week's lowest scorer but elsewhere, Vegeta moved back off the bottom of the standings, Tilde is now on a nice overall score, and top scorer ultimo was the sole player into double figures this week, and also the only one with more than one three-pointer.

That moves him up into third spot, which is basically nosebleed territory by his standards. At the actual summit itself, MVP RULZ' lead has been cut to 17 points by seph, who started slowly but still has his first D2D turn to come so the situation is far from a lost cause.

The final scores have been in the opening post since Sunday night, and the next set of 10 will be there shortly. Oh, and the table's been updated as usual. Fantasy League update coming alongside my picks on Thursday.

Well, following this evening's results, captaining Mitrović didn't work out too badly as his 6 points double up to a cool dozen, but Almirón, Trippier or Zaha (who picked up another bonus point since my post on Tuesday night) would've been even better choices. My other Newcastle player, Schär, only got 5 points though. I was right to pick Sánchez (6) over Lloris (3) in goal. Mind you, because of that same Spurs shellacking, Son and Kane only managed 3 points between them, as alluded to by Raidy above. It was slim pickings for the other Brighton players too as Groß and Mac Allister nabbed just 3 and 2 points respectively.

All of that leaves me on 58 points for the round – enough to be provisionally up in 6 leagues, static in the rest. Into the top half of players globally, and a solid if unspectacular score once again. Given the short turnaround time and the fact I just used my Wildcard, I'm not swapping out any players this time, but Cancelo and Martinelli are unsurprisingly restored to the starting line-up and new signing Haaland goes straight in as captain because why not at this point. All 3 Brighton players plus aforementioned underperformer Schär drop to the bench.

===

Premier League

Everton 1-1 Crystal Palace
Chelsea 3-1 Manchester United 
Southampton 0-2 Arsenal 
Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Newcastle United 

Championship
Queen's Park Rangers 3-0 Wigan Athletic w/Stinky
Sheffield United 1-0 Norwich City

Scottish Cup Round 2
Fraserburgh 1-3 Stranraer
Kilwinning Rangers 3-2 Forfar Athletic

Segunda División
Alavés 2-2 Sporting Gijón 
Eibar 2-0 Albacete

Hmm, didn't expect QPR to be top of the table when I picked this one for Stinky's D2D round, to be honest. That said, Wigan have been much better away from home so far this season.

The final scores went into the opening post on Sunday night as usual, and the table has been updated since then. We're back to a full compliment of 10 players, including Nicko moving off of last place ahead of Vegeta. No change in the gap between the top two, but both Dads made it into double figures and thus climb the standings, with Shy now on 69 points (nice). 

The 'wildcard' fixture was match #1, Wolves v Forest, for which only Stinky got the exact score, meaning he gets to keep the bonus points all to himself this week. In our sole other featured EPL game, a home victory for Liverpool somehow caught everybody out.

Elsewhere, wins for Halifax, Real Madrid and PSG – spot the odd one out among those 3 clubs – proved fruitful, whilst emphatic victories for The Daggers and Porto were generally good for one-pointers. A genuine upset in Portugal and another only being avoided on penalties caused two dud outcomes. I'd actually heard of Varzim at least, so I backed them to score but didn't think they'd really have it in them to progress in the competition. They used to play in the top flight but are currently slumming it in the third tier.

The "shock" closer to home wasn't really much of a surprise at all. South Shields are upwardly mobile, whereas Scunny in recent years have very much not been. A few people guessed that right beforehand, a lot still didn't. 

A new card, including the return of D2Ds, will be going live at the top of the thread soon.

===

On the Fantasy League front, I was again above average and just outside the top half million players for the week, but it still wasn't a game-changingly massive score. I picked Lloris over Pope but they both got 6 points anyway, and nobody else I left on the bench bagged more than 3. Disappointing round for Cancelo, Coady, Jesus and my entire midfield though, so I'm glad I only made Son my vice-captain.

I gave the armband to Jonny for some reason, and his 6 points doubled up neatly to 12. I'd have scored the same if I'd handed it to White, but captaining any of Schär, Toney or Kane would've seen me do even better. All of that left me on 64 points for the matchday and 538 overall, a smidge inside the global top half but still lower than where I'd like to be. I went up in all but 2 of my leagues and was static in the rest. Unfortunately one of those leagues is a UKFF affair where I remain second from bottom.

The EPL site actually recommended using the first Wildcard next week, but as I said, I'd sort of backed myself into a corner selection-wise and felt compelled to play that chip ahead of the current round that began tonight. I've ditched the slight underperformer Conor Coady but also been ruthless with Toney, Pope, Son (to free up some budget) and – for the sake of not having too many Arsenal players this time – Jesus and White too. 

As replacements, I've brought in Sánchez, Trippier, Dier, Zaha, Mitrović and with an eye on future gameweeks, Haaland as well. So with 2 City players and one still there from Arsenal, that's maximum risk in terms of outfielders... and of course, Jonny hasn't played tonight at Palace so with no-one to sub in for him, that's a big far zero already. Zaha and Sánchez already paid dividends mind, with a goal and clean sheet respectively tonight. Two Brighton midfielders brought me 5 points between them too. I've captained Mitrović so we'll see how that works out on Thursday night. 

And so to another Fantasy League update. Really wish I had the time and organisation skills to make these separate from Predictions League posts, but hey-ho. Anyway, once again Saturday went better than either of the subsequent days. Both goalies had tough-looking fixtures, but I was right to plump for Lloris as he got a clean sheet and some bonuses to finish in double figures. Kane and Son also delivered with 7 and 6 points respectively from that match.

Cancelo was the big scorer though, on 18 points. I'd made him vice-captain but really should've handed him the armband. I note that the best performer globally even had the foresight to triple captain him. The only decent score I got from any of my players on Sunday or Monday was Jesus with 5. 

As I alluded to in the blurb on Tuesday night, the key game seemed to be Newcastle-Brentford. I'd put Almirón straight in as captain and he got a goal, so his 7 points doubled up to 14 for me. On the other hand, Schär managed just the bog standard 2 points and I left Toney on the bench. Even though the Bees got walloped, he always seems to have something to prove whenever he visits St James' Park and indeed he bagged his customary goal, so I should've started him ahead of any of White, Coady, Mac Allister or Groß.

All of that left me on 68 points, still slightly above average for the round (top 2.8m players) so not terrible. Enough to move up in four leagues but remain static in the rest. I've now got 456 points overall, not quite where I wanted to be but salvageable with over two thirds of the season still to go.

For next week, I've shipped out Alisson and an underperforming Ward-Prowse in favour of Nick Pope and Gabriel Martinelli which is looking good for this weekend only – but there's a problem. For the imminent midweek round, Gameweek 12, I've now got 4 outfielders from either Arsenal or Man City and they don't have a game. So, it'll either be time to play the Free Hit chip or use my first Wildcard. Probably the latter since I usually try to backload that but it has to be used up extra early this season.

===

Premier League

Wolves 1-1 Nottingham Forest

Liverpool 2-3 Manchester City

FA Cup fourth qualifying round
Beckenham Town 0-1 Dagenham & Redbridge
South Shields 2-1 Scunthorpe United
St Ives Town 1-2 Halifax Town

La Liga
Real Madrid 2-2 Barcelona 

Ligue Un
Paris Saint-Germain 3-1 Marseille 

Portuguese Cup Round of 64
Caldas 0-2 Benfica 
Varzim 1-3 Sporting Lisbon 
Anadia 0-3 Porto

The results have been in the initial post since Sunday night and the table has now been updated. As alluded to in the post directly above this one, Nicko is unsurprisingly now stone bottom. He should just count himself lucky that we don't deduct points for posting war crimes in the Chippy Tea thread.

I'm glad to see our current top 2, MVP RULZ and seph, agree with me that the Austrian Bundesliga is the real deal. The German one was actually founded earlier but didn't become a true national league until The Invention of Football in 1992, whereas the Austrian version featured teams from across the country right from the start.

On that note, the 'wildcard' fixture ended up as match #7 this time, a very one-sided Ruhr derby. Nobody quite guessed 4-0 to Leverkusen (but I was closest with 3-0) but most went for a home win and so get a single bonus point each. Stinky and Vegeta seem to have forgotten that the team from Gelsenkirchen are a newly promoted outfit this season.

The latter moves off of last place almost in spite of himself, whilst the former was the week's worst performer and sinks into mid-table. Top scorer ultimo is up into fourth spot, while Tilde and Rory were also into double figures to move further away from the foot of the standings. The gap at the summit is a whopping 19 points, but three quarters of the D2Ds are yet to come. If all no-frills rounds are as high-scoring as this one then there'll be plenty of points to play for.

A score draw in the other German derby, der Klassiker, caught everyone out except our fearless leader who got the scoreline spot on. An expected victory for RB Salzburg was generally good for one-pointers, but only last-minute pickers Rory and Shy Dad foresaw a triumph on the road for Austria Vienna. 

Closer to home, wins for Newcastle (more on that match in the Fantasy League round-up), Palace, Spurs, Arsenal and Man United largely proved very fruitful indeed, but Bournemouth's comeback success against the Foxes turned out to much be tougher to guess beforehand. Oh, and in case anybody was wondering, the match I attended finished up 4-1 to favourites Conwy Borough. Might go and catch them at their place in the next round.

Why mention that? Well, because the next set of 10 is a cup special, of course! That'll be up in the first post sharpish. 

I was somehow above the average score in the Fantasy League after Saturday's games, but then from the remaining 3 matches I only got 2 points when others were scoring bucketloads. Jesse Lingard was already in the last-chance saloon, didn't set the world alight at Leicester and has since been replaced by Miguel Almirón. My one City player, Cancelo, scored just a single point as they eased up in the second half and conceded 3 in the end.

And even on Saturday, things could've gone better: Pontus Jansson whom I shipped out, naturally managed a clean sheet against Bournemouth. I brought in a Wolves player only for them to sack their manager. The Saints-Everton clash was a real turning point too. I captained Ward-Prowse and left Coady on the bench, which in hindsight was a diabolical bit of team selection.

Nothing special from Son, Groß or Toney this week, but Kane was useful as ever thanks to that penalty in the NLD. From the same match, White nabbed me 5 points while Jesus was my vice-captain and since he scored 8 I really should've given him the nod ahead of JWP. Lloris did play after all, and it turns out I should've gone for him ahead of Alisson as he outscored the Liverpool stopper by 3 points to 2 although they shipped the same number of goals. Schär meanwhile looks a decent signing so far, managing a solid 6 points. 

All of that left me 30 below the weekly average, in the bottom million players for the round, and almost out of the top 7m overall. I haven't even racked up 400pts in total yet. I'm down in half of my private leagues, dead last in two of them but somehow still mid-table in an elections forum's league. Clearly wrestling fans know more about football than psephologists!

For this coming week I've left Alisson, Toney and Ward-Prowse on the bench and put Almirón straight in as captain, with Cancelo as his back-up. So, based on my performance so far, you all know what tactics to avoid... 

===

Nothing to do with the Predictions League, but I'm tentatively planning to be at the Welsh Cup tie between Y Felinheli and Conwy Borough this weekend. Now, onto proper business with my actual picks: 

Premier League

Bournemouth 1-0 Leicester City
Newcastle United 3-1 Brentford
Brighton & Hove Albion 2-2 Spurs
Crystal Palace 0-0 Leeds United 
Arsenal 3-2 Liverpool 
Everton 1-1 Manchester United 

Imitation Bundesliga
Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 Schalke 
Borussia Dortmund 2-1 Bayern Munich 

Proper Bundesliga
Rheindorf Altach 0-3 RB Salzburg 
Rapid Vienna 2-0 Austria Vienna

On 10/1/2022 at 12:10 PM, Fatty Facesitter said:

League One
Ipswich Town 0-4 Portsmouth (Lololololololololol)

Ha, I didn't even think when I selected that to be the other third-tier fixture how we now have a Canary in the coal mine. (Or, since this is a wrestling forum, perhaps that should read 'The Cole Mine'?) Anyway, the scorelines have been in the opening post since Sunday night and the table has now been updated too. 

That rather biased guess contributed to Nicko being joint lowest scorer alongside ultimo. Both of those move down a spot in the standings. Stinky and seph were into double figures so they both climb a place. The gap between Rory and Vegeta at the bottom remains the same at 6 points. 

MVP RULZ got his D2D right, and 5 of the other 9 participants – a bare majority – incorrectly bet against him so he's gone 18 points clear at the summit. Even without the D2D bonuses, he'd have been top scorer by a point this time out. It looks ominous right now, but there's still all to play for in this extra long campaign. 

The random 'wildcard' fixture was match #6, the Manchester derby. Nobody quite foresaw that there'd be 9 goals, but everyone bar ultimo did at least plump for a home win to claim a single bonus point each.

Elsewhere, stalemates at Dean Court The Vitality and Elland Road were generally good for one-pointers too, with wins for Chelsea, Newcastle and West Ham also proving fruitful. Home reverses for Saints and Inter caught a fair few people out, though. I guess we should keep in mind for future reference that Fat Frank and José are living their best life as managers who get banter results.

For the next two rounds, D2Ds are on the backburner, but we've got until the New Year's round to get all the first choices done so there's no rush despite recent disruption. A basic set of 10 will go live at the top of the thread shortly.

===

Was about to squeeze in a quick Fantasy League update here. That caused my laptop to freeze up for completely for a full 25 minutes though, so I'll take it as a sign that as a sign it can wait for another day.

On the Fantasy League front, I've swapped out Pontus Jansson for Wolves' Jonny but then left him on the bench anyway. Same price, with the former player having more than twice as many points so far. Coady and Mac Allister are also benched due to difficult-looking fixtures. Alisson is preferred over Lloris, who's an injury risk as I mentioned and has a tougher game in the form of the North London derby even if he does play. Lingard starts but he's in the last chance saloon now. I've ummed and ahhed over the armband and ended up giving it to Ward-Prowse this week, with Jesus as his vice-captain.

===

Onto Predictions League matters: 

Premier League

Bournemouth 1-0 Brentford
Crystal Palace 1-1 Chelsea
Fulham 2-2 Newcastle United
Southampton 0-0 Everton
West Ham United 2-0 Wolves
Manchester City 3-1 Manchester United 
Leeds United 2-1 Aston Villa 

League One
Ipswich Town 1-0 Portsmouth
Port Vale 1-1 Sheffield Wednesday w/MVP RULZ

Serie A
Inter Milan 2-0 Roma

I'll have more of a think about the Fantasy League in a day or two. If this past week is anything to go by, then actual discussion will likely grind to a halt here during the World Cup.

Anyway, the results went into the initial post on Sunday night as usual. The table's been updated, complete with embyonic FPL Cup group stage standings. You won't see those again until November now. Which I'm sure we'll feel like it comes round before you can blink. 

International rounds normally used to be high-scoring, back when it used to feature one-sided scorelines from all across the world. Since we've become gradually more and more reduced to just Nations League games that involve European sides who are supposed to be evenly matched, it's become like any other week in terms of points accrued. 

Nevertheless, despite a low average and small spread between best and worst performers, two remarkable things happened: lots of movement in the main classification, and no draws at all in the opening 5 FPL Cup clashes. Joint top scorer MVP RULZ retakes the lead, Stinky is up into third spot, seph has once again overtaken Shy Dad to move back into the top half, whilst TildeGuy drops below Nicko. Vegeta is looking surprisingly stranded, lying as he does 6 points adrift of Rory at the foot of the ladder.

So, to the outcomes then. Wins for Norn Iron and Croatia proved the most fruitful, with a triumph for Portugal also turning out generally good for one-pointers. Away reverses for Norway, Greece and France plus a heavy defeat for Sweden ended up tougher to foresee. A reverse for Wales was also difficult to guess beforehand, especially for those of us feeling more optimistic last week. Narrow home successes in international 'derbies' for Scotland and Holland produced more of a mixed bag of picks. 

Mercifully, we're back to normal football again next week. The new card, with a nice lower-division D2D, will appear at the top of the thread shortly.

2 hours ago, Fatty Facesitter said:

Don’t want to brag but I actually got a DJ for correct score last week. I’m kind of a big deal.

@Fog Dude How does the FPL cup work for the uninitiated? @RoryFice You come at the King then you best not miss.

Well for starters, one rule I've never considered adding is bonus points for trash talk! 

I borrowed the idea of a Cup competition from the Fantasy League, but one thing that I didn't carry over was the idea of only starting it with a few rounds to go. It's always been spread out across the season. 

Cup ties are not played during double or 'bumper' rounds, and there's no D2D in Cup weeks either. This is partly because it's more work for me, partly because it would make it seem more complicated for everyone else, and partly so that the same number of points is up for grabs in every Cup round, making things fairer.

It soon became clear that national teams weren't popular as D2D picks, so we ended up mostly putting the FPL Cup in international break slots as it was an easy way of keeping them apart. It also encourages people not to forget to pick during the internationals since it's easy to zone out, especially as the Fantasy League isn't running on those weekends.

It started as a straight knockout tournament with byes if necessary, but after a couple of years we introduced a group stage. You get 3 points within the group if you beat your opponent and one if you draw, as you'd expect. There are various countbacks to settle ties where people end up on the same number of points.

As I mentioned, this year there's very little jeopardy since 4 of the 5 people in each group will go through to March's quarter-finals. It does mean that after this week you'll have to wait until the 19th of November for matchday 2, mind.

Hope that covers everything. Best of luck!

UEFA Nations League 

Northern Ireland 2-1 Kosovo 
Slovenia 0-0 Norway 
Cyprus 0-2 Greece 
Czechia 1-0 Portugal 
Serbia 2-3 Sweden 
Scotland 1-1 Ireland 
Austria 3-1 Croatia 
Denmark 2-2 France 
Netherlands 3-2 Belgium 
Wales 2-0 Poland

I'd read all the stuff about how Son had been off-form this season, and especially so in Lisbon a week ago, and how he ought to be dropped. But I'm a stubborn old fool so I captained him anyway... and then he was dropped, and I was thinking I'd have to rely on a good showing from my vice-captain Toney (who ultimately got 2 points) the following day. Then he came off the bench, and I presumed his one point for 31 minutes of action would double up to two. Twenty minutes later, he'd scored a hat-trick and earned 19 points, which doubled up to 38 for me. My only regret was that I didn't have the guts to triple-captain him in a week when many were probably transferring the Korean out, or at least benching him.

In the same match, another goal and assist from Kane put him into double figures again, whilst Lloris was my goalie by since Alisson didn't have a game. It started well with him appearing to have saved a penalty, but he ended up far away from a clean sheet, and now he might be injured for the next round in 10 days time. FFS. Quite the emotional rollercoaster on Saturday evening there. Much more straightforward early on Sunday as Arsenal ran riot, Jesus earning me another 6 points. I mentioned I had just the one player on the bench with an actual fixture and it turns out I really should've played him (Ben White on 6 points) over Pontus Jansson (1). 

Elsewhere, Cancelo and Coady continue to be as reliable as ever at the back on 9 and 5 points respectively, but my new signing Schär didn't deliver the goods, managing just 2 points, with the midfield duo of Lingard and Ward-Prowse also struggling on a point apiece. It doesn't help that both their clubs don't look in great shape this season either.

Overall then, a well above average 77 points for the round, although almost half of those came from a single player, and more than 50 from just one club and match. I'm not going to have that kind of luck all the time. That leaves me in the highest quarter million players for the gameweek, and into the top 6 million in the general classification. It moves me up in 5 of my leagues too, including in one of the UKFF leagues, another forum league and the family league so I'm happy with that for now. No Fantasy League update until late next week due to the international round, but the Predictions competition continues apace... 

===

The results went into the opening post on Sunday night. For a few minutes in the middle of the second half, it looked like Vegeta's gamble was gonna pay off big time. He was briefly on course for 18 bonus points which shows the risk was worth taking. Newcastle weren't very incisive and even when they succeeded in cutting through Bournemouth's defence, Neto played a blinder. VAR kind of dicked the visitors over though with a dodgy deliberate handball -> penalty call. Only the outcome in the record books actually counts for Predictions League purposes, however, so a score draw it is, and a brace of points each for the rest of the field.

Scoring was a tad healthier than in the previous two rounds, with joint lowest scorer seph still achieving 5 points to slip into the bottom half by the narrowest possible margin below Shy Dad, who was the best performer and the sole participant to nab more than one three-pointer. Rory was also into double figures, leaving the unfortunate Vegeta cut even further adrift at the foot of the standings. Equal with seph in getting the weekly wooden spoon was MVP RULZ, allowing me to move ahead by a point despite an unimpressive below-average 6-point haul.

Put the flags out! No, not the Royal Standard – preferably the Valencian and Andalusian (and Norfolk) banners because Nicko finally has an exact score! It wasn't the ballsy Madrid derby prediction that did it, but a rather more mundane 1-1 draw between Villarreal and Sevilla. Onwards and upwards from here for young Facesitter? To be fair, that match proved fruitful in general. Home wins for Darlo and PSV were generally good for one-pointers as well, but nobody quite foresaw them turning into a five- and seven-goal thriller respectively.

The latter also earned everyone except Stinky Dad a bonus point for being the random 'wildcard' fixture. Victory for Real over Atlético in the Wanda Metropolitano was easier to guess beforehand than a tactical triumph for Frank Lampard over David Moyes at Goodison. Bournemouth holding Newcastle wasn't much use to most people either, except for the aforementioned bonuses.

Macclesfield FC and Bury AFC may be continuations of the clubs Macclesfield Town and Bury FC, but they aren't the same teams of professional they were when those iterations went bust (as hinted at in that Robbie Savage documentary last year), so it should feel less of a shock that neither won on Saturday. In Scotland, the big upset involved a side I didn't even mention on Friday, as the Blue Brazil contrived to lose at home to Bo'ness from across the Firth of Forth, but Berwick and East Stirling didn't exactly cover themselves in glory either.

Even here in Wales, I counted at least 6 teams who've represented the country in Europe this century (albeit just in the qualifiers, granted) forced to slum it in the First Round of the Cwpan Cymru – and not all of those got through, to boot. Anyway, I'm rambling too much about stuff that has nothing to do with either the Fantasy League or predictions now.

Remember that there's no D2D during FPL Cup/international rounds, but there will still be an arbitrarily chosen 'wildcard' match once all the games are done. The next set of 10 and a reminder of those Cup group stage clashes I posted last week will be at the top of the thread shortly. Oh, and because I completely forgot about it before, here's the table too.

Not about to go into the same sublime level of detail that Nicko did, but here's a little update on my Fantasy League team anyway. I decided not to use the Free Hit chip yet, but still swapped out Matty Cash (not much use so far, said to have a 25% chance of playing due to injury... and indeed, he hasn't started tonight) for Fabian Schär who's the same price at £4.7m

Only one of the four players on my bench actually has a game this weekend, so it's a little bit of a risk in that respect. If Spurs, Brentford and Arsenal do end up not playing as I feared on Wednesday morning, then I'm screwed. But I think we're close enough to kick-off time in both matches now that it'll be fine.

Looking ahead, the Arsenal-Man City fixture in Gameweek 12 is already off, so that might be a good time to use my Wild Card after all. It was meant to fall slap bang in the middle of UEFA matchdays 4 and 5, but with Arsenal in the Europa and City in the Champions League, the logistics of it haven't worked out. Poor planning by the EPL there. 

===

That's a midweek round and also right after my birthday, so it likely won't affect anything we had planned for the Predictions League. Speaking of which, it'd have been nice to have that extra flexibility I mentioned in response to ultimo's recent comment.

Other fallen giants involved in the cups this weekend include Bradford Park Avenue, Chester, Hereford, Kidderminster (who really should've made it to the round of 16 last season), Boston Utd, Scarborough, Brechin, Clydebank and a reformed version of 2006 runners-up Gretna. There's also curiosities like FC United, Enfield, Lewes, South Shields, Met Police (booo!) and Merthyr, plus teams who've gone on giant-killing runs in recent years – or further back – like Blyth Spartans, Chasetown, Margate, Paulton, Tamworth, Nuneaton, St Albans, Yate and Marine.

If we had included 6 or 7 Premier League games, I'd have preferred to be able to feature a handful of Cup ties as well. But so far the only time we've afforded ourselves that kind of leeway is Third Round weekend.

On 9/14/2022 at 11:18 AM, ThommoLincs said:

Jericho's first run was the shits. However the absolute worst was Rugged Ronnie Garvin's first and only reign. 

If you mean his phantom win in April 2000 or (presumably) his Undisputed Champion run then I agree, but his first go with the Big Gold Belt I don't think that was bad per se, just short. It came at a time when there were 10 titles to juggle and, with the Attitude Era still fresh in the memory, they were being hot potatoed every week. Jericho himself still acknowledged it on TV as finally winning a proper world title even though he'd previously left WCW under a cloud.

Rey's only WWE title run also lasted for less than a single full TV show although WWE actually recognises that one, but by the end of the night Cena and Punk had completely overshadowed his achievement. His run as SmackDown champ was obviously terrible for different reasons. 

As for that Angle-HHH match, it's a lukewarm heel-on-heel bout and is just there to start getting all the pieces in place for No Way Out and then Mania X-7. It's the kind of booking you can only really get away with when the Rumble match itself is going on last and clearly a bigger deal. 

2 hours ago, Chris B said:

It was, at the time, exactly what I needed to see - not in terms of the film itself, but he talked about making movies, and about how everyone watching was a potential movie-maker. That if you were the kind of person that hung around to watch credits, you were the kind of person that cared about film and the kind of person film needed more of.

Conversely, anybody who doesn't stick around for the credits of, say, Into the Spider-Verse can safely have most of their opinions on film ignored.