Heartland

Lords above, the weeks go quickly. GW4, and we were only staggering desperately towards the oasis of New Football Season about 5 mins ago. Steve wrapped up GW3 Over There so we can plunge in Over Here now.

First, though - pleased to hear that Bolton Wanderers were saved by a buyer. However, Bury FC were not, and have been thrown out of the EFL for something way beyond their powers. The destruction of a club by an owner should not mean the club's demise - it should mean help. Now we find that other offers were on the table BEFORE the EFL's deadline but no time was allocated to pursue them. This stimks to high heaven, and the 'only' people that get hurt are the staff, players and fans. Only. Steve Dale will walk away with just a shrug.
So, think of them at KO times this week.

FPL, then:

Saturday 31 August 2019

Southampton 12:30 Man Utd
Chelsea 15:00 Sheffield Utd
Crystal Palace 15:00 Aston Villa
Leicester 15:00 Bournemouth
Man City 15:00 Brighton
Newcastle 15:00 Watford
West Ham 15:00 Norwich
Burnley 17:30 Liverpool

Sunday 1 September 2019

Everton 14:00 Wolves
Arsenal 16.:30 Spurs

Still a fair bit of shuffling for position going on, and with away teams doing rather well last week you just never know these days. Apart from City and Liverpool, that is. Sunday's games look the tastiest.

Lock on and load - AFTER you've sorted your team out!

Predictions this week


Southampton 1: 3 Manchester United

Chelsea 3:0 Sheffield United

Crystal Palace 2:0 Aston Villa

Leicester City 2:2 AFC Bournemouth

Manchester City 4:0 Brighton & Hove Albion

Newcastle United 1:2 Watford

West Ham United 2:1 Norwich City

Burnley 1: 2 Liverpool

Everton 1:1 Wolverhampton Wanderers

Arsenal 2:2 Tottenham Hotspur

As per, any tactics have gone out the window this week with the need to transfer an injured player out, one I'd just bought of course. Hey ho, can't be any worse than last week.

Southampton v United at half 12 tomoz? Hmm I can hear The Brudenell calling...

Mike Dean has flashed his first red card of the season

Pista wrote:Mike Dean has flashed his first red card of the season

In fairness it was a pretty nailed on second yellow. Spent most the match discussing with some young red dudes if it'd be actually possible to tell which club had won the league 20 times based solely off the performances on the day.

On the plus side there's a coupla interesting gigs coming up at the Brude so it all evened itself out. Also on the plus side, cheers for our new right back, by some distance the most composed player in a United shirt, nay, the only composed player in a United shirt.

Going to treasure this. 4th place Palace!

Pista wrote:Going to treasure this. 4th place Palace!

Good on yer, though it's a bit early mate, I can't see any of those four teams still being up there come season's end.

Erm, err, hmm, can't we do fantasy test cricket, I'd be better at that, maybe.

Planet Dave wrote:
Erm, err, hmm, can't we do fantasy test cricket, I'd be better at that, maybe.

So, just the one crocked player this week. I need to pick a scouse defender now to even up the title race a bit. Still, despite that and the never-dull Boly's 95th minute sending off, a par 57. I'll take that.

I suppose I need to do a round up! First week back at school, and no one knows what day it is -staff, children, parents or the school dog. Apparently it's Thursday.

Steve got some of his predictions right, and Palace won. Date for the diary, kids! It was a week when some of the big guns started to shoot off all over the place - Aguëro, De Bruyne and Vardy all had excellent games, so let's hope this season is better than last for them/us. Abrahams the newish boy also done good, being a top transfer in this GW. Still didn't manage to get Chelski a win v the Blades, thanks to Zouma's own goal. oops. Burnley's Woods also managed to score against his own club, but with Firmino, Mané and Salah hanging about, it maybe wasn't pivotal. Wolves were unlucky to lose in the last minute, but Everton must be relieved that Richarlison has recovered a bit of form lately. The ARSTOT game was very entertaining, ended with a fair score, and produced 13 saves. Some more VAR for pondering. Utd didn't manage to win again, but did manage to play in the Game of the First Red Card. The honour went to to Southampton's Danso.

Does all of this waffling affect the tables? I know you want to know. So...



IGM are still ahead in the Classic league but the darn Mish lot are closing in.

The Yellow Jersey this week goes to Team WMS



and the Big Shout Out to Faith rovers with 85 points.



Off to the H2H, then, and the Mish have surged to top place by 1 point



The Crown goes off to complement the Jersey - a lovely complete Goff outfit for Team WMS!



GW5 will be held with customary ceremony over at The Shed, but not until the Euro qualifiers are done. We have a week off - check your injury lists over the next few days. They start tonight and two games are being played.

I'm off to watch the Tories disintegrate a bit more - Johnson is as disaster prone as Fortwilliam's defence last season (and the ones before that) only we all like them and felt sorry for them.

England - 5pm Saturday v Bulgaria nd Tuesday 7.45 pm v Kosovo. Both ITV, so Glenn will be on.

Fort William will be in the champions league next season mark my words

Ahem.

Top job on the recap Jo & it looks like the EIB are gathering steam

Why, thank you

Is that a thing, the Game Of First Red Cards? What points are at stake for it? If it's one of yours do you get bonus points anyway if he's the first?

That is a very fine write-up Boss, already way ahead of the remedial pigeon-english bbc website's footy coverage. I foresee a career change looming.

Anyway thank eff for the break. A weekend free of swearing at the telly or live feeds is a weekend to be embraced. Just the cricket to lose me sh1t over then...

After today, a change of career might not be a bad thing for my health.

The Game of First Red Cards is entirely my own invention. Anyone playing Danso in our league may claim 10 sympathy bonus points. Or pints. I'm not sure who from, mind!