Birmingham 1 Fulham 1

The Blues were unchanged with Kapo still nowhere to be seen. Larsson recovered from a knock to start and he got the goal. Johnson went off injured at half time and was subbed by Nafti. McCleish will be disappointed with only a draw.

Roy Hodgson has a big job on his hands. Healy and Dempsey were preferred up front for the Cottagers who have not won away in the Premier League for 478 days. Bouazza was sent off for two yellows.
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After a stunning week of Christmas Premier League action, that saw 58 goals hit the back of the net what can we expect this weekend? Here is my best guess:

Birmingham v Fulham

Two teams heading in opposite directions. Expect a Birmingham win with Roy Hodgson’s Fulham heading towards the Championship.

Score: 2-0
YTM Player to Watch: M Forssell (12 points in last two games)
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I’d like to take this opportunity to wish all YTM players a very happy Xmas and a prosperous and transfer lucky 2008!

Stats updating will continue as normal over the Xmas period.

If you reckon you know your horseracing why not have a go at Select A Christmas Stable - there is £12,500 up for grabs.

Coming soon on the YTM blog - an in depth interview with current YTM leader and two-time monthly winner Rui Carlos Esteves Marques. Check out the August blog archive for a picture of the best dressed man in Portugal!

Enjoy the holidays!

Cheers,
Tom

You have voted for Cristiano Ronaldo as your YTM Personality of the Year.

The Portuguese winger received 22% of the votes to shade victory from Jose Mourinho (20%). 

Although we were rooting for Ian Holloway, the great man could only muster 8% of the votes.

Steve McClaren, on the other hand, finished in his customary position - bottom of the pile. He received less than 1% of the vote. Chin up, Steve.

Our new poll is topical to say the least - “What do you want for Christmas?”

Birmingham 1 Reading 1

Kapo was dropped from the 16 as McLeish appears to be favouring the hard workers over the creative talents. Forssell started with Jerome up front whilst McSheffrey played on the left. Birmingham’s next three games (Bolton away and Boro and Fulham at home) all look winnable. Ridgewell picked up his fifth booking of the season.

Designated penalty taker Hunt scored his second spot kick and fourth goal of the season. He’s averaging 3.7 points a game and with 63 points in total he’s the bargain (£3.5m) midfielder to have. Gunnarsson got injured and was replaced in the 28th minute.
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While most football fans will be licking their lips at the weekend ahead, fantasy football managers are probably wishing it wasn’t so competitive.

It may be a fantastic feast of football, with the country’s top four teams clashing on the same day, but that means thousands of fantasy teams will contain players who are likely to cancel each other out.

Those of you who have picked players from ‘lesser’ teams are probably in with the best chance of bagging the most points this week.

Anyhow, that won’t dampen our spirits! Here’s the weekend preview… (more…)

With Andy off doing his Xmas shopping I’ve stepped into the blog breach and am going to treat you to another one of my lists!

Today it’s the players who have started 13 or more Premier League games and not been booked or red carded. There is one particularly surprising name on the list.
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Chasetown have given us all a timely reminder of magical knockout cup stories.

Their last minute 1-0 win over League One outfit Port Vale, who missed two penalties, was the stuff of fairytale.  

In January, we launch the YTM Cup, which will throw each and every fantasy team into the draw for the first ever pay-to-enter knockout cup competition.

It’s your chance to go on your own cup run. Can you reach the dizzy heights of the final?

Here are all the details you need to know… (more…)

Is it just me, or do you think twice when adding a Liverpool player to your fantasy football team? Rafa Benitez’ team seems to change drastically every week, for no real reason… (more…)

Tags (click to view more!): Liverpool, Rafa Benitez

Aston Villa 1 Portsmouth 3

Gareth Barry is a reliable points accumulator. He’s quietly reached 60 points thanks to three goals (all penalties), three KC’s and seven clean sheets. Martin Laursen missed with two unchallenged headers - he will add to his goal tally of three for the season soon.

Harry is on a mission to get as many points as possible before most of his team head to Ghana for the African Cup of Nations. It was their sixth successive away win - two short of the all time Premier League record. Muntari was class - he’s now the eighth best midfielder in the game.
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Tags (click to view more!): Gareth Barry, Ghana