Premier League Fantasy Football 2023-24

[Neil Graham]

Yes - only two weeks before the Premier League starts again (Friday 11th August) and I'm pleased to say that "Premier Chess" hasn't been signed by Saudi Arabia - so time to enter your team for the new season.

See https://www.premierleague.com/

You are automatically re-entered if you were a manager in 2022-23 - otherwise our new joining code is gmd2eo.

Please remember that no managerial pseudonyms allowed and you must give your real name when you enter.

Updates in this thread after every Gameweek.

[Neil Graham]

A reminder that we kick-off in a week.

I am removing Mike W211 to the bench as threatened last season until I know his real identity. I am satisfied that Anthony I is Anthony Ibbotson who is a regular .

[Neil Graham]

Two hours to go (deadline 18.30) or you will miss Week One. Early indications of a record entry.

Some words of advice- don't include Harry Kane!

[LawrenceCooper]

Two hours to go (deadline 18.30) or you will miss Week One. Early indications of a record entry.

Some words of advice- don't include Harry Kane!

I got a not available message when trying to log on just before the deadline so hope people didn't leave it as late as me to think about making changes.

[Neil Graham]

Two hours to go (deadline 18.30) or you will miss Week One. Early indications of a record entry.

Some words of advice- don't include Harry Kane!

I got a not available message when trying to log on just before the deadline so hope people didn't leave it as late as me to think about making changes.

Possibly teething troubles - I'll be summarising Week 1 in due course! Maybe Bassey and Bruun Larsen weren't inspired choices for my team.

[Neil Graham]

Week One

..and that is the end of the Gnus and now for the Weather Forecast New entry information!

One thing I forgot to put on the fliers for this year is "Real Names only". Consequently in our record 165 entries (at present) we have such luminaries as Ali Gnu and Stu Gnus and team "AZ" managed imaginatively by AZ. I will give such teams a period of grace but they will be removed in a couple of weeks. Moving on - the first managerial casualty was Julen Lopetegui (Wolves) who resigned before the season even started. As to team selections, 90% of teams selected Erling Haaland and they all went for him as captain, so the differential therefore is slight in Week One. Those few that didn't select Haaland did not do so well - so to Chris Goodall who I know reads this thread, Harry Kane (still selected by 2%+ of managers) is not a great choice. Final mention to one of our new recruits, AksHay Kilambi, who is currently in last place with 21 points in his first season - playing your Bench Boost in Week 1 when your team included Kane and the banned Ivan Toney was not the best start.

1 Tati’s PlayTime Martin R 89 89
2 Haven't Jota Clue Matthew Payne 88 88
3= Rice Rice Baby Cameron Henry 87 87
3= BLUE FOXES Mick Garland 87 87
5 Money Doesn't Talk Mark Page 85 85

Finally Martin R could well be on the "remove" list - so if anyone is aware who he is let him know!

[Neil Graham]

Week Two

"The gulf in quality showed" Hibs manager Lee Johnson after a 5-0 defeat at home to Villa in the Europa Conference.

After an initial loss to Newcastle, Villa thumped a poor Everton by 4-0. Together with Brighton, Villa could be the team to watch this season. Meanwhile Everton, Luton and Wolves already look like potential relegation candidates. Only Cameron Henry remains from our initial top five; it will take a few Game Weeks for things to settle. Our top scorer of the week was Oto-obong Bassey - who competes in no less than 19 different leagues - but again using his bench boost might be too early; meanwhile our low mark of the week was set by Ian Holliday whose team looked much better on paper than it did on the pitch.

1 Rice Rice Baby Cameron Henry 56 143
2= Mostly David Egginton 62 142
2= Don’t Try MCee � Emmanuel Dogbe 65 142
2= TAA, love. Sabrina Chevannes 70 142
5= Wrenchester United John Wrench 62 141
5= Farcelona Richard York-Weaving 64 141

Finally So where is Watampone? This Indonesian city of 150,000 has both the overall leader and is the strongest league at present.

[Chris Goodall]

I am sorely vexed, firstly that I don't get any points back for Alexis Mac Allister's red card being chalked off, secondly that when David Raya's change of allegiance left me over-Arsenaled, he didn't auto-drop from my squad, instead I'm expected to use my weekly transfer to fix it. I blame Nigel Short.

[Neil Graham]

Week Three

Saudi Pro League 'more of a threat than not' Jurgen Klopp. Transfer Deadline day - exodus of players - will Salah go?

Do I really want to comment on my worst week ever? Probably not. I am writing this as deadline day is in full swing with players coming, going or on loan - the available list may look vastly different by next week. Bruce Baer takes the lead in Premier Chess but is a mere point ahead of four players in joint second place. Top scorers for the week were Alex Bullen & Mike Garland whilst Raphael Adamson was backmarker.

1 Hitomi Tanaka Bruce Baer 63 198
2 = Rice Rice Baby Cameron Henry 54 197
2= Farcelona Richard York-Weaving 56 197
2= Liverpool Matthew Timbrell 65 197
2= TAA, love. Sabrina Chevannes 55 197

New entry I will start a cull in the next two weeks of teams whose managers I can't identify. So a new entrant in Week Four a a managed by a a will be given the red card along with a few others.

[Neil Graham]

Week Four

Former Spanish Football Federation president in court Luis Rubiales summoned to appear on Friday.

With a fortnight's break for international matches, back to the Premier League in which five teams are still undefeated - but only one, Manchester City, on maximum points. Premier Chess has already had four different league leaders in the opening weeks and fifteen different managers have featured in the top five already. Six managers broke the three figure points score including Raphael Adamson who was low scorer last week with Frankie Badacsonyi moving into the top five with the week's high score; low points from Daniel Lambourne.

1 Odegaarden Partey ** Nathan Talbot 83 279
2 TAA, love. Sabrina Chevannes 79 276
3 ФК КОЦКА !! Ace Mihajlovski 84 275
4 Rice Rice Baby Cameron Henry 77 274
5 top4finish Frankie Badacsonyi 105 272

Removals Several managers have now been removed including a a, AZ and two Gnus. So that's the end of the Gnus (see Week 1)

[Neil Graham]

Week Five

....as if by magic - a new leader has appeared, so a new league member jumps straight into first position.

We'll discuss that later! West Ham's loss to Manchester City means that just four teams remain unbeaten with the sky-blues still on 100%. Meanwhile at the foot of the Premier Division, Burnley scored their first point leaving Luton, rather like a UK Eurovision entry, still on "null points". Back to our opening remarks - newcomer Peter Staneland is straight in at number one which means we have a fifth different leader after five weeks. Top Cat was Nigel Donovan with the highest score whilst Officer Dibble for the week was Joel Newman.

1 PassingPenquins Peter Staneland 44 347
2 Odegaarden Partey ** Nathan Talbot 49 328
3 Cba Alex Sheerin 61 325
4 ФК КОЦКА !! Ace Mihajlovski 45 320
5 Don’t Try MCee � Emmanuel Dogbe 50 318

Finally Our first look at overall scores. Six of the top seven teams are managers from Indonesia. Before we suspect a sinister plot it looks as if they all played Wild Card, Bench Boost and Triple Captain chips whereas we all know they are best left till Week 37!

[Neil Graham]

Week Six

My wife doesn’t like football. One day, she called me 10 minutes before a game to find out where I was.” Peter Crouch

I can say the same thing - but my wife scored double the amount of points I managed last week, Many thanks to Neil Pennock whose low score of 26 points prevented me from plumbing the Premier Chess depths. Two players amassed over 100 points with Dominic Leigh just outpointing Taran Jina who by way of compensation moved into the top three where Peter Staneland still leads. Meanwhile four Premier League teams are still unbeaten and four have yet to win. The Liverpool v Spurs clash should reduce the former to three with eight defeats and only two draws for the London side in their last ten meetings.

1 PassingPenquins Peter Staneland 78 425
2 Cba Alex Sheerin 77 402
3 Rubber Digne Rapids Taran Jina 101 399
4 Odegaarden Partey ** Nathan Talbot 68 396
5 SHOW ME THE MONEY Adrian Matthews 79 395

Finally The number of competing teams this season has now passed the 10,000,000 mark.

[Neil Graham]

Week Seven

" A clear and obvious factual error Referee's body PGMOL admission on disallowed goal for Liverpool.

After the weekend's results only two unbeaten teams remain - Spurs after their disputed win plus Arsenal with Manchester City unexpectedly beaten at Molineux. Two teams, Bournemouth and Sheffield United, still to register their first win. Into Week 8 with still no managerial sackings but odds-on to go first is Sheffield's Paul Heckingbottom though just one site makes Sean Dyche the favourite. A century tally, the only one this week, moves Stuart Iles into the top three whilst Neil Pennock is for the second successive week our low scoring manager.

1 PassingPenquins Peter Staneland 49 474
2 Pile 'o' Kerrapp Utd Ali Hegarty 79 457
3= Poisoned Prawns Stuart Iles 100 454
3= Rubber Digne Rapids Taran Jina 55 454
5 EASY TIGER Mike Garland 58 452

Finally Some big moments from City v Arsenal https://www.premierleague.com/video/sin ... CLUBS=1,11

[Neil Graham]

Week Eight

"It's an incredible achievement at the start of a season," Nigel Clough - Mansfield Town unbeaten in 17 games.

A quick plug there for the local team - largely as I've forgotten what happened in the Premier League because of the international break. Having looked back I remember that Manchester City lost to Arsenal and a lot of games were drawn. Bearing in mind that we are moving into Week 9, there are still 38 teams within 50 points of our new leader who is Stuart Iles. Our top scorer of the week was Paul Connellan and this moves him up into the top five for the first time. However I'm afraid that the call for the low score is becoming rather monotonous as it's Neil Pennock again.

1 Poisoned Prawns Stuart Iles 73 527
2 PassingPenquins Peter Staneland 50 524
3 Runner Up Blair Connell 75 522
4 Shakhtar Wash Common Paul Cooksey 72 509
5 Bamboozled Paul Connellan 84 507

Finally Whilst our top two teams are alliterative, I wondered if this was reflected in the overall leader board. However I find that five of the top ten are called "Free Palestine" or variants thereof.

[Neil Graham]

Week Nine

"It’s not just about the results, it’s about the football they are playing" Gary Neville comments on Spurs current form.

It was a high scoring week for Premier Chess Managers with ten scoring over 100 points. Nathan Talbot was the highest of these and this has enabled him to move up to 2nd place overall. Last year's winner Joe Friar features in the top five for the first time and is joined by David Egginton who is also a previous overall champion. Bottom of the pile is again Neil Pennock and I've now reached the stage where I will only mention other managers when they actually find a score that is lower than Neil's.

1 Poisoned Prawns Stuart Iles 107 634
2 Odegaarden Partey ** Nathan Talbot 112 615
3 Runner Up Blair Connell 90 612
4 Frying High Joe Friar 103 604
5 Mostly David Egginton 102 597

Finally Sandro Tonali (Newcastle) has been banned for 10 months for match betting. Perhaps time to transfer him?