Here at In The Stands there is a lot of banter in our head office about how everyone is doing in the Premier League's Fantasy Football game. So we thought that we will bring in number 208 (out of 2.15 million) to give us a few tips. Please welcome Chez...

"I would bring him in, but I know as soon as I do he will start playing rubbish.

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Anybody else feeling edgy?

I'm getting a little tired of reading that this France side aren't "a spot" on the 1998-2000 side. Time for the lads to debunk that nasty sentiment; and a masterclass today would be a good start.

Join Laurie on this site later today (she's never missed a match before, and I wouldn't expect her to start now) for a bit of pre -, during -, and post-match banter (and ranting and raving).

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My co-worker Doug has become Football-Curious. Between me talking about Liverpool every week (lately: moaning about Liverpool most every week) and an article he read about Clive Owen talking about being a Liverpool supporter, he has taken an interest in the Reds. He asks me tons of questions whenever we work together, everything from "What's a Scouser?

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With Roman Pavlyuchenko today insisting he must leave Tottenham, it made me think back to players of years gone by that have arrived with big reputations only to depart before making any impact whatsoever.

Pavlyuchenko cost £14m just over a year ago, that's serious money in today's market for a player that isn't English.

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This week the age old melody banter between two sets of fans. Thats right football chants. Obviously there are some offensive corkers we have left out, but the ones we left in are equally class. Enjoy!!

10. 'Nani are you ok, are you ok Nani'

- Man yoo fans to Nani, in the tune of MJ's Smooth Criminal.

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Saw this over at My Waterloo Rugby, hope it's the first of many posts :

So why did I fall out of love with the game? The game started to lose its mojo a few months into our second season in National Division 2 back in 2004. The sense of adventure of visiting away games ceased to exist, many of these newer club grounds we found ourselves visiting lacked charm, many purely sterile.

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Just when Rafa Benitez thought things couldn't get any worse, a study published by Foster's today reveals the Liverpool manager is officially one of the most worried managers in the Premiership.

The leading Aussie beer brand analysed the interviews and statements from every Premiership manager since the beginning of the season using its Ozometer, an algorithm developed specifically to analyse language and word sequences to determine how worried or carefree a person is.

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Join former Arsenal player Adrian Clarke and celebrated sports journalist Iain Spragg for Episode 27 of the world famous Soccerlens Podcast.Â

This week's bouncy banter focuses on Barcelona and Inter Milan's Champions League concerns, big money transfers that defy logic, and Stan Kroenke's bid to take control of Arsenal.

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The latest Wikio sprots rankings are shortly to be published and guys over at Wikio have been kind enough to send on an advance preview at the new top twenty:
1Arseblog (=)
2Gunnerblog (=)
3BBC Sport - Football blog (=)
4Off The Post (+1)
5West Ham Till I Die (-1)
6Line and Length - Times Online WBLG (+7)
7SoccerLens (+2)
8BBC Sport - Phil McNulty blog (-2)
9Bitter and Blue (+5)
10BlogF1 (-2)
11F1 Minute (=)
12F1 Fanatic (-5)
13Goodplaya (-3)
14King Cricket (+10)
15The Corridor (a cricket blog) (+19)
16East Lower (+2)
17Football Banter (-5)
18Formula One Blog - Times Online WBLG (-3)
19Lord of the Wing (+10)
20Twohundredpercent (-4)
Ranking by Wikio Click to continue reading...

It wasn't the wisest pre-match interview to give. Criticising the opposition in the build-up to any match is always ill-advised, but when the inflammatory comments come from a Tottenham manager ahead of a trip to Arsenal, you are asking for trouble.

In truth Harry Redknapp did not say anything particularly controversial – he, like the Premier League title betting odds, expect Chelsea or Manchester United to win the league, not the Gunners – but he should have been aware of what the headline writers would seize upon.

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Good morning, a fine start to a new week for many of you. Round these parts there aren't too many Sp*rs fans. I play football with one on a Tuesday and when I told him I was going over for the game he said 'Oh dear, you've just wasted your money there'.

Oh dear indeed. So he'll get some tomorrow night but I can imagine those of you returning to work today who live in much closer quarters to fans of that persuasion will have a jolly good morning engaging in 'banter', you might say.

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So Liverpool were seen off in the week, an entertaining game and overall a deserved victory. Ramsey has taken a lot of plaudits, as has Fran Merida. Fabianski has apparently picked up a muscular strain which means that Arsene cannot hide from the Almunia question. Will Manuel start against the spuds? Click to continue reading...

What is it with footballers and stating the obvious? Chelsea full back Ashley Cole has said that Man United isn't the same without Cristiano Ronaldo. If any football team in the world lost their best player (who also just happens to be the best player in the world) then of course you wouldn't be the same. Click to continue reading...

Facebook is just weird funny

You really can't argue with the title. Seriously you can't so don't even try.

As Arsenal return from the 2 week break with a good win if not spectacular over Alex McLeish's Birmingham, some opposition fans chose to greet Liam Ridgewell's crunching tackle on Theo Walcott with a distasteful chant of "there's only one Martin Taylor".

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It's one of the oldest jokes in the book, but it will keep on getting used anyway. Referees are often the focus of a lot of negative banter including the recent incident in which Alex Ferguson called out a ref for being out of shape and unable to keep up with the action. The refs (in short) are often called horrible names most of which I will not even get into.

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We're going to use Inter manager and quality silver fox Jose Mourinho as our case study for today's Sizzle Query.

Here he is as usual, dapper and stylish, all swarthy and salt & pepper, with a bank balance to make your black AmEx sing through the halls of Selfridges daily.

However.

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We're going to use Inter manager and quality silver fox Jose Mourinho as our case study for today's Sizzle Query.

Here he is as usual, dapper and stylish, all swarthy and salt & pepper, with a bank balance to make your black AmEx sing through the halls of Selfridges daily.

However.

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September is complete and the Fantasy Football League is hotting up nicely.

Here are the current top 20.

20-40

And last but not least the bottom of the table.

Prizes are being confirmed as we speak (type) but will include some snazzy pack of football fun for the winner, including football boots/football shirts/and other footballing clothing courtesy of Adidas and other sponsors.

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The guys over at Wikio have sent me an advanced preview of their latest monthly sports rankings, which sees yours truly increase one spot to number 14.
The top twenty is as follows:
1Arseblog (=)
2Gunnerblog (=)
3BBC Sport - Football blog (+1)
4West Ham Till I Die (-1)
5Off The Post (+7)
6BBC Sport - Phil McNulty blog (+23)
7F1 Fanatic (-1)
8BlogF1 (+2)
9SoccerLens (-4)
10Goodplaya (-3)
11F1 Minute (=)
12Football Banter (-4)
13Line and Length - Times Online WBLG (-4)
14Bitter and Blue (+1)
15Formula One Blog - Times Online WBLG (-1)
16Twohundredpercent (-3)
17Sport Is A TV Show (=)
18East Lower (-2)
19BBC Sport - Tom Fordyce blog (+6)
20The Rafael Nadal Blog - Times Online WBLG (+37)
Ranking by Wikio Click to continue reading...

Instructions, mentality: attacking, passing style: short, tempo: quick. Ohh hang on a second, I can do this for real now.

Last weekend I completed my Football Federation Australia junior coaching license, so am now a 'proper' football manager. Sure I'll be coaching under 12's, but thats not what counts, I can pretend to be educated about the game, shout at my young winger to take more shots, and go to official FFA conferences.

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Somewhere between Leeds and Manchester on the M62 I was able to truly digest my four-day jaunt back to my native land for the third round of the Carling Cup. Working in football in the United States is a great privilege, and in Seattle the advent of Seattle Sounders FC has been a revelation for Major League Soccer.

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I know as soon as I dare to mention Sol Campbell's name, hundreds of people get straight on the comments to jump to his defence, but the bloke is seriously unbalanced. He's gone from one of the best defenders in the country to one of the biggest jokes in a relatively short space of time. I doubt he'd sign for Arsenal if he could have his time again; it all started going wrong from that point!

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Stockportinsider have teamed up with The Last Kick Forum - Thelastkick.co.uk is a football forum that was established recently by Jamie, and has grown in popularity since. They boast a large array of fans from different backgrounds and clubs. Their users actively take part in intellectual debate as well as light hearted banter.

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As Manchester United fans we have been blessed in watching outstanding football on a regular basis for years. The amount of superb performances, great results and lifted trophies has left us spoilt with success. We are famed for our dramatic results and have a habit of scoring vitally important goals late on.

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Derby day weekend has long been my favourite weekend of the year. It sometimes ends in tears but generally it's great, regardless of the result.

My local is a red pub but there are a few blues who drink in there. There's plenty of banter and usually it's good natured. We'll take the piss out of each other and have a laugh, but generally everyone gets along fine.

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Yes my blogging knows no limits and I've become an Everton Banter blogger!
Another perfect excuse to write about the (not so) mighty Blues. Read the first part here then click the link to read the piece in all its glory...
That's how I view Everton's start to the season.
After all the talk of lessons learnt and exciting new signings in June, the club were once again left to scramble around for new players around the September deadline day. Click to continue reading...

The actions of a remorseful man Emmanuel Adebayor was apologetic personified after his crazed sprint to celebrate his goal for Manchester City in front of Arsenal's supporters. But he is not going to let the terrible guilt he feels deep down inside get in the way of a bit of training ground banter. Having found the net [. Click to continue reading...

In an ideal world we'd be putting Saturday's defeat behind us and saying no more about it. That, however, is impossible given the furore caused by Emmanuel Adebayor.

It's likely he's going to be hit with FA charges for the celebration and the stamp on Robin van Persie. Regarding the celebration there are those who say Arsenal fans shouldn't have reacted like that and perhaps that's true to an extent.

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Darren Fletcher faced even more International disappointment this week after a defeat to Holland meant he will not be travelling to next summer's World Cup.

With Wayne Rooney enjoying great goal-scoring form for his country as well club, England have qualified with two games to spare, which has meant the English players have been giving Fletcher a lot of stick.

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This game happened a few days ago but I couldn't help but not post it. It's never easy to score a goal so when a player like Scotland's Darren McFadden tries to take on the whole team from half field and scores I can't helped but be amazed. Great goal!

Thanks to Stephen Smith from Jester's Banter for sending me the link to this one!

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The last post on the Kakuta story and the general topic of the transfer of young players provoked a lot of good banter, thank you one and all. It is clearly one very complex area and it seems that most people agree that blanket bans on the transfer of young players is not a clever way to solve the problem. Click to continue reading...

Join former Arsenal player Adrian Clarke and co-host Iain Spragg every Thursday on the new-look Soccerlens Podcast.

These two highly experienced journalists love to debate all the hottest football topics with their own unique style of banter, make spot on (or otherwise!) predictions for upcoming matches, while also providing insightful interviews with a whole host of leading football experts.

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"And now Defoe can open his legs and go."
ITV commentator telling us something we really didn't need to know during England v Slovenia.

Jeff Stelling: "John, I can't believe there are people leaving the stadium with the game like this..."
John Salako: "The game has finished, Jeff. Click to continue reading...

Oh Spurs. You do warm the cockles of my heart on these blustery Autumnal nights. I love these little PR stunts. You know, the happy, smiley, 'look-at-us-we're-all-friends' gems that pop up on the official website from time to time.
This latest one has provided some excellent feelgood pictures, all coming from the clubs official squad photocall. Click to continue reading...

Arsenalinsider.com brings you in advance the Wikio rankings for this month, known as the most influential blogs in the UK blogosphere.

We are delighted to come straight into the listing at no 32 and thrilled to see so many Arsenal blogs in the list.

As always, our mission is to provide you up-to-date views, news, analysis, exclusive interviews, videos and more on our beloved club and this leap in the Wikio rankings show how much you appreciate our efforts.

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