Perhaps the toughest question of this year's EPL fantasy preseason is which of the biggest EPL strikers should be used. They are all costly, and there is uncertainty over starting lineups and succeptibility to injury. But choosing the right striker force early is vital, particularly as many opening fixtures provide the opportunity for some big points.

Another season that looks completely different to last season, yet somehow the same... its just another year in the Fantasy Premier League! Some big players have up and gone whilst at the same time the tough decision hasn't gotten any easier over which key central midfielder to pick. New strikers glisten with the promise of points Points POINTS, while the likely suspects remain tempting.

Bookmakers always provide an valuable insight into professional football research, since they above anyone else have shedloads of their own money on the line. That makes their offers not only interesting but relevant to the Fantasy Football manager. Lets look at a few, starting with goal scoring options.

Bookies slash odds on 'Arry to quit Harry Redknapp's odds for being the next Premier League manager to leave his post have been slashed by bookmakers after punters heavily backed the Spurs boss to jump or be pushed. The odds have been cut from 50/1 last night to 2/1 this lunchtime, causing Redknapp to overtake Portsmouth's [.

Cinderella stories happen everyday, everywhere in this world. In particular, when it comes to the world of football, we have seen quite a few of them. After all, who would have thought that Senegal would knock France out of the World Cup in 2002? Or who would have picked Greece to win it all in the European Cup of 2004?

By DUANE ROLLINS

Discerning Canadian soccer fans can be forgiven for being a tad bit ambivalent about the Canadian national team's success during the preliminary round of the Gold Cup.

We've seen the movie before after all. A plucky Canuck team surprises the critics (and terrifies the bookies) by playing attractive, winning football at the CONCACAF championships.

Saint turns sinner Southampton legend Matt Le Tissier has confessed he hatched a plan to cheat bookies out of £10,000 during his playing days. The Sky Sports pundit got his mates to place bets on the first throw-in of a 1995 Premier League match coming within 60 seconds. Le Tissier planned to get the ball straight from [.

Asia
As we've just mentioned in our TV Preview, Asia is awash with three new countries that have qualified for the Finals in South Africa next year.
From Group 1, Australia and Japan are assured of occupying the top two places after the Aussies played out a goalless draw against Qatar and Japan won 1-0 away to Uzbekistan.

1: 1-1-8


2: 1-1-8

3: 1-1-8

4: 1-1-8


5: IBRACADABRA

6: 1-1-8(C)

7: 1-1-8

8: 1-1-8

9: 1-1-8


10: 1-1-8


11: 1-1-8


12: IBRACADABRA


13: IBRACADABRA


14: IBRACADABRA


15: IBRACADABRA
A fantasy Premier League Butt's Brain rundown from blogger One-One-Eight:

• 2008-2009 fantasy Premier League stud Brede Hangeland to replace Kolo Toure at Arsenal [Telegraph]

• Martin O'Neill gives a drunken EPL prediction.

Chelsea v Liverpool Preview: Head To Head Player Stats - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Ahead of this weekend's FA Cup final between Chelsea and Liverpool, Castrol EDGE performance data compares some of the teams' key players.

On Saturday, two of the Premier League's top goalkeepers will be going head to head, with very little between them this season in terms of performance.

The CL group stage is done and dusted, at last. The 16 teams who made it through are the usual suspects plus some interesting dark horses:

Group winners
Bordeaux
Manchester United
Real Madrid
Chelsea
Fiorentina
Barcelona
Sevilla
Arsenal

Group runners-up
Bayern Munich
CSKA Moscow
AC Milan
Porto
Lyon
Inter
Stuttgart
Olympiacos

A very strong-looking line-up.

Interesting quotes from Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson about Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo. Fergie sold Ronaldo to Madrid for £80million this summer but remains a big fan of his former player.

Ronaldo has settled quickly into the Real Madrid lineup and he has scored seven goals already this season.

On Saturday, 14th November 2009, Ireland play France in the first leg of their World Cup playoff. France are the bookies' favourites to win the two-legged affair, but Ireland certainly have more than a reasonable chance of booking their place for the tournament in South Africa. Sports retailers

The season isn't actually over yet, but several managers have quit (or in Sunderland's case jumped before they were pushed out) and clubs from Celtic to Chelsea are looking for a new manager. Remarkably, Eriksson is not on any shortlist this time around (not even the bookies) and perhaps more surprisingly, Southgate and Brown still have jobs while Shearer is seriously considering sticking around at Newcastle.

So I made a grand statement in my comeback blog yesterday that I had a funny feeling about Benzema and the rumours surrounding our alleged interest in him. Turns out it was a strange feeling, but it was indigestion rather than any sort of psychic ability. Pop a Rennie and Benzema heads to Real Madrid for €far more than we would have paid.

All this week Soccerlens will be preparing for the big kick-off on August 8th with a full preview of the English leagues from Championship downwards. We start off with the Blue Square Premier, better known as the Conference. Can Luton Town bounce back? Will AFC Wimbledon take a third successive promotion?

If ever two rounds of FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010 Qualifiers demonstrated the utter and complete fake of the whole charade, these last two rounds were it.
The icing on an incredibly corrupt cake inevitably occurred at the Mall.
David Beckham performs no more than adequately for 32 minutes as a substitute, publicly displaying his new self-adhesive Dostoyevskian facial hair, and Steve Bruce, the man who still seems to think that Rio Ferdinand has his nose on the job, gives Our National Treasure the Man of the Match award.

Do you ever get the feeling that gambling and football have their hands in each others pants a little too regularly? Well maybe this will convince you. There's a story going around that Rafa Benitez will be out the Liverpool exit door before the weekend gets here. Where did this story come from? Did Rafa say [.

Who will be Chelsea's manager next season?

Whilst the fans ferventely hope that it is current interim boss Guus Hiddink who stays in his position, the chances of the Dutch mastermind staying on are quite slim - considering he's told everyone he's not staying, as has the chairman. The bookies have been taking bets on everyone from ex Barca gaffer Frank Riijkard to Mourinho to Mourinho's predecessor, Roberto Mancini.

The dust has barely settled on Ricky Sbragia's resignation and there's already talk of who will replace him in the hot seat at Sunderland.
Wigan boss Steve Bruce is the bookies early favourite at a price of 5/2, while Celtic's Gordon Strachan is also a name being mentioned, however, for me, there is only one man to replace Sbragia and that is Hamburg's Martin Jol.

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- Antonio Caliendo's Golden Foot 2009 Awards: The Nominees Were Announced Today
- Still No Report: Marking Forty Days Since Club Officials Met with the QPRFan "coalition" OneQPR.

By some accounts, Sunderland should have been relegated this season. They didn't, and with Ellis Short due to complete a full buy-out of the north-east club, the Black Cats are looking for a manager to take them to the 'next level', whatever that means.

While the press has hopped from the impossible appointment of Frank Rijkaard (waiting for Chelsea or Milan, pending Ancelotti's fate) to flirting with the idea of bringing back Steve McClaren (staying with FC Twente) and Martin Jol (now going to Ajax) to even tempting Gordon Strachan to join the show (now taking a break from football), one name has stayed the bookies' favourite - Steve Bruce.

The Premier League has been decided and the Champions League is off to Spain, but there is still one major trophy left to fight over this season in England – The FA Cup.
Blue certainly will be the colour at Wembley on Saturday as Chelsea take on Everton. The bookies are favouring a Chelsea win, after all the club finished the season in third place and only narrowly missed out on a spot in the Champions League final.

It seems increasingly likely that current Watford boss Brendan Rodgers will be appointed the new Reading manager some time in the near future. Nicky Hammond is showing due care and diligence in carefully sifting through the applications and with the Hornets keen to retain the services of Rodgers nothing is certain, however it all points to the Irish man taking charge for the new season.

Malcolm Macdonald has come out today and confessed he is more than a little worried about Newcastle's future, given how low the club has fallen to, after being relegated for the first time in 20 years. Malcolm Macdonald fears for the Newcastle club However the bookies, currently have Newcastle the favourites to return to the Premier League [.

This Confederations Cup is good isn't it? Well, it's not actually that great but it will do until the proper football arrives. Italy's unlikely exit has been the highlight so far without a doubt.

Italy have the look of an aging team and with little in the way of flair coming through the ranks and they definitely look a side to oppose at next summer's World Cup despite the bookies still making them 14/1 shots.

At least that's what the bookies think will happen in the coming weeks, as Liverpool moved into the driver seat to sign the French star late yesterday. Rumours are now swirling about a proposed deal that could involve a couple of players, plus cash for the Bayern Munich midfielder.

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I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it........
I'm about to lose control and I think I like it....................
It's here! The new season is finally upon us and despite all the negative shite I have read in the papers over the summer I'm actually feeling pretty positive going into the new campaign.

By Gareth Freeman

City may have dominated the back pages over the summer with their transfer exploits but Sir Alex Ferguson doesn't see United's neighbours mounting a serious title challenge next season.

He told the BBC: "It won't be easy for them to win anything, even with the players they have bought.

"What, me, Richard Scudamore, hanging around ################################### at three in the morning, with my reputation. What were they thinking of? Has no one thought of the consequences?"
Yes, Our Great Leader is planning another Great Leap Forward in Beijing, where the eagerly awaited betting event known as the Premier League Asia Trophy begins tomorrow.

The wait is over, the first match played and a surprise result already. Season previews and bookie odds are in tatters after a team most tipped to finish in the bottom three up staged last years premiers (and bookies favourite) to take the points in the opening match.
To be honest Victory hardly looked interested in the first half.

So, it's once more unto the breach, for the new season is upon us. The friendlies are done, fantasy league teams picked – all that's left is for AANP Towers to rustle up a list of top ten aims for season 2009-10, and then we can get cracking...

1. European Qualification

Top six, or a trophy.

Ding Ding! In the purple corner, Burnley, back in the big time. In the Blue corner, Alex McLeishs' Birmingham, both battling it out for the wooden spoon.

This season promises to be a blinder. Any one of 10 teams could beat Derby's dreaded record of 11 points in a Premier League season.

Here's my bottom half predictions.

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Carlo Ancelotti was in his first competitive game at Stamford Bridge, while Hull City began their sophomore season against the team that has been the bookies' choice to win the Premier League this season.

The early stages were heavily dominated by Chelsea, but the Tigers took a shock lead against the run of play a little before a third of the game was completed.

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- Compilation of Match Reports & Comments for QPR vs Blackpool
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- On This Day (August 9) Flashbacks
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- Q&A With Ossie Ardiles
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Betting companies fascinate me, partly because I have a propensity for number crunching, and partly because the people involved have to be lightning quick, reacting with incredible speed to the most innocuous looking story, hidden in an unnoticed column on a newspaper's website.

Because these days, you can bet on anything.

It's just a sick joke!

Over 600 Ashes tickets still available Click Here to Buy!

Rumours abound on the internet that Rafa Benitez could be set to quit as Liverpool manager.

A number of bookmakers are believed to have already suspended betting on the next Premier League manager to go in light of the whispers coming out of Merseyside.

Liverpool FC supporting journo, Derek McGovern, wrote for The Mirror this morning having a good ol' laugh at Manchester United. The 'betting guru' talked up United's chances of finishing the season empty-handed whilst picking apart our 'misfiring' strike force.

Bookies now quote Manchester United at odds-on to finish the season potless - but I doubt they'll even do that well.

No. No it's not.

There is just no way Spurs will last the pace. They have been cut from 200/1 to 30/1 after an impressive start - that's a huge over-reaction from the bookies. They will be the Villa of last season, a bright start fading away at Christmas as teams get wise to them and fatigue sets in.

If you are Paul Hart - by far the bookies' favorite to become the first sacked manager in the Premier League this season - you would need a miracle to save Portsmouth from relegation at this point. Four games into the new season, Pompey are yet to scrap up a single point, which is a clear indicator of how the team roster was in desperate need of major bolstering on the final day of transfers.