Aston Villa are in a great run of defensive form at the moment, having kept 5 clean sheets in the last 6 games. One of the main beneficiaries of this has been Cuellar, who has played practically every minute of every game. He also popped up with a header goal to help Villa draw with Manchester United this week.

Fantasy Premier League tips can be found here on FPLBlog, every gameweek. Come and check out the best player picks and transfers. You can also read gameweek reviews, upcoming match previews and everything that will help you do better in Barclays Fantasy Soccer.
Check out the new posts under the recents posts and featured posts with the best overall tips and strategies to succeed in Fantasy Premier League.

World Cup fever has got it's abnormal hold on my mind, body and soul this week as Friday's opening match approaches like a cold sweat in the night, (if only World Cup fever was an adequate excuse to get out of work). Having awoke the previous two nights contemplating tactics and potential match ups for the England v USA game, I remain tired but at least ready to make a concrete prediction that England will win the match 2-0, better make that 3-0 if Bob Bradley starts Oguchi Onyewu.

More photos » Andy Marlin - Getty Images

Julius James has emerged as a solid defender for DC United.

Browse more photos »

Whatever was wrong with DC United a couple of months ago, it can safely be said that it is behind them.

As both an Arsenal fan and a longtime Los Angeles Galaxy season ticket holder, I have been asked how I reconcile my support for two different teams. I always reply that supporting Arsenal and the Galaxy is like having two friends who are destined never to meet. This Saturday at the Emirates, that quip will be forever buried as my beloved Arsenal takes on Everton who will likely feature Landon Donovan, the captain of my beloved Galaxy.

It's the end of another season and although football is a team game, I feel some player ratings are necessary to highlight the obvious deficiencies in this team.
Full details of how the rating system (out of ten) works are here, but essentially, 6 is average, 8 is excellent and anything below 5 is pretty abysmal.

Watched the entire USA - Turkey friendly match yesterday and the England - Japan clash from Austria this morning and have a few thoughts on these Group C rivals who will face off in the World Cup on June 12th:

• The US looked much better in the second half than in the first half against Hiddink's Turkey.

Tonight feels like the beginning of the rest of the season. While many were nervously anticipating the United and Chelsea games, matches that brutally exposed our every weakness, Liverpool are a completely different proposition. While their abilities cannot be discounted, especially given their improved form, they have neither the winning mentality of United or a forward who strikes fear into the hearts of our defence as much as Drogba.

Every competitive fantasy football manager needs a stats advantage.
For years, I've used a combination of a variety of statistical sources: pre-game match reports, ESPN, Sky and other Premier League websites, the official fantasy game, as well as Opta Sports and dozens of other smaller players as well as bookmakers like titanbet and even the old tried and true Wikipedia.

By TRAVIS CLARK

The All-Star Game has come and gone, but its impact could be felt this weekend. With almost every team represented, tired legs might hamper some of the star players involved in Wednesday's game.

Overshadowing that is the likely MLS debut of New York Red Bull signing Thierry Henry, who could start against the Houston Dynamo.

Squad Profiles are available for each of the twenty clubs currently playing in the Premier League. They are an overview of each club and specifically denote players to highly consider selecting for your side. Others have been ear-marked to watch out for as they may be new to the Premiership or returning from injury.

All good things come to an end. Los Angeles Galaxy's perfect winning record in the current MLS season proved to be no exception. However, unlike some other seemingly immortal winning streaks, this one was waiting for its inevitable end. When a team relies on a single individual to do literally all of its scoring, bad things are bound to happen.

Stamford Bridge full back could be set for La Liga move.

Win the Club Shirt Of Your Choice Simply by Speaking Your Mind!

CHELSEA are bracing themselves for massive bids from Barcelona and Real Madrid for Ashley Cole.

Both of the Spanish giants are in the market for a top left-back and Cole is rated among the best in the world.

spotted at FIFA.com

This has been a FIFA World Cup™ of firsts: the first on African soil, the first won by Spain and also the first to be assessed second-by-second using the Castrol Index. This innovative system has utilised advanced technology to objectively analyse and evaluate every single player movement, and tonight it crowned its very own FIFA World Cup king.

Squad Profiles are available for each of the twenty clubs currently playing football in the Spanish top flight. They are an overview of each club and specifically denote players to highly consider selecting for your side. Others have been ear-marked to watch out for as they may be new to La Liga or returning from injury.

I recently reread Simon Kuper's column about statistics in soccer, in which he quotes Mike Forde, Chelsea's Performance Director, who has worked hard to find ways of making statistical analysis useful for his club. It's an interesting piece, but what struck me as particularly interesting for soccer analysts was this quote:
"The holy grail would be discovering the key to victory.

In a recent post, I calculated the point values of goals conceded for the 2009-10 Premier League season. Keep in mind that a clean sheet guarantees a team at least one point from a match and potentially gives it three (in case the team scores a goal). For the EPL, the data showed that clean sheets were highly valuable to a team in 2009-10, producing about 2.

I thought this piece by Jonathan Tannenwald at Philly.com's The Goalkeeper blog was really interesting. It takes a look at this year's MLS season to calculate who may be (or, in Tannenwald's view) is the league's MVP. Since he writes for a Philadelphia news outlet, it's perhaps not a surprise that he came up with the Union's Sebastien Le Toux.

In October 1995, Roy Hodgson took over as manager of Inter Milan. Almost 15 years later, Rafa Benitez - Hodgson's predecessor at Liverpool - left Anfield to manager Inter. Benitez that has been in charge at Inter for 22 games now: how do his first 22 games stack up against Hodgson's first 22 games in the 1995-96 season?

photo credit: Anders V

It is one of the best problems your national team can have. In fact it is nearly unheard of. Spain just might possibly have the two best keepers in the entire world.

It is similar to when the San Franisco 49ers had both Joe Montana and Steve Young at the QB position.

Since there have been lots and lots of comments elsewhere on the progress of our club, I would just like to post an article by Tomkins, which I am sure took a very very long time to produce. Hence it should be given its due respect. The article is at his membership site but this one is free, so I thought I would just copy and paste the whole thing.

Former Chelsea stud Eidur Gudjohnsen has joined Tottenham
We predicted an Arsenal - Aston Villa draw, as well as a 2-goal Everton win on Monday, (pats self on back) but now we are back to our regularly scheduled weekend gameweeks, so let's get to it:
I. Manchester United @ Arsenal: Sol Campbell is old, and much slower, and will face off against a Wayne Rooney in the form of his life on Sunday.

Jamie Carragher believes normal service has been resumed in Liverpool's defensive ranks - but warned the Reds will face a tough task in keeping Arsenal at bay on Wednesday evening.

Saturday's 1-0 victory over Everton moved Rafael Benitez's side into fourth place in the table and means they have now kept six clean sheets in their last seven Barclays Premier League outings.

In this monthly segment, we attempt to answer the question, "Who should we take to South Africa?" Rather than taking the standard approach (doing our best to guess who Bob will take to South Africa), we focus on who we think Bradley should take.

Another month.

Having seen Kasey Keller make a smooth transition from European football to Major League Soccer, might another renowned American goalkeeper be making a similar move in the coming months? Wolverhampton netminder Marcus Hahnemann discussed the possibility of leaving the Premier League behind for a return to his native country in a recent interview with Sky Sports.

Plenty of positives to look back on...and some negatives.

First of all, slightly late but anyway, congratulations to Chelsea. Ignoring all the obvious accusations of cheating, better treatment from referees, conspiracies, whatever, they have won the Premier League title because they gained a point more than us.

United States v Australia 3:1
Pre-World Cup Friendly
Well, Australia may have been exhausted from fitness training, and I will still maintain my optimism the best I can for the World Cup, but according to my own declaration yesterday, I won't be putting my money on them.

Photo by Rick Osentoski/ISIphotos.com

By AVI CREDITOR

Welcome back.

When we last left you, the West was dominating the East, the Los Angeles Galaxy refused to concede a conventional goal and a handful of teams were consistently jockeying for table position.

Up to this point, we here at JBM have done our best to portray the most sensible methods to make sound and well thought out signings for your side. Goalkeepers were first, and represent the cheapest and most evenly-graded players on the pitch. Defenders followed as we examined the price it costs to tally the most clean-sheets.

Photo by Michael Janosz/ISIphotos.com

By AVI CREDITOR

Six weeks remain in the Major League Soccer season, and although the focus is largely on the teams in the playoff hunt, the fantasy focus should shift to a team that's likely on the outside of the postseason picture for the first time.

Roberto Mancini's appointment has had the desired effect on the stuttering Manchester City team. In the two matches that the Italian has been in charge, the team has tightened up with two clean sheets and Carlos Tevez looks to be in the form of his life. City's performance has been so encouraging that Mancini has been bold enough to change his cautious top four statement to legitimate Premier

photo credit: vramak

1 ) Cesc Fabregas

Not only is Cesc Fabregas the best player 22 & Under, but he might be the best midfielder in the entire Premier League. I apologize to all the Lampard and Gerrard fans out there, but what Fabregas is doing this year is incredible and it is no coincidence that Barcelona is salavating over purchasing the young star.

Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp wants his side to be the big beneficiaries of the recent cold snap when they travel to Anfield to face a Liverpool side without Fernando Torres or Steven Gerrard.
Spurs were due to face their rivals for a Champions League place earlier in the month but the match was postponed due to snow, with Gerrard and Torres then suffering injuries in the FA Cup defeat to Reading.

‘Arry has been banging on about the triffic opportunity tonight's game presents, and he has a point – for without Gerrard and Torres that lot suffer from a lack of both confidence and quality; while clean sheets a-plenty have underpinned some pretty decent recent performances from our heroes. Off the top of my head I can't actually remember the last time we ever won in the League at Anfield, but having caught snatches of their game against Reading in the Cup last week the place looks more like a wendy-house than a fortress at the moment.

Rafael Benítez insists Liverpool can rediscover the fearsome form they showed in the second half of last season as they bid to see off Tottenham, Manchester City and Aston Villa to claim the coveted fourth Champions League slot.
Benitez's side have enjoyed a run of six Premier League games undefeated since their loss to Portsmouth before Christmas, beating Harry Redknapp's and Martin O'Neill's teams in the process, but confidence at Anfield remains fragile after a disastrous autumn.

Job done, match won. Professional but less than clinical Zamora missed after 90 seconds and Davies fluffed an easy chance in the second half but both got goals and both took them well. Davies after 22 minutes, Zamora after 41.

My neighbour complained that we were overelaborate in the second half but once again Duff proved strong, direct and accurate: 3-0 in the 73rd minute.

It is rare in club soccer in relatively minor leagues to be able to watch the best player that has ever played for your own nation. For the Sounders of Seattle we have that unique privilege. Certainly the best American Keeper in history has retired from international play, but he is still a decent player.

By AVI CREDITOR
Welcome to the first installment of Fantasy English Premier League on SBI. Granted, we're 27 weeks late, but not too late to help you finish at the top of your table or give you the advice you need to capture your head-to-head league or even the elusive Fantasy Cup.

Major quickie my bredren, I'm not in no fit state to ramble on about the plight of John Terry's big I Am Untouchable shenanigans plus I deffo don't want to pipe up about Ashley I'm Sooo Depressed Cole. It serves you both right. I want to dwell on the re-emergence of Leighton Baines, Warnock, Carlton Cole & Stewart Downing, even if my heads banging after watching the Paddys and Brazilians in a Guinness fuelled haze at the Emirates.

Now I know most of you probably just glance past the sidebars, but on the left side you are missing updated Goals, Assists, Clean Sheets, +/-, Points Per 90 and Plus/Minus Per 90 numbers for League Play, and in Reserve/Friendly action you are missing the Goals, Assists and Points.

Below is the full data for both current League Play and Reserve/Friendly play.