Hi all,

Well, it’s been a rather sobering few months for me as I’ve had my arse well and truly felt in all three of my TS Supercoach leagues (owing to some wonderful foresight I did keep on two mate’s leagues though - which has helped to ease the pain, massaged the ego even). Now though it’s time to address the balance and take a spanking in TS FPL as well.

I’m only half-joking as despite being a bit of a veteran at EPL FF, I’m a relative novice at FPL.

However, I will have the help of my young kids as they have a pathological hatred of sleeping therefore I will be able to see the vast majority of the games, regardless of the k.o time.

As such, every week I’ll bring you a Round Review of the games that you’ll hopefully enjoy and find helpful along the way.

This week’s review is quite meaty and I’ve tried to include players that have been mentioned in the last week or so. Dembele, Petric, Rodriguez etc all get some coverage, so grab yourself a cuppa or whatever and join me over the break…<!--more-->

Wigan v Chelsea 0-2

Roberto Martinez in time-honoured tradition has ordered his players to lose all games in the first two-thirds of the season before embarking on a ridiculous unbeaten run to escape relegation. They passed their first test with flying colours in a defeat against Chelsea. Ivanovic and Lampard (pen) with the goals and Hazard the assists. Ramires was out (illness), while Sturridge, Cahill and Oscar all started on the bench. Bertrand, possibly surprisingly, started.

Wigan new signing Kone came off the bench on 67mins while fellow new signing Ramis had a bit of a nightmare. Maloney came off injured (48mins) while Chelsea target Moses ran rings round both full-backs.

Man City v Southampton 3-2

This game was bonkers. Aguero injured. Silva missed pen, goals for Tevez, Dzeko and Nasri. Soton goal machine and talisman. Lambert surprisingly started on the bench. Do Prado started up front while Rodriguez started wide left mid but looked decent. Lambert came in on 54mins (for Rodriguez while Do Prado dropped back to wide left mid) and dragged the Saints back into the game followed by fellow sub Steven Davis - who felt a move to the EPL trumped a move to the Scottish 3rd Division with relegated Rangers – who scored within a couple of mins of coming on.

Mancini a few days ago said Rodwell was one for the future, by “the future” he obviously meant “this Sunday” as he started. Nasri, Toure and Zabaleta all impressed to varying degrees.

Fulham v Norwich 5-0

Clint Dempsey who has done a lot more for me than any other C Dempsey in 2012 was missing as speculation still rages around his future. No matter we’ll still take 5 off you thank you very much. Riether made his debut as did bargain-priced Petric who scored a brace.

Kacaniklic and Duff also scored and with Dempsey’s absence and Murphy gone, Sidwell  took the penalty that sub Rodallega earned. Dembele and Ruiz were both excellent and saw some assist action as did Riise.

West Ham v Villa 1-0

Kevin Nolan showed that he’s still well capable of finding the net in the PL. While James Collins delivered a clean sheet and a get it right up ye to Villa manager Paul Lambert after being told he was surplus to requirements. Anyone familiar with Big Sam’s football  wont be surprised to learn that it wasn’t pretty, but when we’ve got the McCartney’s &amp; Jaaskelainen’s of the world knocking out clean sheets do we really care?

Brett Holman was passed fit after being..ahem..introduced to Gary Caldwell midweek. While any rejuvenation of former FF favourites Stephen Ireland &amp; Charles N’Zogbia will have to wait as they both played but like the rest of the Villa players , were ineffective.

WBA v Liverpool 3-0

Well deserved win for  West Brom &amp; it could’ve been worse for Liverpool as they were owned in the second half. Agger’s red card didn’t help. Bargain priced Gera scored an early contender for goal of the season while Shane Long had an early contender for pishest penalty of the season (David Silva might well claim this award now though) as Reina made a comfortable save. Skrtel ‘s turn to concede a penalty(against Long) and Odemwingie made no mistake. Lukaku was warned by Steve Clarke that he was far from assured of a starting spot &amp; would have to work hard for a place  in the team. He answered that one by coming off the bench to score the third. Ridgewell saw some assist action.

For Liverpool Joe Cole came off the subs bench for a quick cameo before going off the park injured 5mins later in a manner that would’ve had Keiron Dyer blushing(if that name isn’t familiar think Missy Higgins or Gumby) . Suarez again missed a good few chances including one from an Allen corner.

QPR V Swansea  0-5

This one was a big shock as big things are expected of QPR this season with Hughes having a full preseason and some big name arrivals. Ji-Sung Park, Fabio, Hoillett and Rob Green all made their competitive debuts &amp; Johnson also came on for Cisse late on.

It was one of Swansea’s signings that made the headlines though- Michu with two goals and an assist. Dyer also scored a brace and the transfer-seeking Scott Sinclair finished the rout. There have been some questions asked of whether Swansea will manage to stay up again this year with manager Rodgers gone as well as the likes of Caulker and Allen. Laudrup and his troops gave an emphatic answer.

QPR owner Tony Fernandez as well as Hughes were fairly philosophical about it all, most likely remembering they lost 0-4 to the now relegated Bolton on the first day of last season.

Arsenal v Sunderland 0-0

Arsenal defensive legend Steve Bould is now Wenger’s assistant and has been working hard on the defence so I’m sure he would’ve been delighted with a clean sheet. Koscielny (poss back next week) and Sagna (poss back start of Sept) were missing with Mertesacker and bargain priced Jenkinson covering. With Koscielney and especially Vermaelen’s goal threat there could be excellent value in Arsenal’s back-line this year.

For Sunderland, cheap as chips Cuellar having signed for O’Neill again was installed at CB and a clean-sheet maybe wasn’t a massive surprise for this hard-working unit, especially with RVP gone. Other favourites Sessegnan, McLean and Larsson were all present. Sess was run into the ground as a lone striker while Sunderland try to get the money together to buy target-man Steven Fletcher.

Saha made a 20minute appearance. Carzola was decent for the Gunners, Podolski was quiet before Giroud replaced him in the 2nd half and missed an excellent chance to break his PL duck.

Newcastle v Spurs 2-1

Despite Newcastle manager Alan Pardew getting sent to the stand for a Paulo Di Canio-esque moment of aberration by pushing an official, they still managed to walk away with 3pts.

Ba scored for the first time in 14 games and Ben Arfa, who showed more flashes of brilliance, won and scored a penalty. Spurs who probably deserved at least a point scored through Defoe. Ryan Taylor and Obertan started on the bench for Spurs and Cabaye was replaced by Anita on 71mins.

AVB pulled a couple of surprises by leaving new signing Vertonghen on the bench (Kaboul and Gallas the CB pairing). VDV did well when he came on for Sigurdsson, spraying some passes around but he was sitting fairly deep.

Reading v Stoke 1-1

Reading won 15 of their last 17 games to get promoted last year despite being the lowest scorers of the top five Championship teams. Le Fondre scored a 90th min penalty while new signing Pogrebnyak was quiet before getting substituted for Hunt on 77mins.

Free kick specialist Ian Harte, now approaching 35, almost stole all 3pts at the end. Federici, who is still suffering from shellshock after Scotland’s bombardment last week in the 3-1 pumping of the Socceroos (Ha, you didn’t honestly think I’d let that one pass did you?) threw in Stoke’s goal scored by debutant Knightly.

Etherington and Huth both started while Walters was their best player. Whitehead was sent off. Shotton and Delap were on the bench.

Everton v Man Utd 1-0

Even with Jones and Smalling out, Rafael could only make the bench with Valencia slotting in at RB. Rio missing (3-4wks) had Carrick falling back into CH alongside Vidic. It was Carrick’s inability to mark 6ft9inch Fellaini (6ft3inch in the rain) from Gibson’s corner that cost the winning goal.

Kagawa (who looked tidy enough) started as did Nani and Welbeck. RVP made his introduction for Welbeck on 67mins and started taking the corners from the right.

Everton fought like warriors and it was a well-deserved clean-sheet and win for the Toffeemen. Coleman and Naismith both came off the bench late on.

As for my team- if I put the best of my TFF team up with the best of my FPL then it would look a lot better. But with the Chelsea v Reading game coming up on thursday morning Im hoping Fed, Harte, Ivanovic, Ramires, Torres and Pogrebnyak can do some damage.

Anyway let us know how youre going this week whether its FPL or VS.