David Yaffe-bellany

Samba’s return: Whenever I watch Christopher Samba (5.0) – which isn’t often; it’s not like I’ve been getting up early to see Anzhi Mackhachkala games – I always cast my mind back to his amazing career in the north of England. Like how, for a while, he was both Blackburn’s best defender and its best […]

Harry Redknapp signed a player: Loic Remy (6.0) has scored his first Premier League goal, and QPR is undefeated in five games, which is exciting but also kind of disorienting in the way that Redknapp teams — with their cavalier disregard for things like debt, taxes and deadline-day honesty — are always disorienting. Redknapp seems […]

Gameweek 22 is almost over. There's just one match to conclude the gameweek (today's Chelsea vs Southampton match), but here are my observations from my adventures in the Fantasy Premier League. Clint Hill’s QPR keeps a clean sheet: Last week, I was a little hard on a certain Queens Park Rangers defender. Sorry, Clint (4.3). […]

Here are my adventures in the Fantasy Premier League for gameweeks 20 and 21, which includes some tips for gameweek 22. Ba to Chelsea: Demba Ba (8.5) has signed for Chelsea, which probably means that Newcastle will finish the season in the bottom half. If I were Mike Ashley, I’d fly somewhere secluded and tropical, […]

Should they be playing football? Lots of people want the Premier League to institute a winter break. Help the English National Team, they say. Give those hardworking players some well-deserved rest, they say. Bollocks, I say. Holiday football is fun. And yes, I too hope that some day a fully fit Wayne Rooney (12.0) will […]

In the Fantasy Premier League this weekend, it's the first week of the Fantasy Premier League Cup where you're randomly pitted against another opponent. Whoever has the highest score will progress to the next round of the cup competition next week. So, it's imperative that you pick a great side this weekend to rack up […]

Here are my Fantasy Premier League tips and some observations from gameweek 16, to help you prepare for gameweek 17. Torres scored: Suddenly, the world wants Fernando Torres (9.4) to succeed, which is strange. Torres isn’t exactly the world’s kindest, most beloved professional footballer (betrayed Atletico to join Liverpool, betrayed Liverpool to join Chelsea), and […]

Now that gameweek 15 is complete in Fantasy Premier League, it isn't that much time until gameweek 18 kicks off where you'll be going head-to-head with other players in the Fantasy Premier League. It's time to make those transfers and to stabilize your squad, so you're ready to rock and roll in a few weeks. […]

Don't forget that this afternoon (or evening, depending on what part of the world you live in) starts a new gameweek. Gameweek 14, to be exact, with all 20 Premier League teams playing over the next 48 hours. Here are some FPL tips to help you with your decision-making: Gameweek 13: The funny thing about […]

Proper center forwards: Once upon a time, strikers scored goals. Real goals. Not the “precise” finishes that plague modern football, but good, honest, in-off-your-back-or-maybe-even-a-little-bit-lower-than-your-back net-busters. That’s the way football should be played. (I’m joking.) That’s the way Edin Dzeko (7.5) and Chicharito Hernandez (7.5) play it. (I’m still joking. Dzeko’s one of those good-touch-for-a-big-man center […]

Wigan messes everything up: One of the beautiful things about football is its capacity to surprise. Giant-killers make the FA Cup – England’s oldest football competition, now sponsored by an American beer company – so much more than just a multiple-round, single-elimination challenge tournament. The underdog is always the best story, and an underdog’s victory […]

Join the EPL Talk mini-league within Fantasy Premier League to play against The Gaffer and thousands of other EPL Talk readers from around the world. The worst ninety minutes of the season: Unless you’re one of the .4 percent of fantasy managers who own Michael Turner (4.2), Saturday morning was kind of a drag. The Norwich […]

The EPL Talk private league in the Fantasy Premier League currently sits in fourth place for the best league in the world. Our points average could be improved, so be sure to keep on playing every week and pay attention to the tips here and on Fantasy Football Scout. Unusual scorers: If the sentence “Emmerson […]

Now that we're in the international break, it's a perfect opportunity to review your Fantasy Premier League team and to think ahead about some of the changes you may want to make. The beauty of Leighton Baines (7.4): A Bob Dylan fan who spends vacations wandering around Greenwich Village. A defender who keeps clean sheets, […]

Geordie strikers: The Demba Ba (8.1)-Papiss Cisse (9.1) dynamic used to be something to casually speculate about. Two Senegalese guys – apparently friends off the field – engage in a cutthroat battle for goal-scoring supremacy, with the loser consigned to a spot on the bench. You know: kind of funny, but certainly not significant. Nowadays, […]