October Preview - Some Thoughts from YTM HQ

Entry deadline: 1.45pm on Sunday 1st October

With the first of the month falling on a Sunday and with only 5 games being played on Saturday 30th September it means that we have a split in the fixture list with 10 teams playing 4 times in October and 10 teams only playing 3 times.

It seems obvious to concentrate on the teams who play 4 times:

Blackburn Rovers, Fulham, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Portsmouth, Reading, Tottenham Hotspur, Watford, West Ham United and Wigan Athletic.

When searching for multiple clean sheets it could pay to focus on 3 of those 10 teams who have underperformed so far this season:

Fulham - CHA and WIG at home, WAT and AST away
Tottenham Hotspur - POR and WHU at home, AST and WAT away
West Ham United - REA and BLA at home, POR and TOT away

Now it's unlikely that all 3 of these teams will turn their seasons around in October but there is a good chance that 1 of them will transform their fortunes and go and keep 3 clean sheets in the month. Which one? Well, who knows but our money is on Spurs.

Turning our attention to strikers who might go on a decent run of form here is our shortlist of players to keep an eye on.

1) H Camara. WIG. £6m. Scored his first of the season last weekend. Capable of a purple patch as proved by his tally of 114 last year.

2) S Nonda. BLA. £3m. Scored in his first start last weekend and looks a decent addition to Sparky's squad.

3) K Doyle. REA. £3m. Penalty taker who looks a decent favourite to be the bargain YTM striker for 06/07.

4) S Ameobi. NEW. £5m. 2 goals in 5 starts and pretty much a definite starter if fit.

5) B Mwaruwari. POR. £4m. Has started all 6 games so far this season ad with 2 goals and a KC is going well.

An interesting element of Octobers fixtures' is the amazing number of local matches (not strictly derbies) that take place:

Blackburn play Wigan and Bolton.
Bolton play Manchester United and Blackburn.
Charlton play Watford and Fulham.
Fulham play Charlton and Wigan.
Liverpool play Blackburn and Manchester United.
Manchester United play Liverpool, Wigan and Bolton.
Tottenham play West Ham and Watford.
Watford play Fulham, Tottenham, Arsenal and Charlton.
Wigan play Manchester United, Manchester City and Blackburn.

As well as being good news for travelling fans this could well result in a number of cagey low-scoring games.

That's it for now - good luck doing the research that could lead to a £10,000 windfall!

YTM HQ