My god Arsenal are in trouble. Yes, they have injuries, but even with players back they will be far off the top. Time for Wenger to splash the cash, they need it. I don't think Ramsey is as good as he's made out to be, and Walcott still struggles to do it on a consistent basis. Arshavin looks nothing like the player he was a couple of years ago.

They'll struggle to be in the top 6 at this rate.

They've lost their best player, about to lose their best player, and they don't seem to be signing anyone of any gravity.

Wenger looks lost.

Agreed.

By the way do we have a fantasy league going on for the EPL this year on here? Remember a few years back we did, I only just setup my team so I'll be 2 weeks behind anyway, but wasn't sure if we had a league going on or not. I'm using the premier league website one at the moment.

If we don't and there's a few people wanting to do so then I can set one up, I have no points thus far anyway!

We are top of the league!

Alex is awful. 1-0 West Brom.

Damn it, my Pay TV shows every major European league expect the Premier League.

Ouch, what are they showing now? I mean no EPL, no La Liga (strikes), no Serie A. So it's German/French leagues I'm imagining?

Chelsea don't look like they have any idea at all.

German, French and Dutch leagues at the moment. They're also showing the Berlusconi Trophy tomorrow, and the Champions League play-offs next week.

Anelka, 1-1.

A deflected shot. Chelski have a break. Kinda hope West Brom stick it to them.

No boing boing for the Baggies.

Same with Al Jazeera Sports, they show all the top Euro leagues, both the CL&EL, the WC .. Heck anything related to football except for the EPL. However, Jazeera annual Subscription is like $54. While the EPL provider for the region is Abu Dhabi Sports and they charge $80 for annual subscription.


I wonder how much is the annual subscription costs in each of your respective countries to watch the EPL?

Good to see Chelsea winning, they're still the only real competition to Man U, and personally I can't stand to see them winning anythin again this season

The service provider that currently has the rights in Malta has a special offer, €10.00 per month for their sports package, which shows the 3 major leagues, but no Euro matches (the other service provider has those rights).

They usually do this to snatch you in on a contract though, so I don't know how much it would be. I still wouldn't give them the satisfaction of paying them any money. We get robbed over here to watch some TV, and still there are no decent channels on. The only decent channels we had were Living and Comedy Central, which we found out this year that they were being streamed illegally by both service provider companies.

But that is Malta for you, we get charged for a stolen service yet no compensation.

If City get Nasri they'll be the biggest contender to Utd.

I pay £22 for Sky Sports and I get ESPN free on XL TV with Virgin Media. All these channels exclusively cover the EPL together in Britain, and the SPL. The SPL is why I subscribed to them, the EPL is just a bonus.

Beautiful Malta

10 per month .. €80 per season thats $114 per season thats pretty steep considering only 3 leagues and no euro games. I dont want to know what they'd charge for the WC

Thats $36 per season for EPL and SPL - not bad.

My mistake, I misread. That's per month, not year. This is the reason so much money is in the EPL - the subscription charges to watch it on TV are huge.

Sky sports is like 40 pounds per month easily

Agreed. So far from all the EPL games I've watched (which is basically all the games played by the traditional top 4 + Man City), they've been the most impressive, for me United have an average squad that has great chemistry and knows how to win, but Man City looked the real deal imo. They have a great squad, they've been together for a good couple of years, they have Aguero and that missing piece in the midfield in Nasri.


Don't forget, that's the special offer to lure you in, so let's not even get into how much it is on regular basis.

Like I said, we get ripped off here, and mostly it's because we have the mentality of taking anything handed to us. In most countries the customer is always right, but here it's not. In most countries, you go to any restourant you get free refills on the first drink you buy, here you have to purchase every refill and drinks are practically more exensive then the actual food. You go into a McDonalds and you actually have to pay for the condiments (They actually ring up a ketchup if you go and ask for an extra packet)

That's why I would never pay for such a service, I'd rather keep watching streams, even dodgey ones than pay these companies money. And that's why most people these days purchase stuff on the internet from over here, simply because the brand agents bleed you dry. A PS3 game that you'd buy for €€12 on play would still be around €€40 from here.

I'm pretty sure for all Sky Sports it's somewhere around the £25 figure, then plus the £8 extra for ESPN a month. Though my Sky bill is a bit mad, as I have everything and for some reason they charge an extra £10 a month to have it all in HD.

Though I have the Sports channels for more than just football.

Virgin Media give HD for free, but the catch is it doesn't include Sky Sports - you have to pay extra for them in HD, and even then, it's only SS HD 1 and 2. But like I say, if you subscribe to the top TV package you get ESPN including HD at no extra cost.



I originally subscribed to ESPN for Tally footie & the SPL. Then I went up to XL TV and it became free anyway. And then I decided to get Sky Sports for the SPL run in. All of which was on Sky Sports.

But now I'm glad I have them all for all the sporting events.

City have an absolutely awesome squad. Every part of their team is rock solid, and that players like Bellamy and Adebayor are surplus shows their riches up front.

They just need a clever player in the centre of midfield to finish the puzzle. Hence Nasri.

Agreed. What bets does anyone want to take that we'll end up with them in our group in the CL...

Incredible, but right, that City are only in pot 3. Naturally the coefficient puts them there but their actual quality is that of a pot 1 team. Could be a real group of death if Milan, Barca and City are in the same group.

And yes, I didn't even realise we were pot 2 till I just checked there.

Flippin' eck.

Virgin any good Danny? My dad wants to swtich the tv/net/phone over to it on Monday.

We were relegated to pot 2?? I didn't know that.Damn, with the luck we've had these past few year in terms of the group draw I wouldn't be too surprised if we ended up with that ridiculous scenario.

I'm hoping for a Chelsea/Man U type of group. They usually get the easy ones with teams from leagues that most people don't even know about

It's not the cheapest, and the billing is clear as mud, but it has advantages:

Free HD (Except Sky Sports) - that's 20 free HD channels you pay a tenner monthly for on Sky. Free ESPN on the top TV package - which still has nowhere near as many channels as Sky TV does but then who watches Nigerian priests on religious channels anyway?

TV Guide is atrocious compared to Sky - Sky gives you the week ahead, Virgin barely covers a full day.

Internet is much better on Virgin - up to 100Mbps and at pretty reasonable prices. I'm considering upgrading to 30Mbps from 10 which will be at no cost monthly but will incur a 30 quid activation fee - but seeing as I managed to haggle 20 quid off the activation charge for V+ (50 reduced to 30) I might be able to get a reduction here too.

Phone costs £13.90 a month and you get free weekend calls on the basic package.

One major advantage of Virgin is the on demand content. Thousands of music videos, catch up TV, and on demand TV choice box sets of loads of different shows. All of this is free on XL TV.

Sky has its advantages too, but if you want top quality broadband, free HD, and a respectable number of channels with free ESPN then maybe Virgin is useful for you.

It's strange, Inter don't really deserve to be in Pot 1 on current form, and for me Porto are a Pot 2 team, not pot 1. Arsenal and Chelsea are misfiring, and others are better suited to tell me how good Bayern are right now.

Pot 1 seems a little weaker than I'd normally expect - the top teams don't seem quite as imperious as they normally are.

Pot 2 has us, Benfica, Villarreal, Lyon, Valencia, CSKA - quite a strong pot 2 this year.

Pot 3 and 4 have some serious European heavyweights in them.

I'd say pot 1 is weaker than usual, and the other 3 are stronger than usual.

We can actually still be in pot 1 if Arsenal or Bayern won't make it there. So, go Udinese!!

Udi are favourites in my eyes to go through.

Arsenal are a shambles.

That all sounds pretty decent.

I generally only watch Sky Sports, ESPN and then the likes of E4, Comedy Central and stuff like that anyways so I won't miss any of the crappy channels on Sky.

Yeah,it's really sad what is happening to Arsenal.

Let's not forget that last season,they were close to beating Barca.I always thought their team was 1-2 quality defenders away from being CL winners.That,and they needed players with more experience.Their is no balance,and they won't accomplish anything with this cycle.Who have they bought?A couple of promising youngsters for outrageous prices,and Gervinho,lol.That guy is average,and won't get them anywhere.

Ah, well, you get the free stuff in HD like ITV, BBC etc, but you have to pay £10 extra a month to get the Sky Movies/Sports/ESPN etc in HD.

I've noticed Virgin Media are literally giving ESPN away, that's pretty cool. Though don't you get limited to Sky Sports 1-3, isn't SS4 a Sky exclusive these days - or am I talking rubbish? Thing is there are a few things at times like the NFL that I catch on there.


Nah, like I said above about the HD, Sky charge for the Premium HD stuff, not the what I'd call free channels. Yeah, Sky covers the week on it's planner.

My net is actually covered by Virgin, mainly due to the fact Sky want you to have a phone line which I have absolutely no need for, as I have a mobile. Landlines are getting outdated these days, Sky need to wake up to that, they actually charged me a fee (though as I was new in the end didn't) due to the Sky box not being plugged into a phoneline. I mean I can understand for multiroom as you could pay £10 a month and give it to your mates but a single box - really?!

Actually, to be fair though Sky is catching up with on demand stuff. As Anytime+ they are pushing, then if you have XBL you get all the Anytime stuff on that too.

Sound like a Sky sales rep, but generally I think they are very good. Though watch them when you leave Kurt they're a complete pain to leave so I hear.

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About the Milan, City, Barca group.. Couldn't be that unlucky - surely.

If you want HD Sky Sports it will cost £7 a month extra, and even then is only SSHD 1 and HD 2. 3, 4, and News aren't available on VM in HD.

But if that doesn't bother you, then it's ideal if it suits your needs.

Ah, didn't know that. What about the channels like Sky 1, Sci fi and all that crap? Are they part of the free HD or is the tenner for them?



You get all 4 on VM - if you pay for Sky Sports Collection. Which I do.



VM are the same for whoring their landlines. You MUST take one to get the cheaper broadband and whatnot. I didn't mention that to Kurt because he said he already was going to get the landline, so it's a moot point. But for someone who doesn't need a landline so badly, it's annoying that you have to take one. tbh, I do use it now and again for 0845 numbers and the like as they're far cheaper on that than my mobile.



What do you actually get on anytime? When I used to have Sky a long time ago it was a selection of about 20 random programmes and that was about it. What's it like these days?



I'm neither Virgin inclined nor Sky. Both have strengths and weaknesses and certain things about both will annoy and bother and delight and thrill in equal measure. One thing I don't like about Sky is having to have an ugly dish.

Were they that close to beating Barca? I remember the first leg they scraped a 2-1 win then got horsed at the Camp Nou. My memory may be playing tricks on me though.

Well,yeah they sucked at Camp Nou,but remember Van Persie got a second yellow card that I felt was undeserved for.I think that shows that they got the potential and skill to beat teams like Barca,but they lack character.And,you're memory is totally fine

That's why my dad wants to change I think. The Sky+ box is in my room and the multiroom box is downstairs, but they kept wanting us to plug my box in to the phoneline which meant there was a wire going upstairs and it was just a pain. So we can't be arsed with it anymore.


They were poor in the 2nd leg but defended quite well. I think it would be fair comment by an Arsenal fan to say they only went out due to an awful refereeing decision.

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Our seats for this season: Awesome.

Honestly I'm not that sure, I think you get them for free too, and the charge is for the premium channels, your movies/sports etc.

Anytime is still like that, though Anytime+ is pretty good, especially if you have the Movies as there are hundreds on demand to choose from and they get updated on a weekly basis. The drawback with this is you have to have Sky broadband currently to get access to that directly through your TV. However you can use your 360/PC etc on any connection to make use of it.

I barely see the dish to be honest, they aren't like the olden days where they took up half of your wall, it's about as visable as my floodlight for the garden.


Yeah, I had the same a few years back when I was at home with multiroom, they go mad if you don't plug it in as the engineer was saying people would pay that subscription and then give the box to their mates before. I think in the end we just got a phone point installed into my room.

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Definitely, but at the Nou Camp you wouldn't expect much more.

Those seats aren't bad at all. What was Alex's reception yesterday like?

Really good. Got as big a cheer as Given and N'Zogbia. So far so good for him and he's done nothing much wrong for the moaners to complain about.

Ah, that's not too bad then.

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Aguero starts today.

Dzeko scores again, this is why I was saying not to write him off that quickly.

Middlesbrough 3-1 Birmingham.

Looks like he's doing a fair bit better now than he was last year.

Celtic 0 - 1 St Johnstone.

Our favourite sides didn't do so well today Kurt

...

United look absoloutely outstanding. The average age of their team is frightening too.