PlayTheGame

Three players were added to the PlayTheGame player lists late on Monday evening after makeing appearances in the Premier League over the weekend. The three players were added at around 23:45pm BST on the 31st August and are subject to the usual 48 hour notice period.

Ciaran Clark: 19 year old defender who made his Villa debut against Fulham
Kevin McDonald: Burnley midfielder
Gary McSheffrey: Birmingham Midfielder

The Summer transfer window closes at 5pm BST, today September 1st. Check back on Wednesday for the final transfer window additions.

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After a relatively quiet final day of the Summer transfer window, eleven players have been added to the PlayTheGame player list. The players were added at 18.00 BST on September 2nd and will be subject to the usual 48 hour notice period.

Ivan Klasnic, Bolton Wanderers
Aruna Dindane, Portsmouth
Hassan Yebda, Portsmouth
Diego Arismendi, Stoke City
John Mensah, Sunderland
Manuel da Costa, West Ham
Segundo Castillo, Wolves
Stefan Maierhofer, Wolves
Mike Williamson, Portsmouth
David Elm, Fulham
John Heitinga, Everton

As we sit through the first international break for the season, it gives us a bit of time to reflect on the Premier League so far and look forward to the next fixtures on September 12th. In PlayTheGame, managers can take stock of squads, identify areas of weakness, consider potential transfers and work out how to improve our league position.

For anyone up for a challenge it may also be an opportunity to think about joining a second, third or even fourth PlayTheGame league or maybe you are yet to take the plunge and need to get yourself into a league.

If you want to set up a league and advertise for like minded managers to join your league, or if you have a league with a few places left to fill then let us know the details including who you’d like to join your League, the name, password, league size and scheduled allocation date and we will advertise available leagues on this post.

Alternatively it may be time to look around at your friends and colleagues and persuade them to get involved in the most realistic fantasy football game or if you've just got back to Uni or college why not set up a league with your class mates to play in between lectures.

If you get involved now, you could be up and running by the time the season re-starts on September 12th and because of the unique nature of PTG you haven't lost anything by starting now.

Good Luck!

Whilst there are no Premier League fixtures this weekend, it is still an important week for football with World Cup qualifying taking place around Europe. Although PlayTheGame is only concerned with Premier League matches, the biggest thing to watch out for as a PTG manager is any injuries that arise as a result of the international fixtures. Have a look at Charlie's latest video previewing all the international fixtures for the home nations.

Take a look at the Premier League preview videos for all ten matches this weekend and our special weekend preview from Charlie...

VIDEO: Premier League match previews for September 12/13 2009
VIDEO: Charlie Webster previews the weekends matches

Saturday September 12, 2009
Blackburn Rovers v Wolves, 3:00 pm
Liverpool v Burnley, 3:00 pm
Manchester City v Arsenal, 3:00 pm
Portsmouth v Bolton Wanderers, 3:00 pm
Sunderland v Hull City, 3:00 pm
Wigan Athletic FC v West Ham United, 3:00 pm
Stoke City v Chelsea, 3:00 pm
Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester United, 5:30 pm

Sunday September 13, 2009
Birmingham City v Aston Villa, 12:00 pm
Fulham v Everton, 4:15 pm

After a short break the Premier League was back with a bang this weekend and gives us three new players to add to the PTG player list. The players listed below were added at around 5pm BST on Monday 14th September and are subject to the usual 48 hour notice period.

Matthew Hill: Wolves defender who played against Blackburn at the weekend
Danny Webber: Forward who was a free agent, signed for Portsmouth and came on as a sub against Bolton
Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink: The forward made his Hull City debut when he came on as a substitute in the defeat to Sunderland

PTG Blog feed - Subscribe to a feed of the PTG blog at the following URL and get the latest posts straight to your browser or feed reader. http://blog.stats.com/playthegame/index.xml

PlayTheGame is all about managing your way to the top of your league in the most realistic online fantasy football game. You don't do it for prizes and plaudits. You do it to show off your football knowledge, earning bragging rights between you and your mates.

Everyone likes a bit of recognition though, just like Harry Redknapp and Jermaine Defoe when they won the Premier League's Manager and Player of the month for August 2009.

So to the first weekly prize draws for PlayTheGame 2009 which have now been published on the PTG website. All our weekly and monthly winners will be published on our Winners page, so go and take a look at our first two weekly winners and check back each week to see the most recent managerial accolades.

Take a look at the Premier League preview videos for all ten matches this weekend and our special weekend preview from Charlie...

VIDEO: Premier League match previews for September 19/20 2009
VIDEO: Charlie Webster previews the weekends matches

Saturday September 19, 2009
Burnley v Sunderland, 12:45 pm
Arsenal v Wigan Athletic FC, 3:00 pm
Aston Villa v Portsmouth, 3:00 pm
Bolton Wanderers v Stoke City, 3:00 pm
Hull City v Birmingham City, 3:00 pm
West Ham United v Liverpool, 5:30 pm

Sunday September 20, 2009
Manchester United v Manchester City, 1:30 pm
Wolves v Fulham, 2:00 pm
Everton v Blackburn Rovers, 3:00 pm
Chelsea v Tottenham Hotspur, 4:00 pm

Two new players were added to the PlayTheGame player list on Monday evening, both of Italian descent and both playing in the 'big four'. The players were added at around 18.56 BST on Monday 21st September and are subject to the usual 48 hour notice period.

Fabio Borini – Italian striker who made a substitute appearance for Chelsea in place of Anelka
Vito Mannone – Italian goalkeeper who kept a clean sheet for Arsenal against Wigan

The blog has been receiving lots of requests regarding players positional eligibility, so we thought it was a good time to reiterate how we deal with these requests.

There are a couple of ways to raise queries regarding position eligibility. You can either send an email to ptg_eligibility@stats.com or if you are logged into the PTG site then you can use the 'contact us' form under the 'Home' tab, making sure to select the appropriate option in the dropdown menu. Requests raised via the blog will not be actioned.

By using these methods to raise a request, the queries get sent directly to the people who can investigate and action any required eligibility.

When you have sent your request, you will get an automated response so that you know your request has been received, but you will not recieve an individual response.

To be considered for additional eligibility, a player must have started a Premier League game at the match kick-off in a new position, although the addition of eligibility is always at our discretion.

Take a look at the Premier League preview videos for all ten matches on Saturday, Sunday and Monday and our special weekend preview from Charlie...

VIDEO: Premier League match previews for September 26/27/28 2009
VIDEO: Charlie Webster previews the weekends matches

Saturday September 26, 2009
Portsmouth v Everton, 12:45 pm
Birmingham City v Bolton Wanderers, 3:00 pm
Liverpool v Hull City, 3:00 pm
Stoke City v Manchester United, 3:00 pm
Wigan Athletic FC v Chelsea, 3:00 pm
Tottenham Hotspur v Burnley, 3:00 pm
Blackburn Rovers v Aston Villa, 3:00 pm
Fulham v Arsenal, 5:30 pm

Sunday September 27, 2009
Sunderland v Wolverhampton, 4:00 pm

Monday September 28, 2009
Manchester City v West Ham United, 8:00 pm

One new player has been added to the PlayTheGame player list this afternoon at around 17.03 BST on Monday 28th September.

Liam Cooper – A Premier League debut to forget for the teenage Hull defender as his team lost 6-1 to Liverpool

As usual, any manager looking to sign the player will be subject to the 48 hour notice period.