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The weekend’s team finished just one point outside the money which is disappointing, however. it shows that we’re on the right lines. What’s more, there’s a great reason to play Totel Football in future. Starting now, the season-long games have been subject to a small charge (£0.80 or €1.00) per team.

The good news is that this fee has been scrapped, so at no extra cost you can take a share of the €11,000 or £8,800 on offer come the season’s end!

Of course some of you may have already paid to enter a team into a seasonal pool; those of you that have can start celebrating because TotelFootball have refunded all bets placed on seasonal pools this season!

Asmir Begovic

Stoke have continued their solid home form with a 1-0 win over Fulham on Saturday and Asmir Begovic recorded his sixth clean sheet of the season and showed some fine shot-stopping skills to rack up 11 points. On Wednesday, Tony Pulis’ men host a Newcastle side, who seem to have lost some of their cutting edge in recent weeks, so Begovic is the pick between the sticks.

Nathaniel Clyne

Southampton managed to keep their first clean sheet of the Premier League season against Newcastle on Sunday and host Norwich in their next game. The Canaries are far less prolific away from home than at Carrow Road and Nigel Adkins will hope his side can build upon their last win.

Nathaniel Clyne offers plenty of threat going forward, the full-back scored in the 4-1 win over Aston Villa, add to this the fact he’s only been booked once this season and he’s got plenty of point-scoring potential.

Robert Huth

I’m including Huth for the same reason as Begovic really, he consistently scores points because of Stoke’s strong home record and has only been booked twice this season. It’s a bit of a gamble putting a defender and goalkeeper in from the same team but it offers twice the reward if the Potters can keep out Newcastle at Britannia Stadium.

Matija Nastasic

The 19-year-old Serbia international looked perfectly at home in the centre of Manchester City’s defence at Stamford Bridge and a midweek game against Wigan should be another opportunity for him to show what he can do.

He’s yet to score for Roberto Mancini’s side but he’s not been booked either so he gets the nod over Vincent Kompany, who performed admirably on Sunday but still doesn’t look 100 per cent fit.

Cesar Azpilicueta

Rafael Benitez’s arrival at Stamford Bridge should mean Chelsea are a bit more organised at the back and Cesar Azpilicueta looks to have a bright future with the Blues.

He’s obviously a player who likes to get forward and has been deployed in a more attacking role for Chelsea in the past, although that might not be the case now Benitez is in place, a clash with Fulham means a decent chance of a clean sheet for Azpilicueta.

Santi Cazorla

Four goals and three assists is a solid return for Arsenal’s new signing but Wednesday’s game against an Everton side struggling to keep clean sheets looks a good opportunity to increase those totals. Arsene Wenger will demand more from his team after Saturday’s 0-0 draw against Aston Villa and Cazorla will shoulder a lot of that responsibility.

Steven Gerrard

An average of 6 points per game may not be anything to shout about for Liverpool’s captain but a clash with Tottenham provides ample opportunity for the England international to provide plenty of points.

Spurs have kept one clean sheet at White Hart Lane in the Premier League this season so the Reds will get chances; let’s just hope Gerrard can get an assist or a goal to his name.

Gaston Ramirez

Nigel Adkins smashed Southampton’s transfer record to bring Gaston Ramirez to the south coast and to me it looks like money well spent. Although he missed the whole of October with an injury, Sunday’s clash with Newcastle was a perfect example of what he can do.

An assist and a goal meant he scored 11 points and with another home game against Norwich on the horizon, i’ll back the Uruguay international to be in the points again.

Gareth Bale

Another week, another double-figure score for one of the hottest properties in the Premier League.

Gareth Bale has the pace and skill to terrify the Liverpool defence on Wednesday and, although he has only contributed one assist, the five goals he’s scored more than make up for that.

Bale completes a midfield with a wealth of point-scoring potential.

Jermain Defoe

Thanks to Emmanuel Adebayor’s red card against Arsenal, Jermain Defoe knows he’s got a couple more games to impress manager Andre Villas-Boas and, after hitting two goals against West Ham, he’ll be high on confidence ahead of the clash with Liverpool. Seven goals and two assists in his season so far means he gets one of the two striker spots in my team for the midweek Premier League games.

Robin van Persie

After starting with a bang, it’s all gone a bit quiet for Robin van Persie but with a game against West Ham to look forward to, the former Arsenal man should be able to get back on the score-sheet after three games without a goal.

His quality is unquestionable and although three games isn’t the longest dry spell in the world, there’s plenty of competition for places with Danny Welbeck and Javier Hernandez both keen for more time on the pitch. Wayne Rooney is being deployed in a deeper role these days, so van Persie gets the nod to accompany Defoe up front.

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Jim’s starting XI

Asmir Begovic, Robert Huth, Cesar Azpilicueta, Matija Nastasic, Nathaniel Clyne, Santi Cazorla, Steven Gerrard, Gaston Ramirez, Gareth Bale, Jermain Defoe, Robin van Persie.

Substitutes

Wojciech Szczesny (Arsenal), Luis Suarez (Liverpool), Adam Johnson (Sunderland), Patrice Evra (Manchester United).

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ANALYSIS
By Arthur Virgo

The January transfer window edges ever closer and with strengths and weaknesses in Premier League squads starting to tell, the division’s managers will be keeping a close eye on targets plying their trade abroad.

Goal.com brings you brings you both the best and worst individual displays throughout the week as we track those who could be moving to Premier League clubs when the window re-opens for business.

Manchester City’s midfield target Benat led Real Betis to fifth in La Liga after his drive from the edge of the area was the only goal of the game and handed his side a memorable home win over Real Madrid.

Serie A top scorer Stephan El Shaarawy has also been linked with Manchester City and was a consistent threat on the counterattack as AC Milan held on to a narrow first-half lead over Juventus to cut the Bianconeri’s lead to just four points clear at the top.

Centre-back Andreas Granqvist has been linked with Liverpool, Newcastle and QPR and saw Genoa climb off the bottom of the table after he helped the Rossoblu shut out the Atalanta attack to record a 1-0 victory despite going down to 10 men.

Lewis Holtby set up Klaas-Jan Huntelaar for Schalke’s opening goal against Eintracht Frankfurt but the reported Arsenal and Liverpool target could not help the Konigsblauen avoid slipping to third after conceding an equaliser.

In-demand Robert Lewandowski moved level at the top of the German goalscoring charts with his ninth goal after netting the winner as Borussia Dortmund came from behind to record a 2-1 away win over Mainz and climb to second in the Bundesliga behind Bayern Munich, who thrashed Hannover 5-0 to establish a nine-point lead.

Attacker Andre Schurrle was linked with Chelsea over the summer and more recently with Arsenal, and set up fifth-placed Bayer Leverkusen’s second goal in a 2-1 away win over Hoffenheim before hitting the bar from 35 yards.

Eredivisie top scorer Wilfried Bony has reportedly caught the eye of Chelsea and Liverpool and netted his 15th goal of the season and the winning goal for Vitesse Arnhem who climbed to third place after coming from behind to record a 2-1 away win over league leaders PSV Eindhoven.

Andre Ayew has been linked with a move to West Ham and helped Marseille to a narrow 1-0 win at home over Lille as Les Phoceens stayed level at the top of Ligue 1 with a game in hand over Paris Saint-Germain who beat Troyes 4-0, while substitute Loic Remy returned from injury having attracted interest from Chelsea, Newcastle and previously Tottenham.

Manchester United target Kevin Strootman saw PSV Eindhoven’s lead at the top of the Eredivisie shrink to just two points after Dick Advocaat’s side were unable to hold their early lead against Vitesse Arnhem despite several opportunities and went on to concede from a free kick and then a late goal.

Karim Benzema has also been linked with a possible move to Manchester United in exchange for Javier Hernandez but drew a blank and saw two efforts chalked off for offside as Real Madrid went down 1-0 away at Betis, leaving Los Blancos 11 points behind leaders Barcelona in the race for La Liga, who recorded a comfortable 4-0 win over Levante.

Versatile attacker Heung-Min Son has held off signing a contract extension with Hamburg amid interest from Arsenal and Liverpool of late but could not help his side as they lost 2-0 away to Fortuna Dusseldorf to drop into the bottom half of the Bundesliga.

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Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel feels his team deserved more than just a point after the 0-0 draw with Swansea City on Sunday, but was happy to have kept a clean sheet.

The Reds were the more threatening side on show, with Jose Enrique seeing his first-half goal ruled out for offside before Raheem Sterling hit the crossbar with a fine half-volley.

However, despite disappointment at not winning the game, Skrtel underlined the importance of not losing and stretching Liverpool’s unbeaten run to eight matches.

“The main thing if you don’t win the game, don’t lose the game,” the Slovakian told the club’s official website. “We try to work hard in the defence, try to keep a clean sheet, and as defenders help the team to get the points.

“But we knew before the game it was not going to be easy in Swansea and we could see it wasn’t.

“We took the point and remained unbeaten, that’s good, but I think we were feeling we could win and get more than we got.”

Liverpool travel to Tottenham next as Brendan Rodgers reaches 25 games in charge of the Reds, and Skrtel has admitted that the new methods the manager is trying to implement have taken time to take effect but is confident the methods are starting to reap rewards.

“It wasn’t easy at the start of the season because all the things changed when the new manager came in,” Skrtel added.

“He wanted to change the style, the way we play – it needs time. The last few games we have started to play the way we want to play and we just need more wins.

“Too many games we have played well, created chances, just couldn’t take them and score. That’s the thing we need to improve and start getting the points.”