What a final week! So much to celebrate. It wasn't just SITF that was decided, there was so much more.

Kevin, this season's runner-up, and Jon (5th) celebrated Arsenal winning the Premier League.

Michelle (3rd), Mick (6th), Dan (14th) and Sandra (7th - with the week's highest score) celebrated the relief of Spurs avoiding relegation.

Jenni (4th) and Chris (12th) congratulate their respective teams Manchester United and Liverpool's achievement in securing a Champions League place for next year.

Ken, Sandra, Karen (8th), Nick (15th) and Oliver (13th) celebrate Brighton qualifying for the UEFA Conference League.

Brian (9th) and, by association, Karen have not stopped celebrating Hull's promotion to the Premier League.

I am sure Simon (11th) was delighted that Bolton won the Division One play-off final to gain promotion to the Championship and Joe (10th) will doubtless be celebrating the fact that Auckland FC became the first New Zealand team to win the A-League championship title. 

Oh yes, nearly forgot. Ken won!  

FA Cup Final

The 72nd minute goal by Semenyo made all the difference. Not just to the actual result of the final, but also to the outcome of our competition. A goalless outcome would have seen either Michelle or Jon declared the winner because both had enough defenders/goalkeeper in their line-ups that would have seen off Ken's impoverished side that fielded only four players, not including the scorer. In the event, it was his twelve-point advantage from the semi-final stage that kept him ahead, despite the others scoring more points on the day. The highest scoring teams belonged to Mick and Sandra who each moved up a place to share 4th with Jon in 3rd. Last season's top two were reversed this year. Michelle finished as runner-up, and Ken takes the plaudits.

Week 40: Ken's good fortune continued as he top-scored to inch further away from Kevin as the fight for top spot now heads fto the final week of the season. With just twelve games to go, 45 points separate the two of them with Michelle holding on to third and Jenni in fourth. The only positional change this week saw Joe overtake Simon to move up to 10th, one place behind Brian who was the week's second highest scorer. He's still celebrating!

With so many tight games at this stage of the season, it seems all the more difficult to decide on whether to focus on defending or attacking. Arguably, in a week when the two Manchester teams and Arsenal were among those who kept clean sheets, it was the time to bolster your defence, and defenders and goalkeepers were well represented in the week's highest points scorers. However, the top marks went to De Cuyper (13 pts) and Dunk (12). The highest scoring forward or midfielder was goal-machine Haaland with 10. 

Brian, fired by the prospect (now the reality) of Hull reaching the Championship Play-Off Final, celebrated with the week's top score which lifted him two places into 9th, pushing both Simon and Joe down a place. The rest of the places remain unchanged, leaving Ken and Kevin fighting it out for first place and Michelle and Jenni doing the same for third.

There is the small matter of the FA Cup Final taking place this coming Saturday; it's either a disctraction or just something else to keep the stress levels up! The transfer window is now open and will close at 15:00 hours, kick off time.

Very much like last year, it is close at the top of that table with the top three teams separated by 18 points. The Super-Five Tie-Break is likely to be introduced for Ken, Michelle and Jon.

Well, that felt like a strange but tense weekend. The matches on Friday and Saturday were, for the most part, the undercard for the games that followed later except, of course, for West Ham and Arsenal whose fortunes were still finely balanced. This was reflected in the fact that only six transfers were made on those two days.

Sunday's matches were also difficult to call - and, not surprisingly, just a smattering of transfers.  In the event we saw a weakened Crystal Palace side lose to Bournemouth, a much-changed Villa team lose to an improving Spurs and a thrilling tie between United and Liverpool.

Fantasy managers had obviously been playing their transfer cards close to their chests but that all changed on Monday when over half of the weekend's total were made in favour of Manchester City players. But before that finale, there was the even more surprising matter of a woeful Chelsea losing to a very different Forest line-up, another team with an eye on a European second-leg tie. So, did the bets on City pay off? Yes, if you selected Doku (13pts) - second highest behind Awoniyi (Forest) and Gyokeres (15pts each) - otherwise the teams virtually cancelled one another out and points were shared out across the board.

And how did it affect the table? Positionally, it didn't, but Ken top-scored to regain some of his lead from Kevin, while Michelle, with the second-highest total, put some extra distance between her and Jenni in fourth.

If you look at today's Premier League table and compare it with our own, you'll see there is a something of a similarity. Whereas Arsenal had forged out a lead for themselves, Man City's form has been much improved of late, and they have now closed the gap (albeit Arsenal have now gone ahead again having played one game more). In SITF, Ken had accumulated a healthy lead for himself but a relentless pursuit by Kevin and the leader's loss of form has now almost eroded that lead altogether. With just four more sets of fixtures to go, it's going to be a nerve-jangling few weeks.

Michelle top-scored to hold on to third, fending off the challenge by Jenni in fourth. The only positional change this week saw Simon get the better of Joe to move into 9th.

FA CUP

Jenni's good form in the league was mirrored in the cup competition where, with the round's highest score, she moved up two places to fourth. The top three of Ken, Michelle and Jon remain the same, with Sandra sharing 5th with Mick who lost a place.

This week's points distribution clearly reflects the difference between the 'haves' and the 'have nots'. To be in the former group, you needed to have Gibbs-White (18 pts) or Watkins (15 pts) in your team. Watkins I can understand, now that he has started to score again, but Gibbs-White? Surely, just pure luck that he scored a hat-trick! Of course, if you were Michelle and happened to have both, that would explain her top score that lifted her two places back into third, pushing both Jenni and Jon down a place. Being in the 'have not' group explains why Ken has seen his advantage over Kevin much reduced as the two continue to fight for top spot. 

Starting this evening, this coming week crams a full league programme in together with the FA Cup Semi-Finals on Saturday and Sunday. The cup transfer window is now open and transfers will need to be compl;eted by 1600 hours on Saturday.

Welcome back! The Premier League campaign resumed after a two-week break. Was normal service resumed as well? On the pitch Arsenal lost, Spurs lost and Manchester United lost. I'll let you decide!!

Off the pitch the only movement concerned the minor placings. Jenni climbed one place into 3rd, followed by Jon, also up one into 4th. Michelle lost out, sharing the same sinking feeling as de Zerbi but, in her case, only dropping down to 5th. Ken continues to lead and, with the week's highest score, stretched his lead from Kevin.

N.B. This coming week is a 'normal' week to look forward to - matches on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. But watch out, as some re-scheduling has been necessary during the following week to accommodate the FA Cup Semi-Finals and a full PL programme. 

Arsenal going out; Liverpool doing the same without scoring; and, although Chelsea hit seven, one of those was an own goal and only two (maybe three) others were by recognised goalscorers. How is a fantasy manager expected to cope? Remember Haaland, who hadn't been able to buy a goal recently? It just so happened he found his form and registered a hat-trick. So, to secure his 17 points (the highest of the round), you just had to have him in your team. 

For most of us, that wasn't a consideration, but Chris was the exception and those points helped him to accumulate the second highest total of the round and lift himself four places into 7th. Top scorer was Michelle with Trafford (14 pts) and Hato (12 pts) helping to promote her into second place behind Ken who continues to lead. Jon fell back to 3rd while Mick overtook Sandra to move into 4th.

If you are already beginning to think ahead to the semi-finals in a couple of weeks' time, you might want to give a thought to the fact that the eight highest scoring players in the Quarter Finals came from Chelsea or Man City. And those two teams are not drawn against one another in the next round. Only saying! 

With fewer games than usual at the weekend, it felt like everyone would be scrambling around to try and pick the perfect transfer that would make all the difference to their team. A Man United player against Bournemouth? A Liverpool forward against Brighton?  A Chelsea defender against Everton? Maybe, even a Spurs attacker against Forest? No, that would be stretching optimism a bit too far! Given that none of those results really went according to plan, many of us had to suck it up and admire those managers who took a different punt .. and won. Take Brian, for instance. He benefited most by bringing in the weekend's top points scorer, Beto (15 pts), and Sandra whose risk on Welbeck was rewarded with 11 pts. But football is a team game as evidenced by the collection of talent already selected and tweaked just enough to retain an edge. Like Jenni and Jon who top scored and closed up on Michelle immediately above them. And Kevin who, with the week's next highest score, again nibbled into Ken's lead. Across the board, though, none of us changed position.

At least this coming week's international break gives us a chance, if we want to take it, to get our team lineups back into some sort of normal shape plus, of course, the following weekend offers a further 'free' transfer opportunity because it is the FA Cup Quarter Finals. Fo those four matches, the transfer window is now open and will close at 11:30 on Saturday 4th April.

With three 0-0 scorelines, seven teams scoring one goal apiece and only nine other goals recorded, we couldn't have really expected an abundance of fantasy points from the forwards in the so-called best league in the world. So, perhaps we had to rely on our choice of defenders to bring in the points. But they didn't really. In fact, one midfielder, Barkley (Aston Villa) with 9 points, was the week's highest scorer and, of the nine players with 8pts, six were goalkeepers!

Kevin tinkered with good effect and top-scored, reducing Ken's lead at the top. Mick maintained his good form and was only one point fewer, this time remaining in 6th. Jenni overtook Jon to move into 4th, while further down the league Brian gained a place in 11th but both Simon and Chris lost ground.

If you need a bit of a break from all this excitement, you're in luck. Week 32 sees a reduced fixture list because of the Carabao Cup Final and then (spoiler alert) we can all have a week off completely due to an international break. The league programme doesn't recommence until Friday 10 April because the FA Cup Quarter Finals are being played over the Easter weekend of the 4/5 April.