They say when you're at the top you'll be busy and the old saying seems to be true for Gentlemen's Practice this season. The dust hadn't settled from their incredible debut season championship win before they were thrown into facing the best of the best in the Xpert Eleven Champions League (XCL).

Form low from the change report and thrown up against a team already 3 games into their season, this did not seem like the ideal start to what many had hoped to be a winning season. GP managed a single friendly before being thrown into the deep end but as manager Gareth Phoenix had said "this team will be ready to battle away whenever" and this they did knocking up a convincing 3-1 against a very strong and well into their season team. Great start gents!

Surprisingly GP were thrown into the first round of the cup too for the first time in 5 seasons. Of all the seasons to be in there, it seems the X11 gods want to challenge Phoenix's men and their stamina. Needless to say, they walked over a completely inexperienced team 6-0.

So the season start is here and we face one of the strongest teams in the league in Internazional Milano at home. I mean we're already two competitive games in and they're on an average form of 9 compared to our 15 this should be a doddle? Well the gods of X11 saw different and the champions lost at home on the opening day of the season 2-1.

There was no time to cry about the result because when you're at the top the games come thick and fast so there were just over 24 hours before Phoenix had to pick his men up again and take on no 3 ranked in the world manage Duke4 and his team Duke Tram XI in the XCL.

GP came up trumps in what was a close game that came without controversy. However, Phoenix steered his team to their 2nd XCL win in only their 2nd XCL match.

Next up is a cup game that is seen as a "pain in the arse" according to Gareth Phoenix but he swears he won't be taking his eye off the Xpert International ball again...

Phoenix; It's all great the media going on about our XCL exploits but it's the loss in the league that's stuck with me and the lads the most. We can't take it back so we're gonna try our damnedest to rectify it. We'll learn from what is a new situation and if anyone thinks we're going to be a soft touch because of the XCL they're mistaken.