'The curse of the Jimenez Cartel'
My opponent this week in the head-to-head league was Khurram, a man that came in the top three of my annual traditional 'League of Gentlemen' last season, so I knew that I was in for a tough game. I made no transfers last week, so I had two free ones this week to use.
I had originally planned to bring in Crystal Palace's Jordan Ayew up front, as I decided to take Southampton's Danny Ings out, but I went against it, and brought in the man in form, Sheffield United's Lys Mousset (£4.9m). Ayew, had Chelsea this week and after the international break the Eagles have Liverpool, so I thought I will wait to later in the season to bring in Ayew. Mousset, got three assists in his last game against Burnley, and before that he scored in back-to-back games against Arsenal and West Ham, so I tried to do something different and see if it would pay off. My other change was one that I had planned for a few weeks; Liverpool are not keeping clean sheets like they were last season, so I let go of Virgil van Dijk, to get in his teammate Andy Robertson. Despite the Dutchman's obvious threat from set pieces, Robertson is more of a offensive force when it comes to goal contributions, so in most games he will hopefully get more points. But with him being heavily expensive at £6.9m, I have had to wait until I had two transfers to make, to get him in, as I did not want to take a points deduction for too many transfers. Getting in the 'cheap and cheerful' Mousset, meant I more importantly had £0.5m left in the bank to use after the international break.
Gameweek 12 started on Friday night, as Norwich entertained Watford at Carrow Road. If Teemu Pukki was auditioning to get back into my FPL team, then it did not go too well, as he drew another blank as Watford came away with a 2-0 win. So it was another clean sheet for Ben Foster, and he made some good saves especially in the second half, meaning he ended up getting 9 points, a lovely start to proceedings. Saturday's early match was between Chelsea and Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge, and although I did not have any players starting the game, it was of huge importance to my clash. Annoyingly, Tammy Abraham scored, and Khurram had him in his side, 'come on Palace man, you had one job!, (sighs)'. The only consolation here was that Mason Mount did not score, another Chelsea player that he had in his team.
The 3 o'clock games were not very helpful in my pursuit of victory. Newcastle came from behind to beat Bournemouth, so no clean sheet for Diego Rico. Ryan Fraser, a man I had throughout last season assisted the Cherries' goal, which was scored by Harry Wilson. It may be a matter of time before I have to get one of these men in my team, Wilson gets goals and Fraser gets assists, and both of them are quite cost efficient at £6m and £7m respectively. Southampton lost 2-1 at home to Everton, and of course Ings scored their goal, I mean this is what happens when you take a player out isn't it, it would not be fantasy football if it didn't would it? Sheffield United, salvaged a great point away at Spurs, and they would have got all three if it was not for a big toe, yes, John Lundstram's toe is why the goal was not given. To my anguish, Lundstram came close twice in the first half. Firstly, he put an effort just wide after finding a bit of space in the box, then later on, he hit the post with a left footed drive, 'rage!'. The evening game was much better for me. Leicester as I thought they would, disposed of Arsenal, in a 2-0 win at the King Power Stadium. I was so sure the Foxes would win, I gave the captaincy to Jamie Vardy, and I had only shared the captain duties so far this season between Sergio Aguero, Mo Salah and Sadio Mane. I went over however to check Khurram's team and I realised he had captained Vardy too, 'dammit!'. Vardy, did not disappoint as he opened the scoring, and then he assisted the second for James Maddison too, who provided a quite exquisite finish. Youri Tielemens got me a vital assist on Vardy's goal, so I headed into Sunday three points behind with five players still to play, and my opponent had four men left to play.
The early Sunday game, saw Wolves and Aston Villa in the Midlands derby, and Wolves came out 2-1 winners. Raul Jimenez was to infuriate me with a late goal, as it also got him maximum bonus points, this was a big big goal for Khurram. There unfortunately were no significant contributions from the two players I had involved at Molineux. Villa's John McGinn probed, but could not really find the space to continuously make his usual runs into the box, and he had to drop deep on numerous occasions to get the ball. Wolves' versatile Leander Dendoncker played in the Wolves back three, due to their defensive absentees, so I was not expecting much from him anyway. Dendoncker had only started as I left Aguero on the bench, as of course I do not start players that play against Liverpool. And that there was the perfect segue into the huge match at Anfield. Liverpool went 3-0 up against the champions, and everything was going well for me to get the win this week, as Robertson assisted Salah on the second goal with a lovely ball in, and Mane scored the third with a header after a lovely Jordan Henderson cross. Even with Jimenez' bonus points, I was going to win this by at least two points, then disaster struck...
Bernardo Silva pulled back a scant consolation goal for City, which somehow got him maximum bonus points, and took away six clean sheet points from me (4 away from Robertson, and 1 from both Salah and Mane). I was temporarily fuming, it was only the fact that the bigger picture of Liverpool winning this huge match 3-1 saved me from losing the plot. I really need to write to the FPL about the way the bonus points system works, I was mortified, a team gets beaten 3-1 away from home, and their player gets the most points, 'am I a dickhead?!?!', I mean do these people know that money is at stake here. I am going to complain like those sad people who wrote to OFCOM, this cannot run. The explanation from the scout on the FPL website for Bernardo making the team of the week was that, "the midfielder scored Manchester City's goal in their 3-1 loss at Anfield on Sunday, while also making two key passes, three successful dribbles and nine recoveries", (Source: 'fantasy.premierleague.com). Thanks for that mate, and I am acknowledging you in the same manner that Pep Guardiola thanked the officials after the game yesterday! So, with Mane and Robertson being robbed of bonus points, the aforementioned bonus points that Jimenez got Khurram, with his 84th minute goal gave him a two point win over me, two bloody points, I feel sick. Back-to-back narrow defeats, is this life?! Khurrram & Raul Jimenez may as well have left a playing card after killing me, like the Jimenez cartel do in the show Power. I am done! Is it too late to cancel the league and reimburse everyone? No, I am playing of course, but this does cut kind of deep, and this is clearly the reason why some do not have the patience or tolerance for playing fantasy football. Anyway, after the international break we go again.
@DubulDee
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