'How much can you bench?!'
My friend Delvin was my opponent this week in the head-to-head league, and we both had a couple of the same players. Added on top of this, I had qualified for the first round of the FPL Cup, and my opponent in that had a few players I had also. For these factors, I decided to use my bench boost slightly earlier than I had planned to. This way I would not be left with my hands on my head in disbelief at another possible tight defeat. So now I am more than likely to use my 'Free Hit' in gameweek 18 as Liverpool do not have a game, as they will be playing in the Club World Cup. Therefore, I used my one free transfer to put in Danny Ings yet again for Raul Jimenez. This change is course three gameweeks late, as when I should have brought Ings in, and I chose Jimenez instead, Ings has scored in all three games, and Jimenez has not scored, but he has got two assists.
Liverpool started the weeks action with a 2-0 home win against Watford. Watford were very wasteful, and they paid for it, as Mo Salah copped a brace. I changed my captaincy at the last minute, and gave it to Jamie Vardy, after it had been with Mo Salah all week. This would have really perplexed me if it was not my team who had been playing. Another three points for the Reds, so it was all good. Sadio Mane assisted Salah's first goal, and he would have had one himself, but for an extremely tight offside call in the second half.
The 3pm games to an extent were much more fruitful than I thought they would be. Bournemouth ended their poor run with a 1-0 win at Chelsea, which meant six points for Diego Rico. My trio of Leicester players did not really deliver as I expected however, as they were held to a 1-1 draw at home with Norwich. Vardy got an 'assist', as his header went in off Tim Krul. Vardy went close a couple of other times, but overall as Norwich are open and quite expansive considering their league position, Leicester did not represent. The bigger picture is however, this means they are further away from Liverpool, so again it is all good. Teemu Pukki scored for the second game running, and could have had more, as he seems to score in bursts, should I consider bringing him back in for when I use my 'Free Hit'? Sheffield United got their second successive victory, as they won 2-0 at home to Aston Villa, with John Fleck grabbing both goals. John Lundstram assisted the first to my delight, but there was nothing from Lys Mousset, there was nothing of course also from Villa's John McGinn. The late match saw West Ham win 1-0 at Southampton. This of course meant no clean sheet for Alex McCarthy, and that Ings' scoring run came to an end. Ings was unfortunate as he hit the woodwork and had a brilliant curling shot ruled out for a foul by his teammate. So I was heading into Sunday with a bumper lead over my opponent in the cup match, and I had a good lead over Delvin also in my head-to head fixture, but Delv still had Kevin De Bruyne, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Richarlison to play, so if they all did well a 26 point gap could easily be made up, even a superior performance from De Bruyne or Richarlison may just do it, with the points midfielders get for goals.
So Sunday started in decent fashion, as Everton drew 1-1 with Manchester United, and there was no big points contribution from Richarlison, that would have helped Delvin. In the other 2.30pm kick off, Spurs won 2-1 away at Wolves, Raul Jimenez got an assist showing me that maybe I should have left him in my team. The latter match saw Manchester City stroll to a 3-0 win at Arsenal, and though this meant no major points from Aubameyang for Delv, De Bruyne almost pulled off the amazing comeback for him singlehandedly. The Belgian scored two great goals, and sandwiched between them he assisted Gabriel Jesus. With him of course picking up three bonus points, he got 19 altogether. He almost got a hat trick, but for a world class save from Bernd Leno, so you can imagine my panic at the time.
Monday night's game between Crystal Palace and Brighton, saw me gain only four more points as it finished 1-1. With me having a defender from both sides, I could have done with a goalless draw to be honest. Well at least Lewis Dunk did not get booked like he usually does I suppose. So despite 69 points does not seem like a mammoth total, considering I used my 'Bench Boost', I got eight additional points from the 'bench', and because of the De Bruyne heroics, I only beat Delvin by seven points, so therefore tactically it worked. In addition to this, I easily won my cup tie, as my opponent made more than the free transfers he was allocated and I won by 37 points. He had 21 points on his bench which would still not have saved him either. Two wins on the bounce in the Justice League (Head-to-head) and I sit in sixth place in League of Gentlemen (Traditional scoring league), as well as being placed quite well in all of the other leagues I am in too.
@DubulDee
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