'Mo Salah, Mo Points!'
Rav was my opposition for this gameweek and he had a strong side, though he had not made changes to his squad. He still had Harry Kane in his side, despite him being injured, so he had not made transfers for a couple of weeks. I myself had two free transfers to use, and as this weeks report will later on display, this can be the gift and the curse. After another very tight defeat, I threw my rulebook out of the 'window' after some long consideration. With my two changes, I was originally going to bring back in Leicester's James Maddison in midfield. I also was split as there would not be too much money left over whether to bring back in Lys Mousset (Sheffield United) or Crystal Palace's Jordan Ayew. Then I had my usual change of mind, which has been inconsistent in its previous results, so I do not know why I keep putting myself through it. I also contemplated getting Sergio Aguero in, but not using my wildcard to do it, which would have meant taking a four point deduction. So in the end, I decided against it as the other midfielders I could get in with the small amount of leftover money do not really play for the clubs. In the end I scrapped my 'top 6' rule and drew for Tottenham's Son. With Kane being out injured I thought that Son would be the one to pick up the scoring slack and they had some decent games coming up. In addition to this I got Mousset back into my team, the men to come out were Ryan Fraser (Bournemouth) in what had been a very unsuccessful transfer and Raul Jimenez. Jimenez is a good fantasy player to have, but the transfer was done more out of frustration, as he had not done much in the other games I had him in the team for in this spell, plus Wolves play Liverpool in gameweek 24.
The weeks action started badly for me. Watford and Spurs drew 0-0, and I had benched Ben Foster for Alex McCarthy, as I thought Spurs would score. This of course meant no goal for Son. This guy has a few more games, or it would have meant I have changed things for no reason, in going against my policies to get him in. In the 3pm games; Sheffield United got a point away at Arsenal in a 1-1 draw, but there was nothing notable from my two Blades players Mousset and John Lundstram. There was another draw at the Amex Stadium, as Brighton and Villa shared the spoils, this was another match that was not good for me. Lewis Dunk got booked, and I left Jack Grealish on the bench for the first time since having him and he scored Villa's equaliser, helping himself to 10 points, 'rage!'. The fixture at St Mary's between Southampton and Wolves defined my gameweek. Alex McCarthy and Southampton were 2-0 up and cruising, and then lost 3-2. This meant just one point for McCarthy, and in true FPL fashion after you sell a player, Jimenez scored twice for Wolves, 'f-ck sake!!', but to be fair I expected it, but I did not really want to sell Jamie Vardy, and a striker had to go. The only positive from this game was that Adama Traore got himself two assists, as I will obviously be benching him for their next game with Liverpool. This match also was a rare occasion when Danny Ings did not score. So I finished Saturday with a poor 20 points, considering seven of my team had played, this meant I was trailing Rav by 2 points.
Sunday saw Leicester lose 2-1 to Burnley, and Vardy missed a penalty ('knew I should have sold him for Aguero!...'). This meant Vardy got me a grand total of 0 points, ('thanks mate, you shouldn't have, no you really shouldn't have!). So it was left to my beloved team to do a job, to get me to a points total that still would only be an underwhelming one. Liverpool did the job needed as they beat Manchester United 2-0. It could have and should have been much more, but as the second goal did not come until injury time, there was some unnecessary 'squeaky bum time' towards the end. The goal was scored by Mo Salah, his first against United and I really needed it as this was a poor week, and he was my captain. Nothing like getting 10 additional points right at the death. Those that have Alisson as their keeper would have been ecstatic as he got an assist for the goal, to go with his clean sheet. In regards to the fact it should have been a greater scoreline, Sadio Mane would have got an assist but a Roberto Firmino goal was chalked off, and he also missed a decent first chance that David De Gea saved with his legs. Salah fluffed a golden opportunity early on in the second half also. So I was able to come back and beat Rav, but my overall points performance in the last few weeks has been underwhelming, and I have lost ground in most of my other leagues. Nonetheless thank you Mo!
@DubulDee
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