'Little arms should've done better!'
My opponent this week was my old friend Gary, who narrowly beat me the first time we clashed this season in a low scoring battle. As I had five men missing due to the Carabao Cup final, I used my second 'Wildcard' bonus and made eight changes to my side. The most notable changes were that back in to my team came James Maddison (£7.4m) and Jamie Vardy (£9.7m) as I was hoping Leicester would get back on track away at Norwich. Also, Raul Jimenez (£7.9m) was brought back in too, as I let go of Jack Grealish (£6.5m), Lys Mousset (£4.6m) and Sergio Aguero (£11.9m).
There was a terrible start to proceedings on Friday night, as while I was out attending a funeral reception, I found out that Jamie Vardy got injured in the warm up. I will not say the exact two words I said in my head, but a clue is that the first word was four letters and began with an 'F'. Things worsened as Norwich beat Leicester 1-0, which meant no contribution from James Maddison. The Canaries keeping a clean sheet meant that their captain Grant Hanley got clean sheet points, typical, it nearly always happens when you take someone out doesn't it. Leicester were unlucky to have a goal overturned by the VAR it must be said.
There was improvement in the early match on Saturday as in the battle of 'the birds' (Alfred Hitchcock would have been proud), Crystal Palace won 1-0 away at Brighton. The Eagles hung on for dear life at times against their rivals, as they did a proper smash and grab job on the Seagulls. Solly March and Neal Maupay in particular were guilty of bad misses, but I happily took my 6 points from Joel Ward. In the traditional 3pm games, Burley rode their luck a tad as Newcastle had numerous attempts at their goal, but they did manage to get away with a clean sheet, so Charlie Taylor got me 6 points also. There was no such luck for me at the London Stadium however, as Southampton were gunned down 3-1 by West Ham. Danny Ings to everyone's surprise was only on the bench. Alex McCarthy should have done better with Sebastian Haller's goal, but in saying that, Liverpool had a foul given against them when they played Manchester United for a similar challenge van Dijk made on David De Gea. Robert Snodgrass was my first bench to come into my team as Vardy did not play, but he was only on the bench to start, so only got one point when he came on, 'yikes'. There was still another twist on Saturday, as if things had not been bad enough. Liverpool were to be clapped 3-0 by Watford in the late game. The Reds' 44-game unbeaten run ended, and this of course meant no significant contributions from Andy Robertson (who actually almost scored), Mo Salah (my captain!) and Sadio Mane. I really needed the points from Mane as well, as Gary had Salah too. So Saturday concluded with me 7 points ahead of Gary, but because of a return from my Liverpool players, I had already accepted that I would be beaten. Gary still had five people to play, and I only had the Wolves duo of Adama Traore and Raul Jimenez.
So to Sunday, and Traore started for Wolves at Tottenham, which was good news as in the league recently he had been out of the starting XI. Meanwhile at 2pm also at Goodison Park, Everton were playing Manchester United. Richarlison took an early knock after Everton took the lead, and was down for awhile, as Gary had him in his team, I thought the FPL gods were looking over me, but he eventually got up. Back to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and Spurs took the lead against Wolves through Steven Bergwijn, a man I had considered bringing in, but silly me I went for Maddison thinking the Foxes would tear Norwich to pieces. What made it worse was that Gary had him in his side. Unless Traore saved me, it was looking over already. Back at Goodison Park my fate was then sealed when United's Bruno Fernandes drove a goal in from outside the box. I messaged the FPL Whatsapp group to say 'little arms should've done better', as Everton's Jordan Pickford really should have at least got a hand on the shot. The group was collectively amused at my comment, but I certainly wasn't. As the Everton and United game ended 1-1, Wolves through a late Jimenez goal won 3-2 at Spurs. Wolves have now won at Spurs in consecutive seasons, but also importantly fantasy football-wise Diogo Jota is bang back in-form. This man got me a plethora of points last season, but of course then he was down as a midfielder, he is now down as a forward, but at £6.3m, he could be a much cheaper alternative if Vardy is not passed fit for gameweek 29. Traore is also a doubt for next gameweek too, and a points deduction might be pending for me for any extra transfers. I do play Rian (Milito) next however who is in the title race, so I will have to be careful with how many transfers I do make. Because of the Leicester mishap, considering I used my wildcard, it was an extremely underwhelming, in fact actually a dreadful gameweek 28.
@DubulDee
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