'Vardy's Having A Party!'
Title chasing Rian (Milito) , was my opposition in what turned out to be quite a bizarre week of events. I had contemplated making numerous changes, but I decided against it, and made just one change, as Sheffield United were playing Norwich, I brought 'Football Manager' legend John Fleck back into my team and I took out James Maddison. Maddison has not been bagging as many points recently, and Fleck at £5m was a much cheaper and better option this week. If he did not make a goal contribution, then at least the Blades were probably more likely to keep a clean sheet. This of course gives me more money to play with next week, just in case I decide to make more than one change, and take a points deduction.
Liverpool started off week 29, and came from behind to beat Bournemouth 2-1. To my surprise there was no Andy Robertson in the starting XI. Salah got the first, and he was my captain, so all good. It came from a poor pass by Sadio Mane, but Salah finished expertly into the bottom corner. Mane grabbed the second after a lovely through ball by Virgil van Dijk, as the Cherries were caught napping once again. Later on Arsenal beat West Ham 1-0, and Robert Snodgrass was only on the bench, it looks like David Moyes prefers new signing Jarrod Bowen, so his stay in my team may just be a short one. With Snodgrass, I tried to get in someone who was cost-efficient, but the 'grass' may not always be greener on the other side quite clearly if he is not being used from the start. Crystal Palace beat Watford 1-0, which meant my late decision to put Ben Foster in goal backfired. It was to get even worse, as my other goalkeeper Alex McCarthy, made a plethora of saves including one from a Matt Ritchie penalty, as Southampton eventually lost 1-0 to Newcastle. McCarthy bagged 12 points despite conceding in the second half as Alain Saint-Maximin won the game. This meant only two points for Jack Stephens at the back for Southampton, and I had decided late on not to start McCarthy as I did not want two players from the same team in my defence. As I have said previously, I really need to leave my team how it is, that would have been ten extra points.
Sheffield United beat Norwich 1-0, Fleck unfortunately was not involved in the goal. John Lundstram who I had sold as Sander Berge had taken his place, ended up starting and he to my annoyance got the assist. Rian had still kept faith with Lundstram and was rewarded with 12 points. You better believe Lundstram is coming back into my team sooner rather than later, but in true FPL fashion, Chris Wilder will probably put him on the bench again. Wolves and Brighton had a goalless draw, so there was no return this week from Raul Jimenez. In the late Saturday game, Burnley and Spurs drew 1-1 which did not really aid either of us. I had Charlie Taylor in defence and Milito had Nick Pope in goal. I had no player featuring in the two games on Sunday, but the second game ended up being a good one for Rian. Manchester United beat Manchester City 2-0, and two players he had combined for the first goal: Bruno Fernandes and Anthony Martial. So I was trailing him by 12 points come Sundays end, but then I remembered that as Robertson did not play, I would be given the six points Joel Ward got as Palace did not concede. So this meant I was actually only behind by 6 points. I only had Jamie Vardy left however, and he still had Kevin De Bruyne to play as Manchester City were against Arsenal on Wednesday as City had a double gameweek.
Monday saw Leicester play Aston Villa, and though he had trained with the team upon returning from injury, Vardy was only on the bench,. I messaged Rian to tell him that it was over and that he had won, he said 'he did not believe it was quite over yet'. The game got to around the hour mark, and on came Vardy, 'could it be? could I still win?!'. Within just a couple minutes of coming on, Leicester were awarded a penalty, on first look I thought the VAR may overrule it as I was not sure how far up Tyrone Mings' arm they were going to determine that it hit him, as he claimed it had hit his shoulder. Nonetheless it was given and it was tucked away by Vardy to make it 2-0, I had my concerns before it, as he missed a penalty earlier in the season away at Burnley that cost me a gameweek, and obviously he had not scored since December the 21st. Little was I to know that the penalty had only just got the 'Vardy party' started. asin the 79th minute he reacted quickest to his initial ball across the box being cut out, and crashed the ball in on Pepe Reina's near post to make it 3. The Foxes went on to win 4-0, but the fourth was scored by Harvey Barnes, which gave him two for the game, plus an assist so he was to get 3 bonus points instead of Vardy. Every point was vital if I was going to win, and Vardy's 11 points left me only 5 points ahead, it was indeed now 'squeaky bum time' .
There was then to be a crazy and quite strange twist in the early hours of Wednesday morning. As previously Nottingham Forest and Olympiacos owner Evangelos Marinakis was tested positive for Coronavirus, and he was at the Emirates recently for the second leg of the round of 32 tie between Arsenal and Olympiacos, so as a precaution the Premier League postponed the game between Manchester City and Arsenal. Milito did not believe me when I first informed him, but it was indeed the correct information I was passing on. So as there was no chance of him getting any points from Kevin De Bruyne, I had won, it felt rather weird, as I would prefer to have won differently, but a win is a win isn't it. The important thing above all is that I hope deaths from Coronavirus are kept to a minimum. Be safe people!
@DubulDee
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