Glancing at the league table, the one-day transition to the new gameweek caught a few people out. I had no such luck in who I was playing being caught out however.This is as I was up against a dedicated FPL man in Khurram, who as I said in gameweek 30 accumulated the highest individual points total out of all of us thus far. He was never going to forget, and he used his second 'wildcard' bonus chip to make things worse.
With Sergio Aguero coming off injured against Burnley, the only change that I made was to bring in Harry Kane for him. Some of you are reading Kane and thinking what?, but I had to do it, despite Spurs being one of the teams I do not usually pick players from. Think about it: I reshuffled my team to get in Aguero, who is the most costly forward in FPL, and then he gets injured. I never pick Arsenal players, so there was no way I was bringing in Aubameyang, therefore, I went for Kane. I am looking to bring Raul Jimenez back in, but I thought that England's captain could net against West Ham, so when I do make the change, it will be more than likely it will be for Jamie Vardy, unless him and Leicester were to buck up their ideas against Brighton.
That game at the King Power was the first match of the gameweek, and it left me disappointed as it finished goalless. Vardy barely had a kick in the Brighton box, who themselves missed a penalty. The latter match on Tuesday was that aforementioned game between Spurs and the Hammers. It looked like it had the feeling of a draw as Son (Khurram's captain) had a goal rightfully disallowed for offside in the first half. In the second whilst I was recording the Shoot The Defence Podcast, I almost blurted out some derogatory language and spoiled the whole thing, as Kane missed a chance he would usually gobble up, as he drove the ball wide with a left footed shot. Kane had earlier been booked, but he got the goal that I needed as he raced clear and slotted home well to make it 2-0. Son got the assist, so Khurram benefitted from the goal too.
Wednesday, saw my optimism in John Lundstram starting for Sheffield United quickly be squashed as they were gunned down 3-0 by Manchester United, thanks to a Anthony Martial hat-trick. I have named Martial the 'zero hours contract footballer', as he has so much ability, but he is not consistent, and sometimes looks completely uninterested. So it was just my luck that this week he decided to do some 'overtime'. Newcastle and Aston Villa drew 1-1, and Douglas Luiz managed to get booked again, despite him sporting a different hairstyle, he still continues to go into the referees book. His time in my team may just be up soon. Norwich were beaten 1-0 at home by Everton, and relegation looks all but confirmed for the Canaries really. This of course meant that Todd Cantwell did not have a significant return as he only came off the bench with literally a couple of minutes left. Wolves beat Bournemouth 1-0, and yes you guessed it, the two men I got rid of combined yet again, Adama Traore & Raul Jimenez. Traore is now third in the league in assists (9), whilst him and Jimenez are still on course for the most goal combinations in Premier League history. They have 10, and the record is 13, set by the original SAS (Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton), when Blackburn won the league in the 1994/95 campaign. Liverpool ended Wednesdays' proceedings with a 4-0 hammering of Crystal Palace. It was about time they had a result like that against Roy Hodgson's men, who have been tricky opposition for them at Anfield, with three wins for the Eagles in recent years there. Mo Salah and my captain Sadio Mane were both on the scoresheet. Mane's goal came from a lovely pass from Salah (yes Salah passed!). Andy Robertson got an assist too, as he fed Fabinho whose thunderbolt almost broke the net.
Week 31 concluded on Thursday. Burnley beat Watford 1-0, so there were clean sheet points for Charlie Taylor at the back. But there was no Ben Foster clean sheet. Danny Ings went close, but could not find the net, as Southampton were beaten 2-0 at home by Arsenal. Jack Stephens got himself sent off in the second half, so good thing I left him on the bench this week. Alex McCarthy made a huge error on the first goal, so I dodged a bullet in having him on the bench also. To my dismay, Khurram amassed 80 points, so I was destroyed for the second gameweek in a row. The caveat is however, the simulation that I spoke of has not reset, so it does indeed look like FPL may not be able to do it. I will obviously continue the blogs until the end of the season in any respect, as the highest points total is still up for grabs. In that case, it will need to be confirmed in the group, but the prize money in regard to league positions will have to surely be done as to the positions everyone was in when the pandemic started.
@DubulDee
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