My opposition this week in the head-to head league was Sam (Big Sam), a fellow member of the 'D&D Football Factory'. It was his birthday recently and as I said last week I intended on being the party pooper. Sam likes to talk sometimes even when he loses, so you know he was preparing to have a pop at me if he was to win. He was currently ahead of me in the head-to-head table, but was nowhere near me in points overall. But head-to-head is where the money was so another defeat might just put me out of the running for the money places despite it only being ten weeks in.
This week I played around with a few different options. At one stage I was not going to make a change. Then I was going to make two transfers and bring in Harvey Barnes (Leicester) as well as bringing back Mo Salah for Sadio Mane. Then I thought against taking another 4-point deduction and just brought Salah in. When the deadline passed I saw that Sam had taken a -8 hit to try and combat me, but there was a twist. He sold Wolves' Daniel Podence for his teammate Pedro Neto, but then his two other changes were for players that I already had. He drafted in Diogo Jota for James Rodriguez and sold Ollie Watkins to get Jamie Vardy in. To make things worse for him, he captained Vardy who was also my captain, so unless his differentials did something major he surely had no chance of winning as we would cancel each other out.
The week's action started on Friday night as Newcastle's 'late show' got them a 2-0 win at Crystal Palace, but none of us had anyone in that game, so to Saturday we go. Brighton hosted Liverpool in the first match and I hoped my differentials in Andy Robertson and Mo Salah would increase my lead, as we both had Diogo Jota. Liverpool took the lead in the second half through a low shot from Jota, and it was setup by Salah, so all good. Robertson was on course for three bonus points and I was rubbing my hands at what I thought was going to be a comfortable gameweek. Then in injury time a contentious penalty decision went against Liverpool, as Robertson attempted to clear the ball but caught Danny Welbeck. After VAR got involved the ref went to view it and everything looks damning in slow motion, then the penalty was given and Brighton equalised, 1-1, 'rage'. Even Welbeck and some of the Brighton players said it was not a penalty, but such is life. Second up; Manchester City destroyed Burnley 5-0 at the Etihad for the fourth season in a row. The problem Sam had here was that he had Joao Cancelo, and he was an unused substitute. The other two defenders he had were Everton's Lucas Digne who was injured and Brighton's Tariq Lamptey who was suspended, so he was immediately reduced to ten players.
Everton played Leeds in the third game and I had strongly thought of starting Leeds' Ilhan Meslier in goal, but then I believed that as the Toffees had Richarlison back in the team, I was not sure whether or not they could keep a clean sheet, as they had already conceded 4 twice in November. Well...I was the fool as Meslier made a plethora of saves and Leeds won 1-0 through a nice strike by Raphinha. 11 points were just sitting there on my bench, I had two Southampton players in my defence, so if they conceded against Manchester United then I was well and truly screwed. The consolation I took from Goodison Park was that Sam had a striker from either team in Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Patrick Bamford, so neither of them scoring was huge for me. Saturday's last game was between West Brom and Sheffield United at the Hawthrons, and disappointingly Rhian Brewster was on the bench for the Blades. West Brom won 1-0, in a game that had 23 corners! But it could have all been so different as Brewster missed a good chance to level it at the death, before the ball fell to Lys Mousset who produced one of the misses of the season. I was raged, that would have been some precious points there. At the end of Saturday I nonetheless had a 13 point lead.
Sunday began with Southampton and Manchester United at St Mary's. James Ward-Prowse did all he could to help me as he assisted Jan Bednarek's opener and then he scored a free-kick to put the Saints 2-0 up. Alex McCarthy had made a great double save in the first half and all seemed well. As the game crept towards the hour mark, I thought a gamble on playing all my three Southampton players was about to work, only for United to comeback. Edinson Cavani who came on at half time scored twice and made a goal for Bruno Fernandes. Ward-Prowse at least got two bonus points, but not putting Meslier in goal haunted me. The biggest game of the week was the London Derby between Chelsea and Spurs, but it ended in a goalless bore draw. Again 'Big' Sam was dealt a huge blow as Matt Doherty was not even on the bench after playing in Spurs' Europa League game on Thursday, so Sam was now down to nine men. Hakim Ziyech another of Sam's men got booked, and despite me not getting anything worthwhile from Heung-min Son and Harry Kane, I was still in a strong position. Sunday's last contest was at the Emirates between Arsenal and Wolves. The game was delayed for 10 minutes as there was a sickening clash of heads between Raul Jimenez and David Luiz. Luiz went on to get bandaged up and somehow still continued, but Jimenez we later learned sadly suffered a fractured skull. Our prayers got out to him, we already lost two footballers this week and recently lost Ray Clemence too, 2020 just needs to end, thankfully we are in the last month of this beyond catastrophic year. Wolves won 2-1 in the end, with all the goals coming in the first half. Pedro Neto scored the first and assisted the second for Podence, and he almost scored again as he singlehandedly tried to amazingly pull Sam back into things. It was not to be however, and I had now won regardless of what happened on Monday. The only man he had left was Jamie Vardy and obviously I had him, so there was no way he could win.
Monday first saw Leicester at home to Fulham. Vardy was the most captained man this week, as everyone expected Fulham to take a hiding, but that did not happen. Fulham won 2-1 and Ademola Lookman who grabbed the first dedicated the goal to the late Papa Bouba Diop, a touching moment. Fulham finally ended their penalty curse as Ivan Cavaleiro made it 2 from the spot. Vardy was not to leave his owners empty handed as he assisted a late consolation for substitute Harvey Barnes, but it was too little, too late. Fulham did a job when I did not need them to in true FPL fashion. The action finished up at the London Stadium as West Ham beat Aston Villa 2-1 amid late controversy. Ollie Watkins missing a late penalty, and then in injury time he was given offside after his arm was ahead of Vladimir Coufal. With West Ham not getting a clean sheet, Coufal only got me two points, so for the first time this season I did not get to 50 points.
This is what happens when you do not do your research Sammy. I do a weekly blog breaking things down and he still succumb to me in my lowest scoring week thus far. 'Ahh well Sam', the first week I have not got to at least 50 points did not effect me as much as it could have head-to-head wise, but in traditional scoring my leads are slowly getting trimmed down. I still remain top of nine leagues, however January and that second wildcard could not come along soon enough to be honest. Sorry to spoil your birthday Sam, but after all it is every man for himself.
Rest in peace Diego Maradona and Papa Bouba Diop, you will both be sorely missed. I and I am sure all of you hope Raul Jimenez will one day step on the football pitch again too.
Amen.
@DubulDee
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