The mission: To complete a fourth win in-a-row in the 'Justice League'.
The opponent: Good friend and co-host of the #FootyOnTop Show D-Man (Darren B.)
It was gameweek 20, and the FPL fixtures were now in reverse as it was the second half of the season. D-Man had defeated me on the opening day and I had been plotting my revenge. Whoever was to win would have the bragging rights on the radio show come Saturday morning. I decided to take a 4-point hit as I wanted to flood the midfield, as with Liverpool playing Spurs, I was of course leaving Harry Kane on the bench. Jamie Vardy was injured which was a huge problem, so I transferred him out to get Danny Ings back into my team, this move almost saved me £2m. That move meant I had over my limit of Southampton players, so I had to reluctantly let go of James Ward-Prowse. In for Southampton's skipper came James Maddison who I should have brought in for gameweek 19 as previously stated. Kyle Walker-Peters had picked up knock so he could have been the Southampton player that I took out, but I wanted goals and assists, so went with getting Maddison in as he had been in-form and with Vardy out I thought he may have a few more efforts at goal. When the deadline had passed I saw that D-Man had also taken a 4-point hit. He got Ilkay Gundogan in for the injured Kevin De Bruyne and also he transferred in Michail Antonio for Christian Benteke.
The action started on Tuesday at Selhurst Park as West Ham beat Crystal Palace 3-2. I had doubled up on West Ham defenders again, and they went behind in the third minute to a good strike by Wilf Zaha. I shook my head, but I knew that both Hammers' defenders that I had were assist threats so I was not panicking. West Ham's equaliser was bittersweet as it was scored by Tomas Soucek who we both had, but it was assisted by Antonio giving D-Man further points. Soucek was then to be at the double and after a check by VAR the assist rightfully went to Aaron Cresswell, so my thought of one of the West Ham defenders assisting was right. The assist had originally gone to Antonio but they saw on the replay that it did not touch him. I took my eye off of the game for a just a second when David Moyes' men had a second half corner, and Craig Dawson headed in to make it 3-1, I thought that as the corner had been taken by a left footer that it was another Cresswell assist so I applauded, only to realise that it was actually Jarrod Bowen, 'dammit!'. Palace's late second goal lost me three points as Cresswell ended the game with just one bonus point when he was on for two, and of course defenders lose a point when they concede two goals. On other day Antonio could have got four goals as he hit the woodwork twice and went close on two other occasions as he lacked some composure. I could have been annihilated after the first day had he had his shooting boots on. Leeds beat Newcastle 2-1 in the other 6pm game and luckily the two Leeds men D-Man had Stuart Dallas and Patrick Bamford both drew blanks.
In the 8.15pm matches I was to rue letting go of Ward-Prowse as he assisted Southampton's opener against Arsenal, but the Gunners came back to win 3-1. The other late game was to have the worst possible scenario for me. Manchester City beat West Brom 5-0 and D-Man's new guy Gundogan was to score not just once but twice. Add on top of that, Joao Cancelo was also to score and get an assist, I felt sick. 17 points for a defender and a further 14 from Gundogan. City did not even start with a striker and bagged five, Gundogan the gunman now has six in his six league games. I told Darren it was already over, but he refused to believe me. He ended Tuesday a whopping 25 points ahead of me.
Wednesday saw Villa take the lead at Burnley through a tidy goal from Ollie Watkins who now has 2 in 2 games after his drought. So these goals are more than welcome as if it was not for injuries I would have sold him already. Burnley came back however to win 3-2. Jack Grealish got the second goal, but the Burnley comeback meant it was only Grealish who got a bonus point. I needed both these men to come up really big if I was going to properly cut into the lead but they just fell short despite both scoring. Matt Targett assisted the Watkins goal however, meaning it was another bittersweet one for me as Darren had him. Watkins should have had a second but was denied by Nick Pope when through. Grealish almost scored the goal of the season after going on a superb run from his own half before being denied by Pope. It could have all been so different for me in terms of points here. Chelsea and Wolves drew 0-0, and I was left with my head in my hands as Pedro Neto tried to chip Edouard Mendy but it clipped the top of the bar. The nail in the coffin came as later on, as there was another goalless draw between Brighton and Fulham. Alphonse Areola was at it again in the Fulham goal making a plethora of saves, and getting D-Man bonus points too. Bar a miracle there was no way that I could realistically comeback, as Mo Salah was my captain but my opponent had him also. And all this happened with his captain Bruno Fernandes drawing a blank as Manchester United were shocked 2-1 at home against Sheffield United. In the other late game; Everton and Leicester drew 1-1, so no significant contribution from James Maddison. This made my decision to withdraw Ward-Prowse look even worse.
The last stop was at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as Spurs and Liverpool clashed. After an early tight offside decision denying Heung-min Son the opener, Liverpool went on to beat Jose Mourinho's men 3-1. I had needed something huge from Salah to even make this competitive, and a clean sheet, but there was to be neither. Liverpool's win nevertheless left me beaming from ear to ear. Salah had a goal disallowed that was harsh but I would have still comfortably lost to my co-host regardless, the only thing that would have done was take me over 50 points. Another underwhelming score this week despite the recent winning streak, means my leads have again been cut into in the traditional scoring leagues and I need a solid few weeks to repair this damage. Meanwhile the defeat means I have dropped to seventh in the head-to-head league with the streak halted.
@DubulDee
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