Chad (DJ Goliath) was this weeks opposition. I already informed when we first played this season that he was not the person you wanted to lose to. He won our first meeting despite missing the deadline, but would history repeat itself?! I was overthinking as I did not want to have to deal with his patronising this time around. With the injuries Liverpool had I would probably lose it with him if we started his nonsense again. He will air questions I ask in the group chat and then pop up when his contribution is least needed, if there is anyone who knows how to wind me up then it is him.
It was a tricky decision to make as I obviously did not know if he would miss the deadline again or not, but I finally went with taking a 4-point hit. As Southampton and Leeds both had double gameweeks, I kept Alex McCarthy and Danny Ings in my side. In came Leeds' Raphinha and Patrick Bamford. I had avoided Bamford all season as so many people owned him, but now was the time. To be honest I had beaten myself in the last couple of months especially as I searched for differentials. As I had accumulated so many points early on, all I needed to do was maintain, but I ended up sabotaging myself by trying to do too much. This week out went Josh King as that experiment clearly failed and I felt dirty getting an Everton player in the first place. Also I sold Jack Grealish as the two games I kept him in for against Arsenal and Brighton he did not deliver. I was later to find out that he was a doubt anyway as Aston Villa players took him out of their FPL teams. When the deadline passed I saw that Chad had not made any changes, more likely this was as he missed the deadline as it was on Friday rather than something tactical, but you never know. I did not bother to ask anyway as he may have tried to wrangle the truth.
Fridays game was at Molineux between Wolves and Leeds, and after getting two Leeds players in for the double gameweek of course Marcelo Bielsa's men were to end up losing the game. Wolves edged it 1-0 with an own goal by Illan Meslier, who was very unlucky as Adama Traore's shot hit the woodwork and then went in off of him. Despite being on the losing side my captain Raphinha was able to grab me two bonus points, as his free-kicks continuously created chances. Leeds captain Liam Cooper almost scored on a couple occasions and Raphinha himself had a late header saved by Rui Patricio who had a great game in the Wolves goal. Patrick Bamford had a second half goal disallowed for a tight offside, and my other player in this game Pedro Neto had a first half shot well saved by Meslier. Neto was booked at the end for time-wasting to add more damage to my day.
Saturday began with Southampton at home to Chelsea. The game ended 1-1 and this meant blanks for my two Saints players Alex McCarthy and Danny Ings. Ings in fact conceded the penalty for Chelsea's equaliser, which cancelled out a fine goal by Takumi Minamino. Liverpool should not have loaned Minamino to be honest, but if he comes back better next season then there will not be much complaining. Things were not looking great for me as considering the points hit, five players had only accumulated eight points for me as McCarthy also got himself booked for time-wasting. The points lost for these silly bookings was looking costly.
In the 3pm game; Burnley and West Brom had a goalless draw. West Brom went down to ten men early on, but funnily enough they looked more like scoring and were a little unlucky not to get the three points. James Tarkowski had to make a clearance off the line to make sure I got my clean sheet points from Ben Mee. However you guessed it...Mee got booked! Liverpool continued their poor form as they were beaten 2-0 at home by Everton. Another blank for Andy Robertson and also one for Mo Salah. There is nothing better than players from your team getting points but Robertson's price is very high considering Liverpool are not keeping clean sheets due to their injury crisis. Getting in someone cheaper could free up cash for other positions. Chad had Jordan Pickford in goal and he was to get 11 points, things were looking bleak early doors. As neither of us had a player in Fulham's win over Sheffield United, Saturday ended with me just one point ahead when I had seven men play already and Chad had just had two.
West Ham beat Spurs 2-1 to start Sunday off. Aaron Cresswell was only on my bench but was in Chad's starting XI so I was lucky he did not contribute. We both had Tomas Soucek, but he would only get a single point as he was wait for it...booked! The fourth player I had to get a yellow card this week, just ridiculous. Leicester then got a huge 2-1 away win at Aston Villa. Harvey Barnes and James Maddison were both on the scoresheet meaning the two of them are on 9 league goals for the season which is a great return and shows why the Foxes have done so well. Jamie Vardy got a 'fantasy' assist as Barnes' goal came from a rebound from his effort, as Chad had him it was good Vardy did not score. The next game saw Chad take the lead as Manchester City won 1-0 at Arsenal. Raheem Sterling was his captain so he got double the points I got for his early goal. The only consolation was that the three Arsenal men he had Rob Holding, Bukayo Saka and Alexandre Lacazette all drew blanks. None of our players were in the last game of the day, Man United's win 3-1 over Newcastle, so I trailed him by 17 points at Sunday's end. I needed the two men I transferred in Raphinha and Bamford to bail me out in Leeds' second game or Chad would do the double over me and of course start his usual goading.
Monday's game between Brighton and Crystal Palace featured none of our players, but a shoutout to Christian Benteke for a great winner, so to Tuesday we go. It was the day of reckoning as Leeds met Southampton. Danny Ings to my disappointment was on the bench and immediately I feared the worst. Even if he was not to get on the scoresheet that was still a point lost, and I needed whatever I could get as my team had endured so many bookings. The Saints started the better and should have taken the lead in the first half, but Leeds keeper Meslier was in good form. Despite Ralph Hasenhuttl's men being the better side, the best chance of the half fell to Leeds. Raphinha caught them napping after a clearance from a free-kick and it looked like he was destined to give them the lead when out of nowhere like Randy Orton, Oriol Romeu came in with the tackle of the season. The moment right there just went in a flash, just like that.
Marcelo Bielsa's men came out a different team in the second half and Patrick Bamford gave them the lead, I was actually out of the room when the goal went in. A good finish by Bamford into the corner after a sublime pass by Tyler Roberts meant I was on the way to really cutting into the lead. As Chad had not changed his side Bamford was on his bench and this was on the verge of coming back to haunt him. Raphinha almost got an assist but Roberts' shot wide from his ball. I still trailed by five points (including bonus points) when Ings came off the bench, so I needed something from either him, my captain Raphinha, or of course another Bamford contribution. Just after the hour again I almost got what I needed as Raphinha cut the ball back for Diego Llorente, only for McCarthy to make a great block. Ings almost setup a James Ward-Prowse goal and also shot over himself. Leeds were to get a second goal but none of my players were involved as Stuart Dallas scored. This was very costly as it moved Bamford out of the bonus points and took a point away from McCarthy for conceding again. I was heading for a narrow defeat, then Leeds got a set piece in the 84th minute and it was now or never. Up stepped Raphinha to fire the ball into the bottom corner...'SCENES!!' I pumped my first like Liverpool had scored, I had stolen it at the death! The Brazilian got himself booked as he took off his shirt to pay a tribute. This caution did not matter however as he had done exactly what I needed. This was the whole point of utilising Leeds' double gameweek, two bites of the cherry got the job done.
So my first win since my heist in gameweek 21 has moved me up to eighth place in the head-to-head league. Sadly it was not enough to take me back to the top of any of the traditional leagues. A huge double gameweek looms and it is more than likely that I will be using one of my bonus chips.
@DubulDee
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