This weeks opponent was Josh, a knowledgable football man, who was in his first season in the head-to-head 'Justice League'. I was looking to do the double over him after a slim victory in our first meeting. This week was the most important FPL gameweek in a very long time as numerous teams were having double gameweeks. I therefore decided to use my second 'Wildcard' bonus chip and pack my team out with as many players as possible were involved in two games. In this season of all seasons however, there was obviously in true FPL fashion going to be some surprises, as you never know what certain managers are going to do.
As they only had one game; out of my team went Ben Mee, Patrick Bamford, Southampton's duo of Alex McCarthy and Danny Ings and West Ham's trio of Tomas Soucek, Vladimir Coufal and Aaron Cresswell. I also replaced two men who had a double gameweek in Manchester City's Ederson and Raheem Sterling with Emiliano Martinez and Ilkay Gundogan. Aston Villa had two games and Martinez was cheaper than Ederson and bringing in Gundogan for his teammate Sterling also saved over £5m allowing me room to get in the other players I wanted. Other players to come in for me were Robert Sanchez (Brighton) and Pascal Struijk (Leeds), they both only had one game but these transfers were with a view to future gameweeks. They were accompanied in my team by Tyrick Mitchell (Crystal Palace), Max Kilman (Wolves) and Jamie Vardy. Also the Spurs duo of Heung-min Son and Harry Kane returned to my side. When the deadline had passed I saw that Josh had used one of his bonus chips and triple captained my arch-nemesis Bruno Fernandes, I immediately feared the worst. He also brought in Emiliano Martinez in goal, as well as West Ham's Jesse Lingard for Fulham's Ademola Lookman. This was all going to be quite interesting, there was the potential of a real heavyweight bout here. He already had Dominic Calvert-Lewin who I thought strongly about getting in but I resisted.
The action started at the Etihad where Manchester City just got past West Ham. The winner was scored by John Stones, so all was good. The decision to sell Ederson looked like a decent one as City were not able to keep a clean sheet and I would have had two of their men at the back. Joao Cancelo was in Josh's side and he did not start as 'Pep Roulette' reared its head once again. Ilkay Gundogan decided to stop scoring once I got him into my side, which is always the way isn't it...'FPL life'. Michail Antonio scored West Ham's equaliser which got Josh valuable points as he was only playing once in the week and add the fact it was assisted by Lingard, so double joy for him there. There was huge controversy in the 3pm kick off at the Hawthorns as Brighton were denied a goal that would have levelled the game. Lewis Dunk who Josh had scored a quickly taken free-kick as Lee Mason had blown his whistle, only for VAR to intervene and the goal was chalked off. Apparently the whistle was blown again beforehand which was why, I am still confused by it all now to be honest, but my FPL team were not complaining.
Aston Villa and Leeds were next up and Villa got the 1-0 victory at Elland Road. An early Anwar El Ghazi goal was assisted by Ollie Watkins. After another good performance in goal, Emiliano Martinez was to walk away with the maximum bonus points vindicating my decision to get him in, though this of course benefitted Josh too. Josh had Patrick Bamford and his blank gave me a little optimism as he of course just had one match in the gameweek. In Saturday's last game Newcastle and Wolves drew 1-1. I thought I was going to get a blank from Pedro Neto as nothing he was trying seemed to come off. He shot wide in the first half, then he drove the ball across goal but no one could get on the end of it just before half-time. However late on he was to produce a great cross on his weaker right foot and it was headed in by Ruben Neves to grab Wolves a point. This was savagely important for me as Neto was the only man from original team that had just one game this week.
Sunday began with two games at midday that both had affected me. Crystal Palace and Fulham had a goalless draw but Tyrick Mitchell was out with an injury that was not apparent before the deadline. In the other match Leicester were beaten 3-1 by Arsenal. Jamie Vardy has a good record against the Gunners so I had no qualms about bringing him back into my team but he was not to get anything. Bernd Leno tried to gift him a goal early on, but Vardy could not control his miskick or it would have been a simple goal. Tottenham were then to deal with Burnley as they won 4-0 at home. Gareth Bale was the surprise here as he started and scored two and assisted. The assists was thankfully to my captain Harry Kane. Son was to get both assists on Bale's goals and my adamancy in getting these two Spurs players back in was correct.
There was then another bore draw between Chelsea and Manchester United, repeating their other shambles of a game at Old Trafford earlier in the season. The game was sending me to sleep so I put a bet on it to end goalless at 6/1, and went to sleep, only to later on lose the winnings on basketball. Something that I could not lose though was the great fact that the man who usually gives me a knockout punch Bruno Fernandes blanked. 'Man this was music to my ears!'. Avoiding a goal contribution from your opponents triple captain was just brilliant. The last encounter saw Liverpool actually win a football match. Yes you heard me Liverpool won a game! The Reds beat Sheffield United 2-0 at Bramall Lane and it really should have been more. Andy Robertson shot wildly over in the first half from the edge of the box and as Jurgen Klopp said in his post-match interview he "could've had a hat-trick" overall. Robertson almost set up Mo Salah in the second half but the Egyptian could not squeeze the ball in at the far post. I really should have picked up numerous points here, but I will take the clean sheet as I had toyed with selling Robertson but kept him in specifically for this first match of the double gameweek.
Everton beat Southampton 1-0 on Monday night, and I was lucky there was nothing from Dominic Calvert-Lewin who almost got himself on the end of a header in the second half. Josh was now running out of players as I had more men than him playing a second game. I had 67 points at the gameweek's interval and Josh had 39. On Tuesday; Manchester City got another home win, this time Wolves were the victims. 4-1 was a flattering scoreline, but it is really hard to see who can take points off of City right now. Stones and Gundogan were only on the bench as once again Pep roulette ruined a gameweek, Gundogan did get a 'fantasy' assist when he came on nevertheless.
Wednesday saw Burnley and Leicester draw 1-1, so my Vardy transfer did not do the job this week as Kelechi Iheanacho got their equaliser. At the same time Aston Villa lost 1-0 away at Sheffield United. So no double clean sheet for Martinez and Watkins hit the bar in the second half. Crystal Palace did me a huge favour as they drew with Manchester United in another borefest. A real shame Mitchell was not involved this week as that would have been some nice points. More importantly Fernandes did not produce, I was so amazed he blanked in both games. I really wish this could happen every week to be honest. This all meant I would get Pascal Stuijk's solitary point off the bench in Mitchell's absence.
Thursday saw Spurs win 1-0 at Fulham. There was another controversial decision as the Cottagers were denied a goal for handball that was nowhere near intentional. Son had an assist stripped away as Dele Alli's goal was later credited as an own goal. Kane missed two clear chances; a header in the first half from a great ball from Son, and Alphonse Areola made a good save in the second half from him. Everton won 1-0 again this time at West Brom and the goal came from Richarlison again and not Calvert-Lewin so I was cruising to victory regardless of what Liverpool were to do later. Lucky I was not depending on my team, as they stunk up the place once again losing their fifth home game in a row 1-0 to Chelsea. The Reds are just hopeless right now and it is deeply saddening. Mo Salah was taken off just past the hour and I have no idea how Jurgen Klopp expected to score after that as they did not really look like scoring with him on the damn pitch!
So after a very good start, the double gameweek flattered to deceive again. It is becoming the norm. I had thought I would pass 100 points, but only ended with 90. I stay eighth in the head-to-head league, and have at least climbed back to first place in one traditional league.
@DubulDee
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