My opposition for gameweek 27 was my old friend Jacques. He had a good team and despite there being quite a few changes that I wanted to make, he had been outscoring me recently so I decided to play it safe and only use my one allocated transfer. I was looking to do the double over him after a narrow victory in our first meeting. Jacques of course had my nemesis Bruno Fernandes in his side as well as a man I did not want to sell but had to for budget purposes in West Ham's Aaron Cresswell.
Not many people are bigger fans of Wolves' Pedro Neto than me but as they only had one game this week, and they actually play Liverpool in gameweek 28, I decided to sell him. His replacement saw a return to my side for James Ward-Prowse as Southampton had a double gameweek. Ward-Prowse's threat from set pieces was why I did not want to sell him in the first place, but now was the time to bring him back, as the Saints had a second game this week against Manchester City. There was the possibility of bringing in a third City player, but with the money I had left the options were not the best, add to that with 'Pep Roulette' you have no idea exactly who will play for them anyway, especially in a double gameweek. With Ward-Prowse he rarely gets injured and being the Saints' captain also only a miracle would see him not play both games if he was fit, I did not have the courage to make him my FPL captain however. I ended up giving my captaincy to Ilkay Gundogan, with him being so popular I knew this was far from a differential, but as Jacques had him too, I decided to do it anyway. I had wanted to also bring back in Southampton's Danny Ings but as I said I did not want to take a points hit.
When the deadline had passed I was disappointed to see that Jacques had not followed a few others and either sold or benched Fernandes after his double blank in gameweek 26. He made an interesting decision in his captain as he chose Manchester City's Ruben Dias, but it could be a great differential if City kept two clean sheets, as like me had John Stones. I had hoped he made an extra change and took a points hit, but the only transfer he made was to sell the sidelined Harvey Barnes and bring in Bukayo Saka from his beloved Arsenal. His strike force is what I feared as he had Richarlison who was in good form, as well as Patrick Bamford and Michail Antonio.
The action began at Turf Moor where Burnley and Arsenal were to draw 1-1. Luckily for me Saka missed a sitter in the first half. Then in the second period Nicolas Pepe hit the bar from a Saka cross, they then thought there was a handball but it hit Erik Pieters' shoulder. Saka then had a shot blocked before Dani Ceballos hit the post. Saka was also booked and I was lucky to come out of this one without hm contributing. Next it was Bramall Lane, and Sheffield United were beaten 2-0 at home by Southampton. Ward-Prowse scored the first goal from the penalty spot and the first part of my decision had been justified.
Aston Villa and Wolves were to have a goalless draw in Saturday's third game. I only had Pedro Neto starting here as a differential as I left Ollie Watkins on the bench. Watkins almost made me rue my decision as he smacked the crossbar early on. Me and Jacques both had Emiliano Martinez as our keeper and he made a good save from Neto after the Portuguese international went on a long run after a Villa corner was cleared. Later on Neto's teasing cross was headed against the post by Conor Coady before Romain Saiss' contender for miss of the season as he put the ball over from a few yards out. Martinez made a huge save late on to deny Coady and he fully deserved the one bonus point he got. Martinez actually lost points as at one stage he was on for the maximum bonus. Watkins went close again but was denied by Rui Patricio's legs and all in all I have never been that attached to a game that did not have a goal in that did not feature Liverpool. To think I only had that game on my laptop, as I was covering the 'Der Klassiker' for CFB Football, so that was the main focus on my television, by 7.20pm I was lucky not to have whiplash.
Leicester ended the day with a 2-1 win at Brighton. Unfortunately there was nothing from Jamie Vardy and the Foxes' winner was scored by Daniel Amartey (£3.9m) , a man I overlooked when I was getting in bargain defenders, I just shook my head. After all Saturday was Ghanaian Independence Day so a Ghanaian was always going to score weren't they. Vardy could have had an assist when Sidnei Tavares' super strike was saved well by Robert Sanchez in the first half. In the second half it looked like Leicester could have got a penalty for a challenge on Vardy by Lewis Dunk, but even after a VAR check it was not given.
On Sunday after West Brom's 1-0 win over Newcastle, Liverpool once again lost at home. I mean this is breaking me week by week. When Mario Lemina scored I just laughed, because if you don't then you'll cry. Jurgen Klopp made wholesale changes but Mo Salah and Andy Robertson both started to give me a further two blanks from my differentials. There was a shock at the Etihad as Manchester City's winning run was halted by their local rivals. United were organised and controlled in their 2-0 win and my nemesis Fernandes scored from the spot inside just 2 minutes. The only positive here was that as City did not get a clean sheet his choice as Dias as captain let him down. Ilkay Gundogan could have bagged twice in the first half but his efforts were tame. In the evening; Spurs were to comprehensively deal with Crystal Palace 4-1. There were two Harry Kane assists for Gareth Bale's two goals, and then Kane copped a brace himself with the second goal being assisted by Heung-min Son. Kane's first goal was a thing of beauty as he curled it in first time from outside the box. Son had a header saved that would have not just given me points but it would have also won me money. With Gundogan's blank Kane was on to get more points than my captain in just one game. I had a lead of 28 points when Sunday ended, but he had some big hitters still to play.
Monday saw Chelsea beat Everton 2-0, a blank was welcome from Richarlison who shot wide with his only real chance in the second half. Then in a huge game as Jacques had three men in it, and I only had one, West Ham beat Leeds 2-0. Aaron Cresswell was all over this game as Jacques considerably cut into my lead. Cresswell almost assisted the second goal by Craig Dawson and nearly scored a free-kick as he gained maximum bonus points as well as the clean sheet points. So no goals luckily from Michail Antonio or Patrick Bamford, though Bamford wildly shot over which would have given Raphinha an assist in the second half. Raphinha himself went close on a couple of occasions with an overhead kick and a shot that was saved by Lukasz Fabianski.
So I carried a 12 point lead into Wednesday's decisive game between Manchester City and Southampton. You just knew 'Pep Roulette' would strike, but in this case it was nowhere near as detrimental as it previously has been, as it was John Stones who was left out and of course Jacques had him too. So if I did not before I desperately needed a goal from the Saints and Ruben Dias not to have a contribution goal-wise otherwise things could get very tight if my captain Gundogan did not produce. After Kevin De Bruyne gave City the lead, Ward-Prowse was to produce for me again as he netted from the penalty spot again. If only I had the confidence to captained him. Clean sheet was gone for City and it was scored by one of my players, 'great stuff'. Gundogan also found the back of the net from a rebound to close the first half as Pep Guardiola's men went on to win 5-2. Ward-Prowse had forced a good save from Ederson in the first half with a long ranged effort. Also Che Adams had a goal from a Ward-Prowse pass ruled out rightfully for offside in the second half, but the damage had already been done. So three consecutive wins and I am up to 7th place in the head-to-head league. My points tally was only able to maintain the lead in one traditional league as I am now second in two leagues, third in one and fourth in another three.
@DubulDee
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