Aasim my old secondary school friend provided my competition this week in the 'Justice League'. He was above me in the head-to-head table but was below me in points overall. I wanted to desperately make a change as his team looked good, but I stood firm with my plans to not make a change as I wanted to have two free transfers going into the the blank gameweek 29 with only a few matches taking place with it being the FA Cup Quarter-Finals.
Aasim of course had Bruno Fernandes, I mean everyone but me has him don't they? He was the most captained player in the gameweek as some left him on the bench in gameweek 27 where he delivered double digits to their anguish. I was not optimistic about this week at all and I needed a bit of luck on my side to get through. Another thing that I was wary of was that Aasim had not used any of his bonus chips but his first 'Wildcard' which meant that he might use his new wildcard, I was conflicted. When the deadline passed however luckily he did not any of his chips, and just decided to sell the injured Jack Grealish and bring in Chelsea's Mason Mount (or Jason as my Mum calls him!). Not only was Mount brought in but he was given the captaincy. This was an interesting decision by him, but if it worked it could be the massive differential he needed. Mount takes Chelsea's penalties at the moment as well as some set pieces and he is a decent finisher. I made Mo Salah my captain after originally having it with Heung-min Son. I also thought about giving it to Jamie Vardy but left it.
There was another Friday night start to the week's action as Newcastle and Aston Villa met. The contest looked like it was heading for a goalless draw when Villa took the lead in the 86th minute. Matt Targett's cross was headed in by Ollie Watkins, the header took a huge deflection off of Ciaran Clark however and was given as an own goal. Watkins was given the 'fantasy' assist for being the last Villa man to touch the ball, but this took him out of the bonus points. Newcastle then got an equaliser in injury time so there was to be no clean sheet for Emiliano Martinez, we both had the Argentine in goal nonetheless so this was not as bad as it could have been.
Saturday began with another draw, this time a surprising goalless one between Leeds and Chelsea. To my amazement as it said he would be still out through injury, Pascal Struijk was starting for Leeds, this was good news as I had thought I would only have ten men this week. The draw also meant that I survived Aasim having Mason Mount as his captain, he also had Patrick Bamford who came off injured. The irony here is that Bamford is someone I was strongly considering getting in for the next gameweek, so I will be monitoring what Marcelo Bielsa says about him in his press conference. Edouard Mendy made a very good one handed save to deny Raphinha in the second half and Diego Llorente was denied from a Raphinha corner, I could really have come out of this game with a fair few points. Later on Burnley got a 2-1 win at Everton which many were not expecting. Aasim had Michael Keane in his defence so their defeat was welcomed. He had Burnley's Ben Mee too and he struck the bar in the second half with a header...I gasped. Imagine losing to a goal by the man who inspired your FPL teams name!
Saturday ended with Manchester City strolling to a 3-0 at Fulham. Pep Guardiola was up to his 'Pep Roulette' once again, but this time to an extent it actually aided me. He started John Stones who I had, but he left Ilkay Gundogan on the bench and I had left him on my FPL bench as I thought Pep may rest him with their midweek Champions League game in mind. If only I could pre-empt what he was going to do every week no one would be anywhere near me mate. Aasim had started Gundogan so therefore there was no way he could be a differential as he never came on. The first goal was great for Aasim as Joao Cancelo's free-kick was put in by John Stones and he had both players. By Saturday's end he had 36 points and I had 31.
Sunday started with Brighton winning 2-1 at Southampton. Not good news for me as there was no return from my star of the last gameweek James Ward-Prowse. Ward-Prowse had a free-kick blocked late on that I was partially already celebrating given his pedigree. Leicester turned over Sheffield United 5-0 in the next game at the King Power Stadium. If you did not watch the game and saw that scoreline you are thinking that Jamie Vardy had a party, but he did not get in on the act. It was not doom and gloom however as he did the next best thing and got three assists. Two of the assists were genuine ones as he found Kelechi Iheanacho for two goals as the Nigerian bagged a hat-trick. Fitting Iheanacho scored a hat-trick on Mother's Day as he lost his Mum when he was a teenager I late found out, may she rest in perfect peace!.... The other Vardy assist was purely a 'fantasy' one as his shot that was heading wide deflected in off of Ethan Ampadu. I took what I could here as Vardy was never scoring on Sunday, he shot straight at Aaron Ramsdale in the first half and also had an effort cleared off the line at 1-0. He then shot straight at Ramsdale again in the second half when he stretched for an effort but thankfully he did not get injured.
Vardy's contribution meant Aasim desperately needed something in the last game of the day at Old Trafford as he had two men in that match. We both had Son and Kane in the biggest contest of the day, the north London Derby where Arsenal won 2-1. Son came off injured early on and Kane hit the post late on with a free-kick. Arsenal deserved their win despite it came through a debatable penalty. Shoutout Erik Lamela for his sublime 'Rabona' that gave Spurs the lead. Manchester United beat West Ham in that late game and thankfully Fernandes did not contribute. It had looked like he had as his corner produced the only goal which was an own goal by Craig Dawson. After review a touch by Scott McTominay was spotted so therefore he got the fantasy assist. With Michail Antonio his other player in the game not scoring this therefore gave me the victory unless something really drastic happened like my captain Mo Salah missed a penalty and got carded or something along those lines.
When Monday came Salah did not score but Liverpool won away at Wolves 1-0 through Diogo Jota's goal against his old club. A welcome clean sheet for the Reds as Stevie Wonder could have scored past them the way they have defended recently, meaning Andy Robertson's points gave me an even more emphatic win of 14 points. This week was a rare week when all my defenders returned clean sheet points.
Five games unbeaten for me now in the head-to-head league and I am still in 7th place. I have also closed the gap on a few people in the traditional leagues. Gameweek 29 is a huge one and I will have to map out exactly what I'm going to do. As it stands only six of my team are playing and at best I can get that to eight men with my two free transfers, taking a points hit is a huge possibility, damn you blank gameweek!
@DubulDee
Comments