My co-presenter from the D&D Football Factory 'Big' Sam was my opposition this week. I had long feared this particular week as there were only four matches, with it being the weekend of the FA Cup Quarter-Finals. So playing someone you have to present a radio show with every week was not the person to be facing in such an awkward week.
Sam already had the main two players I was looking to bring in. Patrick Bamford was to return to my side and I also was going to get in a man in-form in Gareth Bale. In that case I needed to do something that could scrape me a victory, despite it looking unlikely as Sam already had more players than me for this week, unless I took a major points hit. I therefore decided to only make one transfer outside of my allocated two, and that was to bring back Aaron Cresswell as West Ham played Arsenal. I thought that he could be a threat with set pieces whether Arsenal scored against them or not. I had toyed with the idea of owning Tomas Soucek again but left it. Fulham's Ademola Lookman and Joachim Andersen as well as Brighton's Joel Veltman were others I wanted, but I just could not bring myself to take a further points hit. Once the deadline passed I saw that Sam had made two changes, so he had taken a 4-point hit like myself. He brought in Lukasz Fabianski for Ederson and Leeds' Stuart Dallas for Wolves' Max Kilman. Unless there was another miracle and Heung-min Son rapidly recovered from injury then I was to only have eight players coming up against Sam's ten, I had every right to be pessimistic.
When I made my changes on Friday night just before the deadline, I had an idea to make Patrick Bamford my 'Triple Captain', but as I was not 100% sure he would definitely be able to play 90 minutes as long as he did start, so I left it as I was clearly not brave enough. The team news came out and Bamford did indeed start as there had been doubts about his hip. Leeds took the lead through you guessed it Bamford who finished clinically from Jack Harrison's ball. Fulham got level through Andersen and I was left to think what might have been. In the second half Lookman missed a good opportunity and then sod's law Leeds basically came up the other end straight after and made it 2-1 through Raphinha. The assist of course came from Bamford and I knew now that I should have taken the risk. Sam had him too but he had captained Kane so the points differential was going to be nowhere near what I could have got from going with Bamford. On Saturday; Brighton dealt easily with Newcastle 3-0 at the Amex Stadium. If I knew the Magpies were going to show so little in what was a relegation six-pointer then I would have doubled or tripled up on Brighton players at the back like I knew some others were doing. Keeper Robert Sanchez got the clean sheet for me which was of course very helpful, but as Veltman assisted the first goal for Leandro Troussard it all felt like I had wasted a big chance to accumulate points in a very complex gameweek. I led Sam by one point at the end of Saturday 23-22.
Sunday was to be a huge one as expected. West Ham raced into a 3-0 lead against Arsenal, and there were two assists for Michail Antonio who Sam had up front. The third goal was by Soucek and I really could have taken a massive points hit and still would not have mattered as it seemed all the players I had looked at and decided against were contributing. However Soucek was later on to be booked as well as score an own goal as Arsenal fought back from 3-0 down to salvage a draw. Antonio was also booked and Sam's choice to double up at the back with Fabianski in goal and Vladimir Coufal in defence backfired. The problem was my decision of course to get Cresswell in did not work either as he was also booked. So as well as the points deducted for 3 goals going in it meant he got a big fat zero, but he will gain me points in future weeks I am sure. Sam now led by 8 points.
The last game saw Aston Villa host Tottenham at Villa Park. There had been rumours that Jose Mourinho was going to shock people with his starting XI. When the team was announced surprisingly Bale did not start, despite the fact he did not start their Europa League game either, so it was another wasted transfer for me there. Numerous other fantasy managers would have felt the effect as he was the most transferred player in for the gameweek. There was no miracle recovery for Son like earlier in the season away at Manchester United, so I really needed Kane to come up trumps. Spurs took the lead and I had already confining myself to defeat as the goal did not feature Kane. Then in the second half Kane overran the ball but Matty Cash slid in and Kane went down, I thought for sure it would be overturned by VAR but it was not. Kane then scored the penalty so I was not complaining, and not many others would have been either that did not support Villa as Kane was the most captained man in FPL this week. England's captain blatantly conned the referee and it is not actually the first time, but as long as it is not against Liverpool and he is my captain he can feel free to do it again anytime he wants. Yes I am shameless and he clearly is too, but as he now is joint with Mo Salah as the Premier League's top scorer with 17 goals I do not believe he actually cares. Remember he swore on his daughters' life and appealed a goal a few seasons ago at Stoke, and yet he still could not topple the Egyptian for the Golden Boot. I amazingly still needed more as Kane was not in the bonus points, then I was to get a massive slice of luck. Carlos Vinicius who opened the scoring was cautioned, this meant he came out of the bonus points and Kane got one extra point. This meant three points more for me and two for Sam, so we drew 46 all. A crazy finish. If I just went with Bamford then I would have easily won. Despite now being unbeaten in six head-to-head games I have dropped to 8th place. Meanwhile I am still only top of one traditional league, this international break was more than needed, we are all stressed.
@DubulDee
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