My cousin Clement was my gameweek 31 rival. I was looking to do the double over him this season, but as usual my brain was muffled in regards to what to do this week. I had the double gameweek in mind for week 32 and I was not going to make any changes, but then my gut was telling me that it would be best to make one. For once in regards to FPL I just went with my gut and sold James Ward-Prowse and transferred in the man in-form Jesse Lingard. Lingard only went on loan to West Ham in January but already had 6 league goals before this week. Usually when I draft in someone in-form it does not work, but I all I could do was hope for the best.
Clement had two free transfers after not making any last week. He let go of the injured Willy Boly and replaced him with his teammate Roman Saiss as well as selling Heung-min Son to transfer in Youri Tielemens. With him being a Spurs fan I was surprised he let Son go, but I was optimistic about having Son as a differential. The main thing I was worried about was the fact that Liverpool play Leeds in gameweek 32, so I strongly contemplated selling Raphinha as he would obviously be on my bench against Liverpool. But seen as my cousin had him too, I decided to leave him in and go ahead with the sale of Ward-Prowse.
The weeks action started at Craven Cottage on Friday. Clement had a man who was in my team for a lot of the season until recently in Pedro Neto but he unfortunately came off injured in the first half. As he had Saiss in his team I was begging for a goal from Fulham, but Wolves stole a 1-0 win at the end through Adama Traore's thunderbolt in injury time.
Saturday's first game was at the Etihad, and there was a shock as Leeds won 2-1 against Manchester City. Bar an assist from Patrick Bamford this game was not good for me at all. There was no clean sheet of course for John Stones, and both Leeds' goals were scored by Stuart Dallas, with the winner coming in the first minute of injury time. Everyone seems to have Dallas in their team but me really, so Clement was laughing at his players' double figure haul. Dallas has been this seasons' John Lundstram as he has accumulated a mass of points with his versatility, but he is registered as a defender in FPL. Sheffield United's Lundstram was down as a defender last season but he played all their games in midfield. This time around Lundstram was registered as a midfielder of course. It will be interesting to see what position Dallas will be down as in the next campaign as Marcelo Bielsa could literally start him anywhere. The Northern Irish international has 7 league goals now and bagged 17 points against Pep Guardiola's men. Raphinha almost scored at the end but Ederson did well to deny him when he was through on goal. The Brazilian picked up a knock and now may not even be fit for that aforementioned game with Liverpool. After Dallas' performance I now really needed my Liverpool players to come through for me to stop Clement running away with it.
To continue a week of injury time goals, Liverpool made it 3 in 3 games in the Premier League as they left it very late to beat Aston Villa 2-1. The Reds came from behind to cancel out Ollie Watkins' opener who was of course left on my bench. There was no goal for my captain Diogo Jota, but it could have all been so different if Sadio Mane squared the ball to him after Trent Alexander's 91st minute winner. Mo Salah scored Liverpool's equaliser, and as it came from a rebound from an Andy Robertson shot the Scotsman got a 'fantasy' assist, so that was all well. The irony here was when I took the captaincy from Jota and gave it to Salah searching a major differential last week, Jota scored twice and Salah just once. Now I chose to give it to Jota, he did not score and Salah did, if I did not change last week I would have won, 'rage!'. With Clement surviving a contribution from my captain, I needed Crystal Palace to at the very least score at home to Chelsea as Edouard Mendy was his keeper. Chelsea got the win but Christian Benteke did me a favour by grabbing a consolation goal as the Blues won 4-1. At the end of Saturday I trailed my cousin by 10 points, 22-32.
Neither of us had anyone playing in Sunday's first game between Burnley and Newcastle but well done to the Magpies for their 2-1 win. It was then a massive game at the London Stadium as West Ham faced Leicester. My gut rewarded me as Lingard gave West Ham the lead with a half volley from the edge of the box. The goal to an extent was bittersweet as it was assisted by Vladimir Coufal who cannot stop assisting since I sold him. Lingard was to further confirm that I had easily made the right decision as he made it 2-0 with a simple finish into an unguarded goal. The Hammers went on to win 3-2. Lingard almost got an assist to go with his brace but Issa Diop's goal was ruled out for offside. The big thing in this game for the head-to-head was that Maddison did not play as apparently he broke Covid rules, so was disciplined by Brendan Rodgers. I got off lightly here as with there being injured men in my opponents team this reduced him to ten active players, an advantage that I more than welcomed.
Spurs then entertained Manchester United at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. After United had a goal ruled out, Spurs took the lead just before half time. Son ended a tidy team move for the goal, but then United came back to win 3-1 to continue their very impressive unbeaten away record. Again here I got off easily as Kane was Clement's captain so he would have got double the points if he had contributed. As neither of us had anyone in Arsenal's 3-0 win over Sheffield United to complete Sunday's action, I now had a slender 5 point lead as it was 45-40.
We both had one player each to play on Monday. First up it was Clement's chance to go ahead of me as West Brom played Southampton. Danny Ings went close twice in the first half but the game ended 3-0 to West Brom, so unless Robert Sanchez got injured or scored an own goal in Brighton's game there was no way that I could lose. Later on at the Amex Stadium; Brighton and Everton played out a forgettable goalless draw. So in a week where it was looking a real struggle, I somehow came back and passed 50 points with Sanchez' clean sheet.
So just one defeat in my last 8 games in the 'Justice League' but that was only good enough to get me back into 7th place, still 10 points away from the money positions. Whereas I have fallen off the top of a traditional league so I am now only top of one.
@DubulDee
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