My opponent this week was Dwayne, and I was looking to do the double over him. I still wanted to finish the season well despite unfortunately not having the chance to get into the money positions.
I ran through a couple of different ideas, but ended up making two changes meaning I took a 4-point hit. In came Joe Willock who had been scoring for fun and I wanted to get in on the action as he was only owned by 2.4%. There was no way that I could turn him down as a differential and he was a snip at £4.8m. Out went the injured Diogo Jota despite there being murmurs of him possibly making the subs bench for Liverpool’s last game against Crystal Palace on Sunday. Up front I finally let go of Ollie Watkins, just to try something different, and in came the cheaper Rodrigo Moreno from Leeds (£5.7m) who had 3 goals in his last 2 games. Moreno had scored these goals off of the bench, but with Mateusz Klich out I anticipated him starting behind Patrick Bamford as he has done numerous times this season. When the deadline passed I saw Dwayne had not made any changes to his team. I’m not sure whether he missed it by accident or whether he doesn’t care anymore as it’s so late in the season. This meant we both had Mo Salah as captain, I had almost given the captaincy to Michail Antonio but did not got through with it.
Things began on Tuesday with two 6pm games. Neither of us had anyone in the Manchester United-Fulham game, so the match which concerned us was Leeds‘ trip to Southampton. Both of us had Stuart Dallas, but Patrick Bamford was only on his bench. He had James Ward-Prowse and Danny Ings from the Saints so I was happy to see Ings did not start. Rodrigo started for Leeds, so all was good. It was goalless at half-time and Ings was to come on. Ward-Prowse hit the woodwork with a free-kick, ‘phew’ and I was thinking the game might not be a good one for me as Southampton looked more like scoring than Marcelo Bielsa's men. Stuart Dallas was booked and also had a great effort saved by Alex McCarthy. Rodrigo then produced a lovely pass for Bamford to squeeze in the opener. Bamford was just onside and this was the vindication I sought for bringing in Rodrigo. Ings then almost found the net with a great turn and volley, ‘phew once again!‘. Tyler Roberts wrapped things up for Leeds as Bamford got a ‘fantasy’ assist and Dwayne was ruing having him on the bench. I clearly got off lightly in this fixture.
Brighton played Manchester City in the 7pm game and not even two minutes had gone and it was bad news for me. Two of the three City players Dwayne had Riyad Mahrez and Ilkay Gundogan combined for the opener. The game took a turn for the worst for Pep Guardiola’s men as Joao Cancelo was sent off. It didn’t stop them from going 2-0 up after a great individual goal from Phil Foden. But then Brighton produced a great comeback to win 3-2 as Gundogan went off with an injury. So there was no clean sheet for Dwayne‘s other City man Ruben Dias, meaning again I got off lightly. I did wish I had bet on the comeback however! Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Leicester in the last game did not have an effect on the head-to-head. Dwayne ended Tuesday with 21 points and I had 9.
Wednesday began with Newcastle at home to Sheffield United, and Tottenham against Aston Villa kicking off at the same time. Spurs went ahead against Villa, only for Ollie Watkins to later show me that I did not have to sell him. Sergio Reguilón's spectacular own goal levelled the game (thank God I benched him), and then Watkins‘ industry and finish gave Dean Smith’s men the lead. He also could’ve won Villa a penalty, and had an effort well saved by Hugo Lloris to deny him a brace. There was sadly nothing from Harry Kane in what could be his last performance at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Whilst that was going on Joe Willock justified his place in my team by scoring the only goal as Newcastle finished the season on a high at St James’ Park. A good header made him the youngest man to score six times in a row in Premier League history. Well done Joe lad, now that what’s you call ‘putting your d--k on the table!’, ‘Big Willie Style‘ was also a multi-platinum album in 1997 by Will Smith...
As usual in FPL there was the ‘what might have been‘ as in the other 6pm game Everton survived 12 Wolves corners to win 1-0. Yes you read that right Everton won a home game! Gylfi Sigurdsson finally assisted in the one game I left him on the bench, and Lucas Digne collected two bonus points to add to his clean sheet points. Dwayne benefitted from having Michael Keane, but I have to thank John Ruddy for making a good save at his near post to deny Dominic Calvert-Lewin getting him further points. In the 7pm contest, I thought as I would not be starting Tyrick Mitchell in Crystal Palace’s final game of the season against Liverpool that I would gave him the start against Arsenal. Palace were beaten 3-1 however as the Gunners scored twice in injury time in Roy Hodgson's last home game. Mitchell was never going to score and assist like he did on Sunday, but I had hoped for the clean sheet.
The final two matches in this penultimate gameweek kicked off at 8.15pm. West Brom entertained West Ham and Liverpool had a tricky trip to Burnley. West Ham had a penalty early on but Declan ‘Long Grain’ Rice missed the spot-kick, which denied Antonio a ‘fantasy’ assist. It looked like the first half in both games was not going to deliver anything for me when Andy Robertson (who I needed to outperform Trent Alexander-Arnold) assisted the opener for Roberto Firmino. Things were looking tight in the head-to-head and I needed more. West Ham equalised and Liverpool went 2-0 in front but none of my players were involved. Then things sparked into life very late on. The Hammers were to add 2 goals and the latter one was by Antonio from a Lingard assist as they caught the Baggies out with a quick break,'perfect'. Whilst Antonio was scoring, Liverpool got their third goal as substitute Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored a tidy goal at the near post from another Robertson assist. So what was looking tight ended up being comfortable as I won by 18 points (63-45) thanks to the late shenanigans. I have now with a game to go passed my seasons’ target of 2250 points overall as I have accumulated 2268 points. I have also with a gameweek to spare amassed my highest ever points tally in a head-to-head league with 68 points despite still being 7th which the quality of players in the league.
@DubulDee
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