First of all I would like to say thanks to two podcasts for acknowledging my colossal start to the FPL season. Firstly my boys Ozzie and Sid over at the Football Talk Podcast, and secondly a shout to the boys over at the FPL Bros Podcast, thanks for the shoutouts guys, much appreciated. Get listening to both podcasts and subscribe people! At the time of their podcasts I was the highest scorer in the 'FTP' league as well as being at the top of the 'FPL Bros' league, despite their scoring only starting from gameweek 2.
Gameweek 4 pitted me against a fellow Liverpool fan in Ravi. Despite my good start to the season, for some reason approaching this week I was cautious. I contemplated making numerous changes, but I did not want to use my 'Wildcard' bonus chip just yet. Something had told me to wait until late on Friday before confirming my transfers. There had been a rumour circling on Twitter from early on Friday, that Sadio Mane had Coronavirus. I had hoped that it was not true. Heung-Min Son came off at half-time in Spurs' last game at home to Newcastle, and he had been who I was going to take out. But then in the evening I spoke with another participant in the head-to-head Khurram, and lucky I did. I was informed that in his pre-match press conference, Jose Mourinho had said in regards to Son that, "I don't want to lie to you and say he doesn't play and Sunday he's there. At the same time I don't want to say he plays and then he doesn't. So let's wait and see, in this moment, I honestly don't know". Mourinho loves to talk in riddles, so from when I heard this Son I thought they was a high chance that Son would miraculously be starting against Manchester United. At roughly the same the time; Liverpool confirmed on their club website that Mane did indeed have Coronavirus. I was taken aback, 'get well Sadio'. So playing the waiting game made my transfer decision easy, Mo Salah in for Mane. Therefore Son stays in the team and I hoped he started. I knew numerous people including my opponent who had said they had let go of him, as the FPL site still said that he had a 25% chance of playing. Very early on after gameweek 3 I had decided to give the captaincy to Danny Ings, and I ended up leaving it with him for their game against West Brom. The Baggies had already conceded 11 goals in their first three games and was hoping Ings would thrive.
Right so to the action. Chelsea beat Crystal Palace 4-0 in Saturday's first game. I had made a good decision in leaving Palace's Joel Ward on my bench in that regard. The second match of the day saw Brighton travel to Everton. I had Tariq Lamptey from the Seagulls, and Rav had James Rodriguez as well as the 'on fire' Dominic Calvert-Lewin from the Toffees. It was the worst possible start for me as Calvert-Lewin opened the scoring. Brighton levelled, but then Everton went back ahead through Yerry Mina and it was assisted by James, so more bad news. The negativity was not to end there for me however, as Lamptey was taken off at the interval, so with Brighton having already conceded two goals, I got no points from him. Things somehow got worse as James scored not just once, but twice to go with his assist. A massive 18-point haul from the Colombian, and he is actually making me want to drop my Everton ban and select him if I am being really entirely honest.
Next up was Leeds against Manchester City, which ended 1-1. Helder Costa took a knock early on, and I thought he would come off at half-time, but he was able to play the full game. Unfortunately he had no major involvement from a points perspective, despite playing quite well. As if the day had not been bad enough, the pain continued in the last match on Saturday. Newcastle won it as it finished 3-1 in the match at home to Burnley. Trust the season I decide to start with Nick Pope as one of my goalkeepers, that he has not kept any clean sheets. He would not have seen it until late, but considering how tall he is, I thought that he could have done better with the first goal by Alain Saint-Maximin. Newcastle added 2 goals in the second half for the win and to my dismay they were both scored by Callum Wilson who Ravi had as one of his forwards. Saturday ended with me trailing Rav by 32 points, and all this was with him taking a 4-point hit too. I needed a damn near a miracle to even make this competitive, let alone win this head-to-head.
Sunday's early games saw one result that was expected and one that was not. Southampton beat West Brom 2-0 at St Mary's, but there was no goal for my captain Danny Ings. I needed him badly to get at least an assist for me if I was to stand a chance of pulling off the great comeback, but it was not to be. Critically also Alex McCarthy kept a clean sheet and as mentioned earlier I started Nick Pope in goal instead of him, with the saves McCarthy also had to make, he ended up getting 9 points as he qualified for bonus points, 'rage!'. With the Saints' clean sheet there were at least points for Kyle Walker-Peters. Whilst that was going on, Leicester after their superb win at Manchester City crumbled to a 3-0 home defeat against West Ham. Tomas Soucek did not figure in any of the Hammers' goals. This also of course meant nothing for Jamie Vardy, who was in me and Ravi's team, Ravi had actually made him his captain.
In the two 2pm contests; Wolves beat Fulham 1-0 through a Pedro Neto goal. Rav had Conor Coady in his team so he benefitted from their clean sheet. In the other game; Arsenal won 2-1 at home to Sheffield United, and the opening goal came from Bukayo Saka, this proved detrimental for me as Ravi had replaced Son with Jams Maddison. Maddison did not feature in Leicester's defeat, so therefore my rival would get Saka's points (who was on his bench) when everything was calculated.
Next up was a game that you thought would have been the shock of the weekend. Spurs beat Manchester United 6-1 at Old Trafford. My gamble to leave Son in the team worked as he started the game, and scored twice, as well as assisting Harry Kane's first goal. Kane scored again in the second half from the penalty spot, and he had assisted Son's first goal with a quickly taken free-kick. These two players accumulated 34 points for me, imagine if I had made one of them my captain! Add this to their supreme double act at Southampton two weeks ago, and they are a massive reason as to why I have so many points thus far. It was a case of 'all these bitches is my sons' once again. Son is the 'Daddy' to anyone who took him out of their team, I advise you all keep tabs on press conferences concerning players in your team in the future. Big up Khurram playing Kevin de Bruyne and supplying the assist this week. I had literally made up the ground on Ravi, but then I remembered those Saka points that would come in for him, so the only player I had left that he did not have was Andy Robertson, as we both had Mo Salah in our sides. Unless the Scotsman did something major I had lost.
So to the deciding game. Alisson Becker picked up a shoulder injury so Adrian started for Liverpool in goal. You thought the shock had come at Old Trafford, but Aston Villa said 'hold my beer' and almost drew me to tears as they thumped Liverpool 7-2! Yes 7! If this was still in my school days I would have pulled a sickie. Shocking! Ravi had Joe Gomez, so both of us took a heavy points loss on goals conceded. Andy Robertson had a first half chance that was saved well by Emiliano Martinez in the Villa goal, otherwise I would have unbelievably won the head-to-head. Not that I would have cared, I was too embarrassed, if only I had a Molotov cocktail nearby. I could have had it while I practiced trying to fulfil my lifelong ambition of being a stuntman. All jokes aside, well done Villa, you deserved it, Liverpool's high line was exploited time and time again. Mo Salah scored twice which somehow bumped me up to a very respectful 63 points, considering I had started the day with just 3 points. I still lead a lot of traditional scoring leagues, but I was humbled in this head-to-head. The second highest score of the week in the 'Justice League', was not enough as trust me to be putted against the man with the highest score of the week. I now have two wins and two defeats in the head-to-head league, despite being top of nearly every single traditional scoring league I am in. This is why head-to-head league is so complex and I still believe is the best way to play if there is a cash prize at stake.
@DubulDee
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