FPL was getting the better of me, postponed games were taking their toll. Josh was my opponent for gameweek 22 and he had already beaten me this season. I was not confident about my chances despite this 'double gameweek' being what I had targeted to have a major impact.
With Leicester, Tottenham and Watford due to have a double gameweek I was sharpening my tools. I wanted to get James Maddison and Patson Daka in, as well as Lucas Moura, which would have meant taking a -4 hit. Brighton had a double gameweek too, but as I already had Robert Sanchez and Tariq Lamptey, I was not sure about tripling up on them, so went against getting in Neal Maupay, Alexis Mac Allister or Leandro Troussard.
Another plan was a much longer drafted one, I still had Mo Salah as I knew many had sold him, and may have difficulty getting him back in when AFCON concludes. This meant I could sell Salah, get Kevin De Bruyne in and then have a Liverpool double up at the back of Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, if I made another transfer to free up the money. Then just as I was finalising the team before the deadline, news broke that Arsenal had requested for their game against Spurs to be postponed, and there was a good chance that it would be accepted, 'dammit!'. This would mean no double gameweek for Tottenham, but I did not have much time left to plot anything else. I ended up taking the captaincy from Harry Kane and gave it to Josh King as Watford as it stood still had their double gameweek. The issue was their other game would be against Burnley, and they had already had their game against Leicester called off this week before Arsenal's request came in, I honestly did not know what to do. My head was about to explode! Despite it looking very much like Spurs would only have one game, I got in Lucas Moura anyway and got Emmanuel Dennis back in for a Watford double up. Even if their Burnley game got postponed, the Hornets have Norwich in the next gameweek, so I just had to settle. organising was becoming impossible this season man. Josh's only change was to sell Salah and get in Bernardo Silva.
The 'Battle of the Birds'; Brighton and Crystal Palace started things off. Jack Butland was named instead of the returning Vicente Guaita, so this meant Josh did not have a keeper. He did however have Conor Gallagher in his midfield who I was very wary of. I had the ambitious double up of Robert Sanchez in goal and Tariq Lamptey for the Seagulls, but Lamptey did not start. Trust Gallagher to give Palace the lead with a well taken goal in the second half, but it was cancelled out by a late own goal. Things had not started well for me.
Saturday opened with a key game at the top of the table, as Manchester City played Chelsea. Chelsea began quite well, but City got stronger as the game went on and De Bruyne won them the game with a lovely strike in the second half. I had missed out, and could have gone with the plan to get him in had the north London Derby news come earlier. The goal was setup by Joao Cancelo, but of course Josh also had him. In the 3pm games; Newcastle and Watford drew 1-1. Joao Pedro got the late equaliser for the Hornets, so nothing from my double up top. Dennis was Josh's captain. Josh moved further ahead as Wolves beat Southampton 3-1 and the opener was a Raul Jimenez penalty, everything seemed to be going wrong. The Mexican did at least get booked.
Sunday saw only two games as Spurs and Arsenal did indeed get called off. Liverpool won 3-0 against Brentford at Anfield, but there was no contribution from my differential Diogo Jota. Alexander-Arnold provided the first goal for Fabinho, and Robertson's smart ball in was headed in by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for the second. So again the other plan would have worked with a Liverpool double up at the back as Robertson earned maximum bonus points. Leeds despite having to have a 15-year old on the bench as they were so undermanned somehow won 3-2 away at West Ham. This was all despite the Hammers taking the lead through Jarrod Bowen who I had considered but was overthinking that his hot spell would dry up, how wrong was I! Josh had Bowen so my fate was literally signed. Forgotten FPL man Jack Harrison bagged a hat-trick for Marcelo Bielsa's men, Harrison is owned by less than 2% and only costs £5.5m, after 8 goals and 8 assist last campaign could he be back in-form? Raphinha's incisive pass supplied Harrison's third goal, but Josh had him too, I literally had no defence and I was repeatedly being punched in the face here. Raphinha also struck the woodwork with a speculative free-kick.
After the postponements we were only left with just three midweek games. Firstly Brighton were able to hold Chelsea to another draw. I had early hope a surprise clean sheet could be kept by Graham Potter's men, but then Hakim Ziyech who should have been at AFCON squeezed in a shot that Sanchez will be very disappointed with. Another man who had been under consideration Mac Allister had his corner headed in by Adam Webster.
On Wednesday; Spurs produced a dramatic late win over Leicester. Harry Kane had a double figure haul, but can you believe I was still underwhelmed. He had an effort cleared off the line in the first 9 minutes, he then hit the bar 10 minutes later. A few minutes after that Lucas Moura had a shot saved, and then straight after that Leicester took the lead. Patson Daka got the goal and I wanted cry like a baby mate, FPL will be the end of me I swear! Kane did equaliser soon after however with a clinical finish in off the post. A few minutes later England's captain somehow shot over after being sent through by Moura, what should have been the dream goal combination for me ended up in Row Z! In the second half Japhet Tanganga of all people almost scored after Moura found him and I just knew I could not catch Josh the way things were going. Despite being a Spurs fan Josh never had Kane or Moura. The Foxes took the lead and I was not in the room at the time but I knew it was Maddison. This just stinks, you favour the double gameweek players and the damn players playing one game do better! Remember if the north London Derby was not called off then Kane would have been my bloody captain! With Spurs heading for defeat Steven Bergwijn scored not once but twice in injury time...SCENES!! His second was assisted by Kane but it was not enough as I lost by 9 points.
The other Wednesday game did not effect the head-to-head but overall it was very damaging. Bruno Fernandes was captained by quite a few people in various classic leagues that I am in and he scored twice against Aston Villa last weekend and then he assisted twice in the midweek win over Brentford amassing a crazy 23 points (46 if you captained him!). After riding high I have now slumped to 147,000 in the world, I have come off of the top of three classic leagues, as well as slipping to 7th in the Justice League. Salah where art thou?!
@DubulDee
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