I was looking for my fourth straight head-to-head victory as I tried to keep pace with the top four in the 'Justice League'. My opposition was my longtime friend Jermaine. Jermaine was top of the Justice League in its first season until the pandemic hit, and then it was won by Andrew and ever since Jermaine had not quite been able to recapture the same form.
As the gameweek started on a Friday night I thought that there may be a chance it may catch my opponent out. I have already spoke on how much I disliked taking hits but with the next two gameweeks in mind I decided to take a risk and go for an 8-point hit with a view to cover this up over the next two gameweeks. And obviously this was on the back of my mammoth haul last week. Jermaine had five players in his team from Liverpool and Arsenal whose league game had been postponed with Liverpool participating in the Carabao Cup final. Therefore I knew unless he took a points-hit then he would not be able to play 11 men. This was the catalyst for me deciding to take a further 4-point then I was going to.
With Burnley's double gameweek in mind I sold Trent-Alexander and brought in Ben Mee. Come on now, Mee is the inspiration behind my team name, this was long overdue, but after a massive points haul last gameweek had he peaked too early? Knowing my luck he probably had 'Mee' thinks. After a catastrophic week having Joao Moutinho blanking twice I sold him and got James Ward-Prowse in. Southampton have a double gameweek coming up so I wanted him anyway, but as they played Norwich this week I got him in a week early. The last transfer was to get Burnley's Wout Weghorst in, I was skeptical about tripling up on Sean Dyche's men but did it anyway. I also reluctantly gave Weghorst the captaincy after I had toggled between Harry Kane and Heung-min Son. When the deadline had passed I saw that Jermaine had missed the deadline, the Friday evening deadline had struck once again as I thought it would. What was worse for him was that Diogo Jota was his captain and Emile Smith Rowe was his vice captain, and both of them had a blank gameweek so there was to be no extra points available for him.
The action started at St Mary's between Southampton and Norwich and all my three Saints men started the game. Armando Broja could have done better with an early effort that he drove low straight at Angus Gunn. James Ward-Prowse almost assisted a goal for Che Adams before the Scottish international did indeed open the scoring. Ward-Prowse created another decent chance for Mohamed Elyounoussi but he put it wide. Ralph Hasenhuttl's men went on to win 2-0, so only Tino Livramento scored well out of the three men as he got two bonus points. I was now at least out of the negative and could look to the rest of the gameweek.
Saturday began with Tottenham winning 4-0 away at Leeds which sealed Marcelo Bielsa's fate. Leeds struck the woodwork twice in the game and before Spurs even took the lead Pascal Struijk headed wide. My opponent had Sergio Reguilon but he did not start and the man in his place Ryan Sessegnon made the first goal for Matt Doherty. Antonio Conte's men added to their lead through Dejan Kulusevski (£6m) who is looking like a real FPL bargain right now made it 2-0. Kane (who Jermaine also had) finally joined the party with a superb finish to complement the ball into him by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg. Kane assisted Son right at the end of the game with a fine ball of his own so they now between them they have the most goal combinations in Premier League history, we salute! I then had a feeling that Spurs' dynamic duo would both individually outscore my captain Weghorst.
In the 3pm's; I knew my chances of a David Raya clean sheet had been dashed as Josh Dasilva was sent off for a horrible challenge on Matt Targett. As well as Raya tried as he made a plethora of saves the Magpies won 2-0 to go seven games unbeaten. We are all thankful that Christian Eriksen made a return to football in this game. The irony was I picked Raya for this week in goal over Ben Foster as I thought he would concede against Manchester United at Old Trafford, so trust Foster to keep a clean sheet. Foster made a critical save from Bruno Fernandes to salvage a point for the Hornets, this was vital as Jermaine had him. He also had Josh King who of course blanked too and he has actually not had a return since gameweek 20. Crystal Palace and Burnley drew 1-1 at Selhurst Park. Obviously no clean sheet points for Mee or me...and Maxwel Cornet did not even start as Dyche reported of the fitness issues he is having after returning from AFCON. Weghorst headed wide as Palace continued their poor marking at set pieces and he had a goal disallowed for offside as Jay Rodriguez would would have got the assist went too early.
Brighton and Aston Villa kicked off half an hour late at the Amex as the Villa coach was delayed by an accident, we pray no one was seriously hurt. Steven Gerrard's men won 2-0, so there was no clean sheet points for Tariq Lamptey. Matty Cash opened the scoring with a fine half volley but was then booked for taking his shirt off to reveal a message to his Polish teammate who is stranded in Ukraine. I shockingly did not have anyone in Manchester City's win over Everton in the late game, but there was more questionable officiating. Phil Foden scored a late winner, but then Rodri's blatant handball was not given for an Everton penalty. A clean sheet then for Joao Cancelo who I of course no longer own, with how costly he is it may prove very tricky for me to get him back in, 'aarrgghh!!'. Jermaine had Ederson so he benefitted despite the Brazilian keeper getting booked. At the end of Saturday I led 39-24 much closer than I imagined it would be given the context.
Sunday saw West Ham host Wolves and luckily for me Raul Jimenez who Jermaine had up front started on the bench. West Ham got the victory through a second half goal from Tomas Soucek. My opponent had Ben Johnson and got his clean sheet points but after surviving this match my triumph was sealed. The gameweek concluded on Tuesday with the contest between Burnley and Leicester. Cornet started and had a goal ruled out for a marginal offside, 'damn'. Ben Mee came off in the first half after not recovering from an earlier challenge and this Burnley triple for the gameweek had become an absolute disaster. Nick Pope made save after save as the Foxes searched for a goal and eventually got two late ones as they grabbed a precious away win. Weghorst put an effort just wide in the second half but he was actually being held by Wilfred Ndidi so he should have gone down. Weghorst was also cautioned so captaining him ended up like having bloody Geoff Horsfield to be honest, I was pleased for my win nonetheless as I took a risk but man my points total should have been better.
I remain 7th in the head-to-head league, while I am still atop of four classic leagues. However I have dropped to 204k in the world. Some important weeks are coming up and I need to keep this momentum up in the 'Justice League'.
@DubulDee
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