Dwayne was my gameweek 28 opponent. He beat me in our first encounter despite me getting what at the time was my best score of the campaign, and I was eager for revenge. I needed to keep my winning streak alive to keep applying pressure to the top 4 in the 'Justice League'.
My Southampton triple was already in place for their double gameweek, so it was then all about seeing who else I could fit in that I thought would do major damage this week. The first man I wanted was Phillippe Coutinho as Aston Villa played twice. I was not his biggest fan after the circumstances he left Liverpool in, but this was business, I got him in early so his price did not go up as I sold Maxwel Cornet who did nothing but eat corn last week in Burnley's shambles of a double gameweek. Wolves' Rayan Ait-Nouri came back into my side as I let go of Ben Mee. I was looking to get rid of the inspiration behind my team name regardless but he was now injured also anyway. This meant I had taken a 4-point hit. When the deadline passed I saw that Dwayne had transferred out Vladimir Coufal for Conor Coady. He captained Mo Salah although he only had one game, while I took the captaincy from Coutinho at the 11th hour and went with James Ward-Prowse. I thought with the fact Ward-Prowse takes penalties, free-kicks and corners that he could do well despite Dwayne having him also.
The action started at the King Power Stadium as Leicester and Leeds faced off. It was Jesse Marsch's first game in charge of Leeds and they looked much better than they had recently. Leeds should have scored several times before eventually falling to a 1-0 defeat. Dwayne had Raphinha and Schmeichel made two massive saves from him in the second half, so I was very grateful that he blanked. With Leeds having a double gameweek I had thought long and hard about getting the Brazilian back into my side but I left it alone in the end. In the 3pm's; Aston Villa cruised to a 4-0 victory over Southampton. A tad surprising as the Saints had only lost 1 out of the last 10 but Villa made it look easy. There was nothing from Jacob Ramsey, but Coutinho laid on the second for his compatriot Douglas Luiz and then scored the third himself. 'Man I really rued not giving him the captaincy'. It could have been an even bigger points haul for Coutinho as at 1-0 Fraser Forster denied Ollie Watkins from his pass, and he spurned a chance himself when clean through as he put the ball wide. So absolutely nothing from my Southampton trio and to make it worse Emiliano Martinez was my opponents keeper.
Chelsea strolled to a 4-0 triumph over Burnley at Turf Moor, Burnley began well in the first half as they went close through Wout Weghorst while Dwight McNeil has blood on his hands with a bad miss after a poor punch from Eduoard Mendy. Once Reece James sent Burnley's defence for a hotdog to open the scoring it could have been a Cricket score. Dwayne had Antonio Rudiger so it would have been nice if Kabaddi FC could have at least scored a goal at home to be honest. Looks like Sean Dyche's men better stop trying to play football and resort back to their Rugby tactics. Newcastle beat Brighton 2-1 at St James' Park but neither of us had anyone playing. But that had the chance to change as at Molineux Ait-Nouri was only named on the bench. So therefore with Brighton's Tariq Lamptey being the first defender on my bench if Ait-Nouri did not play in the second game then I would get a whole zero points from the right back as the Seagulls conceded twice and he was taken off before the hour mark. Crystal Palace beat Wolves 2-0 and it could have been more really. Luckily for once Conor Gallagher was not amongst the goals as he blanked for Dwayne, Conor Coady also blanked for him.
The other 3pm game saw Ivan Toney back amongst the goals as he scored two penalties en route to bagging a hat-trick as Brentford got back to winnings ways at Norwich, I may have to get him back into my side soon. The late game saw Liverpool edge past West Ham at Anfield. Sadio Mane got the only goal but it could have been a fruitful game for he Hammers if they took their chances. Trent Alexander-Arnold assisted the goal and Dwayne who was a fellow Liverpool fan had him. Salah missed a guilt-edged chance when the game was goalless after a quickly taken Alexander-Arnold free-kick, as well as having an effort cleared off the line after Luis Diaz had his shot cleared off the line also. In an ideal world Andy Robertson would have matched Alexander-Arnold points but I was just happy Liverpool won. Alexander-Arnold cemented his maximum bonus points by clearing a Pablo Fornals effort off the line. Salah was still the most captained man in gameweek 28 despite only featuring in one match. Dwayne had Michail Antonio who almost levelled near the end but was denied by Naby Keita.
Saturday ended with me trailing Dwayne by 16 points I needed something from somewhere...anywhere. Well on Sunday it did come at Vicarage Road as my keeper Ben Foster got pumped like an Esso petrol station as Arsenal scored three brilliant goals to win 3-2. Bar one save all Foster did was pick the ball out of the net as he got just one point to start his double gameweek. Dwayne was a rare opponent of mine not to have any players from the Gunners, maybe he hates some of their fans as much as I do. In Sunday's other game Manchester City made Manchester United look like well...Manchester United in the Derby. They easily got the three points in a 4-1 walk in the park that Giggs would have been proud of, no, no not that the Giggs, the UK rapper, fix up people, the other one is where he belongs, United are currently where they belong which is outside of the top four. I needed Tottenham to do the business on Monday night if I was to have any chance of winning and for once they were not Spursy and delivered. The Lillywhites smashed Frank Lampard's Everton 5-0 and it could have been more. Harry Kane helped himself to a brace and Heung-min Son scored too. I thought Kane had given Antonio Conte's men the lead but it turned out to be an own goal from Michael Keane. Kane and Son got 20 points for me and put me ahead by five points ahead of the four remaining games that were played on the Thursday evening. Khurram (K) messaged me after the game and said "don't call it a comeback…" as he channeled his inner LL Cool J, I was not just back in it I was ahead. With a double gameweek coming for Tottenham in gameweek 29 suddenly their players seem very intriguing but will Conte rotate after they face the aforementioned United?
So Thursday saw Chelsea amid all the chaos travel to Norwich. I was happy to see that Rudiger was on the bench as I believed the Blues would get another clean so this was massive. Chelsea actually conceded but nonetheless easily won 3-1. I obviously do not pick Chelsea men but Kai Havertz and Mason Mount continue to stack points as they both scored and assisted. The game I watched in full was Southampton and Newcastle, as I tried to use my telekinetic powers to make my Saints triple get returns but it was not to be as they lost 2-1 at home. When the game was goalless Armando Broja fired over. Mohamed Salisu almost scored twice from James Ward-Prowse corners but Martin Dubravka saved well especially with the second chance. Che Adams who was in Dwayne's team smashed the bar as I escaped from this game without any real damage despite not really gaining anything. New signing Bruno Guimaraes won the game for the Magpies and is indeed now the only Bruno we acknowledge in the Premier League.
Wolves thrashed Watford 4-0, which means that Foster only got a solitary point from two games and was outscored by David Raya on my bench, I felt sick, sometimes double gameweeks can really be overrated. To my joy Ait-Nouri started the game so the clean sheet benefitted us both as he of course had Coady, but Ait-Nouri got me a very helpful 'fantasy' assist as his touch produced an own goal for the second. Despite getting cautioned Ait-Nouri still got a bonus point. The very last game saw Steven Gerrard's Villa win 3-0 at Leeds. You know the man I did not captain Coutinho got the first goal, as I had my head in my hands but at least I did have him I suppose so it could have been much worse. Matty Cash cored and assisted as he continues to prosper as a wing-back under Gerrard. Calum Chambers rounded off the scoring with a magnificent finish into the top corner.
So thanks to my Spurs players coming through and Rudiger being benched I got my fifth win in a row and I now sit 5th in the head-to-head league level on points with 4th place. I have dropped down overall in the world however to 237k. Not captaining Coutinho proved really costly but the win is the important thing.
@DubulDee
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