Despite having looked ahead with this blank gameweek in mind I was still troubled now it was here. I activated my ‘Free Hit’ bonus chip from early in the week, but with there only being four games ironically it actually made me more indecisive. My opposition this week was Michael the twin brother of my D&D Football Factory co-host Darren (D-Man).
With one of the teams playing being Arsenal any regular readers will know it only left me with the seven remaining teams to choose from. I already had three Spurs players, but I needed another game to target, in true FPL fashion I knew out of the four matches it would be more than likely I picked the wrong game to kill. In all it was nine changes I made with my free hit. I chose to captain Heung-min Son at the last second as the captaincy had been with Harry Kane. Mike had only nine men as the only change he made was to sell Neal Maupay for Ivan Toney, Toney was actually in my team too. Mike had his 'Triple Captain' chip left so I was wary of him using it but luckily he did not, as he chose Coutinho as his captain. Amazingly Mo Salah was still the most captained player in FPL this week showing many people once again were caught out by the Friday deadline.
The action started on Friday night as Wolves & Leeds clashed. I already had Wolves' Rayan Ait-Nouri but I doubled up at the back as Jose Sa was my keeper. I had Conor Coady too, but he was only on my bench as I believed tripling up might be a stretch too far. I thought long and hard about having Luke Ayling in my team but I had no idea whether he would be at right back or centre half due to Leeds' injuries. I left him out as I expected Leeds to concede anyway. Wolves went into a 2-0 lead and I was very optimistic about double clean sheet points but then disaster struck. Raul Jimenez was wrongfully sent off for going for a 50/50 ball with Leeds' keeper Illan Meslier. Jesse Marsch's men then went on to produce a great comeback and win 3-2. The second goal was scored by a man who was in my team earlier in the campaign Rodrigo, and you guessed it the winner was scored in injury time by Ayling. The Wolves double up failed miserably, I just knew the game I targeted would backfire. The only consolation was that Michael had Jimenez so he got -2 points. Yes, best believe I carried the the hit out on the 'Jimenez Cartel' if anyone asks call me James St. Patrick or Tommy Egan.
On Saturday; Arsenal edged out Aston Villa 1-0 at Villa Park. I had hoped of Villa producing something as I had three of their men in my side but yet again I was let down. I already owned Jacob Ramsey who always wants to score when I bench him, so I started him along with Matty Cash and Phillippe Coutinho. Ramsey did nothing apart from get booked before I was even home. Cash was lucky not to be booked for persistent fouling and Coutinho had Villa's only shot on target in injury time as Arsenal nullified them. Another shambles for me then, and to add more fuel to the fire Mike had Gabriel who delivered him 8 points. Coutinho not flourishing was a small help as he was his captain despite having him myself, but I thanked the lord that he did not have Bukayo Saka who got the winner. Despite having two more men than him I was behind when Saturday concluded.
Sunday was past critical, I desperately needed points or I would face an embarrassing loss to someone who had less players than me. Things did not start in the best fashion as Christian Eriksen who I had got in as a differential was not in the Brentford squad for their trip to Leicester. Both me and Mike had Ivan Toney, but at least the other player I had in this game Kelechi Iheanacho started. Timothy Castagne gave the Foxes the lead with a brilliant goal. Then James Maddison a player I usually have grabbed the second goal with a speculative free-kick. What made this so annoying was that if I had not chose to go with Eriksen I would have had Maddison, instead my head dropped at my misfortune. In the second half, Iheanacho went on a great run after winning the ball but tried to dink the keeper rather than go for power and he put the ball wide, 'damn!', that was the chance right there gone. Yoane Wissa who does not score straightforward goals pulled one back late on for the Bees but Leicester just held out thanks to Kasper Schmeichel's heroics.
With no significant gain at the King Power Stadium, it was all up to my Tottenham duo of Kane and Son to deliver glory for me in the last contest. With there being no Eriksen it meant that I got the points from Dejan Kulusevski from my bench, but Michael had him also anyway. Kulusevski was in form so I tried to give him a rest as even when he was not getting properly registered Opta assists, he was getting fantasy ones. I had a feeling that he would blank, but I was getting his points now nonetheless. Michael had Matt Doherty so although a Spurs win would be the preference I still needed them to concede. I had Aaron Cresswell but this was strictly because I thought his set pieces could cause a problem. I left Craig Dawson on the bench as I viewed it pointless to play two West Ham defenders against my Spurs attackers. I thought Son had given Antonio Conte's men the lead from a Kane assist but it turned out to be an own goal by cat kicker Kurt Zouma. Son then hit the post after really good play by Kulusevski and I assumed it was going to be one of those days. My captain Son did go on to find the net however to my great pleasure just once but twice and both of his goals were assisted by Kane which was beautiful bliss I must say. The Korean's goals sandwiched a goal for the Hammers from Said Benrahma as after all my doubts I strolled to victory. The Hammers' goal came from a Cresswell corner as I envisioned, but there was a flick on by Dawson so more irony as he was the last sub on my bench. At 2-1 Antonio also fired over from Cresswell's ball in.
So imagine this, I did not even have to use my free hit to win as none of the players that I brought in and started did anything. But realistically I was never going to go into a gameweek with just five men. It just goes to show you how crazy FPL is that you can do all the planning in the world and it goes on to mean nothing. I have now won 7 straight games and 13 of the last 16 meaning I have climbed up to 4th place in the head-to-head table. With people forgetting the deadline I have moved to the top of another classic league (so top of 5 now) and I am now up to 216k in the world. This has been stressful and the international break is very much welcomed. With it being the clutch time of the season now banter is very much flowing all over the FPL group chat, the last eight gameweeks are going to be very interesting indeed.
@DubulDee
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