To complete my horrible run of recent games my gameweek 34 opposition was my co-host from the D&D Football Factory Darren B. (D-Man). This meant I had played four games in a row against four of the top five, with me obviously being the other person in the top five. Darren has this way of getting himself out of trouble whenever I look like I can get away from him and with two defeats from my previous three games I was not the most optimistic.
I decided not to make any changes as there were double gameweeks coming up to end the season and I thought it was best to plan ahead rather than be drawn into a change like I was last week against Big Sam. I wanted a massive differential, so as I knew Darren did not have Heung-min Son I decided to captain him as I looked at the fact I needed to try something to beat someone who was level on points with me in the head-to-head league. I had thought about captaining Andy Robertson but I did not have the courage to put the 'armband' on a defender. Mo Salah is always an option, but as Darren had him I thought unless he scored another hat-trick then I could survive with half of his points. I prayed my decision was a case of high risk, high reward. When the deadline passed during the show I showed Darren my team and he informed he had sold James Maddison and transferred in Mason Mount for Chelsea's double gameweek. Let the battle commence!
The gameweek action started at the Emirates as Arsenal and Manchester United clashed. Remember when this game was a title clash? Yeah those days are long gone, the only reason I even cared what happened in this game was because Darren had two men playing in David de Gea and Bukayo Saka. To my anguish the Gunners opened the scoring when I had just got on the train home from recording the 'FootyOnTop' radio show, and Saka got the fantasy assist for Nuno Tavares' goal as his shot came off the post. A terrible start for me then. It looked like Eddie Nketiah had made it 2-0 but play was pulled back for a penalty which Saka scored, it was looking like I was already defeated after the first game for goodness sake. United got a goal back but Arsenal won 3-1 after a thunderbolt from Granit Xhaka. I was already 15 points behind. You cannot rely on United to do anything, actually you can rely on them to embarrass themselves as Bruno Fernandes missed a penalty.
The 3pm kick offs saw my quest for points fall ever further on its face. I expected something from James Maddison as Aston Villa's away form had been poor, but Steven Gerrard's men and Leicester had a stalemate. Maddison went close with a free-kick but it was sadly another blank form him in an important gameweek, I have never liked Foxes anyway! Newcastle are so comfortable now that they rested players and still won 3-0 away at Norwich. Darren's beloved team gave him a Alan Saint-Maximin assist as Joelinton scored his first of two to give them the lead. The scoring was completed unfortunately for me by Bruno Guimaraes who seized on a poor pass by Tim Krul and calmly dinked the ball over him to ice the game. So another goal for Bruno Guimaraes on the same day Bruno Fernandes missed a penalty as he further showed the reason there is only one Bruno in the Premier League that we acknowledge now. With his Magpies men producing Darren was flying. Fabian Schar was only on the bench so I was already a man down at the back, this was looking bleak.
I was lucky that Darren did not own any Manchester City players as they crushed Watford 5-1. Gabriel Jesus had been linked to Arsenal and duly scored 4 times and assisted the other, they should link him to United he might score 6 next game! With Ben Foster conceding 5 I looked like a genius as the man I did put in goal David Raya kept a clean sheet in the late kick off. This of course meant there was no return from my captain Son as Brentford and Tottenham had a goalless draw. I never thought in a million years that this game would have no goals in it. I do not usually like playing a keeper in the same game as three of my attacking players but just in case Spurs decided to be 'Spursy' I tried it. Dejan Kulusevski started like a house on fire since arriving in England but with Tottenham and Liverpool playing soon I may have to get rid of him. Antonio Conte's men disgustingly did not have an effort on target and watching this diabolical performance hurt my soul. Do not get me wrong Brentford are a good team and it is far from an easy place to go but this was woeful. With my opponent having Ben Davies his clean sheet points helped his cause greatly. Harry Kane who Darren had also anyway went close at the end with a bicycle kick. Saturday ended with Darren up 34-19.
Sunday saw another draw this time at the Amex Stadium as Brighton and Southampton shared the spoils. With Schar not playing I was to get Tino Livramento’s points, he hit the post early on but then was taken off with a horrible knee injury that will probably keep him out until next year. I wish him all the best in his recovery. The Saints came back from 2-0 down with a double from James Ward-Prowse, one of the goals was a free-kick as he moves closer to breaking David Beckham’s record. Tariq Lamptey who we both had did not start as he also has a knee issue. Burnley won again this time at home to Wolves. Wout Weghorst now I was starting him did not get on the scoresheet, but he did assist the winning goal for Matej Vydra. Chelsea left it late as they beat West Ham 1-0. Jorginho missed a penalty before ‘Captain America’ Christian Pulisic won the game. Mason Mount did not contribute for Darren but this was not a major worry for him with the way things were going.
In the last Sunday affair: Anfield staged the Merseyside Derby. Liverpool needed to keep pace with Manchester City while Everton were trying to keep away from the quagmire. Everton defended resiliently in the first half, but Liverpool dug deep to get two second half goals for the victory. As I stated I toyed with Robertson having the captaincy, as he was a differential to Darren having Trent Alexander-Arnold, so trust the Scotsman to give the Reds the lead. He headed in Salah’s cross before Divock Origi who always scores against Everton got the second goal after coming off the bench. Frank Lampard clearly did not shout loud enough at Jurgen Klopp and his staff on the sidelines once again as a team he managed fell to another defeat at Anfield. Remember Lampard chose to not join Newcastle because he did not want to be involved in a relegation battle...well currently Newcastle are 9th and Everton are 18th. I now had no player left so although there were still two days of action left I had been beaten, Sunday ended with me 10 points adrift and Darren still had Mount and de Gea to play again.
Crystal Palace and Leeds played on Monday night in another stalemate that Darren was actually in attendance for but none of our players featured here. So the last game of the gameweek was at Old Trafford and once again the sides involved could not be separated as United drew 1-1 with Chelsea. Darren had already won so any points here were just a bonus. Cristiano Ronaldo's great control and finish from a sublime pass by Nemanja Matic cancelled out Marcos Alonso's volleyed opener. No de Gea clean sheet for my opponent and Mount had an effort blocked, and his neat flick to Reece James in the second half saw James hit the post or the margin of defeat for me could have been greater.
In the end I lost by 16 points and that has put a huge dent in my hopes of finishing in the top 4 of the 'Justice League'. My 49 points were under the world average as Saka who is owned by almost a third of players worldwide came with a double figure haul. I have dropped down to 242,000 in the world and really need to finish the season strongly. Lastly a shoutout to my next opponent Stel from 'Shoot the Defence' network who with it being Greek Easter put the aforementioned Gabriel Jesus in his team and he returned 24 points as Stel got the highest score in the head-to-head league this week with 76.
@DubulDee
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