My opposition for gameweek 8 was my longtime friend Jermaine. He had not started the season as he would have liked, but I still knew the threat that his team had. I did not overthink things this week which was a rarity, as I liked the way my squad looked, so as Liverpool were playing Watford I only made one transfer. Out went the Hornets' Emmanuel Dennis and in came a player who I have rated since Liverpool played Salzburg a few seasons ago in the Champions League; Hwang Hee-Chan. Hwang of course now on loan at Wolves from Leipzig has already scored 3 goals and was very cost-efficient at £5.5m.
When the deadline had passed I saw that Jermaine had made two changes, meaning he had taken a 4-point hit. He sold Bruno Fernandes for Son, which was annoying as this season Son's low ownership had meant he had mainly been a differential for me. He also sold Conor Gallagher for Jack Grealish, and he made Grealish his captain. I decided to finally come away from my superstition of not captaining someone in the first match of a gameweek and gave it to the man-in-form Mo Salah. It was not the hardest decision I have had to make by any means. I left Raphinha on the bench as I did not believe that there would be any chance of him playing as Brazil's World Cup qualifier was in such close proximity to Leeds' trip to Southampton. The Twitter timeline seemed to think Raphinha would still feature, and as a headline broke out that 2 Spurs players had Covid, people started spreading rumours that Son was one of the players and but I refused to believe it.
As said, Liverpool started things off away at Watford. Diogo Jota was not in the Reds' starting XI as Jurgen Klopp went with Roberto Firmino up top. Liverpool took the lead early on as Salah's gorgeous pass with the outside of his foot was finished first time by Sadio Mane. Watford were frankly 'wat-less' and Liverpool went on to win 5-0. Klopp will be grateful Firmino was not in Brazil's squad as he went on to get a hat-trick. Before his third goal he made the pass for another outrageous individual goal for Salah. If you thought the Egyptian's wizardry against Pep Guardiola's men was superb, then this was almost a replica and arguably better if we take the opposition out of the equation. So naming Salah captain had worked, and he could have had a few more if it was not for some good saves from Ben Foster. Salah was the most captained man this week, so millions were left satisfied. Andy Robertson came off early, but as it was after the hour I still got my clean sheet points. Jermaine had Ismaila Sarr so his blank was welcomed.
The 3pm fixtures saw a couple of results that may have surprised a few. Aston Villa hosted Wolves and went into a 2-0 lead. The first came from Danny Ings who Jermaine had. There was however to be a massive plot twist, and Wolves came back to win 3-2 with a last minute deflected free-kick from Ruben Neves. These 3 goals were very bad for Jermaine as he had Tyrone Mings at the back and this left him with no points as he was also booked. There was a 6-goal thriller at the King Power Stadium, as Leicester beat Manchester United 4-2. Jermaine's keeper David De Gea made 7 stops and the Red Devils still conceded 4, just ponder that for a second. You can drive a bus through United at the moment as I have previously said. My team play them next so they better not freeze like they have done numerous times at Old Trafford. With my opponent having Antonio Rudiger who was injured it meant he would get Harry Maguire's points off the bench, well...I say points but Maguire actually got a big fat '0'. He was sleeping on Leicester's first goal by Youri Tielemens and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer should never have started him due to his lack of match fitness. There were some great goals in this game, the aforementioned Tielemens, Mason Greenwood smashed one in off the post, and Jamie Vardy crashed in a half volley just seconds after United puled it back to 2-2. That's Vardy's 7th of the campaign, this is getting ridiculous I need to get him in my team sharpish.
Manchester City usually put 5 past Burnley but it was just 2 this time around as they added another three points and yet another clean sheet. The only thing Twitter got right was that Ruben Dias would be on the bench which leaked on Saturday morning. This effected many despite he came on he in the second half. The most transferred-in player this week was Joao Cancelo and he gave his new owners and me of course clean sheet points. Jack Grealish was rested ahead of City's trip to Club Brugge as 'Pep roulette' reared its head on a rare occasion this season. This meant Jermaine would get Salah's points as he was his vice captain and things were looking tighter than they first seemed in the head-to-head. Norwich and Brighton played out a stalemate at Carrow Road. The Seagulls should have had a penalty as Neal Maupay was brought down. I would personally like to thank the Canaries' Jack Sargent for under-hitting his shot when he had an open goal to aim at, so I got my clean sheet from Robert Sanchez. Southampton edged out Leeds 1-0 at St Mary's, meaning more clean points for the now not so secret weapon Tino Livramento. Livramento was of course bought from Chelsea, and it was a man on loan from Chelsea, Armando Broja, who got the winner. The 20-year old Albanian is just £5m and is now on my watchlist. It will be interesting to see if he will be paired with Adam Armstrong who was on the bench for this game.
The late Saturday kick-off saw Chelsea beat Brentford 1-0. I was hoping for Ivan Toney's first home goal of the season, but it did not come as Eduoard Mendy made a world class save to deny him in the second half as Brentford gave the Blues some real scares in the last 25 minutes. The Bees' Bryan Mbeumo hit the post twice and his owners can find themselves quite unlucky. The day ended with me in front 54-33, he had six players left to play and I had four.
Sunday's first encounter was at Goodison Park as Everton welcomed West Ham. Ben Johnson started for the Hammers and Jermaine had him in defence. Tomas Soucek had an early goal chalked off for offside but it was easily the right decision. Angelo Ogbonna grabbed the winner with a header from Jarrod Bowen's corner as it ended 1-0. Nothing from Michail Antonio who we both had, but Johnson was amongst the bonus points so Jermaine had made an inroad into my lead. The latter contest was at St James' Park; despite the fact the game had 5 goals in, football was not the major talking point here. A fan collapsed in the crowd when Spurs led 2-1 after Newcastle had scored first and the game was suspended. Thankfully there were a lot of alert people around including the players, namely Sergio Reguilón and Eric Dier. Wishes are with the supporter and their family, when we last heard anything the fan was stable and responsive. Back to the less important thing at hand which is football. The game could not have started more badly for me as Newcastle took the lead through a Callum Wilson header, the assist came from Javier Manquillo who was in Jermaine's defence. Spurs levelled and then went in front before the incident just spoken of as Harry Kane remembered that his job is to score goals. When the game restarted Kane found Heung-min Son to make it 3-1. That combination brought me many points last campaign and I may be forced to bring it back into action whenever I finally use my my 'wildcard'. Dier scored a late own goal, but as Alain Saint-Maximin did not contribute for Jermaine, I had sown up my win.
Monday saw Arsenal salvage a last gasp point at the Emirates against a plucky Crystal Palace side. Patrick Vieira return to north London was spoiled by Alexandre Lacazette, it also lost my last player Tyrick Mitchell a point and any chance he had of being in the bonus points conversation. The result was very hard on Palace who were so close to executing a perfect game-plan. Nevertheless I had won 68-56, and this was my third win in a row. I am now up to 6th in the Justice League. I am also now top of five classics leagues.
@DubulDee
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