Having lost my first head-to-head game after the World Cup, there was no way that I could afford to lose again after slipping back to the bottom of the 'Justice League' table. My worst start to an FPL season for awhile still had more than enough gameweeks for me to rectify things, and the road to redemption had to begin somewhere right? My old friend Gary was my opposition, and he had a really good side.
Despite my defeat in gameweek 17, after having unlimited transfers, I was adamant I was not going to make any transfers here and I stuck with this something I rarely do. I thought strongly about bringing in Alexsandar Mitrovic earlier than I planned to, but I resisted any temptation of letting go of Ivan Toney just yet. Mitrovic's price was ever rising but he was one booking anyway from a suspension. Therefore I thought I would wait and make sure he did not get cautioned so that he would give himself the opportunity to play in both games Fulham have in gameweek 19. No changes meant I was of course running the risk again of not having Erling Haaland in my side. Gary was coming off the back of levelling the highest score in the head-to-head league so far this season; as he got 105 points in gameweek 17, therefore he decided not to make any changes. I went with Mo Salah as captain thinking Gary would captain Haaland, only for Gary to captain Salah too, 'dammit!'.
The action started on Friday evening with two games. Firstly, Brentford bagged two first half goals as they won 2-0 away at West Ham. Toney reacted quickest to Lukasz Fabianski's save from Christian Norgaard's header. Then Toney was the supplier, as he played a ball over the top for Josh DaSilva who finished calmly just before half-time. With Manchester City at home to Everton, and Liverpool at home to Leicester, I was never contemplating giving Toney the captaincy, but what a decision anyone made if they did. Toney ended the game early as he came off on a stretcher, and there will be serious question marks over whether he plays against Liverpool on Monday or not. He will try his hardest play on Monday you can 'bet' on that.
Leicester took the lead at Liverpool in the 8pm kick off. The Reds parted like the Red Sea centrally, and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall ran...and ran some more before producing a composed finish. Jurgen Klopp's men took a little while to react, but they responded with a goal that they actually did not score. Despite Danny Ward in the Leicester goal yelling "keeper" at the top of his lungs, Wout Faes still tired to clear Trent Alexander-Arnold's cross and he ended up putting it into his own net. It was extremely unfortunate as the ball went in off of the woodwork, but it is 'Faes' to say had he listened to his keeper, then none of this would have happened! Liverpool continued to apply pressure and when a nice pass from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain found Darwin Nunez on the counter attack, he ran through towards goal. The Uruguayan who always causes opposing defences issues, tried to clip the ball with his left foot over Ward, but his shot came back of the post. And with Salah bearing down on him, Faes scored yet another own goal, and that turned out to be the winner. Spare a minute for Faes' confidence after two own goals, but also think of Danny Ward. He never played a senior game at Anfield when he was at Liverpool, he then goes back there to show them what they are missing, he is not beaten by a Liverpool player and still loses. Andy Robertson came off injured, and hopefully it is not too serious. Despite Salah not producing, I got to 28 points on Friday, thanks to David Raya's clean sheet and Toney. Only Salah had played for Gary so he had 4 points.
Saturday began at Molineux. Marcus Rashford aka 'Meek Meals' was dropped for 'disciplinary reasons', and I yelled with delight during the live recording of the 'FootyOnTop' radio show as Gary had him. Come on Erik ten Hag, Marcus feeds the kids you could have let him party for one night surely? Anyway I was not fussed as I thought it will help me, only for Rashford to come on at half-time and feast anyway. Rashford's confidence is at its zenith, he played a one-two with Bruno Fernandes before tiptoeing his way towards goal and then belting the ball home past Jose Sa for the winner. Rashford luckily for me got himself booked which took him out of the bonus points.
The 3pm matches saw Crystal Palace win 2-0 away at Bournemouth. Michael B. Jordan who is part of the new consortium that owns the Cherries was in attendance and I am sure he could have done better than some of their players. Jordan would have at least acted like he wanted to score as things were relatively straightforward for the Eagles. Jordan would have probably thought a third instalment of Black Panther was being filmed when he saw the Palace starting lineup. Jordan Ayew grabbed the first, yes you heard correctly and Eberechi Eze scored from a well worked corner routine. I thankfully avoided any damage from Gary's man Wilfried Zaha. Fulham edged past Southampton at Craven Cottage. I thought Andreas Pereira had given Marco Silva's men the lead only for the goal to be rightfully changed to an own goal by James Ward-Prowse. Ward-Prowse was then to score at the right end with yet another free-kick. Fulham won it late on through their new enforcer Joao Palhinha (£5m), who is quietly a decent FPL asset should you need an enabler in your midfield. Fulham were to get a very late penalty, and I thought that I was about to miss out on Mitrovic points, but his penalty was saved. To be honest as Toney 'Montana' outscored him this week it would not have mattered anyway.
Manchester City were expected to thrash Everton, and when Haaland gave them the lead it looked like normal service was in place. But the Toffees dug deep and a lovely goal from Demarai Gray salvaged a surprising point for them as things got sticky for City. When Haaland only scores once I consider myself very fortunate, but the fact he was not Gary's captain this made it feel like my birthday! Frank Lampard's men scoring meant that Manuel Akanji did not return for Gary and this was great news. Miguel Almiron has been on fire for Newcastle, but he cooled off as they were held to a goalless draw by Leeds. Gary, had the Paraguayan too, so it was not as damaging as it could have been. However, sometimes you really have to question certain things when the bonus points are accumulated. Kieran Trippier got booked, and this normally would put him at a disadvantage, but he still got maximum bonus points. This meant Gary trumped my points from his teammate Fabian Schar. In the late kick off, anyone who wanted Arsenal to drop points were immediately left disappointed. Bukayo Saka gave the Gunners the lead after just two minutes as they went on to triumph 4-2 at Brighton. Eddie Nketiah put Mikel Arteta's men 3-0 up, and I was lucky that Gary left him on his bench. My opponent also had Aaron Ramsdale in goal, so the Seagulls' second half goals were more than welcomed. Saturday ended with me ahead 43-33.
Sunday's first encounter was between Tottenham and Aston Villa, and I was hoping that Harry Kane would give me an insurmountable lead. Dejan Kulusevski was ruled out with injury, Gary and I both owned him so we would therefore get points off of our bench. This again favoured Gary as he got nine points from his first substitute Luke Shaw. My first substitute was Leeds' Sam Greenwood, but with him not playing against Newcastle, I got six points from Wolves' Hugo Bueno. Bueno very fortunately came off before Rashford scored, so he registered a clean sheet. Kane had a goalbound first half header cleared by Ashley Young, and that was about as good as it got for Antonio Conte's men as Villa won 2-0. Trust things to get 'Spursy' when you needed them most. Gary is a Tottenham fan, so owning one of their players would would have pushed him to defeat would have made me the kind of villain I was always dreamt of playing, a bit like an Erik Killmonger for example...see what I did there?
All this meant that I desperately needed Nottingham Forest to score at home to Chelsea in the last gameweek fixture. I had no players left whilst Gary had Marc Cucurella. Chelsea took the lead through Raheem Sterling, but Forest kept pushing forward and caused some problems. Taiwo Awoniyi was a constant nuisance, while Brennan Johnson had a shot saved, and Morgan Gibbs-White struck the underside of the crossbar. I luckily got what I needed however as Serge Aurier of all people, controlled the ball on his chest after a corner and calmed volleyed in, 'yay!'. It was to stay 1-1 and this meant I had scraped a win 51-44 in an average scoring affair.
So I am off the bottom, but only in terms of classic points, as no fewer than four men are locked on 19 points at the wrong end of the Justice League. Another sharp deadline before gameweek 19 means there is no chance of resting on your laurels. Overall I moved up about 70,000 places in the world, not much but better than nothing considering I only got 51 points. See guys you can win without having Haaland!
@DubulDee
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