After edging past Gary in gameweek 18, I was looking for back-to-back wins and Darren T. was my opposition this time around. Darren had a solid team, we were both struggling in the 'Justice League' so 3 points were more than vital.
After being adamant that I was not going to make a transfer last gameweek I had two free transfers this week. Originally I was going to make just one transfer and roll over the other transfer to gameweek 20. But with Dejan Kulusevski out injured, my hand was forced to use both transfers. The plan was always in place to get Alexsandar Mitrovic in for Fulham's double gameweek. The issue was that he was one booking away from a suspension, so if he was cautioned in the first match away at Leicester, he then would not play against Chelsea. Knowing the risk at hand, I still went with Mitrovic as my captain. Darren did not make any changes to his team. It was another week for me going against a man captaining Erling Haaland, but he can't score every week can he?!
The action began way back on the 2nd of January as Liverpool travelled to Brentford. Jurgen Klopp's men did not learn from last season's 3-3 draw, and were once again bullied by Thomas Frank's team. Even without Ivan Toney, the Bees stung the Merseysiders as they went on to win 3-1, and to be brutally honest it could have been more. Alisson was Darren's keeper but this did not please me one bit being a Liverpool fan. Andy Robertson was only on the bench after taking a knock against Leicester, but he did come on at half-time to get me just one point. Ibrahima Konate scored an own goal, Yoane Wissa who scored against Liverpool last campaign did so again, and Bryan Mbeumo capped off the scoring after a Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain header had the game at 2-1. Mbeumo clearly ate his Weetabix, but lord knows what Konate had as Mbeumo knocked him to the ground en route to goal. Trent Alexander-Arnold finally got his first assist of the season, and as he is owned by 17.7% which is extremely low for him, his ownership may go up now. It may not be dramatically, as there Is very good value in Newcastle and Arsenal defenders especially. And that believe it or not is the perfect segue, as on Tuesday the 3rd; Arsenal and Newcastle played out a goalless draw at the Emirates.
Arsenal started well, but after Eddie Howe's men rode the earlier storm they had the best chance of the first half. Joelinton headed wide from a Fabian Schar flick-on from Kieran Trippier's corner. Arsenal were unlucky not to get a first half penalty as Dan Burn used Gabriel Magalhaes to audition for WWE. Eddie Nketiah was denied Arsenal's best chance in the second half as Nick Pope saved well with his legs. Mikel Arteta's men were denied a late penalty, as FPL managers who started all their Arsenal and Newcastle defenders benefitted handsomely. In midfield Gabriel Martinelli thankfully blanked, but Darren also had in defence Trippier and William Saliba, so he was over the moon. To add to my frustration at the 11th hour I took Schar out of my team and put in Everton's Nathan Patterson. A decision made further detrimental by the fact Everton were shi**ed on by the Seagulls 4-1 at Goodison Park, Patterson was to come off injured too and now I need to decide whether to sell him or not. Brighton's Kaoru Mitoma (£4.9m) and teenager Evan Ferguson (£4.5m) are looking like very useful FPL enabling options, and they were both on the scoresheet for the second league game in-a-row. Ferguson assisted the 3rd goal for Solly March too, March was very wasteful under Graham Potter, but he has found his shooting boots now under Roberto De Zerbi. Pascal Gross has been quiet after a brilliant start to the FPL campaign, however he expertly put away the fourth goal.
Tuesday, also saw Fulham win 1-0 away at Leicester. Mitrovic scored the goal, but the inevitable happened and he got booked towards the end of the game, 'damn!'. Anyway you at the very least need your captain to contribute and he did, but the yellow card sadly meant no bonus points for him.
Wednesday, saw Leeds draw 2-2 with West Ham. The game started badly for me as Rodrigo Moreno was booked after only eight minutes. Leeds took the lead, before West Ham levelled and then went in front through a player on my 'Watchlist' Gianluca Scamacca (£6.6m). I was happy to hear Rodrigo made it 2-2 which vindicated my transfer despite his booking. The Hammers whose co-Chairman David Gold sadly passed away, were lucky not to be beaten at the end. Rodrigo fired over and had a header brilliantly saved by Lukasz Fabianski whilst Liam Cooper struck the post. I was grateful for the goal, but it really could have been even better. Wolves took the lead at Aston Villa, and held on to it until as late as the 78th minute before Jose Sa slipped and Danny Ings got Villa a point. Since recently taking the Wolves job; Julien Lopetegui had been taking Hugo Bueno off and bringing on Rayan Ait-Nouri, this for instance saw Bueno get clean sheet points as he came off before Manchester United scored against them in the last gameweek. Lopetegui decided to take off Hee-chan Hwang for Ait-Nouri this time around as early as the 59th minute and he took off Bueno straight after Villa scored, 'dammit!'. This just shows how much luck is needed in FPL man, I could have stolen a clean sheet.
After losing at home to Aston Villa in gameweek 18, it was thought Crystal Palace could get a result at home to Tottenham. However after surviving the first half, something Spurs have seldom done of late, Antonio Conte's men went on to win 4-0, thanks largely to Harry Kane. Kane scored his first with a header at the far post from a Ivan Perisic cross. Darren had Perisic, but Kane scored a second not too long after, to make that not matter as much. The England captain took the ball from Bryan Gil, and quickly shot into the bottom corner, you could not get more clinical if you tried. Matt Doherty added a third before Kane lifted a ball over the back four towards Heung-min Son that was deflected, and Son's volley was on target but took a huge deflection into the net for 4-0. Kane got the fantasy assist to round off a great second half. With Mitrovic coming into a double gameweek, I did not have major thoughts about captaining Kane, so I was just happy he did so well rather than dwell on him not being captain. Darren's defence had all delivered with Perisic getting 10 points, but then I needed the massive ask of Haaland not scoring away at Chelsea in the Thursday match if I was going to get over the line as Darren also had Kevin De Bruyne to neutralise me.
Watching paint dry would have been more entertaining than the first half between Chelsea and Manchester City. Haaland almost scored within the first 90 seconds and substitute Carney Chukwuemeka hit the post, but otherwise for the magnitude of the game it flattered to deceive. Pep Guardiola made substitutions at half-time and at the hour mark that changed the game. A fine move by the away side was finished by Riyad Mahrez who had only been on the pitch for a few minutes. Kepa Arrizabalaga should have done much better on the goal as he treated the ball like it was a disease and completely left it before it got to Mahrez. Haaland almost scored from a good ball across the face of goal by De Bruyne but he just could not reach it and somehow I managed to get away with not having in my side again as he had a very rare blank. This meant that I led 45-42, and I still had Andreas Pereira to play again while Darren did not have anyone, so as long as Andreas did not do anything stupid I had somehow scraped another ugly victory.
After a weeks wait; Fulham and Chelsea finally ended the gameweek at Craven Cottage. As said I needed Andreas Pereira not to do anything silly to deny me a head-to-head win. So it was to my disgust he got himself booked after only 14 minutes for a cynical foul on Chelsea's new loan signing Joao Felix. I was fearing the worst that he may get sent off. Fulham took the lead through Willian's deflected shot in the first half. Kalidou Koulibaly levelled in the second period but then Felix was dismissed for a mistimed challenge. Andreas put an effort wide, but then shortly after produced a brilliant ball to the back post and Carlos Vinicius headed in what turned out to be the winner for Marco Silva's men.
So back-to-back wins for me as I came through 49-42, with my score being so low however, overall I dropped down in the world. But regardless let me concentrate on the positive, I am out of the 'relegation zone' in the head-to-head league as the win takes me to 16th. An important double gameweek awaits next and there is no time to recover, I need to be on the ball.
@DubulDee
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