I already informed in gameweek 1 I was not completely ready for the new FPL season and with gameweek 2 here already I did not have as much confidence as I should have had. Khurram (K) aka Mr. FPL was my opponent and that had a large bearing on my mind. I fiddled with varying drafts of my team, but I thought let me not be too reactionary. Before the season began I looked at teams' first five or six fixtures before selecting so therefore I thought let me leave any transfers for now, and give some of the other men in my team a runout before I begin replenishing.
This decision would then leave me with two free transfers for gameweek 3. Rayan Ait-Nouri came into my starting XI as I left Matt Doherty on the bench this time as I did not expect him to start against Chelsea given how well Emerson Royal did against Southampton. Doherty's price is already declining and I will have to let go of him sooner rather than later it seems. Last weeks' five-man midfield became a four-man one as I left Wilfried Zaha on the bench as unless my hand is forced I do not start men against my team Liverpool. This allowed me up top to start Brennan Johnson as I believed Nottingham Forest would beat West Ham so I was hoping that he would be impactful. I had Neco Williams in the XI as well, but then went against a Forest double and I kept Brentford's Pontus Jansson in the team. Recording Thursday's 'FPL War' for 'Shoot The Defence' slightly influenced this change of heart.
When Saturday's 11am deadline passed I saw that Khurram had used his 'Wildcard' bonus chip, I very surprised, but he said he wanted to get Darwin Nunez in his team when I messaged him about it. K is a Nunez advocate and he will not have a bad word said about him. This was like he was managing his son having him in his fantasy team. Reece James was another danger man that Khurram got into his new team, but he had to let go of Harry Kane up front so as I still had Kane I hoped he was going to put Chelsea to the sword and make him rue his choice to sell him.
The action began at Villa Park on Saturday as Everton travelled over to Birmingham. I needed Phillippe Coutinho to justify my faith in him as I stated on FPL War that I believed he would score. I even contemplated betting on him to be the first goalscorer, he did do something first...and that was get booked! 'Thanks Phil mate, you shouldn't have!'. Danny Ings gave Aston Villa the lead before Coutinho could not reach Jacob Ramsey's ball across the face of goal otherwise it would have been 2-0. Coutinho was then to get injured and came off just before the hour. He had been cursed, with his booking it meant he got me zero points as he needed to be on for another 60 seconds to get the points for playing at least an hour and he would have been eligible for a solitary clean sheet point too. I knew already this gameweek was in the toilet with the heavy hitters Khurram had with an important differential not producing. Emiliano Buendia who came on for Coutinho got the second goal as Steven Gerrard's men went on to win 2-1. Now I have to strongly consider whether I sell Coutinho or not as his value has already dropped to £6.9m as he is only owned by 10.5% of players now and Buendia (£6m) may be a decent option to look at in replacing him.
The 3pm games saw Arsenal entertain Leicester. Wesley Fofana who is rumoured to have had his head turned by interest from Chelsea should have put the Foxes ahead. He was left to rue shooting straight at Aaron Ramsdale as after that it turned into the Gabriel Jesus show. The Brazilian helped himself to 2 goals and added 2 assists as the Gunners triumphed 4-2. The first of Jesus' goals was a cultured finish into the top corner when there were bodies in the way much to the pleasure of K. Gabriel Martinelli scored Arsenal's fourth another man my opponent had as this game was fruitful for him despite his other Arsenal man William Saliba scoring an own goal. Danny Ward was of course my keeper so him letting 4 in did nothing for me, my only consolation was a goal from the reliable James Maddison. Over 213,000 players triple captained Erling Haaland as Manchester City faced newly-promoted Bournemouth. Haaland was not to find the back of the net however despite City's 4-0 victory but he did assist the opener for Ilkay Gundogan. As well as being the most captained man Haaland was also the most transferred in player as his ownership now stands at 59.8%. K would have liked better but at least he did get a return. The very reasonably priced Kyle Walker (£5m) was to get Khurram clean sheet points too.
Brighton and Newcastle ended in a stalemate at the AMEX Stadium, but things could have been oh so different. Callum Wilson had a goal ruled out for a high boot, which was a really harsh call and very damaging for me. Outside of that however the Seagulls dominated and will be wondering how they did not get all 3 points as Nick Pope was in inspired form. Robert Sanchez was K's new keeper after his use of the wildcard and this meant more clean sheet points for him as it ended goalless. There was another goalless draw at Molineux as Wolves and Fulham shared the spoils. Again this could have been a very different story. Pedro Neto almost brought me some early joy as he raced through but only shot straight at Marek Rodak at the near post. In the second half Ait-Nouri conceded a penalty as he fouled Bobby De Cordova-Reid. The clean sheet was in mass danger but Jose Sa saved Aleksandar Mitrovic's spot-kick. If only the Serbian could have missed last week against Liverpool. I was hoping Jansson would exploit Manchester United's fragility in the air in the late game. Brentford did score a header but it came from Ben Mee who got the 3rd goal as they destructed Erik ten Hag's team 4-0. All the goals came in a crazy first 35 minutes. I could easily have had Mee instead of Jansson as they cost the same price so I was a little irked I had not gone with the man behind my team name. Saturday ended with Khurram ahead 51-25 things were not looking good for me at all.
I needed Sunday to be a good one. To start Nottingham Forest had their first game at home back in the Premier League as they hosted West Ham. The Hammers thought they had taken the lead through Said Benrahma only for it to be ruled out for a foul by Michail Antonio, who thought he was in a WWE ring. Forest took the lead through Taiwo Awoniyi a tad fortunately as the ball just seemed to hit him. I thought my prayers had been answered in the second half as Johnson dinked the ball over Lukasz Fabianski only for it to be ruled out for a tight offside but it was the right call to be honest. West Ham a chance to level late on but Declan Rice looked more like Declan Donnelly as he had his spot-kick saved by Dean Henderson who had a very good game. Rice realised it is not so easy to cook from 12 yards after all. The Forest clean sheet meant that playing Jansson instead of Neco Williams did not really make a difference. Williams who looked a real goal threat also made a crucial goal line clearance. As Johnson got booked too all I had left was Harry Kane on Sunday to get me points. The London Derby did not disappoint as we saw a real thriller. Chelsea bought Kalidou Koulibaly to keep teams at bay but he was to score the opener. Tottenham drew level through a controversial goal, only for Chelsea to take the lead again through James, the last person I needed to score for them. Kane missed a golden chance beforehand as when he was clean through he put a chance wide that is is normally bread and butter for him. Kane did make amends as he scored an injury-time equaliser to cause pandemonium amongst the away fans. To think a last-gasp goal was not to be the main talking point as there were more WWE antics on Sunday as Thomas Tuchel and Antonio Conte clashed not just once but twice on the sideline. Sunday closed with me still well adrift 58-34.
So it was up to Monday where I needed a miracle in the Liverpool and Crystal Palace match. Mo Salah was my captain but Khurram would get half of the points. He still had Trent Alexander-Arnold and Nunez whereas bar Salah I only had Andy Robertson left. Patrick Vieira's men came and stayed disciplined as they took the lead through Zaha. Nunez missed a couple of great opportunities as did Salah as it looked like a Liverpool goal was never coming. Then Joachim Andersen who did a great job in constantly triggering Nunez finally made him crack. Nunez had put his head near Andersen's face, Andersen then ran over to him and pushed him so Nunez replied with a headbutt and was of course dismissed. Someone needs to tell Darwin those superhero 'Darkwing Duck' antics cannot run on a football pitch as now Jurgen Klopp's record purchase is suspended for three games. This somehow spurred on the Reds who raised their intensity and got a point through some individual brilliance from Luis Diaz.
So I was well beaten in another week of 'what-ifs'. I am usually at least at 100 points after two gameweeks and I am yet to reach 90, I need to sort things out quickly or the gap may get way too large for me to overcome. I lay 2nd from bottom in the 'Justice League' but I at least have two transfers to make which gives me some small optimism as I do not wish to use my wildcard just yet. Guys I am broken, but I am sure a change will come...well I it will anyway...
@DubulDee
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