As the season drew nearer to a close, my opposition was Stel from the 'Shoot The Defence' network. Stel was basically my mentor when it came to anything sports media-wise, so seen as my name is Daniel, Stel was indeed Mr Miyagi.
With it being another double gameweek, I wanted to try and have three men from Newcastle and Brighton, as I had one and two players from them respectively. But with it not being possible without taking a hefty points-hit, with my recent failure in planning for double gameweeks I just kept it simple and made only one transfer. Out went the injured Solly March for Joe Willock. Willock has looked very dangerous recently, so I thought with his extremely low ownership and cheap price (£4.7m) I thought I would get him in as a differential. Stel made two transfers taking a points-hit. He got in Kenny Tete and Gabriel Martinelli for Oleksandr Zinchenko and March. Stel captained Alexander Isak while I left mine with Mo Salah but that was not necessarily by choice. As I have stated previously, I make any latter changes or adjustments on my way up to the studio if I go by train, but as there was a strike I had to drive up. I wanted to make Callum Wilson my captain, but with the first hour being so busy I completely forgot.
The action started at Elland Road as Leeds and Newcastle met in the early Saturday kick-off. I predicted a 2-2 draw and that is exactly how it ended. Leeds took the lead early on through Luke Ayling, but then missed the chance to go further ahead as Patrick Bamford had his spot kick saved by Nick Pope. It was the second penalty save of the season for Pope as it seems saving penalties has been easier for some keepers to do than keeping clean sheets recently. It was bad for me as Stel had Pope. Newcastle came from behind with two penalties of their own. I thought Alexander Isak (who my opponent had) would take them but they were both dispatched by Wilson. Isak won the first pen when he was upended by Max Wober. The second penalty was a handball from a ball in by Willock, so he got a fantasy assist for me. The FPL app actually removed the assist before putting it back which drew some hilarious replies sent to their Twitter account. As happy as I was for the points I was thinking Wilson should have been my captain. Leeds levelled late on through a deflected goal.
In the 3pm's, Aston Villa beat Tottenham 2-1. Stel and I both had Tyrone Mings so no return there. Villa went into the latter stages of the game 2-0 up through goals from Jacob Ramsey and Douglas Luiz, but then Spurs were awarded a 90th minute penalty. Harry Kane scored it as he again found the net since I sold him for Erling Haaland and unfortunately Stel had him. Players that I used to own continued to shine at Selhurst Park as Crystal Palace beat Bournemouth 2-0. Eberechi Eze bagged a brace with both goals being of a very high quality. The first rounded off a nice team move, the second saw him control a lovely ball from Michael Olise before firing past Neto. Nice of Olise and Eze to be stacking points when I do not have them anymore...not! Eze was on Stel's bench, and he was disgusted! I was extremely lucky in that sense.
On Sunday, West Ham rotated for their trip to Brentford and were duly punished as they were beaten 2-0. Ben Mee's flick-on was headed in by Yoane Wissa for the 2nd goal which was more bad news for me, as well as the fact this was another David Raya clean sheet who I of course did not own anymore. There was better news for me at Goodison Park as Manchester City beat Everton 3-0. Ilkay Gundogan opened the scoring from a Riyad Mahrez ball with a piece of outstanding improvisation. Haaland made it 2-0 as he headed in a ball from Gundogan, before a second half free-kick got Gundogan his second. We both had Haaland, but Phil Foden won the free-kick that produced the third which effectively cancelled out my Mahrez assist.
The Emirates hosted Sunday's last game and Arsenal needed to win to keep the title race alive. However, the Gunners were to fall to Brighton in a shock 3-0 result. Second half goals from Julio Enciso, Deniz Undav and Pervis Estupinan handed the title to Manchester City . I didn't have Estupinan anymore and he had a 17-point haul as he assisted the opener for Enciso and scored the third. Martin Odegaard's blank frustrated Stel and Gabriel Martinelli went off injured in the first half. Martinelli took out Mitoma when they contested a header, but Moises Caicedo a little later on, then took out Martinelli in revenge for Mitoma and the Brazilian had to come off with an ankle issue. Mitoma gave Caicedo a sneaky high-5 for his clinical effort. A Jason Steele clean sheet was welcomed as I knew he was not heavily owned.
Monday, saw Liverpool travel to Leicester. This was real opportunity for me to cut the lead as Stel had no players featuring in this fixture. The Reds took the lead through a well-timed left foot volley by Curtis Jones from a good ball in by Mo Salah. It must have felt like Groundhog Day for the Foxes as the same combination brought a second. Jones controlled Salah's ball and then fired in on the turn for a sublime goal. Salah made it a hat-trick of assists when his backheel saw Trent Alexander-Arnold smash a free-kick into the top corner. It looked like I had got away with not being able to change my captain as Salah matched Wilson's points tally, but that is only if Wilson blanked in the Magpies' second game. Salah also should have scored but he put the ball wide when clean through on goal. At Monday's conclusion I now led 74-57.
So, there was only one game left, and that was Thursday at St James' Park as Newcastle welcomed Brighton. Eddie Howe's men were onto the Seagulls from the first minute and scored two first half goals that both came from Trippier corners as Stel closed the gap. Undav headed into his own net and 'big' Dan Burn crashed a header in for his first league goal of the season. Surprising it took so long as there is no one taller than Burn in the box when a set piece comes in. Undav scored at the right end at the start of the second half to half the deficit, but right at the death Newcastle secured the three points. Some great work from Miguel Almiron saw him find Wilson who raced through and finished with great aplomb squeezing it in at the near post. Two minutes later; Wilson broke free again and rather than shooting he laid it on for Bruno Guimaraes to make it four. Despite Trippier's 10 points I had won the head-to-head as 'Wilsonnnn' had outscored Isak for the second game running. So, if I had won why did I feel alone, deserted, cast away on an island, as he should have been my captain. Anyway, it finished 92-73 and I have stopped talking to and naming volleyballs just in time to finish writing this. Gameweek 37 will almost immediately be here so I must decide my next move rapidly.
@DubulDee
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