After another head-to-head defeat in gameweek 5 something had to be done. With the fact there are unlimited transfers during the World Cup starting in November that was basically like having a third 'Wildcard' bonus chip. I had hoped to wait until at least gameweek 7 or 8 but I acted now and used my first wildcard as it is only valid until the end of December.
My old friend Jacques was my competition and he had a very good side. I looked at my current team and thought that they may not have enough to get past him. Leicester had been conceding left, right & center so I needed another keeper to rotate with Danny Ward. In defence Wolves' Rayan Ait-Nouri had been out of the team for a couple of games so I was starting to get worried. In midfield Rodrigo Moreno was injured, and Pedro Neto who I had high hopes for had not yet returned. The only issue I did not have was with my frontline, but I had to get Erling Haaland in to prevent losing any more ground. I was sure he had to have a couple of blanks coming after his outrageous start to the season, but I thought let me not overthink and just act.
Rapper Cormega's song 'They Forced My Hand' was looping in my head as I made my transfers. I wanted to get Wilfried Zaha back in but it was complex unless I parted company with Luis Diaz. This was as I was not selling James Maddison as bad as Leicester are at the moment. Getting Haaland in really limited my options, my original draft had me doing the most simple move from Haaland to Harry Kane as there was only a £0.5m difference. But then while toggling away during a phone conversation with Rian (Milito) I had an idea. I believed Kane would cause Fulham damage so rather than selling him for Haaland, I decided to construct my team around having both Kane and Haaland up front. It then took me another three drafts before I was content, this was all really hurting my head.
One thing I was optimistic about was getting Alexis MacAllister into my team. The Brighton midfielder only cost £5.5m and he had two goals already, he was on penalties and took a lot of free-kicks too. For me this move was a no brainer as I needed differentials and everyone was flocking to Pascal Gross when it came to Brighton midfielders. You cannot really make up ground on people if you have the same players as them can you? For the first time this season I took the captaincy from Mo Salah and gave it to Kane. When the deadline passed I saw that Jacques had two free transfers and brought in Alexsandar Mitrovic which of course neutralised me. He also got his Fulham teammate in Andreas Pereira. Haaland was obviously his captain.
The Merseyside Derby started proceedings. Everton almost took the lead through Tom Davies who struck the post before Liverpool took over the 'woodwork challenge'. When we last saw Darwin Nunez he was delivering a 'Glasgow Kiss' that Drew McIntyre would have been proud of to Joachim Andersen. The Uruguayan surprisingly went straight back into the starting XI considering the form that Roberto Firmino is in. And in the first half Nunez smashed the bar via Jordan Pickford's hand, then from the rebound Luis Diaz hit the post, it just looked like one of those days, 'damn!'. Conor Coady had a goal ruled out for offside and Pickford continued to perform like prime Gianluigi Buffon to keep the Reds at bay. Right at the death Mo Salah looked to have won it for Jurgen Klopp's men only for Pickford to tip his low shot onto the post, 'nooo!'. The game was entertaining but it ended in a stalemate. Salah's owners continue to decrease as he is hogging the touchline and does not look as threatening. Diaz was so close to giving me a massive early advantage.
In the 3pm games; as I thought would be the case Ivan Toney made me rue not hanging on to him for at least one more gameweek. Toney was to score a fine hat-trick, reminding me why I wanted him in my team in the first place as I liked Brentford's fixtures as they put 5 past Leeds. His first was a penalty and you know he does not miss those, his second a free-kick that I did not know he had in him. His third in the second half saw him show great composure before chipping the ball in after Illan Meslier went for a walkabout. After the game Toney then set to Twitter to taunt those that sold him in FPL. Leeds hit the net twice themselves meaning my double up at the back of the newly transferred-in David Raya and already-owned Rico Henry did not pay off. Chelsea edged past West Ham 2-1 at Stamford Bridge. New Hammers man Emerson Palmieri was only on my bench against his old team, this meant that this match did not effect the head-to-head, but can I just add that West Ham were robbed! Tom Boehly has invested so heavily in the transfer window we did not realise he bought VAR too.
Anyway to St James' Park where another game full of incident ended goalless. Newcastle and Crystal Palace both had chances but could not find a winning goal as both keepers did well. However just like West Ham, Newcastle were robbed as they too had a goal chalked off that should have stood. I got my clean sheet points from my new addition Fabian Schar nonetheless, which I was thankful for. The caveat was Jacques had doubled up on Magpies' defenders as he had Sven Botman and Kieran Trippier, the latter was to receive two bonus points, 'rage!'. Whether they end up going down or not, you cannot question Bournemouth's character. The Cherries fell behind 2-0 at Nottingham Forest only to come back and triumph 3-2 at the City Ground. A man I previously let go Brennan Johnson scored his second of the season from the penalty spot for Forest and to my pleasure Neco Williams won the penalty. I was expecting a massive haul from the Welsh full back but that was to be as good as it got as Bournemouth powered back.
Again a player was to make me pay for selling them as Wolves beat Southampton 1-0. Rayan Ait-Nouri returned to Wolves' starting lineup so trust them to keep a clean sheet. It was starting to look like I had pulled the trigger on the wildcard prematurely, this was how much I was intimidated by my opponents team beforehand I have to say. Tottenham took care of business at home to Fulham as they won 2-1 to remain unbeaten. Kane eventually got his goal to validate me giving him the captaincy, but if I am to truly be honest I expected a kittle more from him. Hugo Lloris was on a personal mission to stop Mitrovic scoring, but the Serbian found his way past him late on with a lovely curled effort into the top corner. Our thoughts are with Richarlison who wheeled away thinking he had his first Spurs league goal only for it to be disallowed. He had previously hit the post too, 'unluckyyy!'.
In the late contest if you thought Mr Haaland's purple patch was going to stop then you were sadly mistaken as he opened the scoring at Villa Park. Kevin De Bruyne assisted the goal after some great movement by Haaland to get free. My opponent had De Bruyne too so this was not the combination I wanted to see. The main thing was I was not to miss out on the Norwegian's points, many captained him but as Kane my captain scored I was able to neutralise. Villa levelled through a sweetly timed finish by Leon Bailey into the top corner to get Steven Gerrard a precious point. At Saturday's conclusion I trailed narrowly 53-51.
It was to be a massive Sunday in reality and fantasy football. First Brighton were at home to Leicester and I needed my differential MacAllister to return as well as my other key man James Maddison. Leicester took an early lead through Kelechi Iheanacho which was all good as Robert Sanchez was my opponents goalkeeper. The Seagulls responded quickly however and went into a 2-1 lead before the Foxes levelled again through Patson Daka. I then thought I was a genius as MacAllister fired an unstoppable shot into the top corner from outside the box, only for the goal to be ruled out as an offside player tried to get on the end of the initial free-kick. I was gutted to say the least. But that was not to be the end as Graham Potter's men were awarded a penalty and MacAllister duly converted. Then deep into injury time MacAllister curled a superb free-kick up and over Leicester's wall into the top corner. He's clearly been watching Juninho Pernambucano tapes! The gameweek was far from over as Jacques had three Arsenal men to play at Manchester United. But my season had been so underwhelming thus far this felt like I had touched Scarlett Johansson or something! Despite getting booked MacAllister stole maximum bonus points with his late brace.
My lead was 14 points, and though I felt disgusted saying it I needed a favour from the team that spoiled my childhood Manchester United. Arsenal played some good football but United came through for me as they won 3-1. Marcus Rashford was the hero with a double but the best player on the pitch was Christian Eriksen Thankfully none of Jacques' three Arsenal men were involved in the goal as Bukayo Saka got their equaliser. Gabriel Martinelli did have a very good first half goal harshly disallowed and combined with Mac'n Cheese's late heroics that is literally what got me an 8-point victory.
About time I had a bit of luck in FPL this campaign to be honest. I now need to press on after my second win. Amazingly in the 'Justice League' table no less than nine men are now level on 12 points which is crazy. A big shoutout to Stel from Shoot the Defence who got the highest score this week in the head-to-head league with 82 points as he owns Trippier, Rashford and Toney as well as of course Haaland.
@DubulDee
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