My gameweek 14 opponent was ‘Coach’ Kojo. Coach had been a solid performer since joining the ‘Justice League’ a few seasons ago, when I looked for people to make the league more competitive. He had a decent record against me, and I was wary of the threat his team had after having a prolonged look at it. He did not have Mo Salah however, therefore despite originally looking to captain Cole Palmer, I went with the ‘Egyptian King’.
Kojo made one transfer and that was to sell Callum Hudson-Odoi for Facundo Buonanotte, and he captained Palmer as I expected with Chelsea being away at Southampton. I decided not to make any transfers, which seen I did not make any transfers in the two weeks prior to using my ‘free hit’ chip last week, meant that I would have three free transfers for gameweek 15. Interestingly, three players that Kojo and I both owned Lukasz Fabianski, Rayan Ait-Nouri and Bryan Mbeumo, he decided to leave on his bench.
The midweek action began on Tuesday, with two fixtures that both affected the head-to-head. Ipswich, who I was thinking would get a result at home to Crystal Palace, fell to a 1-0 defeat. The goal was finished beautifully by Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.2m), who once again looks like a decent pick. The issue is the Eagles have Manchester City and Arsenal within their next three games, so at his price you can get better cheaper options. I started Dara O’Shea instead of Antonee Robinson, expecting a return as he had gone close recently from some set pieces. With Palace’s lack of goals thus far, Kojo played Leif Davis, so them conceding harmed us both. Liam Delap was a nuisance as always but did everything but score, and with multiple fouls he was lucky not to be booked as he blanked for me again. Kieran McKenna has spoken about rotating and now I’m nervous about him not starting the next game. In the other encounter, any hope of a clean sheet from Fabianski were dashed by a player I previously had in Jamie Vardy in less than two minutes. The Foxes went on to win 3-1, but that does not fully explain what happened in the contest as the Hammers had multiple efforts at goal. Buonanotte was luckily not on the target, as Tuesday ended with us tied at 5 each.
With Amazon as usual showing all the midweek matches to start December, the kick-off times were staggered, and things were bittersweet in the 7.30pm games. Goal-shy Everton decided to thrash Wolves 4-0, so Kojo leaving out Ait-Nouri worked as he got a big fat zero. Jorgen Strand Larsen went close twice but Jordan Pickford was alert as this could not have gone any worse for me. Manchester City, finally got themselves back to winning ways as they put 3 past Nottingham Forest. Chris Wood (who my opponent owned) and Morgan Gibbs-White both went close, so I was grateful for the Josko Gvardiol clean sheet points, Gvardiol could have scored a couple times on top of that. Erling Haaland could only get an assist for us both and the dilemma of sticking with the most expensive player in FPL still looms, his ownership has plummeted well below 50%. Kevin De Bruyne (£9.4m) scored and assisted but he himself said that his body is not ready to play regularly, or I am sure his ownership would surely dramatically rise.
Southampton, had Jack Stephens sent off for pulling Marc Cucurella’s hair as they were thumped 5-1 by Chelsea. Jack, I am sure if you asked, he would have happily given you a strand of his hair mate. Palmer was only to get the 4th goal, so I survived coming up against him as a captain, but only just. Palmer had a shot pushed onto the post in the first half and Joao Felix somehow missed a header from a Palmer cross in the second half. Noni Madueke (£6.3m) scored and assisted, whilst Enzo Fernandez whom I mentioned last week, made the first goal. Christopher Nkunku (£5.8m) also scored and assisted as the popular Nicolas Jackson was rested. Jackson will be back in you would think for the home game with Tottenham, or Nkunku would become a factor again, as when the season started many had him in their side going off what they seen in preseason.
Newcastle and Liverpool had some thrilling contests in the 1990’s and they were to produce another as a late Fabian Schar goal got the Magpies a 3-3 draw. Eddie’s Howe’s men took the lead through Alexander Isak (£8.4m), who may be a must-have now after disappointing earlier in the campaign when he was highly sought after. The Reds came out a different side after being outplayed in the first period, and Salah assisted Curtis Jones’ equaliser. Anthony Gordon put the home side 2-1 up before Salah bagged a brace to put Arne Slot’s men ahead before the aforementioned Schar goal. Salah is just remarkable; I mean the man is a cheat code. When Haaland was smashing in hat-tricks earlier in the season the Golden Boot looked like it was done and dusted, now however, Salah is ahead of him. Salah’s second goal especially was a thing of beauty, as he controlled the ball with his back to goal and then found the corner as he turned. We sit there and ponder over who should be our captain when sometimes it is just simpler to leave it with the same individual. Both Salah’s goals were assisted by Trent Alexander-Arnold (£6.9m), who came off the bench as his minutes are being managed after returning from injury, Kojo had Alexander-Arnold but after another double figure haul from Salah I had opened a nice lead.
The 8.15pm matches saw Arsenal beat Manchester United 2-0. Of course, both the Gunners’ goals came from set pieces. Kojo had Bruno Fernandes and Amad Diallo, the latter was only a sub as my lead remained intact with their blanks. In the other game, Aston Villa made light-work of Brentford at Villa Park as they won 3-1, with all the goals coming in the first half. This was more bad news for Kojo as Mark Flekken was his keeper. Mbeumo blanked so he got that all right, as the goal came from a man who was in my free hit team last week Mikkel Damsgaard (£5m). Damsgaard has quietly consistently accumulated points recently and still only has 1.4% ownership. Wednesday concluded with me ahead, 63-40.
Thursday, turned out to be a formality as it ended up not effecting the head-to-head. I had Emile Smith Rowe and although Fulham beat Brighton 3-1, he was not to figure in the goals as Alex Iwobi stole the show with a double. Robinson assisted Iwobi’s second as he punished me for leaving him on the bench. Bournemouth edged Tottenham 1-0 in the other contest as the only man Kojo had left, Pedro Porro, was only a substitute.
So, it finished 65-41 to me as I made it six wins in the last seven, putting me up to 6th in the table. A good start to December as I am always weary of the minimal time between gameweeks as I can sometimes fall away. Anyway, there is no time to sit on this win, the next gameweek is right around the corner. All I have to say is thank God for Mo Salah, the fastest man to 150 points in FPL history!
@DubulDee
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