My longtime friend Gary was my opponent for gameweek 19. He was struggling this season but when I looked at his team before the deadline I could not understand why. The order of the opponents you get drawn against is so important. Gary had more classic points than at least six people in the ‘Justice League’. He deserved some luck to move up the table, but I was hoping it would not come this week.
I had numerous players that I wanted to get in before the deadline, although as I am trying my best to taking point-deductions to a minimum there was only one transfer that I was going to make. Emile Smith Rowe was not fit, so it was him that I was selling. Morgan Rogers interested me but as he was so popular, I looked for a differential. I then thought of selling Jhon Duran up front instead as he was doing nothing being suspended on my bench, I contemplated getting Evanilson for Duran, then scrapped that idea and went back to transferring out Smith Rowe. In the end I went with Jacob Murphy as he was cheap, and he had been very productive recently so I was hoping he could continue his form. To my disgust when the deadline passed after all that I saw that Gary had also got Murphy in as he surprisingly sold Brennan Johnson. The fact that he is a Tottenham fan made the Johnson sale even more puzzling. Gary and I both captained Mo Salah. I came close to giving it to Cole Palmer but then thought no.
The action began on Sunday with the televised match between Leicester and Manchester City. Kevin De Bruyne almost repaid my faith in him as his ball in was smashed by Erling Haaland, only for Jakub Stolarczyk to deny him. City took the lead through Savinho (£6.4m), the Brazilian who many flocked to early in the campaign may be an option again if he continues to show he has an end product. Savinho accumulated more points as he crossed for Haaland to head in the second goal as it ended 2-0. The Foxes were unlucky not to score as they dominated the second period as I welcomed the rare clean sheet points from Josko Gvardiol.
One of my former players, Tyler Dibling, gave Southampton the lead at Selhurst Park only for Trevoh Chalobah to level things up soon after, to take away any chances of a clean sheet for me from Aaron Ramsdale. Crystal Palace were to get all three points in the second half as Eberechi Eze slammed in a half volley. Since letting go of Antonee Robinson, he continues to be one of the best FPL defenders as he got his 7th assist of the season, as Fulham and Bournemouth drew 2-2 at Craven Cottage. The assist benefitted my opponent, he also had Milos Kerkez in this encounter, so I was glad he did not return. Evanilson scored in true FPL fashion after not being very effective lately as again I should have trusted my gut and sold Duran. A superb finish from substitute Jorgen Strand Larsen, in the 87th minute helped me massively as Wolves salvaged a point at Tottenham. Adding to the Larsen goal, this match was even more fruitful as Rayan Ait-Nouri got two assists. Gary was left to regret the sale of Johnson as he scored Spurs’ second goal. Dejan Kulusevski, was to assist that goal as he is still stacking points, and I need to find a way to get the Swede into my side.
In the late contest, Liverpool smashed West Ham 5-0 at the London Stadium. Salah was at it again, as he scored and assisted twice. It may seem boring in constantly giving him the captaincy, but we have seen many managers do this with Haaland for over two years now. At the end of the day, ‘if it’s not broke, then don’t try and fix it’. I have had Salah since the campaign began and did not think twice about selling him even when Liverpool’s game with Everton was called off and paid the price for rotating the captaincy earlier in the season. All is well when the team you support wins, however in terms of the head-to-head, Gary had Trent Alexander-Arnold and Cody Gakpo, and they were both on the scoresheet as he sufficiently cut into my lead despite my return from Andy Robertson. Robertson's clean sheet points meant all my three defenders returned which has been sporadic this campaign. Sunday concluded with me ahead, 66-57.
On Monday, I had predicted that Ipswich would beat Chelsea, so I should have backed myself and got Liam Delap back into my team. Delap scored a penalty and assisted the other goal for Omari Hutchinson to score against his former team. Trust Dara O’Shea to get clean sheet points when I leave him on the bench. Palmer’s blank let us both down and luckily for me Nicolas Jackson was only on the bench so was reduced to a single point. Brighton grabbed a late draw at Aston Villa, thanks to a fine strike by Tariq Lamptey as it finished 2-2. Rogers made me look silly as he scored and before that won a penalty that was tucked away by Ollie Watkins. Joao Pedro rewarded his owners with two assists. Newcastle could have ripped Manchester United to shreds in the first half as they played them off the pitch, however, they had mercy and let them off with a 2-0 victory. Thankfully, Alexander Isak, scored the first from a Lewis Hall cross, as Hall delivered another haul. Murphy blanked as I rued not getting Rogers or Evanilson in. I now led 78-63 thanks to Isak.
Wednesday, was to have me constantly hiding behind the sofa as I watched Brentford and Arsenal. Things started well as Bryan Mbeumo, who Gary and I both owned gave the Bees the lead after a swift counter-attack, denying David Raya what would have been a decisive clean sheet. The Gunners fought back and annoyingly Gabriel Jesus scored the equaliser. Mikel Arteta’s men then went 2-1 up as Mikel Merino scored, at first I was not worried, then on the replay I saw Jesus was the last Arsenal player to touch the ball which saw him get a ‘fantasy’ assist. As it stood with Jesus at the top of the bonus points system, I only had a one-point lead. I was on edge; it was soon 3-1 through Gabriel Martinelli but Jesus was not involved. It stayed 3-1 to my relief as I just snuck the win. Sorry it had to be you Gaz mate, Jesus put one wide right at the death which would have obviously won it for him as it concluded 85-84.
So, I have maintained 6th place in the Justice League table, level on 33 points with my next opponent Dwayne interestingly enough. My overall rank moved up as I got well above the week’s average putting me back in the top 700k. A shoutout to Khurram (K) who got the highest head-to-head score with 94.
@DubulDee
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