I needed to bounce back after my gameweek 1 defeat. Josh was my opponent this week and he incidentally joined us on the D&D Football Factory’s ‘#FootyOnTop’ radio show on Saturday morning when the deadline was. My mind was already doing overtime, and it was only the second week, as I said I could have done with an extra week from this all.
Manchester City were hosting Ipswich, and this was the only fixture that made me think although Erling Haaland’s value was outrageously high, surely, he was going to do excessive damage against another promoted side. Josh had the Norwegian so admittedly I was quaking in my boots. I had Phil Foden, but I had no idea whether he would start the game or not, so I was all set to possibly not be involved at all if City were to put the Tractor Boys to the sword. Ange Postecoglou broke on Friday that Dominic Solanke was injured, so I looked at the best options to get in for him. I considered one of the Brighton duo of Danny Welbeck or Joao Pedro, Matheus Cunha and Chris Wood. I even looked at Solanke’s teammate Richarlison. In the end I went with the man who finished last season like a house on fire in Jean-Phillipe Mateta. Mateta enjoyed a very good Olympics too as he won a silver medal with France so I was optimistic that he could do something. Ultimately, I would have liked someone cheaper to give me space to manoeuvre next week as he cost £7.5m like Solanke but I went with it anyway.
I always make an early choice of who I wish to start the next gameweek as soon as a gameweek concludes, although here I made late changes. I put Jason Steele in goal when it had been Matz Sels, and I put Rayan Ait-Nouri in for Antonee Robinson as despite him going up against Cole Palmer’s Chelsea, I believed he could cause them problems. I left the captaincy with Mo Salah whilst Josh’s was of course Haaland. My opponent was a man who was trigger happy when it came making transfers, so I was disappointed to see after the deadline that he decided not to make any this week.
The action began with Brighton’s 2-1 home win over Manchester United. Despite this not impacting the head-to-head, Welbeck and Joao Pedro both found the net. My dislike for United had me cheer when the injury time winner went in, this also had me thinking of what could have been. United’s defence flocked like birds to leave Pedro free to head in. As well as that, Kaoru Mitoma assisted the opener for Welbeck, and he had been a mainstay in my team in the last few seasons. I had looked elsewhere as the Seagulls did not have Roberto De Zerbi at the helm anymore and I was being severely punished for it as Mitoma scored in their first game too. The 3pm kick-offs saw Ipswich take the lead at Manchester City, something that I predicted in the morning’s radio show before they would fall to an expected defeat. The lead only lasted five minutes before Haaland converted a penalty, only two minutes after that Kevin De Bruyne made it 2-1. Then just two minutes after that Haaland scored again as Ipswich were masters of their own downfall. I had thought I had escaped with just a brace from the big Norwegian only for him to complete his hat-trick as late as the 88th minute. Foden was not even amongst the substitutes as Pep Guardiola confirmed that he was ill; to say I was infuriated with this match was an understatement, the head-to head looked over already.
Crystal Palace, ended last season playing the best football in the Premier League, so my belief in them was high despite the fact Michael Olise had been sold, unfortunately they fell to back-to-back defeats as West Ham won 2-0 at Selhurst Park. No clean sheet for me from Daniel Munoz and this meant Mateta of course blanked. I had previously thought the Frenchman’s conclusion to last season may have just been no more than a purple patch, he desperately needs to score next week to avoid castigation from me. Tomas Soucek and Jarrod Bowen scored the goals for the Hammers, and any longtime readers will know I usually have both if not one of them, it was clear to see my frustration was increasing. This is the thing, especially early in the season you really can be punished, you cannot pick everyone. The only positives were that Dean Henderson and Eberechi Eze blanked for Josh.
I realised I made the huge error with my defence as Fulham beat Leicester 2-1, and Robinson laid on the winning goal for Alex Iwobi as the American tallied 7 points, with my opposition having Robinson this was a huge error. Emile Smith Rowe had opened the scoring, and I chose Callum Hudson-Odoi over the former Arsenal man before the campaign began. This was important as I got midfield points off my bench due to Foden’s absence, so trust Hudson-Odoi to blank although Nottingham Forest won 1-0 at Southampton. As if I was not agitated already, Sels kept a clean sheet when I benched him, after conceding late when I started him last week, ‘FPL life’ strikes again eh! A defender who did bring me clean points was Pedro Porro as Tottenham smashed Everton 4-0. Heung-min Son was overlooked by many, and he helped himself to a brace. I was fortunate that Josh who is a Spurs fan did not have any of their defenders as Cristian Romero scored and Micky van de Ven assisted. In midfield, James Maddison (£7.5m) got another assist and if he can stay fit, he looks like a must-have once again, at time of print he is only owned by 5.3% making him a huge differential.
With my FPL team being embarrassed I needed Aston Villa to score against Arsenal in the late kick-off. Ollie Watkins missed a sitter in both halves as the Gunners got a massive 2-0 victory at Villa Park. Josh had Morgan Rogers in his midfield, and he played well but that did not translate into FPL points. The shutout by Mikel Arteta’s men meant Gabriel Magalhaes got my opponent points and the second goal by Thomas Partey was assisted by Bukayo Saka meaning even further reward. I was staring defeat in the face as Saturday ended with me behind 56-16!
Sunday, began with two 2pm kick offs and trust Sky to pick the wrong fixture to televise. They picked Bournemouth and Newcastle which ended in a 1-1 draw whilst Chelsea won 6-2 away at Wolves. At the Vitality Stadium, Alexander Isak (who we both owned) blanked again, so Anthony Gordon had to salvage a late point for the Magpies, as he cancelled out Marcus Tavernier’s goal. At least Josh had Jacob Murphy who blanked. At Molineux, things were evenly poised at 2-2 at half-time before a Noni Madueke hat-trick guided Chelsea to an emphatic away win. Cole Palmer had put the Blues 2-1 up before he created all Madueke’s three goals as he accumulated an astounding 17 points, helping me cut into the sizeable lead I was up against. After stating that if he was to again play on the right-hand side then I may have to sell him for a cheaper option, Palmer was moved back to the number 10 position and answered in the most destructive fashion. Madueke, had earlier posted on his Instagram account when talking of the city of Wolverhampton that, “everything about this place is sh-t!”, before realising that he sent it from his wrong account. If Chelsea lost then the Wolves fans would have made him a legendary meme, instead he produced the best day of his Premier League career thus far…fair do’s. The irony was that Ait-Nouri who I put in for Robinson opened the encounter like I had thought as he assisted Wolves’ equaliser for Jorgen Strand Larsen, only for him then get booked and follow that up with a poor defensive second half performance. Ait-Nouri’s 2 points meant that the 9 extra points sitting on my bench from Sels and Robinson would have somehow had me in a position for an incredible comeback along with Palmer’s large haul.
Going into the last game I now trailed by 25 points, therefore if my captain Salah and Diogo Jota took care of business I had a chance of clawing back the 40-point deficit. So, to Anfield then, where things began well as Jota found Luis Diaz who crashed in the first goal to complete a swift counter-attack. Jota almost got another assist in the second half as Andy Robertson had a header saved. It looked like it may have been heading for a 1-0 Liverpool triumph when Diaz picked Salah out with a lovely pass and the Egyptian finished well to make 2-0. I suddenly looked at the score and thought if I could get another contribution from Salah then I could nick a win, as soon as I thought that unfortunately Salah was substituted. Despite Salah going from not being in the bonus points to end receiving two of them, it was not enough, and I fell to another defeat by five points, 68-63, as Josh had Trent Alexander-Arnold. The displeasure Alexander-Arnold showed when he was substituted was much like how I felt in terms of FPL. Nevertheless, the main thing is that my club won. I usually start the season with a Liverpool defender, so trust the season that I decide not to, the Reds keep two clean sheets in two games.
As many had not just captained the hat-trick hero Haaland, but triple-captained him, usually getting over 60 points would be more than acceptable, but the average score was 69 so my rank is already suffering to add to the woes of the defeat. I would have been better off not replacing Solanke as then I would have got Robinson’s points and I would have at least gained a draw, hindsight is a beautiful thing though. The late changes did not work, and I must trust my initial ideas for my starting XI. As early as it is I need a win in gameweek 3 desperately.
@DubulDee
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