Gameweek 21 saw me clash with Josh. Josh was a very attentive football man, quite like myself, so we were in constant communication. This week however, we were not friends. The Baillie twins (aka the Kray twins) were the top two in the ‘Justice League’ and my opponent was looking to keep the heat up on them as he stood in third place.
After thinking things through, with the way the upcoming schedule looked I decided I wanted some space to make transfers, so I did not want to make any transfers this week. At some point I want to change Aaron Ramsdale in goal, as well as one of my defenders, when it is a solitary move though that seems to be underwhelming as if they conceded just one goal everything can so quickly go out of the window. This meant I was going to have five in my midfield again and risk leaving Jhon Duran on the bench as he returned from suspension. I put Duran in for Jorgen Strand Larsen at a point but then put Larsen back in the starting XI. The big issue I faced was that Alexander Isak who was my original captain was flagged, so a few hours before the deadline I changed to Mo Salah, I had strongly thought about giving it to Cole Palmer, in the end I just left Palmer as the vice-captain. Josh also decided not to make any transfers, and Salah was his captain too.
The midweek action began on Tuesday. Phil Foden copped a second half brace as Manchester City took a 2-0 lead at Brentford, the first was assisted by Kevin De Bruyne’s lovely cross. Ironically De Bruyne could have gathered more points for me as he was right there to drive the ball in on the second goal, but Foden just got there in front of him. Things looked calm and I thought I was getting clean sheet points from Josko Gvardiol only for Thomas Frank’s men to fight back and make it 2-2 as City dropped more points. A composed finish from Palmer showed that he would have been a worthy captain choice as Chelsea took the lead against Bournemouth. Nicolas Jackson was in Josh’s team, and he assisted the goal. The Cherries hit back to go 2-1 ahead, only for Reece James to salvage the Blues a point at the death. West Ham beat Fulham 3-2 in Graham Potter’s first league game, so no return from Lukasz Fabianski for me. Excruciating pain was inflicted as Alex Iwobi was at the double and both goals were assisted by Antonee Robinson who I sold a few gameweeks back and Josh had him in his defence. This is the FPL life we chose! Iwobi (£5.9m) has 7 goals this season now and is still under 10% owned.
Tuesday’s last match saw Liverpool travel to Nottingham Forest. Arne Slot’s side began the game well; however, Forest took the lead with a classic counter attack. Chris Wood (£6.9m) scored yet again as he was slipped through by Anthony Elanga. So, yet again there was no clean sheet points from Andy Robertson. I continued to pay for not having a defender from the team I support at the start of the campaign when the Reds were stacking clean sheets for fun. As Liverpool tried to avenge their only league defeat this season, Slot made one of the greatest double substitutions of all-time. Kostas Tsimikas and Diogo Jota came on just past the hour, and after just 22 seconds on the pitch they combined for the equaliser from a corner. Nuno Espirito Santo’s men then survived a Liverpool onslaught as it was to end 1-1. Jota, had an effort blocked and Salah could have emphatically vindicated his captaincy as he could have ended up with a hat-trick. The Egyptian put one wide, as well Matz Sels tipping an effort over and Salah had a shot blocked on the line by Ola Aina. Cody Gakpo also had a low shot saved by Sels in an action-packed second period. Luis Diaz blanked again; he should have had a first half assist but played a poor pass to Gakpo on a breakaway. Tuesday concluded with me ahead 26-25, but Josh had more players left.
Wednesday, turned out to be a horrific day for me. To start, I was left powerless as Crystal Palace won 2-0 at the King Power Stadium against Leicester. Jean-Philippe Mateta’s opener was made by Ismaila Sarr as Josh got more points, in addition to that Dean Henderson who my opponent owned also of course kept a clean sheet. After all the deliberation, Isak and Josh Murphy both started for Newcastle in their home match with Wolves. Isak went on to score twice as he has scored in nine consecutive games in all competitions (8 in the league). Just for good measure Isak added an assist for the third goal by Anthony Gordon as I really should have just left the captaincy with him. As many would have moved their captaincy this would have been a form of differential. Josh had Gordon and this was all quickly turning into a damaged limitation exercise. With Rayan Ait-Nouri and Strand-Larsen in my team also featuring in this game this made the fixture even more miserable. Wednesday’s last affair was at the Emirates Stadium. The North London Derby took a turn I was thankful for Tottenham took the lead through Heung-min Son. Josh had doubled up on Arsenal at the back, so the goal was desperately needed. The Gunners were to level, it looked like Gabriel Magalhaes had scored but it ended up being an own goal by Dominic Solanke, otherwise that would have been more points for my opponent. Leandro Trossard a few minutes later scored what turned out to be the winner. The day finished with Josh easily in control, 66-48.
There were two matches on Thursday, however, only one of them affected the head-to-head and that was at Old Trafford. Southampton took a deserved lead and if it was not for Andre Onana, it could have scored two or three. The later it got, I thought I had made an error not starting Ramsdale instead of Fabianski and then Amad Diallo scored a 12-minute hat-trick right at the end as it was to finish 3-1. As if I was not buried in the contest already, Josh had Amad! For goodness’ sake, talk about kicking someone when they are down! Roll out the Simpsons memes and gifs.
So, two heavy defeats in a row, at least last week was against a triple captain though, this here was just straight brutality! I have dropped to 8th in the Justice League now and my rank has taken a battering as I have failed to make 50 points in consecutive weeks. Josh’s demolition job on me saw him accumulate 86 points, somehow this was not the highest total this week as Muji amassed a stunning 106 points. That has only been bettered by Delvin’s 108 in gameweek 2. The next gameweek is right around the corner and I must find something to turn it around swiftly as this is getting ugly.
@DubulDee
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