Gameweek 23 saw me up against another longtime friend in Delvin. The matchup was always going to be tough, but he was determined to consolidate a top four place which was of course one of the money positions in the ‘Justice League’. Meanwhile I was trying to make sure I did not fall away from the top six.
I decided to resist any temptation to make a transfer as I wanted at least two free transfers for the double gameweek next week. I was seriously looking at getting Cody Gakpo in as I have previously mentioned however, as Nottingham Forest were at Bournemouth I thought Chris Wood could score so I left him in as I had only had him in my side for one week. I gave my captaincy to Alexander Isak as with Liverpool at home to Ipswich I knew many would give theirs to Mo Salah. Delvin made just one transfer; he sold William Saliba for his teammate Gabriel Magalhaes. As anticipated, he captained Salah.
There was not an early Saturday kick-off, so there were five matches at 3pm and four of them effected the head-to-head. In the aforementioned Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest game, the in-form Justin Kluivert (£5.7m) opened the scoring again with an effort from distance as his popularity continues to grow. The Cherries went on to smash Forest 5-0 ending Forest’s eight-game unbeaten run. Dango Ouatarra (£5m) helped himself to a hat-trick as Andoni Iraola’s men have somehow scored 9 in two fixtures without a recognised striker. Liverpool beat Ipswich 4-1 as was widely predicted. Dominic Szoboszlai (£6.3m) has stepped up his goals and assists recently and he gave the Reds the lead. Salah added the second goal from a tight angle that he made look easy from a Gakpo assist. Gakpo showed me I was silly to not make the transfer earlier than I planned as he copped a brace, before a late Jacob Greaves header got the Tractor Boys a consolation goal. Wood's blank made the Gakpo haul even harder to take...pause!
Isak also was at the double at St Mary’s to vindicate my captain choice as Newcastle won 3-1 against Southampton. The Saints took the lead as Jan Bednarek (£4m) scored in consecutive games, this was very helpful as I was up against Lewis Hall again. Only for Isak to score a contentious penalty to level it up. If there was any doubt about his first there was none about the second as he fired in off the post from a nice pass by Jacob Murphy, a perfect combination for my team. Delvin has Isak too but as he outscored Salah, I was more than happy with my pick of captain. I thought I was heading for clean sheet points from Rayan Ait-Nouri as Wolves and Arsenal were still goalless after 70 minutes and Arsenal had ten men. Then Joao Gomes got sent off for a second bookable offence that could have been a straight red. A few minutes later, Riccardo Calafiori popped up with a fine finish for the Gunners to get all three points. Another costly goal as I lost 8 points rapidly as Wolves and Liverpool both conceded well after the hour mark. To add to those woes my opponent got clean sheet points from Gabriel.
In the late match, to my dismay Kevin De Bruyne was only on the bench. Really it was to be expected as he has played a lot of minutes recently. Manchester City fell behind to Chelsea after an error by their new signing Abdukodir Khusanov, bad news as Nicolas Jackson assisted it and the opposition had him up front. Nonetheless despite conceding I was to get points from my City defender as Josko Gvardiol equalised. He had put a chance wide just before or I would have really been dancing under the city lights, I was appreciative anyway. Erling Haaland who no one really owns now as funny as that sounds, made it 2-1 after Robert Sanchez went walkabouts when Ederson’s goal kick flew towards the Blues’ box. Phil Foden wrapped things up and he now has 6 in his last 4 league games. With Cole Palmer blanking for us both, Saturday ended with me ahead 57-45, Delvin had more players left than me though.
The start to Sunday seemed to be going well as Crystal Palace and Brentford were goalless after an hour and I did not have any assets from either team. On the other hand, Delvin had two. One of them was my former player Bryan Mbeumo and Thomas Frank’s men were awarded a penalty in the 66th minute. Mbeumo missed the penalty, and I was ecstatic that it was not saved as Dean Henderson was his keeper. Then disaster struck, Marc Guehi who eventually cleared the ball after the missed penalty, had encroached into the penalty area, so the spot-kick was to be retaken. Of course, Mbeumo then found the net as I was left in a rage, what rotten luck for anyone who was up against the Cameroonian. The Bees went on to beat the Eagles 2-1.
In the 4.30pm contest, Aston Villa were held to a 1-1 draw by a resilient West Ham side who almost nicked all three points at the end. As Delvin had Ezri Konsa, the Hammers scoring was welcomed. The problem in this game for me was that Lukasz Fabianski was dropped for Alphonse Areola. This meant that with Aaron Ramsdale missing the Southampton-Newcastle match through injury I had no goalkeeper this week. Could the day get any worse? The answer to that was sadly yes! In the conclusion of the gameweek, Fulham hosted Manchester United. The score was 57-55 to me. I needed at least one contribution from Harry Wilson, as I was up against Amad Diallo and Raul Jimenez. So, in true FPL fashion, trust Wilson to get a stinging challenge and have to leave the game after just 53 minutes, if it could have happened just eight minutes later, I could have got three points from him rather than just the one. Now however, even if Amad or Jimenez did not produce a return then my opponent would still win just for the points they would get for playing over an hour. Not that it made a difference, but Lisandro Martinez won the game for the Red Devils. Amad thought he had added a very late second goal, but it was ruled out for offside, nevertheless I had lost by a mere two points.
The cruellest of losses here as it finished 60-58 to Delvin. No goalkeeper, late goals, injuries and a retaken penalty all assembled like the Avengers to defeat me. Having one or two of those go against you is bad enough, but all of them…this is clearly the FPL life we chose. My rank looked good on Saturday, before it dramatically dipped on Sunday as my score was below the average in the end. I am now 8th in the head-to-head league. Anyone reading please inform Delvin that I have deleted his phone number!
@DubulDee
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