Fantasy Football Files - 2024/25 - Gameweek 28 - Lost In The Forest

Gameweek 28 saw me up against my longtime friend Jermaine. I was ahead of him in the Justice League table, but his team looked solid. If I was to lose this encounter, then any faint hopes of scraping a top 4 finish were gone.

I was obsessed with playing the ‘long game’ (pause) in terms of the fact the next gameweek was a blank one, although I was tempted to have a one-week punt. The use of my ‘wildcard’ recently and any transfers I have made since have been with gameweek 29 in mind, but I strongly considered getting Ollie Watkins in for the suspended Matheus Cunha. In the end I left that alone and got in Yoane Wissa as he played in 29 whereas Watkins did not. Jermaine did not make any changes to his team and the issue here was that Watkins was still his captain, so if he was to produce then it would be double jeopardy for me. I left my captaincy with Mo Salah though before Liverpool’s second leg with PSG I was not sure whether Arne Slot would rotate or not.

The action began at the City Ground as Nottingham Forest hosted Manchester City. Jermaine’s keeper was Matz Sels, so I was in need of a goal from Pep Guardiola’s men. He also had Omar Marmoush, but he was only on the bench. Erling Haaland put a chance wide, and Nico Gonzalez’s speculative drive hit the post in an underwhelming first half. In the second period, Ederson made a fine save from Callum Hudson-Odoi, but the Cityzens did not take heed to their warning as Hudson-Odoi got the winning goal. This robbed me of clean sheet points from Josko Gvardiol as another gameweek started badly for me with Forest’s clean sheet. We both owned Chris Wood but this was a rare ‘no return’ from him.

In the 3pm contests, Cody Gakpo was not in the Liverpool squad for the visit of Southampton making me annoyed that as I had optimism he would feature, I just knew Watkins would score when Aston Villa played later now. The Reds surprisingly fell behind after a mix-up after at the back. Will Smallbone got the goal and by the sounds of that name his transition into the adult film industry when his football career ends will be seamless. Arne Slot gave his team a rollicking at half-time and Southampton’s lead only lasted for six second half minutes before Darwin Nunez equalised. The Uruguayan had the cheek to ssh people like he is anywhere near being clinical in front of goal. Shoutout to Justice League participant Coach Kojo who smartly put Nunez in his team as he won his head-to-head clash. The win was sealed with two penalties the first was soft but there was contact and the second was a blatant handball. After all the overthinking as to whether Salah would start or not only for him to end up with another two goals. If Jermaine never had him it would have been nice, but he got half my points. My opponent also had Trent Alexander-Arnold who of course blanked. I had no players in the Brighton and Fulham game, so it was good to see that the oppositions’ players did not perform. He had Kaoru Mitoma and Antonee Robinson as it finished 2-1 to the Seagulls. Joao Pedro (£5.5m) got the late winner from the penalty spot as he showed why he is so popular amongst the enabler forwards.  

In the tea-time game, Brentford and Aston Villa faced off in a clash that I thought would be better than it was in the end. Watkins barely featured in the first half; he made me pay in the second half though as he fired a low shot in to win the game. Mark Flekken should have done better despite him seeing it late, a killer goal in the head-to-head as it gave Jermaine 18 points. Jermaine and I both had Bryan Mbeumo who blanked, as well as my transfer Wissa flopping me. In the 7.30pm match, Wolves and Everton could not be separated at Molineux. Marshall Munetsi levelled Jack Harrison’s deflected opener and Munetsi (£5m) could be the new Wolves midfield bargain. He should have previously scored against Liverpool and Bournemouth, and he even had a header saved by Jordan Pickford before his goal. Munetsi should continue to feature in Vitor Pereira’s starting XI with Matheus Cunha suspended. Saturday concluded 50-40 in Jermaine’s favour.

I had high expectations for Sunday’s games as Cole Palmer for the first time in what seemed like a lifetime was a differential. I had been critical recently of him mainly because of his price point as he had not scored for eight games. Surely against Leicester at home he would come good surely. The Blues got a first half penalty when Jadon Sancho was fouled and up stepped Palmer. Mads Hermansen was to save the penalty to my disgust. Trust the usually reliable Palmer to miss when I needed him most. I know Palmer met Vybz Kartel recently, but that spot-kick was so bad I think he actually had Clarks on when he took it. Enzo Maresca’s men still managed to get the three points thanks to a Marc Cucurella goal. Cucurella (£5.2m) has now had back-to-back 15-point hauls. Tottenham and Bournemouth drew 2-2 in an entertaining game. No clean sheet points from Djed Spence for me and to compound my lack of luck Justin Kluivert assisted Bournemouth’s second goal that was expertly finished by Evanilson. To be honest it could have been worse as Kluivert had an early effort saved by Guglielmo Vicario and had a goal ruled out for offside in the second period. Defeat was looking more and more likely for me here.

None of my players were involved in Arsenal’s trip to Manchester United. If it was possible both teams would lose the game, but all I asked was for the Red Devils to score as I was up against William Saliba. Bruno Fernandes was to answer my prayers with an excellent free-kick to close the first half. Mikel Arteta can thank David Raya for making a plethora of saves as Declan Rice rescued a point for the Gunners. Sunday ended 57-42 to Jermaine.

With West Ham playing for successive weeks on a Monday, it was once again up to Alphonse Areola and Jarrod Bowen to try and save me. The only problem was they did not do it against Leicester last week when my deficit was smaller, and they were up against much stronger opposition in Newcastle this time around. Areola was in good form making important saves, the best of them denied an own goal by Max Kilman. The Magpies got the three points as Bruno Guimaraes was quickest to react to Harvey Barnes’ ball into the corridor of uncertainty.

Another crushing defeat then, and this was like being beaten by a bot as Jermiane had not been changing his team. After finishing in the top four last campaign, that is basically out of the question now. As I was under the weeks’ average my rank took almost a 200k hit too. A shoutout to Boods (Ash) who was the Justice League’s highest scorer for the second consecutive week with 77 points.

@DubulDee