My gameweek 14 opposition was Jacques (J). He was in the top 4 in the 'Justice League' last season, but he had not started this campaign as well as he would have liked. My issue now was that I was overthinking being top of the table, and I needed to not let the pressure get to me.
Just like gameweek 13, players were I owned were flagged, and I did not know the extent of their injuries. Again, managers' press conferences did not help the issues at hand. Unai Emery said that Ollie Watkins was a doubt, and will be checked on as he was left out of their Conference League game with Legia Warsaw on Thursday as a precaution. As it was a muscle issue I was pessimistic. Whilst David Moyes said he had to check in with the medical team regarding Jarrod Bowen's knee. At the back, Vladimir Coufal was flagged, and my head was spinning. The deadline was later than usual as there was no early kick-off, and in the end I reluctantly sold Watkins around 1pm on Saturday. In came Alexander Isak as I believed he could score against Manchester United. Then after this game, Newcastle had some decent fixtures coming up. I would have been looking to sell Watkins anyway as Villa have some horrible games coming up, but had I pulled the trigger too early?
When the deadline came, I saw that Jacques had let go of the injured Dan Burn for his teammate Jamaal Lascelles. This created a real dilemma for me as I benched Fabian Schar for Matty Cash. I was looking to probably sell Cash with Villa having Manchester City and Arsenal coming up. Therefore, I wanted to see if the Polish international had one haul left in him. I captained Mo Salah again as he has been lethal in home games, whilst Jacques gave his captaincy to Erling Haaland. Haaland is always the most captained but this week against Tottenham's high line many were anticipating carnage.
The action began with three 3pm kick-offs. Arsenal hosted Wolves and I needed a quiet game from Bukayo Saka, so trust him to get the opening goal after just 6 minutes. The goal was well taken to be fair. This already required me needing something from Hee-chan Hwang. However, he failed to seize on a ball that he could have got to before David Raya if he been proactive. The Gunners went 2-0 up through Martin Odegaard and I badly needed a Wolves goal as Jacques had William Saliba. Gary O'Neil's men did pull one back through Matheus Cunha and I had to be content with that. Annoyingly, Hwang got booked late on to lose me a point. Luton, have shown real resilience at home but in away games they have not been anywhere near as good. Therefore, with their shortish trip to Brentford I was hoping for Bryan Mbeumo to get a considerable return. Despite a 3-1 win for the Bees, he only assisted and even that assist had a bit of fortune about it. After Neal Maupay scored the first, Ben Mee headed in Mbeumo's corner, but Mee's header at first glance did not look like it was on target before it was deflected in, 'but hey I was not complaining!'. Mark Flekken was my opponent's keeper so at least there was no clean sheet there.
Burnley, smashed Sheffield United 5-0 at Turf Moor. Ollie McBurnie did nothing to help the Blades as he was sent off when it was 2-0, for throwing more elbows than Macho Man Randy Savage while jumping for headers. He was booked, then thought 'f**k it, I'll just do it again, ref won't mind!'. This game had started perfectly for me as instead of letting enabler Charlie Taylor (£4m) sit on my bench, I gave him a runout and he assisted Jay Rodriguez's header after just 15 seconds! Taylor went on to get 10 points, given the opposition there was no way I was not going to start him here. Zeki Amdouni (£5.3m), who I have mentioned before scored and assisted. With Wolves, Brighton, Everton, and Fulham coming up for the Clarets, he could be a worthy enabler up front.
The late match was at St James' Park. Manchester United did not concede a league goal in November, but I saw no way they would keep a clean sheet here and they did not. Anthony Gordon, someone who I have continually ignored scored the only goal in the second half. Kieran Trippier provided yet another assist. And of course my opponent got the clean sheet points he desired from Lascelles, so me leaving Schar on the bench was a huge mistake. It could have been worse as Schar was close to scoring on a couple of occasions. Isak, had a first half chance blocked that if he released a shot earlier, he could have scored. About a minute after that chance, he hooked a ball into a dangerous area and Lascelles headed over which would have been bittersweet. My joy from Taylor's earlier haul was short-lived as now Jacques was only a point behind as it stood 18-17 on Saturday night.
Sunday, had four 2pm kick-offs and just seeing the team news had me already defeated. Emery named Cash and Moussa Diaby on the bench for the trip to Bournemouth, and if that was not bad enough, Watkins was fit to start, 'nooo!'. Villa went behind but then levelled, and you just knew it would involve Watkins, as he assisted Leon Bailey. Jacques wisely kept him in his team, and this was helped him take the lead. Bournemouth, then went 2-1 up through Dominic Solanke. Solanke now has 7 league goals and at £6.5m is putting quite a few forwards who are more expensive to shame. Diaby, came off the bench and assisted an equaliser right at the death, the issue was the goal was scored by...Watkins! Oh, what a mistake I made, I should have just left my team as it was. Chelsea met Brighton and luckily for me Jacques' man Cole Palmer was only on the bench. However, this did not stop the Blues from prevailing 3-2 with 10 men.
Liverpool, had won all their home games thus far. So, with Fulham coming to Anfield, on paper it was meant to a straightforward victory, but it was not to be easy. Trent Alexander-Arnold's brilliant free-kick was later awarded as an own goal by Bernd Leno, as Alexander-Arnold owners were robbed of three points. Fulham answered with a goal by former Liverpool man Harry Wilson. Alexis MacAllister restored the Reds' lead with a sumptuous volley, before Kenny Tete equalised. Darwin Nunez, who does not know how to keep himself onside, kept Tete onside for the goal...irony. The Cottagers took the lead through Bobby De Cordova-Reid as late as the 80th minute, only for Jurgen Klopp's men to make a dramatic comeback. In the 87th minute when I thought I had spurned my captain choice, Salah found Wataru Endo who curled in a great goal. Then less than a minute later, Alexander-Arnold got his goal with a half-volley after Kostas Tsimikas won a header. Despite the help of Tsimikas and Salah, as Jacques had Salah also, it was still looking extremely bleak for me. Joel Matip blanked for him but it was not looking like it was going to matter. In the other early game, West Ham drew 1-1 with Crystal Palace. This meant my keeper Alphonse Areola failed once again to keep a clean sheet. Mohammed Kudus put the Hammers in front and it was setup by Vladimir Coufal, who you guessed it, was on my bench. After Cash only got a solitary point, Coufal's 5 points or Saturday's Schar points would have been valuable.
A win for me was looking highly unlikely now unless Haaland was sent off or missed a penalty in the last game of the week. Tottenham continued to be a bogey team for Manchester City, as a late Dejan Kulusevski header salvaged them a point in another spectacular game featuring Pep Guardiola's side this season as it ended 3-3. So, Kulusevski decided to score and assist after I sold him...'this is the FPL life we chose!'. Jacques' captain Haaland did not score but he assisted twice which was enough to guarantee him the win, despite the Norwegian getting booked right at the death. Julian Alvarez, assisted Phil Foden's goal but Jacques and I both owned him so there was no advantage. My long-time friend had triumphed by four points, 55-51, and this defeat really hurt. Jeremy Doku, who I expected to be huge in the head-to head matchup did not return for Jacques and it did not even matter.
Back-to-back defeats for me then after seven wins in-a-row. This meant that Emmanuel (E-Man) was now level with me on 27 points at the top of the 'Justice League'. I have more classic points than him however, so I remain top for now, but only 3 points separate the top 7, showing that December will be critical as to who will be battling it out for the title. My score of 51 was under the average this week, meaning I have fallen over 120k places in the world. Luckily the next deadline is here swiftly for me to make amends, as there are a full programme of Premier League midweek fixtures for the first time this season.
@DubulDee
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