I was still in pursuit of the leader Eman, but another tricky contest awaited me. Jacques (J) was my opponent this week and after his worst start to a season he was now on the rampage and he was outscoring everyone. The difficulty I also faced was that I had Stel and Boods breathing down my neck (pause!), so if I was not to get a win then they would both have the chance to go ahead of me. They both had more classic points than me as I have recently capitulated. The pressure was really on, and I was unfortunately cracking.
After not making any changes in gameweek 32, I originally did not want to make two free transfers so I could roll one of them onto gameweek 34 which was a double gameweek. As usual I started overthinking again as the burden was taking its toll. An immediate change I made was to sell Mohammed Kudus for Bryan Mbeumo. Kudus in his short spell in my side had not done what I needed. So as Ivan Toney was on the bench last week for Brentford, if it happened again at least I would have Mbeumo, if they both started then that would be great. I had a brief talk with Rian (Milito) and informed him that I was uncomfortable with not having Kevin De Bruyne after his exploits last week against Crystal Palace. The Belgian did not play for Manchester City in their Champions League first leg at Real Madrid, so there was no way he was not going to start at home to Luton. In the end just before the deadline I gave in and I drafted De Bruyne in for Heung-min Son, and I lured myself into giving him the captaincy too. With his ownership not as high as it once was it would be a differential if it worked. Jacques also had two free transfers. He sold Vladimir Coufal for Josko Gvardiol and Leon Bailey for Kai Havertz. He captained Erling Haaland who was my captain before I opted to go with De Bruyne.
The gameweek action began at St James' Park as Newcastle welcomed Tottenham. The game started in the worst possible fashion as Alexander Isak gave the Magpies the lead. The Swede controlled the ball from an Anthony Gordon pass and then Micky van de Ven did his best breakdancing impression as he slid over. Gordon seized on more questionable defending as he made it 2-0. The irony is in last week's 'wildcard' team I had Gordon in my original draft but opted for Michael Olise in the end with the double gameweek 34 in mind. Jacques moved further ahead when Isak scored his second as Spurs tried to play offside even though Isak was in his own half. Gordon was to assist again as Eddie Howe's men rounded things off with a fourth, this time it at least benefitted me as Fabian Schar crashed in a header as the Swiss centre half ended with 13 points. I try to avoid doubling up at the back sometimes, but it was either double up on Newcastle or Liverpool and I went with the latter meaning I missed out on Martin Dubravka's clean sheet points. Son was withdrawn just before the hour mark so I did not miss out with selling him. However, Pedro Porro went off too with an injury, so it was advantage Jacques despite of Schar's heroics.
In the 3pm games, to my disgust Ivan Toney was benched again by Thomas Frank even though the niggling injury he had been carrying was meant to have improved. Toney not even coming off the bench for Brentford meant I would get points off my bench. Brentford were still able to beat Sheffield United 2-0, but there was no return from Mbeumo. Mbeumo thought he had laid on the second goal for Mikkel Damsgaard (£4.8m), only for a foul to be given so the goal was disallowed. Damsgaard may be one to keep tabs on as he is being used more but the Bees do not have any double gameweeks coming up. Neal Maupay also missed a first half chance that Mbeumo created. Mark Flekken was unfortunately my opponent's keeper, so I was falling further behind by the minute with his clean sheet. Manchester City did what was expected as they beat Luton 5-1. My captain De Bruyne started but somehow did not return and he had the temerity to get booked. Haaland got a 'fantasy' assist for the opener as his volley went in off Daiki Hashioka. Haaland got the third goal from the penalty spot as going for a differential captain over him proved costly. I thought I had found some solace in a Luton consolation goal from Ross Barkley denying Gvardiol clean sheet points, only for the Croatian to setup the fourth for Jeremy Doku and then score a cracker himself on his weaker foot! I was fuming, but credit to my opponent for making that transfer, it was a masterstroke (no Diddy!).
Wolves were at home to Nottingham Forest, and I should have had some points early on. Joao Gomes had an effort cleared off the line for the away side and Pablo Sarabia put the ball wide from the rebound, it was on his weaker right foot but I was still stunned. The match went on to end 2-2 as Matheus Cunha bagged a brace for Gary O'Neil's side, the first came from some real individual brilliance. Morgan Gibbs-White was on the scoresheet for Forest against his former club as he continued to accumulate points since I overlooked him a few weeks ago. Rayan Ait-Nouri was my first substitute, but he did not play so I would now get Jarrad Branthwaite's points for Toney not playing. Saturday ended with me trailing 51-32.
On Sunday, Liverpool lost ground in the title race as they fell to a 1-0 defeat at home to Crystal Palace. Luis Diaz was the most transferred in player this week and he was in Jacques' team and of course he blanked. Salah who almost got my captaincy was not at his best nonetheless he still would have scored if it was not for a block by Tyrick Mitchell. Eberechi Eze got the winner in the first half, so there was no Conor Bradley return for either of us. Caoimhin Kelleher was on Liverpool's bench as Alisson Becker was back after injury. This meant I got the points of Martin Dubravka off my bench, but I was still well behind as I got nothing in the other 2pm Sunday kick-off. Fulham triumphed 2-0 against West Ham at the London Stadium and Rodrigo Muniz did not return for me, he did go close with a smart flick as both the Cottagers' goals were scored by Andreas Pereira.
Knowing Liverpool had lost, Arsenal went into the latter kick-off at Aston Villa knowing they could go back on top of the table, but things did not go to plan. The Gunners started well enough, however Villa rode the early storm and went on to get a 2-0 victory at the Emirates Stadium. Jacques had no less than four men in the game but just one of them got him points as Ollie Watkins' lovely goal made sure of the win for Unai Emery's men. No points from Bukayo Saka, William Saliba or Havertz but the deficit still increased and all I had left was Branthwaite away at Chelsea, whereas my opponent had the man who has been my arch-nemesis time and time again since he joined Chelsea, Cole Palmer.
So to Monday, I had already been beaten as it stood 65-43 in Jacques' favour, as usual however things got worse. Palmer scored not once, not twice but three times in the first half as Chelsea raced into a 4-0 lead against Everton. It was to end 6-0 as Palmer was not finished yet as he grabbed a fourth from the penalty spot to go joint with Haaland to lead the league with 20 goals this season, amazing stuff if you own him, however for me it was torture. I am a human being Jacques, this is nasty work from you, how could you? Not to mention Palmer has officially broken me as an FPL player, this is the life we chose, now this is all too much though. Without even including this week, this man has singlehandedly made me drop from 2nd to 4th in the 'Justice League' table as Stel and Boods both won. That drop means from £100 to £25 in terms of prize money. This is Cole Palmer's world and we all just live in it. Out of Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United I despise the Blues the least and I now have basically conceded to the fact that I must get him in before the season ends. If I do not buy him then I could drop out of the top 4 completely. Ironically Eman lost his fourth game out of the last five, so he remains at the top on 66 points, whilst Stel, Boods and myself are all on 60 points. It is not just a head-to-head capitulation for me as Palmer's points put me well under the weeks' average, meaning my rank fell over 400k as the nightmare continues. I have some serious soul-searching to do as this is getting melancholic. In the words of Kevin Hart, "help me!".
@DubulDee
Comments