Gameweek 36 pitted me against Josh. When he was locked in Josh had produced some heavyweight weekly scores, so I knew I was once again in a real battle. Saying the pressure was on is clearly an understatement as I was struggling to remain in the top four. FPL life comes at you fast as four gameweeks ago I was still in the title race, but now the leader Eman only needed one more point to confirm his title win whereas I was trying not to fall to my fourth straight defeat.
One thing about Josh is that he was not afraid to take a points-hit, in the last gameweek for example he took a 16-point hit and still prevailed. I therefore changed from my original idea to not make any transfers. I used my free transfer to sell Dominic Solanke and bring in Alexander Isak. Then not too long before the deadline I thought I would try something whilst I took a four-point deduction. I looked at getting in a Brighton defender to think ahead as they are one of the teams doubling in gameweek 37, as they had Aston Villa this week though I decided against it. A defender that had impressed me this season was Murillo at Nottingham Forest. He had come close to scoring many times this season and he even hit the woodwork in Forest’s last game at home to Manchester City, so I thought ‘why not?, let’s have some fun with things for once'. Fabian Schar was injured so was sold and this also helped my budget. My opponent also took a four-point hit as he sold Solanke also but for Erling Haaland and he let go of Rayan Ait-Nouri for Manuel Akanji. He captained Haaland but I went with Mo Salah as mine. I could not believe what I had seen from the Egyptian recently and I fully believed that he would produce against a Tottenham team he usually scores against to get put of his funk.
I was looking to get an early advantage when the action began on Friday night as Luton were at home to Everton. Things looked good as the Toffees won a first half penalty. Jarrad Branthwaite was pulled down by Teden Mengi and the spot-kick was dispatched by Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Any hopes of an assist and clean sheet combination went when Elijah Adebayo scored a very good equaliser just seven minutes later as it was to remain 1-1. I was at least out of the minus, which is essential after the first match of a gameweek that features one of your players when you take a deduction.
In Saturday's early game, Arsenal got a 3-0 home win over Bournemouth. With Josh doubling up in defence on the Gunners I needed a a goal from the Cherries desperately, they did find the net however, it was controversially chalked off. Mikel Arteta's men were given a free-kick for a foul on David Raya by Solanke although actually after Bournemouth hit the bar, Philip Billing was fouled first by William Saliba. Antoine Semenyo put the rebound in only for it to be disallowed by David Coote and then somehow after VAR had a look the decision was kept. You would have thought VAR would have been able to see the sequence of events and point that out to Coote. It was not a great game overall for the officials involved as Ryan Christie could have been sent off for the away side, and Arsenal had earlier taken the lead through a debatable penalty. At the end of the day, I got nothing I need here as Josh accumulated 23 points from his three Arsenal assets in Raya, Gabriel Magalhaes and Bukayo Saka. There could have been more damage as Gabriel had a thunderbolt disallowed for offside.
In the 3pm kick-offs; Brentford and Fulham, a game I thought would be littered with goals ended up being goalless. My opponent had Rodrigo Muniz up top, so this was of course a good thing. Newcastle sent Burnley closer to the drop as they won 4-1 at Turf Moor. Isak got points for Josh and I as he got a fantasy assist as his shot was saved for Callum Wilson to score from the rebound for the opener. In the second half at 3-0, Isak was to have a penalty saved by Arijanet Muric, later he at least was able to redeem himself as he got the fourth. The irony was Anthony Gordon won the penalty so that would have been more points for Josh, Gordon had earlier assisted the third goal for Bruno Guimaraes anyway. My clean sheet for Martin Dubravka was taken away by a good late looping header by Dara O'Shea. After drafting in Murillo, I eagerly checked the notifications from the Sheffield United and Nottingham Forest game but unfortunately, he was not to return despite Forest winning 3-1 at Bramall Lane. The Blades took the lead through a Ben Brereton-Diaz penalty but thanks mainly to a brace by Callum Hudson-Odoi, Nuno Espirito Santo's men got the three points. Hudson-Odoi costs a mere £4.7m and has the quietest 7 league goals ever. With fantasy managers who have gone to Forest's midfield for an enabler opting for Morgan Gibbs-White, Hudson-Odoi is only owned by 0.4%, could he be the one to help them beat the drop in their last two games of the season?
The late fixture saw Manchester City like their fellow title challengers Arsenal open the scoring with a contentious penalty decision. Rayan Ait-Nouri (who was on my bench) caught Josko Gvardiol and a penalty was awarded. As he was not fully committed to making a challenge it seemed a little harsh, nonetheless Haaland put the first of two penalties in the first period away as City raced to a 3-0 lead at the interval thanks to his hat-trick. Josh had Gvardiol so this was a deeper cut as Haaland was obviously his captain. Hee-Chan Hwang who I said last week would be a differential scored a precious consolation for me in the head-to-head with Josh having Akanji as well, only for straight after Phil Foden was to find Haaland, who checked back onto his left foot and unleashed an unbelievable finish into the far corner for his fourth goal. 4.1m FPL managers captained the Norwegian and 23k triple captained him so they were over the moon. It just goes to show if you pick the right fixture then you do not need to save your triple captain for a double gameweek. With Wolves' Matheus Cunha blanking, Saturday concluded with me getting absolutely demolished 84-36.
Sunday, had Brighton beat Aston Villa 1-0 thanks to a Joao Pedro goal and the Seagulls' not conceding made me realise that I should have just got in one of their defenders for the points-hit then I would have been in a good place for gameweek 37. Chelsea ran riot at home to West Ham. It finished 5-0, so you would have expected Cole Palmer to be heavily involved although it was just to be the opening goal from him in the win, we both had him in midfield so no advantage there regardless. I am grateful he scored obviously but I really seem to possibly have missed out on his massive hauls that have got so many people ahead of me in terms of classic points. However, Mauricio Pochettino's men are part of the double gameweek, so he may have some fireworks left yet, and I would not be surprised if some looked at him as being an alternative captain choice.
If I was going to get anywhere near making the great escape, I needed a special performance from my captain Salah in Sunday's last game between Liverpool and Tottenham. The Egyptian king gave me early optimism as he scored a header to put the Reds in front. Salah had a chance to make it 2 when his low shot was saved and Andy Robertson scooped up the rebound giving Salah 'assist' points. Things were looking okay at half-time. Harvey Elliott assisted a Cody Gakpo header and then Elliott scored a tremendous goal as he took a pass from Salah to make it 4. Spurs pulled 2 goals back, they turned out to only be consolation as Jurgen Klopp's men switched off after he made some substitutions. Any other time Salah's 3 goal contributions would have put him easily into the bonus points, but as Gakpo and Elliott scored and assisted, then you couple that with a defender in Robertson getting on the scoresheet, Salah fell just short in the bonus points system. When it comes down to your captain even just one bonus point is precious, so to not get any at all hurt, but the main thing was Liverpool won and my captain had produced. Heung-min Son got Tottenham's second goal and I usually do not play people against Liverpool, but as I was struggling so badly, I left Son in my XI. I would have preferred him not to score and to have got his 7 points from Salah, but is what it is. Salah's 26 points meant the score was now 92-77 to Josh.
So, it was left to the Crystal Palace duo of my namesake Daniel Munoz and Michael Olise to try and overhaul the deficit. The scenario worsened as Bruno Fernandes was not in starting XI for Manchester United through injury so therefore Josh got Son's 7 points off his bench, so now I trailed by 22. Things started off well nevertheless, Munoz's throw-in was collected by Olise who skipped away from Kobbie Mainoo and put the ball into the bottom corner, the combination I needed was already in motion. Then there was a slice of luck, United had a goal disallowed as Rasmus Hojlund was adjudged to have fouled Dean Henderson. After that scare however, Palace coasted to a 4-0 triumph. The fourth goal to my joy was another linkup between Munoz and Olise, I was content with just one assist from Munoz if the Eagles kept a clean sheet, but to get a second was euphoric. I screamed as somehow, I had won! Munoz and Olise got me 29 points, 13 and 16 respectively as they both made the FPL team of the week.
I won 106-99 to keep alive my chances of a top 4 finish, this also moved my rank up almost 500k. Josh would have been gutted as he thought it was over with that lead and I would have too. 106 was my highest total of the season and it was very timely as I was honestly losing the will. And to think it was done without captaining Haaland. A massive congratulations to Eman, who won his match, so he is the 2023/24 Justice League champion as he leads by 9 points and there are only 6 points left to play for.
@DubulDee
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