Fantasy Football Files - 2019/20 - Gameweek 18

'Now That's A Hit'

My mate Kieran was my opponent this week, and I was left in an interesting position as bar the fact that he had two Liverpool players, his side differed quite strongly to mine. So as I had said I was going to, I used my 'Free Hit' bonus. With Liverpool away at the Club World Cup, this meant they had no Premier League game, so having Andy Robertson, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah all out meant that freed up more than £32m of my budget. As I have stated on many occasions, I usually do not pick players from teams that are rivals and clubs I do not really like (bar Sergio Aguero of course). As I had so much money to spare however, meant that as in what will probably be a one-off, I decided to bring in some more expensive players to try and get the job done. Kieran, I had assumed was going to either use his ' Free Hit' or 'Wildcard' to cover his Liverpool players that were out, so I pre-empted him duplicating one or two of the players I brought in. Gameweek 18 could have been nicer fixture-wise it must be said, as Manchester City played Leicester, and Tottenham played Chelsea, it would have been lovely if these sides were playing easier opposition, but it was not to be. Well saying that, the way Chelsea have been playing recently against smaller sides, it was probably better they had a big match this week ironically.

As I tinkered to try and get in as many 'heavy hitters' as possible, I finally came to my decision. I made ten changes in all, as just in case anyone did not start I would then have one or two players on the bench who could come in. In goal I brought in Nick Pope (Burnley) and also Scott Carson (Man City), as he was extremely cheap though I knew would not play, so this allowed me to have a vast amount to spend in midfield. In defence came Matt Doherty (Wolves) and Grant Hanley (Norwich). Midfield was where I hoped a bulk of the points would come from as despite they had Leicester, I brought in Man City's Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling, and I gave De Bruyne the captaincy. As I did not expect Leicester to win, I took out James Maddison and Youri Tielemens, so I could accommodate bringing in a man who has been on fire, Spurs' Son Heung-Min. As Arsenal have had their problems at the back, and Everton seemed to have a bit of life in them since Duncan Ferguson took over as caretaker, I put Richarlison in. Up front I expected that Sheffield United's Lys Mousset may get rotated, or he may not bring in a high points return if he did start, so I got Wolves' Raul Jimenez back in as they played Norwich, so I expected him to have chances as the Canaries like to attack.

Everton, started off the weekends action in a contender for the worst game I have seen this season, as they drew 0-0 with Arsenal. The Toffees did not have a shot on target, so my gamble on Richarlison clearly did not work. I felt disgusting picking an Everton player and it did not even pay off. In the 3pm games: as I took Diego Rico out, I was fine with the fact that Bournemouth did not keep a clean sheet, as they lost 1-0 at home to Burnley, this of course meant that Nick Pope got the clean sheet I put him in for. Southampton, won 3-1 away at Aston Villa and Danny Ings scored twice, finally I had him in my side when he was hitting the back of the net, as every week I have not had him, he has scored, he now has 11 goals this season, which is very impressive. Sheffield United, were also away winners, as they beat Brighton 1-0. Their clean sheet was good for Kieran, as he had three of the Blades' defence in his team, one of them was of course John Lundstram, who I have, so that was a consolation. Martin Kelly could not help with a shutout as Crystal Palace were beaten by Newcastle at St James' Park. The only goal in the game was scored by Miguel Almiron, his first for the club, and despite it cost me points, I must say I have not been that happy for someone from another team to score for a very very long time. Now he can go on to score as many as he likes, as long as he does not score when Liverpool come to Tyneside later on in the season. There was yet another away win as Wolves won 2-1 at Carrow Road against Norwich. Annoyingly Todd Cantwell scored and he was on my bench, I should have gone for him over Richarlison, but these are the things that seem to happen on a weekly basis in FPL, you live and die by your decisions. Raul Jimenez, did the job I recruited him for, as he grabbed Wolves' winner as they came from behind. The ball fell to him after a ball in from Matt Doherty, so the Irishman got a 'fantasy' assist, he also unfortunately got booked however.

The late Saturday game saw Manchester City beat Leicester 3-1, Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling were not on the scoresheet, so there were was not a massive points return from them, but they did both get assists. Sterling's assist was a 'fantasy' one as he won a first half penalty, whereas De Bruyne's assist in the second half was registered by Opta, as he laid on the third goal for Gabriel Jesus. De Bruyne, now has ten assists for the season, as his assist last week against Arsenal was taken away from him. Jamie Vardy opened the scoring, so I was right to leave him in, even though I expected the Foxes to lose, as City have dropped so many points thus far, I felt they would really be up for this game. I had a healthy lead over Kieran when Saturday ended, but he had more players left to play than I did. I therefore needed Harry Kane and Tammy Abraham not to score in Sunday's big game.

Sunday, started with Watford beating Manchester United 2-0, Ben Foster made so many saves, that along with his clean sheet, he ended up getting 11 points as he received three bonus points. These points would have been handy obviously, but as the man I took him out for Nick Pope also did not concede, it was not a big issue. In the other huge game from the weekend Chelsea won 2-0 at Spurs. Both goals were scored by Willian, so I got what I needed, with Abraham and Kane not scoring, Mason Mount did not score either and my opponent had him too, so the game was quite fruitful. The only blemish was that Son was sent off, he actually made me lose points, thanks Son, 'that was so kind of you!'. I thought Spurs would win and Son would contribute heavily, as he had been recently. Bar shooting over in the first half however, you would not have known he was on the pitch until he tried to impersonate Shinsuke Nakamura. Imagine that, he was outscored by Salah and Mane who did not even play!, 'oh the irony!'. I now had my third head-to-head win in a row in the 'Justice League', but Son's calamity meant that despite a very solid scoring week I could not be top of as many 'traditional' scoring leagues as I had wished going into Christmas. The leagues I am in with 150-200 people in, I clearly have got some work to do to catch up, but overall I am satisfied. The aim now in the head-head league is just to finish as high as possible as I am sat in mid-table, 12 points off of third, which is the last position you can make money from. A more realistic option, would be trying to get the highest score of the season, which you can also make money from. Also I had another resounding win in my cup game, good time!

Merry Christmas people! Thanks for reading!

I was top of six leagues on Saturday evening, but Spurs' Son let me down, meaning I was overtaken on Sunday in numerous leagues.

@DubulDee