Fantasy Football Files - 2019/20 - Gameweek 26

Son-ing them!

With the Premier league having its inaugural winter break, this latest gameweek was stretched out, making it more agonising than usual. My opponent was Sam (Big Sam) another member of the D&D Football Factory, and I was looking to do the double over him. I made no transfers as Sadio Mane was likely to be back by the time Liverpool played after the winter break, so as he costs so much, I knew that I needed to have two free transfers for gameweek 27 to get him back in without taking a points deduction.

The first week saw Brighton held at home to a 1-1 draw by Watford. No real points contribution from the Seagulls' Lewis Dunk, so I may consider letting go of him soon. Dunk costs £4.8m now, but I had him when I bought him he was 4.7m and there are defenders cheaper that may prove to be more productive, as along with that Dunk gets booked quite a lot. Watford's Ben Foster was close to a clean sheet, before a late own goal by Adrian Mariappa, as I thought that I had made a mistake until then at starting Alex McCarthy in goal instead of him. On Sunday the 9th of February; Manchester City's game against West Ham was called off, due to the weather, but Sheffield United and Bournemouth still went ahead. The Blades came from behind to win 2-1, and this included a winning goal from substitute John Lundstram. The assist came from Lys Mousset, who was on my bench, but as Man City's game was off I had believed I was going to get Mousset's points as Sergio Aguero I thought was not going to be in action. Mousset did indeed spoil it as he got booked, to cap an action packed 16 minutes from him as he came off the bench too. On Valentines Day; Wolverhampton and Leicester, that I had expected were going to have thriller, a little like the dramatic 4-3 they had at Molineux last season finished goalless, in what was a massive anti-climax. Adama Traore was only on the bench, and though he was lively when he came on, he could not get Wolves over the line.

Saturday 15th February, began with Southampton losing at home 2-1 to Burnley. Danny Ings was at fault for Burnley's opener, but he redeemed himself by getting Southampton level, man...has he been reliable in front of goal this season. Of course that meant there was no clean sheet for Alex McCarthy, but the point he lost for conceding 2 goals, he got back as he made four saves. McCarthy is still decent value at £4.4m, as he is Southampton's no.1 again dislodging Angus Gunn. In the late Saturday game, Liverpool won 1-0 at Norwich, to keep up their formidable record. I had captained Mo Salah, and he unfortunately had a quite up-and-down game. Sadio Mane came off the bench to get the winner, after I was not sure whether he would be used at all with Atletico Madrid coming up. I will be getting him back into my team for gameweek 27, so hopefully he keeps it up now he is back fit. Andy Robertson had a good game and picked up 3 bonus points to go with another Liverpool clean sheet. So on Saturday night I trailed Sam by six points, so I needed something from Son and Riyad Mahrez as the other remaining players I had, Sam had them also.

On Sunday, a game I did not expect to be so entertaining finished 3-2 at Villa Park, as a late Son Heung-Min goal snatched 3 points for Tottenham against Aston Villa. Despite coming through in the end, the Korean almost had me pulling my hair out ('whatever remains of it anyway!'), as he missed a penalty, but he managed to score luckily from the rebound. Pepe Reina was so angry that none of his teammates reacted quick enough to his save, that he almost ripped his shorts off. He's not even played five games for the Villans and his already turned into the incredible Hulk, good going guys. Despite Reina conceding 3 goals he still managed to get 10 points, he is still a good keeper and at £4.5m he is under consideration for when I use my other wildcard. Jack Grealish assisted Villa's second goal for Bjorn Engels, and Engels was to help me get points again, as his horrendous error allowed Son to win the game in injury time. I felt for Pepe, as he his display did not deserve to end in a defeat, but there is no room for sentiment in fantasy football is there. Man City's match with West Ham was rearranged for Wednesday, and the irony was Rian (Milito) had joked that the game would be moved to Tuesday the 18th when it first was postponed, he must have been onto something as it turned out to be the day after. Mahrez did not start, but thanks to Son's late goal on Sunday, I had already beaten Big Sam. This was also a rare occasion when there was no Aguero goal. So now it is back to a normal schedule, where you not thinking you need to change your team, when it is actually still the same bloody gameweek.

@DubulDee