Fantasy Football Files - 2025/26 - Gameweek 26 - 'Long Grain Easy Cook'

My gameweek 26 opposition was Stel. Stel’s recent slump had seen me overtake him but a win for him would take him back above me in the table. If I was to lose then I would drop into the bottom three in this depressing campaign.

A lot had been going recently and without going into it, I did not have high hopes for this gameweek. This was as on top of everything it was the first double gameweek of the season and it involved Arsenal. As I do not pick Arsenal players if they even just did reasonably over their two fixtures then I would have some major issues. After last week’s punishment I got Erling Haaland back into my team at the expense of Brian Brobbey. Stel made two transfers, resulting in a four-point hit as he only had one free transfer. He sold the injured Patrick Dorgu for Harry Maguire and let go of Bukayo Saka to get Martin Zubimendi. I had Joao Pedro as my captain but then pivoted to Haaland at the 11th hour because this week I was a coward. As usual the Norwegian was the most captained. My opponent gave his captaincy to Declan Rice as he looked to exploit the double gameweek.

The action kicked off last week Tuesday. Chelsea were at home to Leeds and again there was no Reece James, so as it stood bringing him in a few weeks ago has been pointless thus far. Things started well enough as a nice pass from Cole Palmer saw Joao Pedro finish well on his weaker left foot to give the Blues the lead in the first half. In the second period, Pedro was involved again. An obnoxious foul saw him gain Liam Rosenoir’s men a penalty. Us Pedro owners have been fortunate recently as there were two silly fouls on him last week at Wolves and thankfully Palmer put both spot-kicks away. Palmer scored again here from the spot, and it looked over only for Leeds to come back and get a draw as they took advantage of Chelsea’s indecisiveness at the back. Before going with getting Haaland back in I considered getting Eli Kroupi Jr back also. Kroupi was only on the bench, but Bournemouth still managed to get all three points at Everton in a 2-1 triumph. I mentioned Rayan (£5.5m) last week and he scored again as he has taken to the Premier League like a duck to water. Stel and I both had Marcos Senesi who had been a defensive contributions magnet this season but he missed out again. A defender from the Cherries who did not miss out on defensive contributions points was James Hill. Hill was £3.9m before the match and he got an assist too so before the match even ended, he was already up to £4m. Hill’s ownership is now at 3.5%.

The game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was to kill me further. Newcastle won 2-1 so the expectations I had of getting a return from Micky van de Ven fell flat. To make matters worse the Magpies’ opener was scored was by Stel’s man Malick Thiaw. Spurs’ defending was so bad Thiaw had a header saved and then was able to run in and score from his rebound. Tuesday concluded with me ahead 17-9 but it was very early days.

Wednesday did not start well as Matty Cash was picked up an injury and missed Aston Villa’s game with Brighton. Hypothetically I missed out on a clean sheet as Villa won 1-0 and to make matters worse Emiliano Martinez was my opponent’s keeper as the small gap started to close. Stel and I both owned Morgan Rogers who blanked. I wanted to bring Antoine Semenyo back into my side as well as Haaland, but I did not want to take a points deduction so that transfer will have to wait. I was made to pay as Semenyo scored Manchester City’s first goal against Fulham and then assisted the second goal for Nico O’Reilly. Haaland got in on the act at the end of the first half, and I was thinking at least one more goal from him could make things interesting. However, he was then substituted at half-time to my great dismay. Harry Wilson did not return for me but at least Samuel Chukwueze did nothing for Stel either. Liverpool travelled to Sunderland in Wednesday’s last game and Florian Wirtz was unlucky not to have at least one goal in the first half. He hit the post and had two other efforts saved. The Reds were to get a 1-0 win as Virgil van Dijk’s header was deflected in from Mo Salah’s corner. Hugo Ekitike was another player we both owned and he missed a great headed chance. I really needed points from Wirtz so before Arsenal had even played any of their two games I had conceded defeat as I was only 12 points ahead 39-27.

Last Thursday the Gunners made a short trip to Brentford and as expected it was not straightforward. Igor Thiago was in Stel’s side, and he could have had a hat-trick. Stel would not have been too upset as he also had William Saliba as well as Martin Zubimendi. Arsenal took the lead in the second half through a Noni Madueke header from a good ball by Piero Hincapie. The Bees were to get a point as Keane Lewis-Potter grabbed an equaliser. This left the scores level at 39 so with Arsenal playing again I had already been beaten.

Wolves and Arsenal met on Wednesday and Rice assisted Bukayo Saka to give Mikel Arteta’s men the lead to get Stel more points. Gabriel Magalhaes’ super pass made a second goal for Hincapie. Ironically, Hincapie had the lowest ownership of Arsenal’s starters but got the most points in the gameweek. Wolves amazingly fought back to make it 2-2! Regardless of this, Rice got defensive contributions along with an assist as Stel thrashed me 64-39. If you do not laugh you will cry. In terms of other Arsenal players in the double gameweek, Viktor Gyokeres was the most transferred in and he disappointed. Magalhaes was triple captained by some managers and got 7 points over the two matches, so as usual another double gameweek flattered to deceive.

As for me, I have almost given up hope, I did expect to lose this, but it would have been nice to be closer to 50 points. Wirtz should have had more, Haaland came off at half-time, there is so many things I can say did not go for me, but when you lose as comprehensively as that it does not matter anyway. Stel has now leapfrogged me as I have dropped to 18th.  I have tried to avoid the bottom three in the ‘Justice League’ after working so hard to get out of it but here we are.

@DubulDee