Fantasy Football Files - 2025/26 - Gameweek 27 - 'The Benchmark'

My gameweek 27 opponent was Dwayne. He had a decent record against me so given the season I was having I feared the worst. He was in mid-table while I was trying to get out of the bottom three in my sorrowful season.

With the congested recent schedule, it dawned on me that there actually are not that many gameweeks remaining. I was on course for my worst season so on one hand I was not bothered. On the other hand, I had too much pride to go out the way I was, so I needed to give it a real go and hoped for some luck along the way. Sometimes I do not listen to my gut properly, but it was telling me to use my ‘Bench boost’ bonus chip so I did. I wanted to make a transfer as I did not believe Tottenham could get a result at home to Arsenal, so I let go of Micky van de Ven and brought in Nico O’Reilly. O’Reilly has impressed me since last season and although he is down as a defender he is now back in his natural position in midfield. I therefore thought get him in as bar a blank in gameweek 31 I feel Manchester City will have a good chance of bringing in points as they try to track down Arsenal. O’Reilly was only at £4.9m at the time, so I was only using 0.4m of my budget getting him in. I captained Joao Pedro, who was also the most transferred in player this gameweek. Dwayne made one transfer and sold Nordi Mukiele to get in van de Ven. My opponent was a fellow Liverpool fan and captained Hugo Ekitike. It was a good thing I followed my gut as he had deployed his bench boost too.

There was no early game on Saturday, so the week’s action started at 3pm. Leeds travelled to Aston Villa and my hopes of getting clean sheet points from Matty Cash were dashed in the first half as Anton Stach’s superb free-kick gave Daniel Farke’s men the lead. Tammy Abraham got a very late equaliser to salvage the home side a point. Dwayne and I both had Morgan Rogers and his blank has me considering his position in my team. A clean sheet was also dashed for me as Brentford were beaten at home by Brighton. The Seagulls desperately needed the win, and they were helped by some poor defending by Keith Andrews’ side so I cannot really blame Caoimhin Kelleher. The only positive for me in this game was that Igor Thiago did not return.

My captain Joao Pedro got things off to the perfect start at Stamford Bridge as he scrambled in Pedro Neto’s ball to put Chelsea in front at home to Burnley. I was thinking there would be more from him as the goal came so early. Ironically, Martin Dubravka was my other keeper so if Pedro was not to add to his tally, then I was hoping he would get some save points outside of conceding however that did not happen either. I did nonetheless get a rare enormous slice of luck in this match. Reece James was substituted in the 89^th minute so his points were intact. The Blues then conceded a 93rd leveller by Zian Flemming and Dwayne still had a Chelsea defender in Trevoh Chalobah, so he lost his points, I honestly could not believe it. I think I deserved that for sticking with James after him getting injured just after I transferred him in.

In the 5.30pm kick-off; West Ham and Bournemouth had a stalemate at the London Stadium. I was facing Crysensio Summerville and he went close in both halves, so I was thankful. We both had a defender from the Cherries so benefitted from the goalless draw. I had Marcos Senesi whereas my opponent had Adrien Truffert. James Hill, who I have mentioned in the two previous weeks of the ‘Fantasy Football Files’ yet again got bonus points and has quickly risen from £3.9m to £4.1m. Djordje Petrovic (£4.5m) had another good game in goal for Andoni Iraola since being called out for his form.

Manchester City edged past Newcastle 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium and in terms of my transfer everything went smoothly. O’Reilly scored not just once but twice, either side of a deflected goal by Lewis Hall to get me a whopping 17 points. I believed he could get a goal contribution with the timing of his forward runs, but I was really over the moon with this. The first was a good driven finish at the near post, the second was a header from a Haaland cross. City conceding did not affect me thanks to O’Reilly’s goalscoring exploits, Dwayne had Marc Guehi, so it hurt him. At Saturday’s end I had a nice lead, 50-22. It looked over but I take nothing for granted, especially in a campaign like this one.

In the 2pm’s on Sunday, Nottingham Forest hosted Liverpool and just before the game began Florian Wirtz picked up a knock so therefore was replaced by Curtis Jones in the starting XI. Forest were easily the better team in the first half although they could not find the net. The game looked destined for a goalless draw when Alexis Mac Allister put the Reds ahead after Ekitike had a header saved. This was only for the goal to be disallowed for a unlucky handball given against Mac Allister, but that’s the rules. Forest thought they had escaped only for Mac Allister to get his goal anyway after another penalty box scramble and this goal stood, scenes! Mac Allister (£6.2m) has taken a while to get going but with his timing his improvement and ability in the air though he is not the tallest, he could possibly be a shrewd pick for your team. We also both owned Dominic Szoboszlai, we were far too jubilant with the win to be upset by his blank. Fulham won 3-1 away at Sunderland. I needed the Cottagers to find the net as I was up against Robin Roefs, I had Mukiele however, he came off early with an injury, so the three goals did not lose me any points. It was 2-1 so late on so I thought Harry Wilson was going to blank, only for the away side to hit the Black Cats on the break and Wilson found Alex Iwobi for the third. With Wilson also getting defensive contributions he snuck into the bonus points to my great pleasure as the gap increased.

After selling van de Ven, I had no one in the North London Derby, although Dwayne had four players. Arsenal drew first blood as Eberechi Eze scored a well taken goal. As David Raya and Gabriel Magalhaes were two of my opponent’s men from Mikel Arteta’s team, I needed Tottenham to score, and they replied instantly as Declan Rice, the other man I was up against was dispossessed by Randal Kolo Muani who then scored. The league leaders went on to stroll to a 4-1 victory, aided by a harsh goal chalked off for Spurs at 2-1 for a push. With none of his Arsenal guys delivering and van de Ven getting a big fat zero, it was already well and truly over before Everton and Manchester United met on Monday.

United beat Everton 1-0 thanks to a good finish by Benjamin Sesko. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall took quite a few corners but did not ever really look like returning, it did not matter regardless. My bench delivered especially O’Reilly as I thrashed the opposition with it ending 74-40! Even if you take away the 24 points my bench got then I still would have prevailed, that is how emphatic the win was. Stel was beaten so I moved out of the bottom three. It is a relatively quick turnover to gameweek 28 so hopefully I can get back-to-back wins… my opponent is the defending champion!

@DubulDee