Fantasy Football Files - 2025/26 - Gameweek 7 - "Ghana Man's..."

After finally getting my first victory of the season I was up against Stel in gameweek 7. Stel had a solid record against me since joining the ‘Justice League’ a few seasons ago and thus was clearly not going to be easy. He even posted me on his Instagram story recently to show that me and Rhodri Giggs were struggling in another league that we were in with him. I joked with him ‘how are you gonna do me like that?’ and he said, ‘to motivate you to do better’, hmm. At the time he had not checked that I was his next opponent, my only firm rebuttal would be to win.

With Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall suspended due to an unfortunate booking, at first I was going to leave my team the same but then I decided to take a punt. I wanted a midfield player who could get defensive contributions as well as have a goal or assist threat. I looked at Leeds’ Anton Stach and Sunderland’s Granit Xhaka, and in the end, I decided to bring in the latter. This meant my side kept a 3-5-2 formation. After the deadline I saw Stel had two free transfers, he brought in Ismaila Sarr for Mo Salah, and this freed up the money for him to get Erling Haaland in for Nick Woltemade. I was a little annoyed at this as Haaland was my captain and my opponent captained the Norwegian too. Haaland was again was the mist transferred in player and the most captained.

The action kicked off back on October 3^rd with a Friday night game between Bournemouth and Fulham. The first half of the contest was a highly forgettable one before a four-goal second period. The Cottagers took the lead through Ryan Sessegnon as he emphatically killed my chance of clean sheet points from Marcos Senesi. Senesi was withdrawn by Andoni Iraola shortly after the goal and I was left cursing the fact that the change was not made slightly earlier. Stel and I both had Antoine Semenyo, and he levelled things up with a superb individual goal. Semenyo then got a cheap assist as his pass to Justin Kluivert in the centre circle, saw Kluivert leave Tom Cairney spinning before he unleashed a thumping strike from outside the box for 2-1. Semenyo then rounded off a brilliant second half with his second as the Ghanaian clinically finished on the break after being found by Ben Gannon-Doak. 18 points for Semenyo then and a smart captaincy by some considering the amount of shots Fulham concede at goal. I never thought of this as I was thinking Haaland would be a differential. 

Saturday the 4th, saw Tottenham start the day with a 2-1 win at Leeds. Joe Rodon hit the post for Leeds against his old club as he almost punished me yet again for benching him. Mathys Tel gave Spurs the lead before Noah Okafor got an important leveller for Daniel Farke’s men and me. Stel had Guglielmo Vicario and Cristian Romero so despite the fact I had Micky van de Ven, it was better that Thomas Frank’s side did not get a clean sheet. Mohammed Kudus assisted the earlier goal by Tel, and it was the Ghanaian international who won the game with a deflected strike in the 57^th minute.

There were only two 3pm kick-offs and both effected the head-to-head. West Ham had a good record at the Emirates Stadium recently; however, they fell 2-0 this time around. To my dismay the opener was scored by Declan Rice who Stel had in his midfield, with Rice’s defensive contributions and the chances he created from midfield he ended up with an 11-point haul. Rice is a big fan of Jollof Rice and that also must have felt like eating Jollof Rice for my opponent. Viktor Gyokeres thankfully did not feature in the Gunners’ goals. With the addition of Xhaka, I had two Sunderland men for their trip to Old Trafford only for them to let me down as Manchester United triumphed 2-0. Stel had Patrick Dorgu and Matheus Cunha who were only on the bench as they got two points between them. Nordi Mukiele was my other player from the Black Cats and he got 3 points just like Xhaka as they both featured quite heavily in defensive contributions. My punt was almost vindicated as Xhaka almost scored with an effort from outside the box in the first half not too long after United’s second goal.

The 5.30pm game sadly caused me more pain. I was expectant of my team Liverpool getting something against a depleted Chelsea side only for them to fall to an injury time goal from teenager Estevao. Moises Caicedo’s piledriver put the Blues in front in the first half. Caicedo is now a key in FPL, owned by over 14%, his defensive contributions and eye for goal mean £5.8m is looking like a bargain. Arne Slot’s team equalised through Cody Gakpo after a touch from Alexander Isak that is questionable whether the Swede meant it or not. I did not care as the main thing was that he got more points. Regarding this weeks’ theme, it must also be pointed out that goalscorer Gakpo is of Ghanaian descent despite representing the Netherlands. It looked like we were heading for a certain draw before Estevao’s late heroics. Joao Pedro blanked for Stel; however, it did not matter as so did Salah to leave me with just the Isak assist. Ironically the Swede could have scored a first half header from a delightful ball from Salah, which would have been a dream differential combination. Saturday ended with the opposition leading narrowly 39-35.

Sunday, saw my keeper Martin Dubravka beaten twice as Aston Villa got their first home win of the season thanks to a Donyel Malen brace. Dubravka made some good saves and deserved more. There was more bad news for me at the Hill Dickinson Stadium (pause) although Everton tried their best to help with a 2-1 victory over Crystal Palace. The Eagles took the lead and that is all it took to widen Stel’s lead. Sarr fed Daniel Munoz and despite an injury time winner from Jack Grealish for the Merseysiders, Sarr was amongst the bonus points. The only small positive was no return from Marc Guehi, who should have been playing his football permanently on Merseyside but that is not going to be discussed today. Yasin Ayari was the man I selected when I used my ‘wildcard’ to produce in games like Brighton’s trip to Wolves. He did not as it finished 1-1 and my hopes of pulling a win out of the bag massively decreased.

The last match saw Manchester City travel to Brentford. I trailed by 10 as it stood at 49-39. I needed something special from Phil Foden. After just 9 minutes, Haaland wrestled Sepp van den Berg and expertly drove the ball in for Pep Guardiola’s men. Foden was to have a couple of attempts in the first half as firstly he shot tamely with his left foot from outside the box. City then produced a decent team move and the ball found Foden who shot poorly on his weaker right foot as he put the ball well wide. After that Foden faded out of the game as did my chances of winning as Stel prevailed 65-58.

So back to losing it is then. Hindsight is a beautiful thing, and the transfer was not needed as I lost anyway and I could have had another free transfer for gameweek 8, it is what is though. Anyway, the international break has ended and now back to more FPL headaches, this is the life we chose, and I need to find solutions.

@DubulDee