Fantasy Football Files - 2025-26 - Gameweek 9 - 'Set Reese's Pieces'

Despite a victory in the last gameweek, things overall still looked bleak for me and now I was up against the defending champion in gameweek 9. Michael B., the twin of my co-host Darren B. (D-Man) were both locked in the tight battle at the top of the table, where before the deadline only three points separated first from seventh. To make things even more intriguing the twins were my next two FPL opponents. If Michael won, then then he could go top depending on the other results and if I won I had the chance to climb out of the hypothetical relegation zone.

I had two free transfers available, and the plan was always to use both. My initial idea was to bring in Bournemouth’s Eli Kroupi Jr. who I spoke of last week for Marc Guiu. But then with Alexander Isak coming off injured in midweek for Liverpool in the Champions League I immediately thought that I must bring in Hugo Ekitike. Instead of changing two forwards I decided to stick with Guiu and make a change at the back. My namesake Daniel Munoz was drafted back into my team for Burnley’s Hjalmar Ekdal. As Crystal Palace had Arsenal, I was not necessarily expecting an instant return from Munoz however, I think he will contribute well in the Eagles’ next set of fixtures after that. When you are playing a defending champion, you are thinking you need to pull something different out to have a chance to overcome them, but I played safe and went with Erling Haaland as captain. Boring I know except it is too much of a risk to not do it, especially when you are struggling. After the deadline predictably I saw my opponent captained the Norwegian too, Haaland indeed was the most captained yet again this week. Michael made two transfers, meaning he took a four-point deduction. He also let go of Isak for Ekitike which I telegraphed as he is a Liverpool fan too and he sold Joachim Anderson for the set piece threat of Gabriel Magalhaes, the most owned defender in FPL.

The action started on Friday night as Leeds entertained West Ham at Elland Road and entertain is exactly what they did. The Whites took the lead as early as the 3^rd minute through Brenden Aaronson. Jarrod Bowen was ubiquitous as usual, and he almost scored an acrobatic effort. Only 15 minutes were on the clock when I was jumping for joy as Joe Rodon headed in Sean Longstaff’s corner. Lucas Paqueta had a goal disallowed and Tomas Soucek somehow missed a header from Bowen’s cross as hoping Leeds kept a clean sheet was a nerve-wracking experience. Mateus Fernandes was to score a 90^th minute header from Bowen’s cross, it was merely a consolation as Daniel Farke’s men held on. Despite the clean sheet points going Rodon thankfully got the maximum bonus as I ended Friday 17 points ahead.

Saturday, had a couple of surprises in store in terms of results. Although I thought Sunderland could get a result at Chelsea I left my two players from the Black Cats on the bench. The Blues took the lead after just 4 minutes through Alejandro Garnacho. Phil Le Bris’ men were to fightback and Wilson Isidor levelled after the home side failed to deal with a set piece. Granit Xhaka almost made me regret benching him in the second period as he turned but then got blocked by Josh Acheampong in the area. The game looked destined to finish 1-1 when in injury time Chemsdine Talbi exploited poor defending to win it. Scenes! Michael had Dan Burn, so I needed Fulham to score at Newcastle. They did thankfully, however they were beaten 2-1 courtesy of another late goal in the 3pm kick-offs from Bruno Guimaraes. I was fortunate in this fixture as my opponent’s other Newcastle man, Nick Woltemade, hit the post early on after a set piece. Woltemade was the most transferred in player, so the FPL curse struck once again as he blanked. Jacob Murphy gave the Magpies the lead and if I knew his minutes were secure, I would love to have him back in my side although Anthony Elanga seems to be the first choice, time will tell anyway. Sasa Lukic levelled before the late winner by Guimaraes after good work by Will Osula.

Neither of us had any players starting in Manchester United’s 4-2 home win over Brighton, so we head to the 8pm game at the G-Tech Stadium. Brentford always seem to pose difficult opposition for Liverpool, and it was the case once again as the Reds’ catastrophic league form continued. Arne’s Slot’s men are a shambles at defending set pieces currently and that really is an understatement. A long throw was their undoing as Dango Ouatarra scored first. The Bees took a 2-0 lead just after Liverpool could have had a penalty for a foul on Cody Gakpo. Even still the goal was a poor one to concede as one pass from Mikkel Damsgaard took out Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate as Kevin Schade scored. Milos Kerkez gave the away side a lifeline when Brentford failed to clear Conor Bradley’s ball in. A debatable penalty basically sealed the game for the Bees as Igor Thiago scored. Mo Salah, who if he had been in any type of form would have been my captain this week had a poor game but at the death, he plucked a ball out the air from Dominic Szoboszlai and scored a tremendous goal as it ended 3-2. I led 23-2 at Saturday’s conclusion, in spite of that the team I support losing again clouded my thoughts.

Sunday began with four 2pm kick-offs that all effected the head-to-head matchup. Arsenal edged out Crystal Palace 1-0 at the Emirates Stadium. This match was a very fruitful one for Michael as he had Declan Rice in addition to Gabriel. The Gunners’ goal of course came from a set piece as Eberechi Eze scored after the ball was not headed away well by Ismaila Sarr then Eze’s fantastic volley found the net. Rice was credited with the ‘fantasy’ assist as he took the corner, some thought Gabriel had flicked it on for the goal, but the replay showed it came off Sarr. It could have been worse for me as Rice almost scored in the second half. My opponent even had Marc Guehi and despite the loss his defensive contributions got him to 4 points as Michael collected a whopping 20 points from this game alone. There was more concern for me at Villa Park. I was expectant of Phil Foden finally doing something since I got him in when I used my wildcard, sadly it was not to be. A well-worked set piece by the Villans was brilliantly finished off by Matty Cash on his weaker left foot and that ended up being the only goal of the contest. Haaland had a great first half chance saved and in the second half he had a goal disallowed as there was an offside in the buildup.

Bournemouth sustained their great start to the season as they won 2-0 at home against Nottingham Forest. Michael and I both owned Antoine Semenyo and he had a rare blank. If it was not for the fact Sean Dyche had taken over at Forest, then I was thinking of Semenyo as a captain option. Marcus Tavernier gave the Cherries the lead before Kroupi Jr. showed why I wanted him as the teenage drove in the second from outside the box. His price has now risen to £4.6m to my anguish and he may rise again as his ownership has flown up to almost 4%. Marcos Senesi got booked however, I still welcomed the vital clean sheet points. We both also owned Martin Dubravka, and he made a huge late save as Burnley won 3-2 at Wolves.

The Arsenal game changed everything, and I went into the last match between Everton and Tottenham somehow only 9 points ahead. As Micky van de Ven was another player owned by Michael and I, importantly he had Mohammed Kudus too, so all hinged on whether the Ghanaian contributed or not. I found myself hiding behind the sofa as Kudus was taking the corners on Spurs’ right-hand side. Rodrigo Bentancur headed a Kudus corner back across goal and van de Ven opened the scoring. Jake O’Brien had an equaliser from a set piece ruled out for offside before van de Ven made it 2 from another corner. As this corner was from the left side it was taken by Pedro Porro. The irony is I was going to bench van de Ven and then I thought as my opponent has him I need to neutralise him where I can and thank the lord I did that. Around the hour mark Kudus was substituted and I could finally breathe a sigh of relief as Thomas Frank’s men triumphed 3-0.

A big scalp claimed then as I got back-to-back victories for the first time this campaign. ‘Rod-on my enemies’ could easily have been the title this week. Tupac Shakur fans would have probably appreciated that more than others as Rodon’s haul is the differential that carried me through here in a week riddled with set pieces. A nice early birthday present for me. One twin down, one to go.

@DubulDee