Fantasy Football Files - 2026/27 - Gameweek 2 - 'The Tale of the First Sub'

I needed to bounce back from my defeat in gameweek 1 against Big Sam. My opponent this week was my longtime friend Gary. He made a blistering start to the campaign last week and was top of the table because of it, so this was always going to be tough. I wanted to at least get 60 points this week after being under 50 last week.

As I alluded to at the end of gameweek 1’s ‘Fantasy Football Files’, I made my free transfer before the last match between Fulham and Chelsea even concluded. I sold Wilson Isidor for Joao Pedro. I left enough in the bank to do this before the season started but as I could not decide who I should leave on my bench from my midfield I did not pull the trigger. After I had seen Chelsea play, I did not hesitate, as that team are going to score a lot of goals. They are going to concede too but that will not damage the potential points their front three could get you. Not initially doing it extremely costly as Pedro’s points could have seen me defeat Sam last week. When another Friday 6.30pm deadline had passed I saw that Gary had already opted to use his ‘Wildcard’ bonus chip. It seems premature and someone like me would not necessarily look to use it this early however in past years it has been more common than you would think. He made an interesting decision where he went all in on the team he supports Tottenham and started their new signing Omar Marmoush over Erling Haaland, I begged that he paid for it. I was originally going to captain Haaland, but I was nervous about it being the first game and that clouded my thoughts although the Norwegian always scores at Selhurst Park. Palmer was my opponent’s captain.

Friday night’s game suggested there would be an away win and that is exactly what happened. Haaland put any doubts about blanking in the first match of the gameweek quickly to bed as he scored after just 17 minutes with a well-timed header from an Antoine Semenyo cross. Rayan Cherki again showed me I should have kept him in my original draft as he added a brace either side of an own goal by Gianluigi Donnarumma. Yeremi Pino’s superbly struck free-kick went in off the Italian keeper after the ball hit the post. Haaland rounded off the scoring with an emphatic finish after a good run by Phil Foden, who got two assists. Investing in City thus far has been fruitful, Haaland made amends for not scoring in gameweek 1. Josko Gvardiol assisted Cherki’s second and he also punished me again for taking him out of my draft, the fact Gary had him made it even worse. Despite not knowing how many minutes he will get Cherki’s ownership has obviously still spiked. Enzo Maresca’s men have added Iliman Ndiaye (£6m) and Enzo Fernandez (£6.9m) so Maresca will have his own ‘Pep Roulette’ in hand for everyone so be wary.

Saturday began with Liverpool hosting Nottingham Forest. Oliver Glasner’s men started the better and took a deserved lead through a Dan Ndoye goal. Ndoye had not scored since the opening day last season so trust Liverpool to hand him a goal. The Reds levelled in the second half as I got points from Alexander Isak. A contentious penalty scored by Morgan Gibbs-White put Forest back in front before a powerful deflected effort from Victor Munoz £6.5m) crashed in off the bar to get Andoni Iraola’s side a point. Munoz has contributed now in both of his first two league games for the Merseysiders and is a cheaper way into the Liverpool midfield. Cody Gakpo (£7.1m) is now staying at the club and assisted the Isak goal from the right, which is his weaker side to play on, he may be a hard one to ignore.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was the jewel for me in gameweek 1 and he should have been again this week, unfortunately Thierno Barry has blood on his hands. Bournemouth and Everton drew 1-1 and somehow, I did not get a haul here. Jarrad Branthwaite’s header from a Dewsbury-Hall corner was well saved by Djordje Petrovic. After the Cherries took the lead through Alex Scott, Dewsbury-Hall fed Barry on the break and Barry hit the side netting. Later, Petrovic made another good save to deny Barry. The Toffees escaped with a point thanks to a well taken goal by defensive contributions king James Tarkowski.

In the 5.30pm kick-off, Tottenham were up against Newcastle. I was left fuming as Savio was not even in Tottenham’s squad therefore as Haaland was Gary’s first substitute he would get his points, my excitement at Haaland’s 13 points did not even last 24 hours. Luckily, the Spurs new man who did play Marmoush blanked as the Magpies got a massive 2-0 away victory. Antonin Kinsky was my keeper which was disappointing.

Sunday, began with the aforementioned Chelsea front three causing havoc and the opposition had all three of them after using the wildcard. In a seven-goal thriller, the Blues beat Brighton 4-3 and all of them returned just like the opening game at Fulham. Morgan Rogers assisted the second goal for Pedro Neto. Joao Pedro bagged the third but missed an easier chance than the goal beforehand when he shot wide. The Seagulls pulled it back to 3-2, and the second goal was a double whammy as Pedro scored an own goal, from a ball by Pascal Gross, who was my first substitute. Pedro was to get the points he lost back as he laid on the fourth for Palmer, who looks back to his best producing a well-placed low finish. I thought I had endured all the pain from this fixture when Fabian Huerzeler’s men scored another and you guessed it; Gross scored it with a good header. This changed the order of the bonus points as Gross got 13 points, I felt sick! Simultaneously, I was to realise I Iost those Gross points for no reason as Harry Wilson did not even start for Leeds as they drew 1-1 with Brentford. A late Dominic Calvert-Lewin goal who I was surprised is only £6m saved me from a Caoimhin Kelleher clean sheet. Kevin Schade had given the Bees the lead with a sumptuous finish. There were more defensive contribution points for new signing Mamadou Sangare (who Gary had) whose ownership is up to 14.8% and he is now at £5.7m. A casualty of war here was Joe Rodon who only just missed out being in my team and that may heavily cost Leeds as it looks a bad injury.  

Sunderland beat Fulham 1-0 at the Stadium of Light. I welcomed Nordi Mukiele’s clean sheet points however the caveat with the new live scoring system reared its head. Mukiele was down for 11 points at the final whistle and then later he ended with just 9 as he got one bonus point instead of three. You could be siting there in a head-to-head thinking you are clear and then the points just get taken from you when your player did not even get booked. The further irony here was Isidor who I sold got the winning goal off the bench. In the late game, I decided to start Dara O’Shea and things looked good as Ipswich took the lead at Old Trafford with a tidy finish from Leif Davis. Davis almost got a second as the Tractor Boys looked quite comfortable with Julio Enciso looking lively, then Marcelino Nunez slipped and Bruno Fernandes smashed in the equaliser. The Red Devils went on to win 5-2 with Fernades getting a hat-trick and an assist. For this week I apologise to you Bruno, I warned people to be wary of you at £12m and this week you shut me up with 23 points, but believe me, ‘I’ll be talking again”, with my best impression of Smokey in ‘Friday’. Many captained the Portuguese, so they totalled 100 points. O’Shea got me a big fat zero; to think I did not want to double up on Tottenham players at the back, but Andrew Robertson outscored him despite conceding twice.

The gameweek concluded with Arsenal’s trip to Aston Villa. Unai Emery’s men started quite well, and Emiliano Buendia struck the bar. The referee helped me out big time as Christos Tzolis was booked and then he was subbed off at half-time meaning he got zero for Gary. After that however, they did not have a meaningful effort at goal. The Gunners got the win as Riccardo Calafiori’s good work was finished off by Bukayo Saka. The score stood at 66-65 to me, so I begged that Calafiori was not involved again and thankfully he was not, so I squeezed my first victory of the campaign. Calafiori is 2.3m cheaper than Gabriel Magalhaes and is already showing he is the better pick, it is a small sample size though.

If only Wilson did not come on then my first substitute would have reaped massive rewards, but the main thing was to get off the mark so I cannot complain, on to next week.

@DubulDee