Fantasy Football Files - 2026/27 - Gameweek 7 - 'Bird Is The Word'

I was looking for my fourth head-to-head victory in a row, but my opponent was Eman, a former ‘Justice League’ champion. He had split his opening six gameweeks so it was not the start to the campaign that he would have liked, and clearly, I was trying to make it even worse.

As I had previously stated I was now trying not to overthink things. As Manchester City had Ipswich at home, I assumed it was the right time to use my ‘Triple captain’ bonus chip. I then had a look at Eman’s team, and he had used his already in gameweek 4 on Cole Palmer when Chelsea played Hull at home, so this made me further think that it was the right time to unleash it.

I was not going to use my free transfer, then I thought as I was activating my triple captain that I will try something. I sold Nordi Mukiele for Jayden Bogle, as I believed Bogle could get at Manchester United’s left-hand side. What was key about this was that Bogle was £0.7m cheaper, so it freed up my budget for any future transfers. My opponent made two free transfers; he sold Bruno Fernandes and Kevin Schade for the Chelsea double-up of Morgan Rogers and Palmer, as he had sold Palmer in gameweek 6. He also captained Haaland.

Everton and Chelsea kicked things off early on Saturday at the Hill Dickinson Stadium…’pause’. I was up against Thierno Barry, and he had a header saved in the first half. Pedro Neto put Xabi Alonso’s men ahead with a goal at the end of the first half and he was to score again at the end of the game as the away side won 2-0, keeping their first clean sheet since January amazingly. Due to all the hype about ‘CPR’, Neto (£6.5m) has gone under the radar playing at wing-back and is now relishing the task, his price is about to raise as they have Tottenham up next. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall blanked for me, at least Palmer and Rogers did not return for Eman. Joao Pedro blanked for us both as he had a good chance saved towards the end.

In the 3pm’s; Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexander Isak both surprisingly started for Liverpool as they travelled to Brentford. The Reds fell behind as Keane Lewis-Potter crashed in a header to eliminate my Virgil van Dijk clean sheet points; the Dutchman did get defensive contribution points at least. Yehor Yarmoliuk was then sent off, and Andoni Iraola’s men came back to gain three points as Victor Munoz scored a good goal, before Isak won the game. The Isak goal was massive as many had let him go as he was red flagged by the FPL admins. Iraola said we will ‘see’ in the press conference, therefore I was never going to sell him. I had put Harvey Barnes as my first substitute in case Isak or Szoboszlai were to miss out. Szoboszlai was a casualty of war as his return only lasted 32 minutes, showing that he was rushed back. My issue now is whether to sell him or not as the Reds’ games coming after they play Arsenal in gameweek 9 on paper look decent. His price will decrease further however as it had already dropped before the Brentford game.

If only good performances always resulted in FPL points, Josh King played well as Fulham beat Hull 1-0 but man… it should have been so much more comfortable for the Cottagers. Before scoring the winning goal, Alex Iwobi had a chance from a pass by King deflected just over. King also was denied twice by Konstantinos Tzolakis who made both saves with his legs. My advice would be to hang on to King if you have him as the points are coming. Gonzalo Garcia was in Eman’s team, and he headed a glorious chance against the bar. Lewie Coyle was in my opponent’s team also so good news there.

Manchester City took the lead at home to Ipswich, and I was hoping it was Haaland, only to find out that it was Phil Foden, I had originally looked to keep Foden through his suspension but ended up selling him. The Tractor Boys levelled before the big Norwegian did get his goal as he headed in Mateo Kovacic’s ball. The triple captaincy was vindicated however; I needed more and thankfully I got it as he powered though and slid the ball home to make it 3-1. It nearly got even better as Haaland crashed a superb shot into the top corner only for it to be disallowed as Enzo Fernandez was offside. Zian Flemming netted a late spot kick, but Enzo Maresca’s men held on. With none of us having anyone in Aston Villa’s win at Newcastle, Saturday ended with me ahead by 23 points, 59-36. Eman had more players than me left including a double Arsenal defence, so I was still quite wary.

I was counting my blessings on Sunday to begin with. As said, I sold Mukiele and Sunderland went on to lose 2-0 to Bournemouth. I got off lightly as Eman had Antonio Silva and Marcus Tavernier (£6.2m) on his bench and the latter opened the scoring, so Eman missed out on that as well as the clean sheet points, as the two of them accumulated 18 points. Tavernier is proving to be rather difficult to ignore as he already has four goals. Evanilson (£6.1m) scored and assisted in this game, and he is one of the most in-form players in the league, with Manchester United, Leeds and Ipswich coming up the Cherries are going to surely be quite popular.

The battle of the birds at the Amex Stadium saw the Seagulls sh*t all over the Eagles as Brighton won 5-0! The first three goals were scored in the opening 10 minutes and included a goal from a man I recommended last week in Diego Gomez. Gomez spectacularly beat Walter Benitez from the halfway line for the goal of the season thus far. Pascal Gross was owned by Eman and I, and the German was amongst the points once again gaining a fantasy assist as Jaydee Canvot headed into his own net from Gross’ corner. Bart Verbruggen was another player Eman and I had. Charalampos Kostoulas (£5.7m) continues to stack points and Liverpool need to watch him on Sunday. Jack Hinshelwood (£5.9m) is back and was on the scoresheet too, Fabian Hurzeler’s side are the highest scorers in the league so their players will still likely attract FPL managers despite their upcoming fixtures. Leeds and Manchester United had a stalemate at Elland Road as the Bogle experiment did not work. It was now 72-57 in my favour and I was nervous.

With none of us having any players from Tottenham or Coventry in Monday’s game, the last match to affect the head-to-head was Nottingham Forest at home to Arsenal. Despite Morgan Gibbs-White not playing, with minimal possession Oliver Glasner’s men looked more likely to score but did not have the quality in the final third to my frustration. Riccardo Calafiori, Ezri Konsa and Bukayo Saka were all in Eman’s team. Mikel Arteta’s side won it late with a deflected strike from Noni Madueke. I therefore managed to win 72-65. Much tighter than it should have been but at least I pulled it off.

Outside of a double gameweek this was my best use ever of the triple captain chip as I would have lost without it. I now lay 7th in the Justice League with 15 points. Overall, I have 466 classic points and moved up into the top 1.6m, which is in the top 15% after being in the top 60% after gameweek 3. May this winning run continue as long as possible.

@DubulDee