My opponent this week was Dwayne. He had a solid record against me, so he was not the best person to be facing as I tried to close the gap on Eman at the top of the table. The gameweeks were going to come think and fast now, so there needed to be a form of future-planning in place making things even harder than usual.
I studied Dwayne's team and the fact he had Mo Salah was lingering on my mind. As he was a Liverpool fan, I knew that he would captain him, I tried my best to go ahead as I planned but I just could not escape the fact that if Salah went nuts against Brighton that I would lose. I had given away so many points to make changes in the last two weeks that if I did not want to make any changes at all, to give me two free transfers for gameweek 31, but in the end I knew I had to make one. At first it was going to be to get Rodrigo Muniz in for Carlton Morris, but in the end the Salah factor dominated my thinking, and I got him in for Jarrod Bowen. I was extremely reluctant to sell Bowen, as I had just enough in the bank to sell Harry Wilson and squeeze Salah in. But as I took a hit to get Wilson in last week, I thought I would keep him for a further week, to see if he could justify me getting him as Fulham had Sheffield United. Dwayne on the other hand did not make any changes, but he did as expected pick Salah as captain, so I had at least neutralised that.
The action began early on Saturday, as West Ham travelled to Newcastle. Alexander Isak, who did absolutely nothing when I owned him earlier in the season scored early on from the penalty spot. Vladimir Coufal gave the penalty away so I was lucky he was only on my bench. Michail Antonio clinically levelled things up, meaning no Fabian Schar clean sheet for me, then my worst fear came to the fore. Bowen assisted Mohammed Kudus to give the Hammers the lead on the stroke of half-time. Then if I already did not feel silly, Bowen after fine work by Kudus made it 3-1 with an emphatic finish on his weaker right foot to begin the second period. The injury-plagued Magpies however, battled back to somehow win 4-3 in an epic turnaround thanks to a brace from substitute Harvey Barnes. Alphonse Areola who along with Alisson Becker seem to be the most injury-prone goalkeepers in the league went off at half-time whilst it was 2-1, so only two points for me there, but given the comeback it was theoretically better he departed when he did anyway.
In the 3pm's, Chelsea and Burnley drew 2-2, despite Vincent Kompany's men having 10-men for over 50 minutes. Unfortunately, Dwayne got what he needed as Cole Palmer, who seems to kill me every week bagged a brace. The first was a dubious penalty where the sending off occurred, the second was a fine goal as he shot low after trapping the ball. At Bramall Lane, Fulham were trailing Sheffield United 3-1 after 70 minutes, but that still did not make Marco Silva bring on Harry Wilson to my dismay. In the end his decision proved to be the correct one as the Cottagers salvaged a late point due to a goal from... you guessed it Muniz. So, after all that, unless Salah went ballistic I did not need to make that midfield change after all given Bowen's haul. Tottenham went behind early on at home to Luton, which meant neither of us were getting clean sheet points as I had Pedro Porro and Dwayne had Cristian Romero. It was looking like it may be one of those days when later on in the first half Son's shot hit both posts. Ange Postecoglou's men got an equaliser through an own goal in the second half, and then Son had a low shot saved well by Thomas Kaminski. I had given up hope but then Brennan's Johnson touch in the 86th minute found Son whose deflected shot won the game. I wanted more from the Korean, but at least he did get a return in the end, he also got maximum bonus points. It was a shame that Morris could not contribute for the Hatters as I got his points off the bench as Wilson did not feature for Fulham. Saying that Dwayne had Morris too, so this would only have helped my rank rather than the head-to-head battle.
In the teatime kick off, Aston Villa got past Wolves 2-0, as my differential Pablo Sarabia did not get the job done. The closest he came was a free-kick that he put over the bar and to my annoyance he was booked. Ollie Watkins came off at half-time as he felt his hamstring, which affected us both. Dwayne also had Leon Bailey, but he blanked as the goals came from Moussa Diaby and Ezri Konsa. In the evening contest, Brentford had chance after chance at home to Manchester United and many of them fell to Ivan Toney. As a team the Bees hit the woodwork four times. Toney hit the inside of the post in the first half as well as putting other decent chances over or wide. It was United however, who took the lead as Mason Mount resurrected on Easter weekend to score in the 96th minute. It unbelievably was not to end up being the winner though as Toney's industry carved out a goal for Kristoffer Ajer in the 98th minute. So, in the end I got the return from Toney, but it should have been so much more. I now had accepted defeat unless the biggest miracle of miracles happened as I only had two men remaining in Salah and Phil Foden who my opponent had too. Whereas he had four men left outside of Salah and Foden. The score stood at 26-23 to me but there was no way four men were not going to accumulate at least four points between them surely. Remember, I got a fortunate win over Dwayne in the reverse fixture, lightning was very unlikely to strike twice.
Sunday, saw Liverpool fall behind once again. Danny Welbeck's powerful strike put Brighton ahead in the 2nd minute at Anfield. This wiped out a double clean sheet for my opposition as he had Caoimhin Kelleher and Conor Bradley. Salah then had shot after shot as it seemed this week all my players just wanted to be wasteful or ended up being unlucky. Salah was to be involved in the Reds' equaliser, but it was not enough for fantasy points. He headed a corner back into the post and it came off a Brighton man before it was volleyed home by Luis Diaz. Salah redeemed himself as he got the winning goal as he rounded off a sharp Liverpool move with the only time he showed composure with the plethora of shots he had. Diaz thought he had scored again, but it was ruled out for a marginal offside that would have seen a Salah assist, and Salah had a low effort saved brilliantly by Bart Verbruggen.
Manchester City and Arsenal met knowing Liverpool had won, but neither side did enough to get the three points as they played out a tragically boring goalless draw. Gabriel Jesus was Arsenal's biggest threat, but he could not find the net against his former team to give the newspapers the Easter headline they so desired. Bukayo Saka's blank did not harm Dwayne in any way as William Saliba's clean sheet points helped him to a 10-point triumph as it ended 53-43.
My faint dreams of winning the Justice League seem all but gone now, as Eman beat Andrew by a measly point in his encounter. Andrew had Diaz, so that disallowed goal would have got him the victory. Trailing Eman by 9 points now with 8 gameweeks remaining looks too great of a task, so I will just have to try and cement second place. The issue is my next game is against the reigning champion Khurram (K aka Mr. FPL). My overall rank slipped badly and I need to bounce back as gameweek 31 will be here rapidly.
@DubulDee