After my defeat in the last gameweek I felt that any faint hope of the title had slipped away, nonetheless I had to battle on. Hanging onto second place was looking complex too and this week a former champion awaited. Darren B. (D-Man) my co-host was in the hypothetical relegation places this campaign despite usually being one of the most consistent players. Regardless of his position in the head-to-head table, he had been easily outscoring me recently that he had almost drawn level with me in classic points, so this was going to be difficult.
I had strong thoughts of bringing in Kevin De Bruyne for Heung-min Son but with Tottenham having upcoming double gameweeks in the end I stuck with the Korean. Unai Emery announced in his press conference that Ollie Watkins was in the squad despite his hamstring issue, sith me overthinking I decided not to get him back in as I did not know how many minutes he would get at home to Brentford. With the fact my transfers had not really worked recently, including the ones made with my 'wildcard', I went on to not make any changes in the end. I wanted to have a last look at my team, but as I had to drive in for the 'FootyOnTop' Show on Saturday morning because of the train strike, I never had the usual time I have to check things over, so when I did get a chance to look it was already almost the deadline at 11am. He had to leave the show early this week, and I later saw that Darren had made three changes, meaning a 4-point hit. He sold Tino Livramento, Bukayo Saka and Darwin Nunez for Ben White, Son and Rodrigo Muniz. Darren is not necessarily one who checks over his opponents' team, but here he may have done so as I own two of those players. I left the captaincy with Mo Salah whilst he gave his to Cole Palmer as Chelsea were away at Sheffield United.
The action began on Saturday with the early kick-off at Selhurst Park between Crystal Palace and Manchester City. Before I had even been able to get home it was already 1-1. Jean-Philippe Mateta gave the Eagles the lead, but it was of course De Bruyne who got a tremendous equaliser. My gut tells me many things when it comes to FPL, but somehow depending at the time the idea comes, I can think my way out of doing it. The second half had barely even started, and Rico Lewis put City 2-1 up. Then De Bruyne found Erling Haaland to make 3-1 in the 70th minute before the Belgian scored inside the box for 4-1. I had missed out on an 18-point haul I was fuming. Palace got a consolation as it ended 4-2 to the away side. Darren had smartly benched Phil Foden who was named on the City substitutes bench by Pep Guardiola as he was not brought on. Like many we both benefited from the Haaland goal.
In the 3pm contests, I was disgusted to hear that Ivan Toney was only on the bench for Brentford. After all the overthinking, Watkins started for Aston Villa and gave them the lead against the Bees. Villa went 2-0 up just after the break before Thomas Frank's men turned it around to amazingly go 3-2 up. Watkins just like De Bruyne was to help himself to a brace however, as I was left to rue not making any of those transfers. Watkins and De Bruyne's ownership had gone down dramatically so in terms of that they were real differentials this particular week. Everton beat Burnley 1-0, and Jarrad Branthwaite who was in my original gameweek 32 draft was only on my bench, so I missed out on clean sheet points there.
There was more pain for me at Craven Cottage as after leaving two Newcastle men on my bench they won 1-0 at Fulham. Having started Muniz, I thought he would return so left Martin Dubravka and Fabian Schar out only for them to combine for 16 points. It could have been even more damaging as Schar was unlucky to have a goal ruled out for a push by Dan Burn. Getting hefty points from Newcastle players the team Darren supports would have been brilliant but instead I was cursing my luck. All the points on my bench were making me sick. Alexander Isak was the most transferred in player and his blank disappointed many including Darren. Anthony Gordon went close a couple of times, so him not returning was welcome as he was in the opposition's team also. He also had Alfie Doughty in his team, so I was thankful that Bournemouth took the lead at Luton, but the Hatters fought back to triumph 2-1.
Wolves went ahead against West Ham, and it was my differential Pablo Sarabia who got the goal from the penalty spot. Rayan Ait-Nouri won the spot-kick getting me vital assist points too before he had to depart the game in the 54th minute due to an injury. West Ham fought back to win 2-1, and they also had a goal disallowed that would have given me an assist by Mohammed Kudus. In the late game, I desperately needed Brighton to score at home to Arsenal, as with Darren brining in White, he had a double up at the back with Gabriel Magalhaes. The goal did not come however, despite a decent start by the Seagulls as the Gunners won 3-0 to go top of the Premier League with a very professional performance. White at least got booked to take him out of bonus point consideration. Saturday ended with us tied 24-all.
Liverpool travelled to Manchester United to get things started off on Sunday. They took the lead through Luis Diaz and should have had more goals before a Jarrell Quansah error allowed the Red Devils back into the game. This dashed my hopes of double clean sheet points for Caoimhin Kelleher and Conor Bradley. Then Erik ten Hag's men took the lead through a great Kobbie Mainoo strike. It looked like Jurgen Klopp's men were done for but then Harvey Elliott was upended by Aaron Wan-Bissaka. Up stepped Salah to convert the penalty to vindicate those like me that captained him as it finished in a stalemate. Darren had him too but getting twice the points really helped in this tight matchup, especially as the other Liverpool players did not produce for me.
Sheffield United got a late goal to deny Chelsea the three points at Bramall Lane as it ended 2-2. I thought I was going to get away with nothing from Palmer, but Darren went back ahead of me as Palmer assisted Noni Madueke in the 66th minute which had Chelsea 2-1 ahead at the time. Dorde Petrovic conceding twice was helpful as he was my opponent's keeper. It was all up to Pedro Porro in the last game, as my other player Son was owned by the opposition too. An own goal by Murillo gave Spurs the lead at home against Nottingham Forest, but the man in-form Chris Wood levelled things up after poor defending by the home side. Wood (£4.9m) now has 12 league goals but is still only owned by 2%. He would have been the better choice for a budget forward with my wildcard in hindsight than Muniz. So with no clean sheet coming I needed an attacking return from Porro. Ange Postecoglou's men went 2-1 up through a defender but it was not Porro as Micky van de Ven smashed in a shot from the edge of the box after being found by Son. I was heading for defeat when a cross came in Rodrigo Bentancur got a head on the ball it flashed across the box and Porro crashed in a volley! SCENES! Porro had taken the most shots in the league without scoring a goal before that, but he came through at a pivotal time for me. You would have thought Liverpool were playing the way I yelled. It is times like that when you see why I do not pick players from teams I really dislike, imagine me cheering a goal from Bukayo Saka or Marcus Rashford...'eww!'. Porro was only going to get two bonus points which would not have mattered as I had won anyway, but some late tackles got him to share the maximum with van de Ven as it ended 3-1.
The final score in the head-to-head finished 59-49 thanks to Porro's 11 points, Salah sneaking in one bonus point (meaning two for me) and Palmer for once not being in the bonus points for Chelsea. To make things even better Darren's brother Michael beat the leader Eman, so I am six points behind him again now with six gameweeks remaining. The title charge is still on then, however my capitulation of late has meant that Eman's classic points are far superior to mine. With him being well over 100 points ahead unless I can claw that back then it is like an extra point in head-to-head terms. The capitulation also means that despite winning, my rank has slipped as I only just got above the average score for the week, but I am always going to take the head-to-head win and hopefully I can close the lead further.
@DubulDee