Well GW31 was as mental as my ex-girlfriend. With all the best plans in the world there isn’t a single FPL gaffer that would have ever expected a measly 4 fixtures to return such an obscene amount of points. This should have been a week where 40pts would have seen you soar up the rankings, instead we had teams coasting past the 80 mark for fun. If someone had said to me that we could score 109pts but I would have to slap my sister in the face I’d have just asked which cheek.
Our highest score of the season was achieved with no chips used or hits taken, whilst also leaving over £8m in the bank. It ensured we pretty much halved our overall ranking going from 52k to 27k.
We went with Asmir Begovic in goal and unfortunately an early WBA goal killed the clean sheet.
In front of him we started his team mate Charlie Daniels who ironically didn’t actually start for Bournemouth. Thankfully he came on early and not only did he pick up the full 2pts for 60 minutes he also returned his first attacking return since GW6. Christopher Schindler played and scored zero but it was our Liverpool left back Andrew Robertson who was the star of our backline, scoring 11pts. A season high for him. His ball for Mo Salah’s 2nd was nothing short of superb.
Talking of the Egyptian I think it’s time we discuss his performance against Watford. 4 goals, 1 assist, 29pts scored, his 14th double figure return, just 29pts off of Luis Suarez’s all time FPL record and 4 goals clear at the top of the top scoring list. This is quite possibly the most extraordinary individual season the Premier League has seen. If you Triple Captained Salah then I applaud you but if like us you captained him and scored 58pts then I’m sure you weren’t complaining either. He may not have a double gameweek upcoming but I can’t imagine anyone will be dropping him from now until May. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting added a goal to our midfield, before hobbling straight off after, whilst Xherdan Shaqiri and Richarlison unfortunately blanked.
Our front line welcomed Cenk Tosun for one week and one week only and couldn’t have done much better, hitting a crucial brace for both Everton and us. 13pts scored was huge in helping us achieve a healthy move up our rankings and took his goal tally to 4 in his last 3. Roberto Firmino completed the scoring for us as he notched the one goal Salah didn’t.
What a great week. Our planning to ensure we had 11 players with no hits made a huge impact on our overall ranking and puts us in a superb position for our late season push.
With the GW31 plan executed perfectly I had always anticipated calling in our Wildcard now. But after much deliberation following the announcement of the first DGW fixtures I have decided to risk it and hold on an extra week. At this point Wildcard plans need to factor in quite a few weeks in advance and I personally feel that given the fixtures this week and the benefit of the extra weeks info I’m ok to hold on. So with that said we have gone with a much of the same as we had in GW31 but with 2 additions taking a 4pt hit.
Tosun (OUT) – Aubameyang (IN)
Choupo-Moting (OUT) – Sanchez (IN)
In come two big names with nice matchups. Aubameyang being ineligible in Europe ensures that he is nailed on as the Premier League starting striker whilst Alexis Sanchez faces Swansea at home and will look to get his United career started properly now he’s reported back from International duty.
Nick Pope fresh from his first England call up starts for us. Away to WBA we need to hope it’s not consecutive weeks that the bottom placed team kill a keeper cleanie for us.
In front of him we double up with his team mate Ben Mee, Andrew Robertson looks to follow up on last GW’s impressive display whilst Marcos Alonso will aim to go some way to replicating his last performance against Spurs when he hit both of Chelsea’s goals at Wembley. A mix of fixtures but hopefully some points to be had.
The same can be said for our midfield. Richarlison being the one I have absolutely zero hope of anything. 19pts over his last 10 games, he’s not even averaging 2pts a game. The funniest thing is we brought him in for those 10 games just after he had returned assist in back to back games. So maybe it’s our fault. Watford fans, I accept bank transfer, Paypal and cold hard cash, so if you want him scoring again just ping me £20 and I’ll make a late transfer out. Willian starts and hopefully he can continue his fine form that he has shown since the turn of the year. Inconsistent minutes and performances have ceased a little and he is starting to like the player that picked up the Chelsea Player of the Year and Fans’ Player of the Year a couple years ago. He looks an FPL bargain and with a DGW upcoming he looks very likely to stay here for a while. New boy Alexis Sanchez gets his first start of the season for us. Which given that it’s GW32 sounds plainly f*cking insane, especially given that he top scored with 264pts last season. Nowhere near that this season we could do with that changing for at least one week. The same can’t be said for Mo Salah who just keeps getting better. He is obviously leading most captaincy polls this week as he faces Crystal Palace in the early kick off Saturday. I’m sure he will be one of the favourites in a vote below too.
Up top another player making his first start for the FPL Updates XI is Pierre Emerick Aubameyang. 3 goals in 5 league games so far he’s started pretty well. No team has conceded as many as Stoke this season so hopefully he can add to that tally. He’s joined by 2 of our starters last GW, Roberto Firmino and Callum Wilson.
I still can’t decide if it’s a bad decision not calling in the Wildcard so I’ll be over the moon if we can more or less hold our overall ranking. Anything inside the top 35/40k and I’ll be happy.
It seems forever ago that we had an FPL weekend so given that there’s now no International breaks again until the World Cup let’s cherish these last 7 GW’s. Make sure all transfers and chips count and all the best for the final run in. As always we have the captaincy poll below so all votes welcome.
[polldaddy poll=9972191]
Thanks for reading and I hope everyone has a great Easter Weekend.
Written by FPL Guru (@FPL_Guru)
