I might need to go to Edinburgh more often! My weekend away meant transfers were made early and all I could do was drink copious amounts of Guinness, cross my fingers and pray that we didn’t register our 14th week of red arrows this season. As it happens the FPL Updates XI had their highest scoring week of the season with a decent 76 points and moved up about 250k places.
With Eldin Jakupovic back between the sticks we actually have another goalkeeping option. Typically it now coincides with WBA’s favourable run but here we made an extra point starting the Hull stopper.
Marcos Alonso you sexy beast! Ignoring the fact he looks like a Football Manager regen, he is quickly becoming one of my things right now. Reliable point scoring defenders are so hard to come by now that I have absolutely no concerns spending 6.0m+ on one. Two goals, a clean sheet and maximum bonus left him on 21 points, which was just 2 points off the highest week score of the season so far. Given that he had two of his worst weeks prior to this game he actually had a gameweek 21 net transfer total of -37,070! If you are one of those and you need to vent, cry or have someone tell you that you’re an idiot please feel free to message in the comments section below!! Leighton Baines picked up a very surprising clean sheet for 6 points whilst Erik Pieters unfortunately conceded late and finished on just 2 points.
We actually called the captain correctly this week. Assuming we don’t factor the Alonso master class into it. Alexis Sanchez was given the armband and duly delivered a 22 point week for us. A goal and max bonus was much needed. Eden Hazard contributed an assist but both Matty Phillips and Etienne Capoue blanked.
Our front line was once again led by Zlatan Ibrahimovic as he scored his 14th league goal of the season. 7 points against Liverpool made it 58 points in his last six gameweek’s moved him up to second in overall FPL points. Unfortunately Divock Origi and Christian Benteke couldn’t add more than 2 points each to our total.
So at last we see some decent green arrows. Our transfers over the past few gameweeks have been with this run of games in mind and I think we look good enough in gameweek 22 to save the free transfer.
Ben Foster goes back in goal. Four conceded last week and no clean sheet since gameweek 12 means no matter what the fixture I don’t feel overly confident of any points. That includes Sunderland, but we start him none the less.
Yes, i’m completely deluded but I really feel that Nathan Ake get’s the start this week. *Disclaimer* I’m writing this before Friday team news. The upside is that even if we pick him and he doesn’t start he’s probably not coming on. Also, it’s only in place of Etienne Capoue who has one attacking return in the 16 gameweek’s. Quite why he’s still in our squad I don’t know. Marcos Alonso obviously starts in the same game against Hull whilst Dejan Lovren is recalled for his early home game against Swansea and Leighton Baines against Crystal Palace. Baines has now registered either a clean sheet, goal or assist in six of his last eight. Throw in that his next five are Palace, Stoke, Bournemouth, Middlesbrough and Sunderland it starts to make sense as to why his net transfer total at the time of writing is +110k.
Our midfield keeps the armband but this week is shifts to Eden Hazard. This has been an incredibly tough call as both himself and Alexis Sanchez have superb match ups. The deciding factor is that Hull are just really crap. Their only clean sheet this season came way back in gameweek2 and the way Chelsea are playing it really wouldn’t shock me if this ended 5-0. Sanchez has Burnley at home so is named vice captain. Our third midfielder is Matty Phillips and his home game to Sunderland means he realistically could be included in the captaincy chat. In all honesty I think this midfield three is as strong as it can be this week.
Up top is the same three as last week but with far better fixtures. Zlatan Ibrahimovic has an attacking return in nine of his last 11 gameweek’s and faces Stoke, who have conceded 11 goals in the previous five gameweek’s. Christian Benteke has blanked in six straight gameweek’s but scored twice midweek in the FA Cup. He scored in the away game against Everton so I’m quietly confident he notches this week. Last up is Divock Origi. Hopefully his midweek penalty miss doesn’t affect him but at this stage we just need to hope he starts. Swansea at home is just so favourable. He’s only started two of the last four and hasn’t played 90 minutes in the last five. If he doesn’t start this week it’s likely to be a transfer out next week.
And there we have it. The FPL Updates XI for gameweek 22 with arguably our most favourable week of fixtures so far this season. If we don’t break 50 points and deliver a second consecutive week of green arrows I’ll be shocked. As mentioned in the intro we now have a comments section below so feel free to have your say on the team or give us a shout for a little last minute advice. Contrary to our teams position we do sort of know what we are doing! Honestly.
Good luck everyone and let’s get hoping for some green arrows. Thanks for reading.
Written by FPL Guru (@FPL_Guru_)
