From 308k back up to 111k in 4 gameweeks! 65pts on a 35pt average and a successful navigation around the pitfalls of the dreaded GW30 blanks. We will take that but that was the easy bit. If we can do over the next 4 gameweeks what we have here then I might be knocking on Mr FPL Updates door looking for that contract extension! Before we start looking at future plans let’s take a look at last week’s performances.
Let’s be clear. We had no decisions to make as we only had the 11 available. I say ‘only’, where in reality 11 was better than most FPL gaffers. Starting in goal we had Butland. We kind of expected Southampton to score so I can’t say that 1pt is a surprise.
4 of the 10 teams playing kept clean sheets and thankfully we had coverage from 3 of them. One of them was Russell bloody Martin! Obviously we started him knowing Norwich were definitely not going to keep a clean sheet… How wrong were we?! 7pts from him was a huge bonus, ignoring the fact he was a big reason our captain didn’t score. Eric Dier picked up a comfortable 6pts against Villa. Doesn’t everyone. Christian Fuchs matched Martin with a 7pt haul thanks to also picking up a cleanie and a bonus point. Ashley Williams was the odd one out with his solitary point in the 5 goal thriller against Bournemouth. 10pts over the 2 weeks we specifically brought him in for was good enough for us though.
Our midfield has been banging out points for fun in the last few weeks and this week was no different. We ran with a 3 and we had 9pt returns from both Alli and Arnautovic. Alli created both goals for Spurs yet somehow missed out on any bonus. Arnie scored his 10th of the season and claimed 2 bonus points in the meantime. Not bad from the big man considering he had only notched 5 Premier League goals before this season. Mahrez had a rare quiet day picking up just the 3pts.
Our front 3 were a mixed bag and unfortunately we got the captaincy wrong. If we hadn’t we could have been looking at a top 100k position this week. The armband was given to Aguero and seeing as Norwich have conceded more goals this year than Justin Bieber has had sexual partners, we thought it a safe shout. Wrong. A frustrating 0-0 returned him 4pts and all but ended City’s title hopes. Thankfully City are in danger of dropping out the top 4 so the chance of Aguero being rested is minimal. Our vice-captain, Kane, was our only double digit scorer this week. Playing Villa, why did we not captain him?! Anyway, 2 goals and 3 bonus gave us and him 13pts. Last up was Vardy. Yes he picked up an assist but the fact Leicester are now playing like they want to win every game 1-0 means the double up on Leicester’s attacking options is a concern. Given that Leicester don’t have a double gameweek at any point leaves us with a possible decision. Not that it will be made this week.
So with 4 weeks of green arrows and the upcoming minefield of double gameweeks and blanks we have decided to hold onto our free transfer for next week. What we have decided to do though is to finally use one of our chips. Granted, the ‘All out Attack’ chip is about as appealing as finding 20p on the floor but this feels like the week to use it given the quality of our front 8.
In goal is Butland again. Watford have hardly been prolific of late but we think they will score here, so we will be likely clinging onto the hope of save points.
So with the All Out Attack in we have benched Fuchs, Dann and Martin to leave just Dier and Williams to hold fort! Williams home to Villa shouldn’t be too challenging but Dier may have a little more to do against Bournemouth. Either way they both clearly have the best fixtures and we are adamant the other 3 will only bring home 1’s and 2’s.
The midfield 5 looks flush with talent. Firmino and Payet both return following their blank FA Cup weeks but have challenging away games. Firmino has Southampton and Payet has Chelsea. Neither player scored against those opponents in the reverse fixture earlier in the season but both are in fine form at the moment. We will be hoping Mahrez returns to form when he faces Palace and given the title is moving even closer to the King Power, we have got to be expecting their talisman to deliver. To put into perspective his FPL achievements this season, his 207pts are just 26pts shy of Eden Hazard’s top scoring 2014/15 total. Quite incredible when you look back to the plaudits the Belgian was receiving 10 months ago. Arnie and Alli the last 2 mids for us. Arnie has Watford and Alli has Bournemouth. To justify the chip usage we will certainly be hoping for a minimum 20pts from the 5 and hope that all 3 benched defenders blank.
Up top it’s the template trio. Aguero loves a Manchester derby but doesn’t get the armband as punishment for last week. Vardy has Palace, a match that he scored the only goal in the last time the 2 teams met, and lastly our captain Kane. Bournemouth have picked up form of late but I can’t help but think following the Swansea win they will feel a sense of relief that they are basically safe from relegation. Added to that is the fact Kane scored a hat-trick against them in October and is now heavily gunning for the Golden Boot. We like him this week.
With the first part of the planning complete we now need to start looking at the potential pit-falls of the upcoming gameweeks. 3 calm weeks before our first double gameweek of the season but we can’t lose site of the fact we need to be building accordingly. Just 5 teams have a double in 34 and a fixture in 35 so it would be prudent to stock accordingly. Arsenal, City and Liverpool are 3 of those and the advice from us is to prioritise those clubs’ players with any transfers in.
These next 8 weeks are what makes FPL great and they are the 8 that will 100% make or break your mini leagues. If you need any sensible team/transfer advice try and avoid tweeting me personally between the hours of 6pm Friday and 4am Saturday as I have had a worse week than Arsene Wenger and will be drinking enough alcohol to sink a cruise liner!
Good luck all and fingers crossed for those greens!
Written by FPL Guru
