88 points, a jump up to 77k, wildcard intact and the 2 main chips ready and waiting, this has been a great few weeks! Due to Firmino’s injury our use of the ‘all out attack’ chip was a complete waste of time but we didn’t give a Fuchs seeing as the Leicester left back came in anyway with a cool 9 points! So before we discuss our continued plan for the pending double gameweeks let’s have a look at our GW31 breakdown.
In goal was Jack Butland and following his 3pt performance against Watford we have to say a painful goodbye. For anyone that has read this review throughout the year you will know my love for him and the joy it has brought owning him. The highest scoring goalkeeper this season has been an absolute budget beauty but following his injury for England he has played his last game for the FPL Updates XI!
With the all out attack chip used we ran with Eric Dier and Ashley Williams at the back. Both returned clean sheets against Aston Villa and Bournemouth respectively, with Williams even picking up 2 bonus in a painfully drab game. The real bonus came when Christian Fuchs came in as first sub to pick up a clean sheet and maximum bonus. You make your own luck apparently! 😉
The midfield has been a consistent source of points over this great run and this week was fairly similar. No double digit returns but no 2pt returns either. Riyad Mahrez was the pick of the bunch with the only goal of the game against Palace, returning us a healthy 9. Dimitri Payet and Dele Alli both picked up assists and Arnie picked up the appearance points and the additional cleanie point as he came off just before the Troy Deeney goal.
When it comes to our front 3 it would be daft to start anywhere other than with Harry Kane!! Given the armband he delivered a huge 32pt week. 2 goals, 1 assist and full bonus, a big reason for a sizeable jump up the overall rankings. Vardy picked up his 8th assist of the season whilst Aguero blanked for the 4th game in his last 5. Ordinarily this form would be a concern but with Bournemouth this week, a DGW in 34 and a fixture in 35, he is going nowhere.
As we avoided a transfer last week we were left with 2 this week and we have decided to run with the following 2 swaps:
Dann (OUT) – Ogbonna (IN)
Firmino (OUT) – Ozil (IN)
We are sticking with our plan to wildcard next week so those 2 have been used to field a strong line up for this week before the big decisions start first thing Monday. So let’s have a look at our GW32 line up:
We just couldn’t transfer Butland out. It’s just too soon. Him sitting on our bench is the FPL equivalent of checking on an ex-girlfriend’s Facebook after a break up. You know you can’t have them but you still want to see what they are up to. Jack, we miss you! *starts listening to Adele on repeat*. Anyway, enough of that. On to our starting keeper. Wayne Hennessey is in. We don’t have a choice. There is more chance of Mark Noble making a Roy Hodgson England squad than there is of Hennessey keeping a cleanie this week but we live in hope.
In front of him we have a back 3 of players with home games. Always a good start. Christian Fuchs is slowly becoming an FPL Updates favourite. Cheap, effective and fond of a bonus point. In fact he has totalled 16 bonus points in his last 13 Prem games. That is more than any other Premier League player in that same period! After 9 games without a clean sheet Russ Martin has now returned 2 in 2. For that reason he gets a start this week. For the record, nobody here truly believes he will make it a cleanie hattie but it’s hard to forget how rubbish Newcastle are. Last defender is new boy Angelo Ogbonna. We needed a cheapish defender with a semi-attractive match up and the West Ham man ticks that box. Yes, he has totalled a huge zero points over his last 2 starts but Palace are struggling and this looks one of the better fixtures of the week.
Our midfield is a full house of home games too. It also looks pretty damn sexy! Dimitri Payet, fresh from his ridiculous free kick for France, comes up against a Crystal Palace team yet to keep a clean sheet in 2016. If we didn’t have a certain Argentine striker he would certainly be in contention for the armband. Riyad Mahrez is up next. 216 points, a season increase of 1.9m and an ownership of 69%. Incredible statistics but even more incredibly is we could actually be looking to ship him out after this week. It will be very interesting to see what his ownership is soon given he has no DGW but we keep him for the match with Southampton. Arnie gets a start. He has quietly gone about scoring points and now finds himself as the 5th highest scoring midfielder in the game. No defender has more than him and only 5 strikers do. I have always made it clear that his inconsistency concerns me but now he’s on penalties and almost always nails 90 mins, he has stayed. Another likely casualty of the impending DGW wildcard next week though. The last mid is Mesut Ozil. He comes in for Firmino and will almost certainly stick around next week. Home to Watford following his impressive display against Italy on Tuesday, we like him this week.
Our front 3 is unchanged. Both Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy had about as good an international break as you can hope and with them both gunning for the title and the golden boot they stick around this week. Neither have easy games but both teams have proven their ability to be fixture proof options. That leaves our captain fantastic, Sergio Aguero! He hasn’t been his usual self the last month or so but there are very few players as good in the world and we live in hope. Bournemouth have conceded 6 in their last 3 and we are expecting City to bounce back from a couple of awful performances.
With a very pleasing jump of about 230k places between GW26-GW31 we will now look to this week as one to maintain position. The wildcard is coming in for next week with the DGW’s rolling in so this week we are just aiming to stay where we are. If we do we will be forcefully gunning for the top 50k soon.
I’m now off for my all too frequent after work Friday beer session, so if you are after someone to reinforce some positivity in your reckless decision to captain Marcus Rashford then I’m your man. In all seriousness, use these transfers and chips wisely and good luck to everyone!
Written by FPL Guru
