Sergio Aguero. Sergio. Aguero. There are occasionally performances in FPL when you just remember exactly where you were and when they happened. October 3rd. I was half way through my 2nd Stein at Oktoberfest when I heard Aguero had made it 1-1. I was happy, relieved, tipsy. This is a player we, along with many others, had shown a huge amount of faith in. For weeks and weeks he failed to deliver. What happened over the next 20 minutes of football was nothing short of fantasy premier league porn. Goal after goal, point after point. What made this even sweeter was the guy giving me the regular updates was a mini league rival who didn’t captain Aguero. He didn’t even have him in.
Once the dust had settled and bonus allocated he had scored 50 points! 50! Fifty! To put that in perspective, that total for him alone exceeded ANY week TOTAL we had accumulated the whole season so far.
So let’s look at how our gameweek 8 line up faired:
To start, and to sound a little like a broken record, we had Butland in goal. Seldom has there been a goalkeeper that we have been so fond of. 4.5m and playing behind a porous back line at Stoke he seems to continually deliver. 6 points scored for us meant for the second consecutive week he outscored our entire starting defence. He is now the 6th highest scoring goalkeeper in FPL, yet he only has 1 clean sheet in 8! All 4 goalkeepers directly below him have more.
As mentioned our back 3 disappointed once again with just 5 points between them so let’s conveniently move on.
In midfield we had Ayew return to goalscoring ways against Spurs. It had been 3 games without an attacking return. Unfortunately Cazorla, Yaya and Depay did not really bother turning up. *SPOILER ALERT* they don’t make the Updates XI Wildcard Team.
To the front line. Well we will just leave it by saying, in true Martin Tyler fashion, Aguerooooooooo!
78 points scored and green arrows across the board we will happily take that at Updates XI HQ!
So with the International break in the rear view mirror and the Wildcard called in, let’s take a little look at what we’ve gone with.
It’s Wildcard time!! Calling in a wildcard always feels like that risky text you send to a girl when you’re drunk. The minute to click send, or save in this case, you have a moment of fear and regret, you just pray for a positive outcome. Maybe that’s just me. Yep. In fact I’m pretty sure that’s just me.
Yes, I know we confessed our love for Jack Butland but even we aren’t crazy enough to expect a Stoke clean sheet away at Swansea. So we go with Hennessey. 3.9m and currently the number 1 for Palace, we will run with the hope West Ham can’t possibly turn up as they did at Arsenal, Liverpool and City.
In front of him it was just Kolarov that retains his place in our squad, but with him out for two weeks he departs too! Transfers were:
Kolarov (out) – Zabaleta (in)
Richards (out) – Cedric (in)
Huth (out) – Dawson (in)
Mings (out) – Dann (in)
Wisdom (out) – Martin (in)
Let’s be honest, our backline until this point has been nothing short of embarrassing so this lot can’t do much worse.
In midfield it’s more wholesale changes.
Cazorla (out) – Sanchez (in)
Yaya (out) – De Bruyne (in)
Depay (out) – Wanyama (in)
Ayew and Mahrez remain and rightly so. The other 3 had been on borrowed time and their time is now up.
Up top we have changed all 3. It’s a bold move of bandwagons and a gamble but it’s a move we like. Vardy has finally made it into the Updates squad. Surely just in time for an inevitable blank following a run of scoring in 5 games on the trot. Pelle is in! He is becoming harder and harder to ignore. Attacking returns in his last 3 and a Leicester team yet to keep a clean sheet this season, he just had to be included. Last but not least is the one we all love to hate, Diego Costa. This is the one gamble for the wildcard line up. With Aguero injured it was time to pull the trigger on it. Aston Villa at home, raring to go returning from a ban and just 6.5% ownership. Bold prediction time. Costa scores a brace, he has a row with Lescott and one of them gets booked.
Cheers for reading guys and all the best for gameweek 9!
By FPL Guru
