Gameweek 10

Gameweek 9 is behind us, and what a breathtaking week it was with hat-tricks and red cards galore!!

Let’s start at the top – we have a new overall leader – ‘Wilsss wanderers’, hats off, an incredible GW powered by three hat tricks – Foden, Trossard and Haaland (captain), not only did this take you to the top of the Evie Dove League on a massive 560 points, but also into the top 50k in the world – very impressive. A nod also to ‘The Golden Mile’ (JFF) on 569 points, just outside the top 20k in the world – the Evie Dove League is performing well!

And it was so nearly an historic double for ‘Wilsss wanderers’ with 117 points provisionally taking the lead in Best non Triple Captain GW from ‘Evermore FC’, who had been front running since GW4. Wilsss was in top spot until late on Monday evening when 3 bonus points for Maddison was just enough to catapult ‘K.E.T.H UTD’ into pole position with 118 points, an incredible score and one that might stand for a while, at least until we get into double gameweek territory (more on that later).

Great to see K.E.T.H UTD’ top of the pile, until now their only ambition was to finally beat me just once at FPL, however it seems that they have now raised their sights, and are now gunning for one of the cash prizes! I wish you well K.E.T.H, albeit watch out for ill advised early season gloating!!

Moving on, we need to talk about Erling……

……this is getting a bit silly now isn’t it?. He has touched the ball a mere 191 times in the Premier League, and in that time has completely blown the thing to pieces with 14 goals and 3 assists!!! Basically every 14th touch of the ball is resulting in a goal, and already he has got as many PL hat-tricks as PL legends Cristiano Ronaldo and Jamie Vardy. Well done all of you that captained him, just over 60% of you hauling 46 points – I was actually surprised the percentage was not higher than that! 

However there is part of me that thinks it is just too easy/obvious to auto captain the man from Norway… As an FPL purist I take great delight in finding a differential captain, going against the grain – like the four teams this week who went for Maddison. Whilst he only yielded 36 points, 10 points less than Haaland,  the sense of satisfaction is surely so much greater, especially when it comes in the final match on a Monday night.?

Anyone still with me???* 

You will recall that we kept back a mystery prize pot of £150, we’ve got a couple of ideas of how this might be allocated – one of them might well be the league leader without Haaland! We’ll let you know, planning to decide on these prizes a bit later in the season.

As for the other 40% of captains, it was a mixed bag – over 25% of you went for either Salah, Jesus, Kane, or KDB, all of them delivering a return of sorts, whilst those aforementioned teams that remained loyal to their season long captains were rewarded – not least ‘Fjirepit FC’ who stuck with our Brazilian friend, Firmino netting 24 points, and also ‘Benchwarmers’ who gained 12 points from Thiago Silva, despite the fact that he should never have been on the pitch. Surely judging that his handball did not deny a goalscoring opportunity was basically a slur on Jordan Ayew’s ability as a striker?! If that had been Erling Haaland, Thiago Silva would definitely have walked! That said, it’s possible on that basis that players are going to start getting sent off if they tackle Erling Haaland on his 14th touch of the ball in a game!

No triple captains played this week, ‘Neil Madrid’ still in the lead since GW1. Can he somehow muscle his way through the entire season including the double gameweeks?? We shall see.

One bench boost – ‘Jay’s XI’ – it was all looking a bit shaky with a bench comprising Taylor (0 points), Neco Williams (-1 point), and Andreas (2 points). Thank goodness Danny Ward finally doubled his total from the first seven gameweeks, delivering 8 points on Monday night including save and bonus points. That must have been a long 90 minutes on Monday night for  ‘Jay’s XI’! 

Talking of the bench, commiserations to ‘DCUnited’, with Trossards 20 points getting splinters, and also a special mention for the ironically named ‘Toon Army’, who somehow managed to choose Andreas, who played against Newcastle and netted 2 points, over Almiron, who scored a worldie and accumulated 15 points!! What were you thinking of ‘Toon Army’?? Those extra points would have put you top of the league! However congratulations on easing quietly into third place, tucked in behind one time leader ‘Hotel? Thiago, who capitalised on their wildcard, one of seven played last week. Anyway ‘Toon Army’ I’ll stop there with the praise, as I know you are not one for the limelight :-)…..

Great also to welcome back some of our old favourites to the Premier League, notably Pierre Emerick Aubameyang (great to see you actually managed to turn up on time), Diego Costa, and last but not least Jarrod Bowen! We have missed you all, it is great to have you back – maybe some decent differentials in there??

One more thing from GW9, before we look ahead……..thank you Eddie Howe – would you believe that taking off Trippier after 83 minutes, protected clean sheet points for over 50% of us?! Whilst I’m sure Trippier would have backed himself (there’s a joke in there in case you didn’t spot it!) to not concede had he stayed on the pitch, it was great that Eddie took that debate out of the equation!

So onto GW10, with GW12 also looming large – what’s your plan? Start ditching those super valuable Man City and Arsenal players now; hold on to them and use your wildcard if you are in that lucky position; or plan your Free Hit for GW12, knowing full well that the postponed GW7 will come back to haunt you later in the season – there will inevitably be a massive double gameweek, and a pitiful blank gameweek to navigate at some point in 2023!

Don’t forget that you also need to consider if you bought someone like Martinelli at the start of the season and now sell him, it will cost you more to buy him back if you want him for GW13 onwards. So much to think about – hopefully you’ll put a bit more thought into it than Kwasi Kwarteng did on the 45% tax rate….a little bit of politics…..

That’s it for this week, incredibly the three most transferred out players ahead of GW10 (excluding Mitrovic who is injured)  are Trent, Salah and Luis Diaz…….. looks like the masses are expecting Arsenal to continue their rich vein of form……..or could Liverpool burst their bubble? Bring it on!!

Have a good one everyone, and thanks as ever from all of us at The Evie Dove Foundation.

* I have never won a mini-league