Gameweek 22

Anyone remember GW21?? If not, basically it all boiled down to that man again………Erling Haaland………normal service resumed….. 20 touches…..3 goals……….If you were amongst the 76% of teams in our league that captained him  you got 70-90 odd points……..If you didn’t you got 50-70 odd points….and that’s pretty much the story of the week……

All of that meant tha ’Siuuuu you later’ held top spot for the third week running, ‘Top 2 & we ain’t 2’ leapt up the table into second place,  and former leader ‘Romford Rejects’ stayed in the mix in third place. Team of the week was one time league leader ‘‘Cheesy Iheanachos’ with a cracking 103 points, closely followed by ‘Sambuca Boys’ with the best of the three Wildcards played, 98 points powering them into the top 20, well done guys, great scores.

Way more excitingly however it’s been all change in the Prem, not only did our fellow manager Frank Lampard join the ‘Golden Generation’ managerial scrapheap with his exit from Everton, we also hit the transfer deadline and there’s been some exciting business for us managers to consider as GW22 approaches. Over £800m was spent, a record for January and in particular we’ve seen a flood of new signings arrive at the third best club in West London, with Mudryk, Fernandez and Felix all entering the Premier League fray, who needs a Russian Oligarch anyway??  Meanwhile we sadly lost a fantasy football favourite – “Happy Flower” Joao Cancelo was dispatched to Germany with Pep showing him very clearly who is boss, whilst Matt Doherty followed in the footsteps of Kieran Trippier (who incredibly is now second top points scorer this season behind our Norwegian friend) with a move to Spain. Closer to home, Trossard, Gordon, Shelvey and Jorghino moved around too, all potential picks as they seek to impress at their new clubs. Oh and watch out for Yasin Ayari, he signed for Brighton for £5m, that’s almost a guarantee that Chelsea and Arsenal will be battling for his £60m signature next season!!

Onto GW22 and its a Double Gameweek for Leeds, and also for Man Utd who have 2 home games v Crystal Palace and Leeds – does it get any better than that? ‘Dom is below me’ must be barely able to sleep as he imagines the queue of teams lining up their Triple Captain chip for either Rashford or Fernandes, two of the most transferred-in players this week with over 1m teams bringing in at least one of them! Good luck in that £125 quest everyone – 97 points to aim for!! If you are really brave of course you could go for a differential TC – Wout Weghorst anyone?…..it did not quite work out when we all captained him for the big Burnley double gameweek a season or two ago, but let’s see if anyone is brave enough to not hold that against him!

And of course be careful with overloading on Man Utd players – after strolling past Forest this week in the Carabao semi-final they, plus Newcastle, Brentford and Brighton will all be missing from Blank Gameweek 25 – those of you who still have the Free Hit chip available will have the dilemma of using it to cover the gap and protect your overall score, or do you save it for a big double gameweek and go after ‘Gylos Galacticos’ target of 101 points for another of the £125 prizes?! Some big decisions coming up as we steam into the second half of the season!!

Good luck for GW 22 everyone, don’t forget the deadline is 18:30 this evening, and if you are struggling to decide who to put in your starting eleven, spare a thought for Graham Potter, there is always someone with bigger challenges than you! 

All the best from all of us at the Evie Dove Foundation.