Gameweek 25

Gameweek 24 was a low scoring one with an average of 44 points, commiserations to over 70% of you that captained Haaland, who missed an absolute sitter for a 4 point return, and to the 24 of you that had either Pope or Martinez between the sticks, both contributing a very sad -3 (minus three) points for their respective red cards and own goals; a particularly painful experience for ‘Sambuca Boys’ who managed to scoop up Pope off the bench via the Bench Boost! For the rest of us we could sit back and enjoy the show, it was great to see that one go in off Martinez’s head, could not have happened to a nicer bloke! 

Best score of the week once again went to ‘Cheesy Iheanachos’ on 78 points, a team that has been on fire since the World Cup break, currently top scorer in February, and our Triple Captain team score leader on 115 points.  A special mention also to ‘Eliot Ham’ on 70 points, a fantastic score powered by captain Rashford, one of eleven teams to be rewarded for swimming against the Haaland tide, and to ‘Woods Edge Wanderers’ a team who was only recently updating me on their never ending quest to actually beat the average score, well you smashed it this week my friend with an impressive 69 points.!  Very well done to all of you.

However………………….. there is one team that trumped everyone for the title of ‘Team of the Week’…………our old friend ‘Redmen’ …….……..whilst their score did not quite match ‘Cheesy’ and ‘Eliot’ and ‘Woods’ we must take into account the extra, largely self imposed,  hurdles that ‘Redmen’ has to navigate week in week out……..here’s just a few of them….

’Redmen’ has…

……never made a transfer

……never used a chip

……kept faith with their original team during the World Cup Free Transfers

……a bench consisting almost entirely of non Premiership players, long since

departed to foreign lands (Schmeichel, Cancelo)  or League 1 (Jay Stansfield)

……quite possibly deleted the app from their phone

And yet despite all of the above they still managed to get 61 points in GW24……..meaning that in 143 team league, they beat all but 10 of you…..that’s 132 teams that need to take a long hard look in the mirror in advance of GW25!!

This 61 pointer also meant that  ‘Redmen’ surged off the bottom of the Evie Dove Foundation League into second from bottom, and prompted me to  check out their overall league position. I  was astounded to learn that out of 11.2 million Fantasy  teams in total, ‘Redmen’ is in the top 10.1 million……..so that means that remarkably there  are over a million teams with a lower overall score  than ‘Redmen’. Seriously, that’s almost not possible………….. We love you ‘Redmen’, keep up the great work!!

Back at the business end, it’s as you were for ‘Siuuuu you later’ who has now opened up an impressive 23 point lead on ‘Romford Rejects’, closely followed by ‘Hotel? Thiago’. Still all to play for in the quest for the £300 top prize but everyone needs to up their game if ‘Siuuuu’ is going to be reeled in……….by the way a couple of you have asked me about ‘The Golden Mile’ and why they are not classified as the league leader – reason is that when they entered the league they did not make a donation to the Foundation, and we did not have their contact details to chase them up, so whilst  ‘The Golden Mile’ are very welcome to join us, unfortunately they are not in the running for the £1k prize fund.

So onto Gameweek 25………. there are blanks for Manchester United, Newcastle, Brighton and Brentford and doubles for Arsenal, Liverpool, Everton and Wolves, and if ever we needed proof that you Fantasy Football managers are a completely fickle bunch we only need look at the stats…… this week, the most transferred out player is Trippier, with over 300k teams getting rid of the man who has served you fantastically week in week out……………., and the most transferred in player, again with over 300k teams bringing him in, is Mo Salah, who has most definitely not served you fantastically week in week out, at least not this season!! Let’s see if backing the Egyptian King in this Liverpool double gameweek pays off??

It also could be a week for those Free Hit Chips (although bear in mind there is a massive double gameweek on the horizon in Gameweek 29). Over 80 of you are still sitting on the chip, so lots to consider, especially with £125 at stake – remember your target to beat is 101 points, it’s gonna be a stressful weekend ‘Gylos Galacticos’!!

That’s all for this week everyone, I hope you have a great GW 25, and all the best from all of us at the Evie Dove Foundation.