Gameweek 4

We have our first WINNER of the season!!!!!!

It was an epic battle on Sunday afternoon, with the £50 prize for the winner of August at stake…………….. ‘Only Krul’s and Horses’ threw the kitchen sink at it, rolling out the Wildcard to follow up their GW1 Bench Boost, and boy they were close………..81 points was the top score of GW3, including an inspired captain pick on the rejuvenated 28 year old ‘veteran’ Raheem Sterling, a choice that was mirrored in only one other team ‘DC United’ who also had a great gameweek with 80 points. You were both rewarded for that differential armband, with a place in the top 5, both on 195 points…………

……..However…………neither of you quite factored in that man…….. Darwin Nunez………. virtually invisible during the first 2 games of the season, he stepped off the bench with 13 minutes of GW3 remaining, and silenced both St James’ Park, and the upper echelons of the Evie Dove Foundation Fantasy Football League with a remarkable double strike powering  ‘The Kante Twins’ to the top of the table with a fantastic total of 200 points!! 

Congratulations ‘Kante’, £50 is winging its way to you, albeit I reckon you should send Darwin at least £35 of it, not to mention Udogie who also stepped up from the depths of your bench……….talk about the stars aligning!!!!!! 

This also of course leaves ‘Kante’ in pole position for the star prize of £200 for league winner, however there is a very long way to go yet……Darwin and Udogie are not going to do that every week!!

So with our first prize done, we start again………. the highest points scorer in September will also win a £50 prize, and again in October, November, December etc all the way through to May – hopefully this will keep everyone interested…. even if you’ve not had a great start there is an opportunity to go again and again!!!!

Talking of keeping everyone interested, of course there is also ‘The Clattenburg Trophy’ which will be awarded to the highest scoring team that makes ZERO transfers, with a prize fund of £75 available!

For clarity if you play your wildcard, you are out of the running – a wildcard count as transfers for the purpose of the Clattenburg Trophy. However you are allowed to play your Triple Captain, Free Hit and Bench Boost – maybe keep those in your back pocket for a while though, they could be crucial later in the season…..

Anyway, as we enter GW4 we can now start to see the contenders emerging – leading the charge for the ‘Clattenburg Trophy’  is ‘Are you Shaw?’ on 175 points, closely followed by ‘luca’ on 174 points, and ‘Syrup F.C’ on 172 points, well done each of you………so far doing absolutely nothing is serving you well!! 

Sometimes it is just too easy to jump on a bandwagon – last week I mentioned that the most transferred-in players were Mbuemo, Wissa, Estupinan, Mitoma, and March…….they ended up getting 8 points between them!!!……..Sometimes sticking with what you have got can be a great strategy!! I look forward to seeing how ‘The Clattenburg Trophy’ plays out……..sit back and enjoy everyone!

In other GW3 news we saw 10 more teams rip up their carefully laid plans and play the wildcard, and four teams went for broke with the triple captain chip……. ‘Invincibles’ and ‘WinnerChickenDinner’ both felt the pain of Haaland’s slightly calamitous afternoon, whilst the ever mysterious ‘X’ and ‘Billy the Fish’ went for the Chelsea duo of Jackson and Enzo respectively, with Jackson the pick of the bunch on 21 points. 

Meanwhile, two teams ‘The Nasty Natters FC’ and ‘Dickies Dazzlers’ both had a bash at the worst  ‘Bench Boost’ score of the season, with ‘Natters’ coming closest, securing zero extra points from Fabianski, Cucurella, and Dennis. Annoyingly the ‘Natter’s were only denied a clean sweep by that man Erling Haaland, who added in 4 points, despite doing his best to get a big fat zero, missing chance after chance, including one from the penalty spot! That headed goal was clearly a big relief to him, and the 8 points he earned for the 170 of you who captained him this week was, I’m sure, similarly received! 

Before I move on from the bench………… don’t think I did not notice that legend of Polish football, Matty Cash tucked away on yours ‘Tis is How we do it’………17 points wasted!!!!…………I thought you looked tired……….. you cannot have slept well on Sunday night after both that, and Darwin’s smash n’grab too………………

However……. as the old saying goes, there is always someone worse off than you…… step up ‘Katie’s barmy army’, not only was Matty Cash in reserve, but he also had his old mate James Maddison sat next to him too – it’s always a heartbreaker when your bench (27 points) outscores your team (23 points). Our thoughts are with you ‘Katie’……….

In other news, GW3 also saw the first ‘Free Hits’ of the season. You get one ‘Free Hit’ a season and it allows you to change your entire squad for one week only, then after that week you revert back to your previous squad. It’s a good way of navigating through multiple injuries, or if you have several players with a blank gameweek. 

In the Evie Dove Foundation League, it’s also a good way of winning money – there is a £75 prize for the highest scoring ‘Free Hit’ of the season and ‘Kante Touch This’ ‘Laura’s Lads’ and ‘Dan’s PL XI’ all threw their hat in the ring – Kante putting down an early marker on 44 points…….however don’t start spending it yet ‘Kante’…….. I’m going to put my neck on the line and predict that this score will be beaten!!

So that’s it for this week, things are starting to take shape, money is starting to change hands, it’s all starting to spice up………once again your deadline is 18:30 on Friday…….. good luck everyone,  and all the best from all of us at the Evie Dove Foundation