Gameweek 24

Let’s be under no illusion here………..GW24 is MASSIVE!!!!! Our first double gameweek of the season, and the launch of the ‘Assistant Manager Chip’. More on both of those later, firstly a quick recap of GW23……

The football was full of drama, a second hat-trick in a row for Bournemouth, once again this did not feature in the Evie Dove Foundation League……….this time it was Quattara who followed on from Kluivert the previous week…….. incidentally the latter scored one of the finest goals ever to be disallowed by VAR……… think they should have let that one go it was such a thing of beauty!…………… So is it time to get on Bournemouth with a strong run of form, and the South Coast derby against Southampton looming in GW25? 

Man City seem to be finding their way back to form too, anyone thinking of bringing Haaland back in?………….. He was on the scoresheet for a second week in a row, Robert Sanchez clearly still remembers how annoyed Haaland was when he saved a goalbound shot last season (see GW1), and obligingly vacated his goal for the Norwegian to notch……..and to also spare the blushes of Khusanov, a player that looked like he was gunning for the earliest substitution ever in Premier League history!! 

In the last game of the gameweek at Craven Cottage we also learned that Amorim would now sooner play his 68 year old goalkeeping coach than 27 year old Marcus Rashford………that’s probably a sign that it is time to transfer him out of your team…….yes I’m talking to you Birdy, you are not going to win that bet with him in your starting eleven!!

Onto the Evie Dove League……..at the top of the league, we have a new leader with Netflix and Chilwell putting their foot on the accelerator to ease ahead of Endo the Line and EnzOh No You Didn’t…….however more ominously both Uptown Dunk and Crystal Pellis have now stealthily found their way into the top ten……the champions from 22/23 and 23/24 are slowly hunting down the leaders, so watch with interest!

In the January stakes congratulations so so soucek it out who romped home and made sure of doing so with a well played bench boost, £25 coming your way………. Kobbie & Paste took second spot for the £15 prize……..and EnzOh No You Didn’t repeated their September performance by picking up the £10 third prize. Congratulations to each of you, we go again in February!

Onto GW24, firstly let’s deal with the Double Gameweek……….. this means that if you have Liverpool or Everton players you get two bites of the cherry in GW24 courtesy of Storm Darragh in GW15.

This weekend Liverpool are away at Bournemouth, Everton are at home to Leicester and then Everton and Liverpool will meet a week on Wednesday. So this is a great opportunity to think about loading your team up with Merseyside players……… and also to consider playing chips…………that applies to all of you………even those of you gunning for the Clattenburg Trophy are allowed to play ‘Free Hit’, ‘Triple Captain’ and ‘Bench Boost’ (just no wildcards).

Lots of teams will be going Triple Captain Salah this weekend albeit the fixture away at Moyes’s Everton looks tougher than the original fixture against Dyche’s Everton, so choose carefully!

Talking of Moyes it also looks like he is proving a popular early shout for the ‘Assistant Manager Chip’. This could be hugely valuable, so use it wisely!! 

Here is a brief reminder of how it works

• When you activate the chip you will be selecting an Assistant Manager for the next three gameweeks, the cost of which will be between £0.5m and £1.5m.

• You can choose to keep the same Assistant Manager for all three gameweeks, or you can change your original choice by making a transfer (using one of your free transfers or taking a 4 point hit as normal).

• Your Assistant Manager earns 6 points for a win, 3 points for a draw, 1 point per goal, 2 points per clean sheet.

• Then (this is the good bit), there is also a Table Bonus. If your Assistant Manager is playing a team ranked at least five places higher in the table at the start of the gameweek you get 10 extra points for a win or five extra points for a draw. That is why a number of people are going for Moyes……….he only costs £0.5m, they have a double gameweek so you get 4 games for the price of 3, they appear to be in good form, and Everton are in 16th position so have good potential for the Table Bonus……….definitely one to consider!!!!

Again those of you playing for The Clattenburg Trophy can play the Assistant Manager Chip, however it will all depend if you have at least £0.5m going spare!

Good luck everyone in what could be a gamechanging gameweek!

Your deadline is Saturday 1st February at 11:00

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