It’s good to be back isn’t it?……….It is only August and yet still the Prem delivered…..for many of us the big decision was whether we were team Haaland or team Salah, and it was a close call on captaincy in the Evie Dove League with 39 of you going for the Norwegian v 32 of you going for the Egyptian (King)………and they both settled into the normal routine scoring 14 and 28 captaincy points respectively…… with Erling Haaland settling a couple of early scores. It turns out that Robert Sanchez had the temerity to save a Haaland shot last season, and Erling has been fuming ever since……. likewise the lyrics in the Cucurella song “Haaland trembles, Cucurella is coming” may be quietly rewritten as the hairy Spaniard was nonchalantly brushed aside by the Man City striker before he dinked it over the aforementioned keeper.……..there is a lesson in there…….do not poke Haaland, he clearly holds a grudge!
Other lessons learnt on day one…… be careful about publicly announcing you are too big for your club……. another Ivan Toney gamble that did not quite pay off, he may now be bound for the wastelands of Saudi Arabia……be careful of buying shiny new toys when what you have gives you everything you need…… which I think is what £25m former Chelsea midfielder Kovacic was muttering as he skipped past £115m Caicedo and £107m Fernandez, before scoring past Sanchez who by then had clearly learned his lesson and made almost no attempt whatsoever to save his shot! And of course……… be careful when Bukayo Saka advances down the right wing towards the penalty area and cuts inside onto his left foot….how many times is he going to score that goal!!!
Talking of shiny new toys, quite a few of you could not wait to start cashing in your chips, Triple Captains for ‘kopwinners73’ and ‘Regular losers’, of course going for Salah and Haaland respectively, a bold move in GW1 but maybe a sensible one given the reduction in double gameweeks we will see this season, and Bench Boosts for ‘Neil Madrid’, ‘Mr 55p’, ‘WeThreeKings’, ‘Saka Spuds’, and pick of the bunch ‘SoboRovers’ who added a very tidy Havertz powered 17 points to their overall score.
At the top of the Evie Dove League, three teams on a magnificent 86 points, the topically named ‘MollyMaesGoalDiggers’, matched by ‘Ramtastic Days’ and ‘Smith-Rowe Your Boat’ each of these teams benefitting from Captain Salah…….however can they hold this lofty position as we head towards Gameweek 2???……… Haaland captainers will be feeling very smug right now as Ed Sheeran’s Ipswich head for the Etihad to play Noel Gallagher’s City……Salah captainers I suggest you find something to do to kill the time between 15:00 and 16:45 on Saturday, it could be a long afternoon!
A good time as well to say a big welcome to all the newcomers to the Evie Dove Foundation league, a massive thank you for getting involved. Overall after paying out our prize fund we will raise over £3000 this year from Fantasy Football which should fund one or maybe two heroes, we will let you know how the money you have donated has been spent as soon as it is allocated.
And if you are competing for the ‘Clattenburg Trophy’ i.e. keeping your same squad of 15 players throughout the season and making zero transfers, we will start updating on the lie of the land a few weeks into the season….meanwhile sit tight and do nothing!!!
As for those of you that are having side bets with the loser making a donation to the Foundation, thank you for your ongoing support, and a big shout out to ‘Birdy’ who followed last season’s generous side bet donation with an opening gameweek score of 44 points v the 73 points of ‘Tis is Howe we do it’, another Haaland v Salah showdown coming up!!
And of course we can’t start the season without mentioning some great new team names, with special mentions for ‘Glasner half empty’, ‘van de ven diagram’ and my own personal favourite ‘Corn on the Kobbie’
So Gameweek Two is almost here, remember you have up to five free transfers this season so you have a lot more options available than in previous years……once you’ve picked your team, all that remains is to down a can of redbull and get ready to taunt your opponents!! The deadline this week is Saturday 24th August at 11:00.
Good luck everyone and all the best from all of us at the Evie Dove Foundation.
