Every week this season, two West Ham fans will compete at Fantasy Football to win money for their chosen charities.
Will’s Team
GK: Alisson
DEF: Saliba, Van Dijk, Van Hecke
MID: Rice, De Bruyne, Saka, Kudus
FW: Watkins, Alvarez, Haaland (Triple Capt)
No doubt I win and extend my lead this week. Watch this space. That’s how I signed off last week’s blog and sure enough, 76 points to James’ 72 to extend my lead to 11 with me on 1,347 and James on a meagre 1,336. Lovely jubbly.
My ongoing faith in Bukayo Saka (15 points) paid off as Arsenal smashed West Ham 6-0 and William Saliba (12) also chipped in with a goal and a clean sheet. Add that to the 26 from captaining Erling Haaland and it was a nice little return. Especially considering the fact both my goalkeepers didn’t play as Alisson was ill.
Two transfers for a four point hit this week. Declan Rice and Virgil Van Dijk come in for Antonee Robinson and Jarrod Bowen. Liverpool’s double gameweek and the need for defensive improvements made it a no-brainer. West Ham are in terrible form and Bowen hasn’t scored this calendar year, and with Michail Antonio returning he’s likely to move back out wide.
Van Dijk has kept seven clean sheets this season and Rice has improved his attacking stats with four goals and four assists now he has emerged as a set-piece king. Erling Haaland gets the triple captain armband for the sole reason I think everyone else will do the same for City’s double gameweek and it’s too risky not to. I wanted to be brave enough to give it to Alvarez but alas, I am a wimp.
Brighton’s Jan Paul van Hecke comes into the starting XI for the first time in place of Tyrick Mitchell with the Seagulls heading to goal shy Sheffield United.
And Rice and Mo Kudus start with Cole Palmer dropping to the bench as I can’t see a fairy-tale return to Manchester City with Chelsea coming to fruition.
I’m in the groove now and doing James’ self-imposed reputation as an FPL guru a real bashing.
Viva.
James’ Team
GK: Raya
DEF: Burn, Porro, Gabriel
MID: Richarlison, Foden, De Bruyne (V), Garnacho
FW: Solanke, Darwin, Haaland (C)
GW24 was alright. 72 points certainly isn’t to be sniffed at but in truth, I was hoping for more.
Erling Haaland getting back amongst the goals certainly helped, while Gabriel’s goal against West Ham was a welcome boost, even if it did come at the expense of my overall happiness on Sunday.
Despite the decent points haul, you can imagine my disgust at Will doing better than me (76). Having taken a -4 hit last week, too, it means I’m now 11 points adrift of the bloke who thinks fantasy football is a game for children.
With G25 on the horizon, there’s plenty to ponder. It’s a double game week for Man City and Liverpool, so naturally I’ve been trying to work out how to bring Mohamed Salah back in. He has been training this week and will likely feature in the Reds’ fixtures against Brentford and Luton.
The trouble is, I can’t afford to bring him back. The only way to do it would be to bring him in for Kevin De Bruyne, which just doesn’t make sense. So I’ve been forced to pass on the Egyptian King for now. Gutted.
Instead, Darwin Nunez is back in my team after a couple of weeks in the wilderness. I couldn’t not go into this gameweek without any Liverpool coverage, and with Joao Pedro injured, it was an easy swap.
Long term, I’d like to get Hueng-min Son back but with Spurs having a blank gameweek next week, that deal will have to wait a few weeks.
Then there’s the question of captaincy and, more importantly, whether it’s time to play the Triple Captain chip. Haaland would be the obvious choice as Man City play both Chelsea and Brentford. He has a career total of two goals and five assists against both teams combined, which isn’t a great record but one that shouldn’t be sniffed at now that he’s back in form and raring to go again.
But there will be at least a couple of more chances to play the Triple Captain chip before the end of the season, so I won’t be pulling the trigger this week. He’ll keep the armband regardless, though. I’m fully expecting Will to play his though because he has a history in prematurely playing his chips – he used his free hit chip in GW11, which returned a measly 30 points.
