Welcome back for another article.
The climb continues! 90 points all out, a really good GW10 with only 2 blanks across the whole team - Semenyo and Enzo. A rare clean sweep at the back with Raya, Gabriel, Andersen and Munoz who I transferred in all keeping clean sheets. Bruno assist, Ndiaye scoring Everton's only goal earning himself bonus, Gyokeres goal, Mateta also joined the team and scored then of course the Haaland brace. 🤩
Heading in the right direction for sure, 5 weeks ago I was 5.3 million, now 311k after that 90 pointer. This next gameweek feels like a sliding doors moment potentially, Gyokeres is injured and I need to commit to a formation long term, 3-4-3 or 3-5-2. Obviously formations can be changed but in theory it's long term because I won't want to spend 2 transfers changing formation again if I can help it. When should we use the free hit and triple captain? 🤔
I was having a really good look at it last night and triple captain is going on Haaland in either GW13, GW15 or GW18. The fixtures there are Leeds home, Sunderland home, West Ham. I'll play it by ear when it feels right. We saw West Ham bounce back with that win over Newcastle so they might be closing the gap over those other two candidates. Free Hit feels quite wide open, GW13 I like a lot. In GW13 City have that Leeds home game, Liverpool have West Ham away, Brentford have Burnley home, Arsenal have Chelsea as well so it could be a week to drop Arsenal attackers on a free hit. The plan is to stay flexible though, right now there's no definitive best week in my eyes and will basically assess week by week ahead of each deadline.
Anyway, let's run through the team for GW11. Gyokeres injury so I'm potentially looking to spend 3 transfers to shake the team up this week.
🧤 Goalkeepers
Raya just became the fastest keeper to reach 50 clean sheets in Arsenal's history, 110 games in all competitions. The previous record was set by Jimmy Ashcroft in 1903, pretty wild that such a longstanding record was just beaten by Raya. I remember Ashcroft was essential in FPL in the 1903/04 season.
🛡️ Defence
The defence is unchanged, it's Munoz, Gabriel and Andersen.
- Arsenal top the clean sheet odds again this week, 52% chance vs Sunderland. Chelsea are second with 46%, West Ham and Everton 34%. Palace on 25% though with Munoz it's the possible goal involvements as well. The only thing about that Munoz transfer last week is my defence will potentially look a bit light in some future gameweeks having sold Senesi. He's the sort of player than can single handedly save a bad gameweek though, for example in a low scoring week if he gets a goal or assist plus clean sheet it's an instant double digit return.
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Arsenal went near full strength in the Champions League, in terms of available players anyway, yet another clean sheet. They've got Bayern next so I can see why Arteta did, to take the pressure off that fixture by getting a result now. Hincapie, Gabriel, Saliba and Timber was the back 4. Timber came off at 73 minutes for White so he should be fine, Calafiori got a full rest on the bench. Saka scored from the penalty spot. Merino filling in up top for Gyokeres bagged a brace, don't buy him though, Gyokeres could be back GW12. If you play draft he's a fun one week pick there.
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Andersen is away vs Everton, I think a lot of teams have got a difficult decision between him and Senesi but it's Andersen away vs Everton or Rodon away vs Forest for me. The clean sheet odds are very close, Andersen 1% ahead but better for defcons so he's in.
