Welcome back for another article. 📖
Happy new year everyone!
GW19 Review
40 points all out in a largely underwhelming gameweek. Clean sheets from Van Dijk and Timber almost made it a green, but a 1K red arrow takes me to 40K. Raya conceding in stoppage time was painful, as was O'Reilly coming off at 57 minutes as City went on to keep a clean sheet; 3 minutes separated a green from a red. 🛑
In fact, Mukiele and Le Fee doing well on the bench was also painful, though realistically I was never starting either against Man City. The weakest spot in the team was Andersen and Le Fee ended up with 2 more points. Mukiele was never close to the starting 11, but an 11 pointer from him is huge. He's the greatest 4m defender I've owned since Lundstram. He'll probably beat Lundstram's 144 points this season, though it's not a fair comparison with defcons included now. 📈
I was feeling relieved to have avoided a Cunha captaincy in the end as they drew 1 - 1 with Wolves, only for Haaland to have a bad game and blank himself. Just a load of blanks and, all things considered in a week like that, I'll take the almost grey arrow.
GW20 Team Selection
Let's get into the team for GW20 as the second half of the season begins now! ⚽
Goalkeepers
Raya plays Bournemouth away. We'll have to see if Semenyo makes their squad for this one given he seems destined to leave in the January window; hopefully he doesn't make it. Despite blanking 4 times in the last 5 and some tricky fixtures ahead, I've actually still got a lot of faith in him. I bought him at 5.5m as well, so I'm more reluctant to consider selling, and the only world where it could happen is for Gabriel at some point.
Defenders
The back 3 is Van Dijk, O'Reilly, and Timber. 🛡️
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Clean Sheet Odds: Brighton are top this week with a 40% chance home to Burnley. Arsenal are joint second with Spurs on 38%. Van Dijk is further down at 29% with Fulham away. I'd like to at a minimum get the Burnley home fixture in GW22 out of him before making a call on selling. 🗓️
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The O'Reilly Situation: Decisions to make after that early O'Reilly sub. Commentators said he was struggling a little bit; Ake had a great game and Gvardiol got a rest, so he feels a risk. However, I'm desperate to roll if I can. My gut feeling says things are going to get really tricky when Bruno's back, plus Chelsea's fixture swing in GW22 or GW24 to take advantage of. To really take advantage, some banked transfers are going to be needed.
- Arsenal Assets: Timber came off early too, and that will have been with a view to giving him some rest before GW20. It's great when it banks the clean sheet like it did for him last week before Arsenal conceded, but awful when it's pre-60 like O'Reilly.