Welcome back for another article.
Easily the biggest rollercoaster and most stressful gameweek of the season on the weekend. Saturday night the red arrow was absolutely huge, having only had Timber, Raya and Saka so far. Gabriel wiping Arsenal's clean sheet then redeeming himself with a goal at very high ownership was a rank killer, as was Rice's brace and defcon. Well played if you kept the faith in him. Bit of a weird gameweek, Wolves were the best defence with only 0.3 xG conceded, better than any team. Never thought I'd see the day.
Only two players showed up really, Cunha and Thiago and between the two it was just about enough to scrape together a tiny green arrow, still sitting at 40K. Basically a grey arrow, went up a few hundred places. I've not spent a transfer since GW18 which has required a lot of patience and the hope is that saving them will result in bigger gains later, we'll see. Might not play out but that's been the strategy. 📉
Was some huge scores besides Rice, Thiaw with 17 as well, Enzo, Wirtz, Bruno G all with double digit points, nice work if you caught any of their hauls. There's always someone I forget to mention in the players to buy article, honourable mention to Mane from Wolves who got a goal and assist and max bonus for a 12 pointer, he's a 4.5m forward which makes him a really interesting option. Could end up with him in a few weeks as I'm looking to potentially downgrade Ekitike to get Bruno and Palmer in around GW24. 🐺
Goalkeeper
On to the team for GW22. This could be a rough week. In goal Raya faces Liverpool at the Emirates, despite the fixture Arsenal are still right up there on the clean sheet odds, which does make sense when you consider Liverpool's goalscoring form and some injuries recently, plus Arsenal's strength defensively. 38% chance given to Arsenal, actually joint second with three other teams - Man City are home to Brighton, Newcastle are home to Leeds, Brentford are home to Sunderland. Everton are top for GW22 with a 40% chance. 🧤
Defence
The back is O'Reilly, Mukiele and Timber.
I was hoping to see O'Reilly on the bench vs Chelsea and he ended up starting and playing 90. However both Ruben and Gvardiol went off injured. Pep said Ruben will be out, Gvardiol will be out, and they can't count on Ake to play regularly. So he might actually be alright for another start, and it could be his last week in my team. Will talk through where I'm at with transfer plans in a sec. 🛡️
Just pulling up Legomane's fantastic fixture schedule graphic, here's where we're up to. The likes of Man City, Chelsea, Newcastle, Brentford, Fulham, Palace, Man Utd and others have a horrendous turnaround, the smallest possible rest that is permitted. Which was why I had concerns about O'Reilly but he might actually make it given other injuries. 🗓️
Mukiele - what a player. I've benched a couple of his clean sheets, but he's so ridiculously good, always carries good defcon potential and he came so close to an assist last match even. Brentford away, they both are getting the minimal turnaround treatment. 👊
The glaring issue in my defence that I should probably look to address soon is no Gabriel. His ownership has exploded, he's only been back 2 games and was already 43% in the Top 10K last gameweek, that will probably be way more next game. I don't want to lose Timber really, he feels like such a great pick and if anything the Timber and Gabriel double might be where I want to end up so Raya would have to make way.