Written by @JACKAGOODWIN

It’s a weird time for us all, a real weird time. For most, we’re locked up in our homes trying not to kill one another and finding small little hobbies we never knew of before like cooking or cleaning.

One thing we’ve all lost aside from our minds is the ability to engross ourselves in live sport – I for one took for granted the sheer volume available to me before this. Never again will I shun tennis. I’ll always now give golf a moment of notice. Horse-riding, of any kind can still be banned for all I care.

But the one we care about the most (pending you’re reading this as an avid FPL player not some swimming enthusiast who got lost on Twitter), is football. The beautiful game.

YouTube can only scratch our itches so far, it’s getting boring now watching Ronaldinho highlights and “best of” compilations. Although the 2012, 2014, 2018 World Cup Highlights do make me very happy still.

What I thought I’d bring you today is an FPL GameWeek Review from 2009/10 season…TEN years ago today!

Let’s look at what was going on in the Premier League, who was kicking about and discover who Portsmouth were. But first here’s the Premier League table from then…

Manchester City 0 – 1 Manchester United

WARNING: Depressing sentence incoming for all current Man United fans…Paul Scholes kept Manchester United’s Premier League title hopes alive as his dramatic winner seconds from the end sunk Manchester City at Eastlands.

A City team still graced with players such as Adam Johnson, Gareth Barry, Craig Bellamy and of course Tevez couldn’t get the job done just yet (money still pending) against the (at the time) better half of Manchester.

United still stacked with talent such as Darren Gibson, Gabriel Obertan and Tomasz Kuszczak. Oh the good old days, am I right?

Birmingham 0 – 0 Hull

Even writing that score line depressed me, dear god. Who’d have thought the attacking powers of Cameron Jerome & James McFadden (BIR) against Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink & Jozy Altidore (HUL) wouldn’t produce some of the highest goalscoring records in a single match?

We did, we all thought that. After conceding 5 goals to City the week before, Birmingham were pretty chuffed with this.

Iain Dowie & his Hull side, not so much as they desperately needed the 3 points today to escape to relegation zone.

Blackburn 2 – 3 Everton

4 goals in the second half, one being a classic Tim Cahill winner for the Toffee’s – not the best day with any FPL players with defenders like Blackburn’s Phil Jones or Everton’s Sylvain Distin but a great one for Match of the Day nonetheless.

Now Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta scored the opener but could have been sent off shortly after for poking Morten Gamst Pedersen in the eye the cheeky sod. Blackburn should count themselves unlucky after 19 shots in total, whilst Everton move 2 points towards Liverpool in 6^th place (lol).

Fulham 0 – 0 Wolves

1 shot on target, COMBINED in the entire match, what a terrible match to have attended. Wolves ground out their third goalless draw in four games to edge closer to Premier League safety in the most boring way possible.

Fulham had eyes on Europe at the time however, as midweek following they had a trip to Germany for their Europa semi-final clash with Hamburg which actually nearly had to be cancelled due to volcanic ash chaos caused by Eyjafjallajökull…try and say that one then.

With that momentous match seemingly on Fulham’s mind, and Wolves’s low-scoring recent form, rarely has a match looked more destined for a stalemate. Still, got to see Zamora rattle the post from 25 yards so it’s not all bad.

Stoke 1 – 2 Bolton Wanderers

Swindon Town LEGEND (apparently) Matthew Taylor scored both goals for Bolton in the final 5 minutes of the game to snatch the victory away from Pulis’ Stoke.

Stoke had previously been beaten just five times in the league all season and was hardly what Owen Coyle needed in his quest to put further daylight between Bolton and the relegation zone – but cometh the hour, cometh the Taylor.

Sunderland 2 – 1 Burnley

Burnley’s Premier League future looks increasingly precarious after goals from Fraizer Campbell and Darren Bent secured a deserved win for Sunderland who had none other than Nivea superfan Jordan Henderson in their ranks.

Burnley had the worst defensive record in the League at this point, which is crazy to think when they had the phenomenal Tyrone Mears & Leon Cort at the back. Burnley’s goal came from Steven Thompson, who a year later would say goodbye to English football to fulfil his boyhood dream of playing for St Mirren up in the Highlands.

Tottenham 2 – 1 Chelsea

Tottenham stunned Chelsea to blow the Premier League title race wide open with a second derby win in four days. This result left Man United just a point behind Chelsea with 3 games to go.

A Defoe penalty, a Gareth Bale stunner and a John Terry red card – is there anything more beautiful to read for Spurs fans? Spurs should have been world beaters, they had David Bentley controlling the midfield in front of little known Croatian lad Modric.

A fantastic day out at White Hart Lane which saw Spurs beat arguably one of the strongest Chelsea squads of recent memory (Deco, Drogba, Lampard, Ballack, Anelka, Sturridge…).

Wigan 3 – 2 Arsenal

It got EVEN better for the Spurs fans weekend when the Super Sunday following saw a late Wigan comeback all but ending Arsenal’s title bid and virtually secured their top-flight status. N’Zogbia with the 92^nd minute sucker punch followed goals by Bramble & Watson – all 3 goals for Wigan coming in the final 10 minutes of the game.

Even a late Van Persie cameo for Arsenal wasn’t enough to hold back the Wigan advance as Sol Campbell and his defence crumbled. Roberto Martínez’s side had got the better of Wenger.

Portsmouth 1 – 2 Aston Villa

Time flies in football, right? Villa’s Nathan Delfouneso scored the winner past David James which was set up by none other than Emile Heskey. That was only 10 years ago man…Anyway, Villa manager Martin O Neill actually said in public that if his Villa side won the last 5 games, they’d have a chance of grabbing the final Champions League spot from City or Tottenham.

This is Villa we’re talking about, who’s attacking players were really only John Carew and Gabby Agbonlahor, madness I tell you. Portsmouth have never been seen in the Premier League since this season, as they descended down the leagues in a sad story for such a high profile club at the time. £135 million in debt they went into administration.

Liverpool 3 – 0 West Ham

Liverpool moved back into sixth place after an emphatic win over West Ham, who remained one place above the relegation zone. Yossi Benayoun, David Ngog and a lovely Robert Green own goal sealed the win for Liverpool who at that time were really chuffed with themselves to be in 6^th.

Gerrard & Carragher were gutted to be playing alongside Daniel Agger & Maxi Rodriguez, but at the time it’s all they had – this was before Sturridge & Suarez came in and very nearly won them the league. (as of writing that still hasn’t happened, super lol).

Hull 0 – 2 Aston Villa

And of course, there was a double game week! Something we were so close to having so many of in the FPL this season before the world started sneezing. Aston Villa produced an accomplished display to keep alive their ridiculous hopes of finishing fourth and severely dent Hull’s bid to avoid relegation.

Milner of all people scoring for Villa in a game which saw then closer than they’ll be for the foreseeable future to the top four of the League. Yes, they did climb above Liverpool with this win.

In this match we did see a nasty hit as Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink was knocked unconscious for five minutes after a clash of heads with Richard Dunne, Dunne who’s head is absolutely massive so fair play to Jan for even surviving.

And that’s all for the GW Review from a DECADE ago!

Next up, I’ll look back TWENTY years to a the 1999-2000 GW, then who knows, maybe 89-90 to see what the hell Milwall, Luton & Wimbledon were doing in the dizzy heights of the Premier League / First Division.

FOLLOW JACK ON TWITTER @JACKAGOODWIN

Written by Jack A. Goodwin -Follow him on Twitter @JackAGoodwin

Jack is an “alternative FPL writer” (Who knew, right?) looking for hidden tales behind the most obscure players, dark humour in the game and the creative storytelling to the most mundane of GameWeeks!

He’s played the official game for over 7 years, running leagues throughout the offices of his day job.