FPL GW2 Review

Written by @JackAGoodwin

 

Well, have I got a little story for you? What you thought was a touch of genius by me in GW1 went to ruins as I overthought my team, stressed over transfers which would’ve been better off never made. In the words of Eddie Vedder, Oh I’m still alive.

To keep with the Pearl Jam references in an attempt to seem cultured…Now my bitter FPL hands cradle a broken team, tattooed with my mistakes. Do I wildcard myself out? Do I stick this time around? I know someday I’ll have a beautiful team…

Anyway, hoping you all did slightly better than me this round? Let’s jump into the results from GW2…

 

Everton 5-2 West Brom

The first of 3 games this past weekend with 7 goals – either goalscoring has become better or goalkeepers (& defenses) more vacant! Dominic Calvert-Lewin the absolute star of the show with a tidy hat-trick that also reaped the 3 bonus points. Overly-smooth-faced James Rodriguez shined again this time contributing a goal & an assist to take 2 bonus points, the remaining going to assist-king Richarlison who assisted 3 of the 5 goals.

Not to go out empty handed, 10-man West Brom confirmed my above sentence about naff defenses by getting 2 goals past Spurs in a game very much in the comfortable cockney hands of Mourinho.

2 wins in 2 for Everton who have Palace & Brighton next (positive) followed by Liverpool (double-negative) – short term investment will be a-plenty in the FPL community with the Scouse Derby the real test of might for happy-chappy Carlo Ancelotti.

Fun Jack’s Team Fact #1/ I transferred out Harry Kane this week for Richarlison. After this game I was a smug little ****. Little did I know…

 

 

Leeds 4-3 Fulham

If Leeds continue to have goal fest matches, then this season will be fantastic for them regardless how they end up. Entertaining, attacking, Yorkshire pride very much on show as they are on the winning side of the 7-goal-belter!

Costa (or to use his whole name, Hélder Wander Sousa de Azevedo e Costa) grabbed 2 goals with Klich & Bamford the others. Mitrovic finally firing for Fulham with a brace and mandatory yellow card for aggressively gesturing his neck to the referee Undertaker-style (I think?).

Interestingly Bamford is still one of the lead players for Leeds, who did sign Rodrigo for that very role. Rodrigo was subbed after 46 mins without much involvement – leading to Bamford’s increasing role and increase in FPL pricing.

2 sides who climbed out from the Championship really put on a SpongeBob-Superbowl level of show for us all in this one! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDQXG7swq2g&ab_channel=Ryboflavin). A sweet, sweet victory for Leeds god Bielsa as they now march on up to Sheffield in GW3.

Note/ Leeds and Fulham have played one another 53 in their club histories, this being only the second ever time that there have been 7 goals scored. The last being a 6-1 victory for Leeds back in 1956. 

 

Man United 1-3 Crystal Palace

The series of unfortunate events keep unraveling over at Old Trafford. Unable to get past the “monitoring” stage of any transfer, a manager who smiles through tears at each press conference and a squad assembled as tired and inactive as that one time the actual Avengers shared a Shawarma after being battered all around New York.

It was Man United “reject” Wilfy Zaha on the scoresheet twice with only sub and new kid Donny Van De Beek scoring for the Red Devils in a display so lacking in intent or threat that McTominay, Van De Beek, Fosu-Mensah & Shaw were above ALL of the attacking players in the United team in the FPL BPS scoring system.

Palace on the other hand taking 3 points again after their win of the Saints last weekend and rising up a premier league table still trying to figure out what the 20/21 season will bring – but it looks positive for Owl Face himself, Roy.

Wilfy Zaha is still very cheap, £7.1m for an out-n-out striker in a team beaming with confidence, plus the bargain of the FPL summer in £4m defender Mitchell who registered an assist in this one.

Fun Jack’s Team Fact #2/ I transferred out Zaha this week to bring in Marcus Rashford – and popped the captain’s armband on him for a total return of 4 points, of which all are wiped out by the -4 I took to perform the transfer. This truly hurt.

Arsenal 2-1 West Ham

Late drama at the Emirates as Edward Nketiah sealed the victory off the bench for the Gunners in a match riddled with complacency. Top captain Aubameyang notched a single assist in the game whilst it was Lacazette with the other goal.

Antonio kicked off his scoring season for the Hammers but looks quite lonely up top in a team lacking a midfield engine to support.

The 2 saves from Leno and 1 from Fabianski should tell you all you need to know about the intensity of this game – which Arsenal will look to turnaround as they head to Anfield to face in-form Liverpool on Monday coming.

Note/ Whilst out with my Dad on Saturday (buying him the new United home kit of course) I spotted Arsenal Fan TV host Robbie also browsing in Sports Direct, at football boots, interestingly. Now, don’t quote me, I am not Romano or Indykaila BUT rumours are circulating that Arsenal may have another signing incoming (may or may not be related to AFTV Robbie buying some lovely football boots).

Southampton 2-5 Tottenham

4 goals for Son, 4 assists for Harry Kane, 4 yellow cards for Southampton in a four-midable performance by Spurs. Sweeping aside a Saints team still not to reach 2^nd gear just yet even with Danny Ings getting on the scoresheet (twice) which is now as common as seeing someone without a mask in a supermarket (idiots).

Very interested to see how Gareth Bale lines up in this Spurs side when they face Newcastle, although he will likely be injured by then anyway.

The Saints (Ings aside) only really have Walker-Peters as an FPL option, will they be landing any targets late in the window? Surely, they must, with performances like these they’ll be battling for survival come August 2026 when this season is scheduled to finish.

Note/ I still haven’t got round to watching Amazon’s version of Big Brother with Spurs yet – although I am reliably told that it’s hilarious to watch Mourinho with Tourette’s, Danny Rose bafflingly think he’s one of their best players and apparently there’s a hot-tub scene? Will report once watched.

Newcastle 0-3 Brighton

After a comfortable 2-0 win over West Ham, spirits were high at Newcastle. Seems as though spirits were also flowing as the boys didn’t turn up to this one. Brighton struck 3 times to sink the Toon, Maupay with 2 and Connolly the other.

The perfect response for Brighton after last weeks loss to Chelsea, scoring 2 goals in just the opening 7 minutes of play. Newcastle’s first shot was registered at the 40-minute mark, really worrying for ASM owners at the moment.

That takeover can’t come soon enough for Newcastle who are in danger of doing a 2005/06 Sunderland.

ASM (17%) is the most owned Newcastle player, yet to return any attacking points, Wilson (13%) failed to capitalize for all of his 300,000 new managers after his GW1 performance. The next most owned Toon is Jeff Hendrick (4%) so it’s unlikely you’ll be focusing on the black and white for the forthcoming fixtures.

Brighton’s highest owned is of course Matt Ryan in goal (18%) who delivered for his clean sheet and is likely many FPL managers set-n-forget for the season.

Fun Fact/ Graham Potter (who looks like an aged member of the Arctic Monkeys) was the technical director for the Ghana women’s team at the 2007 Women’s World Cup in which they conceded 15 goals in their 3 group stages – needless to say, they didn’t win.

Chelsea 0-2 Liverpool

A little pleasure of mine is seeing early FPL bandwagons derail minutes after everyone jumps aboard. Chelsea are that bandwagon, steering off-track right into Jamie Laing’s stupid teeth, who, very likely, will be wooing some ladies in the Chelsea area (socially distanced, obvs).

Liverpool, despite heavily whooping the 19 other teams around them last season – came into the season somewhat unknown due to next-to-no recruitment that tempted the tastebuds of FPL managers. Sure, Salah, TAA and Mane were brought in, but that’s about it – and even then It was near impossible to have all 3 whilst keeping a fairly decent rest of your squad.

Those with Salah shut their smug faces this week as it was Mane’s turn to shine – a dilemma likely felt each week as one of them outperforms the other. Liverpool’s forgotten FPL star Firmino with a cheeky assist which still convinces absolutely nobody to invest £9.4m.

Jorginho missed a penalty, Allisson with the save, Christiansen got a red card….but you likely don’t have any of these three so the entire sentence in rendered pointless. Sorry.

Note/ Zouma, Kepa & Kante scored the highest in BPS scoring for Chelsea, which, is equal parts worrying and funny.

Leicester 4-2 Burnley

Timothy Castagne? I know, me neither. Well he supplied 2 assists in this and the FPL community were quick to all suggest they knew he’d be capable (I call BS). Barnes with a goal + assist, Justin with a goal, the perfectly named Praet scored…oh, and Erik Pieters (of Burnley) decided to pop in a cheeky O.G. just cos.

For Burnley ‘twas Wood & Dunne registering goals which inevitably didn’t mean too much (Taylor and McNeil with assists if you care at all).

A superb start for Leicester, 2 wins in 2 and scoring all over the pitch is very good – not so much for FPL with the spread of influential players making the decision who to grab difficult. Next up however is Man City on Super Sunday which will be either a huge statement for Leicester of a hurdle far to tall that Vardy crashes face first into it – the remaining Leicester players stacking it behind him like an accordion.

This was Burnley’s first game of the season, plenty of positives to take but from an FPL perspective all we can do is admire Sean Dyche’s voice and await any glimpses of a bandwagon which is unlikely to be frank.

Note/ Even with 4 goals, Vardy did naff all. That jangling feeling of deja vu you have is correct – Vardy didn’t score in the opening 2 games last season either. He did then go on to score 10 goals in the next 7 games or so (including 3 at the hilarious 9-0 battering of Southampton).

Aston Villa 1-0 Sheffield United

For those of us still confused as to why Jack Grealish pledged his allegiance to Aston Villa – here’s why. Villa were rubbish, Sheffield vacant, yet Grealish looked the star – he stands out in a team (and in particular, a match) like this. Konsa with the goal, I know, who? Well, he scored. Mings providing the assist whilst also still looking like on of the Rocket Power lads from 90s Nickelodeon (you know).

Arsenal reject Martinez instantly became the hero with a penalty save to deny last season’s FPL darling Lundstram who 9% of you still fancy him to return any value whatsoever which is a silly idea.

Sheffield now losing 2 on the bounce and face the surprisingly exciting Leeds this weekend so it’s go big or go home for Chris Wilder’s merry men who will be without Egan after his stupid red card in this game.

This was Villa’s first game of the season and it did look it – complacency and tired looking players all round. Both teams didn’t give FPL managers any sort of excitement in a week where many many Wildcard buttons will be pressed (mine included).

Note/ My decision to wildcard is solely based on wanting to bring in City assets early whilst fixing my bench long term. Your decisions to wildcard will vary massively and hopefully will be for the right reasons other than just having two bad GW’s with players you actually want to keep. There are still 36 GW’s to go, and importantly it’s just a game. I got stressed over my stupid transfer mistakes this weekend which I shouldn’t have – enjoy it for what it is, and if you are stressed, my DM’s are always open to talk!

Wolves 1-3 Man City

To utilize my clearly impressive knowledge of Pearl Jam lyrics, if you want goals, assists and guaranteed joy in having a player in your teams – De Bruyne. I’m in love with him, can’t find a Better Man.

1 goal, 1 assist and all 3 bonus points for KDB (standard really), Jesus scored in the dying moments of the game after coming close throughout and Stockport Iniesta Foden got the 3^rd. City look great, really title-challengingly great even after the one game.

Wolves aren’t to worry to be honest, they didn’t have a chance here but are certainly set for an entertaining and scoring season ahead. Jiminez with the only goal supplied by what will be the most transferred in “low” valued FPL player in Podence (£5.5m). Traore is a ridiculous handful for even City and outpaced any threat of stopping him – unfortunately it didn’t result in any attacking returns but it’s a matter of time.

Wildcards will be heavily active this week, City proved we need them, even if just KDB. Many managers have opted to transfer OUT Aubameyang for KDB in a straight swap which is also dangerous considering Auba’s influence already so early on.

City play Leicester next and Wolves head to West Ham – both teams here should bag all 3 points and many FPL managers will be keen to hold a few players from either side.

Note/ The last time these two ended 3-1 to City was back in October 2011 with Dzeko, Kolorov & ADAM JOHNSON on the scoresheet for the Citizens and Stephen Hunt (?) for Wolves. Wolves have in fact beaten City 3-1 at one time, but way back in April 1969 (lol, 69).

FPL GW2 Review

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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.