Dear All…

Before I hand over to @JackAGoodwin for what is a great article…

I’d just like to say I don’t care about this great article.

Jack received some genuinely fantastic news today and I want him to share it with you guys that read his work on a daily basis.

To Jack and the official Mr. Goodwin – Congratulations…

Fantasy Football is great – Real Life is Real Life.

Ryan x

Fantasy Football – Gameweek 23 Review

Written by @JackAGoodwin

It’s been a minute since we spoke. Since, I’ve ventured into writing about wrestling for Inside The Ropes. I’ve been positive with Covid and then fortunately recovered. I’ve spent a couple weeks in the top 10k of FPL only for my team to collapse following a poorly timed Wildcard.

Needless to say, it’s been eventful.

But you guys, smashing through GW’s quicker than Martial can hit the deck just thinking about contact! What are we up to now? GW23? Madness.

Double Decadence

In GW22 we saw 8 Players bag double digits……This time, 10!

Incredibly, absolutely none of the previous 8 made it two GW’s in a row – we have a new batch of 10 double digit delights.

Leeds stopped Meslier was the only double-digit GK this week, taking home 10 points in the easy clean sheet over Palace.

Only one defender made it to double figures also, fellow Leeds chap Stuart Dallas who now rocks 15% ownership – people are planning for that DGW25 aren’t they. Dallas scored & assisted in the win, a feat he also did against West Brom in GW16.

Midfield. Here’s the money. The lads. The double digit dudes. 6 players making the moves.

Out in front, Phil Foden. A massive 16 point return for the Stockport Iniesta. His 3^rd double digit haul of the season, a season quickly becoming his CV for a massive wage increase this coming summer. Those 16 points I may add, came against a Liverpool side who have now lost 3 on the bounce!

The former MLS superstar Miguel Almiron next with 15pts. The Newcastle midfielder slowly finding his feet in the league.

Ilkay Gundogan is weird isn’t he. Doesn’t do literally anything attacking until GW13 and then since has only not returned 3 times. Incredible. Did the Aguero & KDB absence help? Of course! But surely Pep has unlocked Prime Gundogan, so even in their return we should still see him pushing forward.

Then, finally there were 3 players in midfield with 10 lovely points. Chelsea’s Jorginho, Everton’s Doucoure and the ever present Son. This was Doucoure’s first goal in 12 games so let’s call that one a fluke. The other two? Maybe picking up a bit of form now with the return of key players around them.

Strikers find it tougher to grab double digits, requiring multiple attacking returns to sniff at it. For Calvert Lewin and Timo Werner – piece of piss! DCL grabbed a goal and assist in Everton’s 3-3 thriller to Man United (but now looks injured…) and Werner provided assists to both of Chelsea’s goals in their win over Sheffield (but…now looks injured too). Just their luck right.

Point Poopers

This weeks losers. Captained by Newcastle’s Jeff Hendrick. He was rewarded with -2 points for his 49 mins played and red card in the game at Southampton.

He was in fact the only player to cause FPL managers to LOSE points, which is a relief for anyone still holding on to those Southampton players who wreaked havoc on teams in their 9-0 battering.

How about HIGH priced assets just not returning?

At City, Laporte didn’t even play, whilst Dias registered 1 point AND now looks injured. Zinchenko and Cancelo only grabbed 2 points in the defeat to Liverpool to. Finally Mahrez…2pts.

Martial didn’t even play at Everton, Pogba came off after 38 mins now injured not before taking 1 point.

Aubameyang at still an eye watering 11.3 million returned 1 point after his 31 minute cameo. Why 6.5% of manager still have him I’ll never know. Meanwhile fellow Gunners, Pepe, Willian, and Lacazette…did absolutely nothing either.

Vardy is back! But blanked for his 15% of owners.

Mane is back! But blanked for his 5.5% of owners.

Finally, Robertson and Alexander–Arnold both, combined, scored a whopping….. 0 points.

Return of The Lads

Form is everything in FPL, some pick it up, some drop it and fumble it all over the place until suddenly your in the Championship and still called Troy Deeney.

Here’s a few select lads from GW23 who rose from the depths of poor form.

(in a Michael Caine voice) It’s bloody Harry Kane, he’s back lads. After 2 games off he surprisingly returned to score at West Brom. Next up is the mighty Man City, can he keep it up? (not in that way, grow up).

It’s been 13 long weeks, but James Ward-Prowse has finally scored again!

Chelsea are odd aren’t they. Like a hot/cold tap you just can’t seem to work out how the temperature works. This week, Mason Mount returned a goal after 4 games without one. Only his 3^rd of the season however.

Lewis Dunk scored again! His 3^rd for the season and first for 5 games. With fixtures looking quite tasty for Brighton, I am sure people will have the urge to slam Dunk in to their squads (lol, good one Jack).

Form, Form & More Form

Some can’t be ignored, for good reason. Here are some of your top in-form players and how they got on this GW.

Ilkay Gundogan is STILL on a mad one. Jimmy Carr’s good looking brother knocking out goals for fun.

United wing back Aaron Wan-Bissaka is having a stellar season. 3 attacking returns in as many games is sure to grab attention with a couple decent fixtures incoming for the Red half of Manny.

Robert Sanchez. I know, who? The 2.4% owned Brighton GK is the most in form GK in all of FPL. 4 clean sheets in the last 5 games and bonus points magnet.

3 games in a row now Patrick Bamford is returning the goods. After a few dull GW’s many gave up on the lad. Now, he’s returning the points in bulk! With a DGW incoming, He’ll likely be in more teams soon.

Finally, Ollie Watkins. The Villa forward now 4 goals in 5 games, looking lively as ever and has Grealish supplying belters to him all day.

Differential Potential

We mentioned him above, lil’ Almiron himself. Only 0.4% owned which is ridiculous when you see that Aguero is 1%, Raul Jiminez (who is out for a very long time) is on 4.7% and even more stupid, Virgil Van Dijk still is 6.5% owned. Poor little Almiron.

0.9% owned Doucoure we’ve also mentioned. This one’s a blip in the matrix. Don’t expect much from him, he was much better attacking at Watford (remember that mad few GW’s he kept scoring?).

Chelsea’s Jorginho is now 2 goals in 2 games, still only 4% owned. Tuchel seems to like him, so if you’ve the hefty £4.7 million to spend. He’s worth it.

Leeds Jack Harrison is also finding form, 3 goals in the last 4 games! Surprisingly still ignored by FPL with just 2.3% ownership.

Finally, big differential in Bernardo Silva who now has 3 assists in the last 4. Heavily priced at £7.4 but with Pep roulette coming up with DGW’s, who knows.

Jack’s Final Fort (thought, but Northern)

Manchester United slipped up (as I predicted), Villa beat Arsenal (as I predicted) and City smashed Liverpool (as I did not predict). We did see Spurs and Chelsea pick it up a gear, making the top 4 race slightly more exciting now. But can anyone stop Man City? Spurs are next to try.

GW23 we had only 2 teams win away from home, Man City and Chelsea. Whilst 4 home wins and 4 draws made up the remaining fixtures.

The highest scoring game was the 3-3 thriller at Old Trafford where Man United let slip 3 points in the dying moments of the game – a draw, actually quite fair.

Next week I predict….Leicester to beat Liverpool (further killing Jurgen’s soul), Leeds to take down Arsenal and Spurs AND Everton to hold out for a draw at Man City which would open up the race for the title completely! (a man can dream right).

See ya’s later.