FPL GW22 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? GW22? Madness.

ED: Ladies & Gentlemen… Jack’s Back

Double Decadence

No, not the fantastic, beautiful, long-lost double crusted delight from Domino’s Pizza. But Double-Digit Dudes (copyrighting that, it feels right). 8 Players bagged double figures in GW22.

A 17-point haul for United pair Fernandes & Wan-Bissaka. This was Bruno’s 9th double digit haul of the season, AWB only his first in a steady season so far for the right back.

Just behind with 15 points was United fall guy Jesse Lingard who on his Hammers debut smashed home 2 goals. For just £5.9m and a couple tasty fixtures incoming it could be a punt to take (but only do so if Niall tells you it’s right).

Also on 15 was the ever-present Leicester defender James Justin, a whopping 28% of managers owns him so this was expected. He grabbed his 2nd goal of the season after a couple of blank GW’s. Fixtures are wavy at best though.

Martial grabbed 13pts with 2 goals (after blanking the last 5 GW’s), Brighton’s Alzate oddly scored 11 (I know, who!) and Maddison with yet again more returns took home 11pts in Leicester’s win over Fulham.

Last but not least, it was Palace’s Riedewald (only £4.4m and 0.9% owned) with 10pts after his goal against Newcastle. His game time is as rare as a day without a running update from Ryan, so it’s pretty rare indeed!

ED: Following a consistent knee problem, I had to take 3 days off running to try and let it recover. 3 Dark Days. I appreciate that information is not why you’re here, so if it’s of interest check out the FantasyYIRMA Running Blog over at….. nahhhh i’m not that bad (yet)

Point Poopers

The guys you love to hate. The ones who crapped all over your GW’s. The scum, FPL scum (for this GW). 7 players. SEVEN PLAYERS scored MINUS figures this GW. Yes you guessed it, Arsenal and Southampton.

Leading from the back it’s Bednarek. -7 points. MINUS SEVEN. The 10% owned Saints midfielder had one of the worst GW’s on record after he scored an own goal in the 9-0 drubbing at the hands of Man United, but that’s not all folks! Chuck in a red card! What. A. Day.

Fellow Saints defenders Ramsay and Stephens took home -3 points after the 9 goals conceded plus a yellow card each. Joined in the -3 point club by Arsenal villain David Luiz after his controversial red card against Wolves.

On level -2 we see Saints pair Bertrand and Jankewitz just behind Bernd Leno who after his red took home a cool -1 point for his 8.5% owners.

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 Josh King.

Here’s a few select lads from GW22 who rose from the depths of poor form.

Hey lads, remember Dominic Calvert-Lewin? Last seen scoring against Burnley in GW11, he now has the baby-faced James Rodriguez delivering finesse all over the pitch again. DCL (as we love to call him because his name is annoyingly long) finally found the net once again after that 8 game barren period. United, City AND Liverpool in their next 4 matches…Unlikely you’re bringing him in.

It’s been 6 games since Marcus Rashford scored, now I know it was a weird result, but he looked sharp! A goal and an assist in the 9-0 win, they have a favorable next 3 games, but will you risk bringing him in now?

Wolves Joao Moutinho scored his first goal of the season and took home literally his first FPL returns of the season. After 7 assists last season, is this the revival of his 19/20 form? Or a blip in the Matrix. All I know is Wolves boss Nuno Santo looks a bit like Morpheus. Do with that what you will.

King of the screamers, Jonjo Shelvey is back! Scoring his first goal of the season against Palace. After his first assist last GW, is this a sign of a more attacking threat coming from Toon Dr Evil?

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.

West Brom’s Matheus Pereira is arguably the most in form in the League, this apparently didn’t faze Sheffield who shut him out for the 1-point return. With Spurs and Man United up next are you prepared to keep hold of him? He scored a total of 2 points in the reverse fixtures.

Ilkay Gundogan is on a mad one. Who many thought was a defensive midfield player is suddenly cracking out FPL returns more than we see bloody syringes on our FPL timelines (thanks Bhuna). An assist this GW against Burnley which was actually his first of the season only adds to his 7 goals so far. I still believe he is related to Jimmy Carr, but that debate is for another day.

6 clean sheets on the bounce is bound to grab FPL attention, so City defenders Stones, Dias, Cancelo and Zinchenko are hot right now – only Pep Roulette getting in the way! With Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal and Man United in the next 6 GW’s this will be the biggest test of their defense – MOST will stick with them, the attacking returns are just too attractive.

Finally I want to focus your attentions to Leeds midfielder, Raphinha. 4 goals 4 assists this season, half of which all coming in the last 3 GW’s alone. Including a goal this past GW against Everton. Leeds have kind fixtures, and with Bamford also firing it’s a great time to invest in the attack minded Prem newbies!

Differential Potential

Those FPL players who sit under 5% ownership but still returned! Are any of them worth looking at or was it just a one off like seeing the film Tenet, which, I guarantee if you decide to watch ever again in your life after first visit you may need to reconsider your life entirely – horrendous. Anyway…

1.5% owned Jesse Lingard, £5.9m, 15 point return on his West Ham debut. Invest.

4% owned Gabriel Jesus. Yeah, 2 goals in as many games but has the worlds most punchable face. Bin him.

0.6% owned Leandro Trossard from Brighton is (ironically) one of the only bright sparks in the squad. At just £5.7 he is slowly picking up form with the key assist in the win over Liverpool just after the goal scored to beat Spurs last GW. Coming up he has Burnley, Villa, Palace and West Brom. Real tempting to bring him in for those, an attack minded midfielder who if Brighton are going to score, he will be involved.

Billy Sharp? McTominay? Pepe? Benrahma? If you transfer these IN this week (and got this far in the review to even see this note) and they have attacking FPL returns in GW23 I will personally mail you some exclusive FPL stickers in the post. THAT’S how confident I am that they suck (in FPL).

Jack’s Final Fort (thought, but Northern)

Manchester United and Manchester City have confirmed that they’re up for the battle of not just Manchester this season. Leaving London (and Scouseland) in the dust for now.

Will it maintain? Most likely not, the biggest test for the Blue side of Mannie is this weekend against Liverpool who themselves are teetering on being out of the race after 2 defeats on the bounce.

GW22 we had FOUR 2-1 results, FOUR clean sheets and one being a record equaling 9-0. We saw “top six” Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs drop points whilst Sheffield continue their fight to lift themselves off the bottom of the table.

Next week I predict….Villa to beat Arsenal, United drop points to Everton and Liverpool to finally pick it up a gear with a win over Man City – but I’ll leave Niall to work out how they’ll go about doing so!

Tata for now.

Written by @JackAGoodwin