Dilemmas of the Week - GW35

There again don't seem to have been that many new injuries this week. 

But 'form' becomes more and more unpredictable in the closing weeks of the season... And once more, we have teams in the semi-finals of the European competitions facing likely 'rest rotations' - or perhaps a general loss of focus - ahead of the crucial second-leg games next week: Arsenal, Manchester United, Spurs, and Chelsea are unlikely to be at their best in the League this weekend!

But at least we've been spared having any more blank and double gameweeks to have to worry about!!

I am trying to streamline these weekly round-ups, aiming to confine myself to just the injuries to players that are likely to have a major significance in FPL; and also, of course, only to new injuries - I figure everyone should be aware of players who were already ruled out for the last gameweek! [I currently find the 'Injuries & Bans' summary on Fantasy Football Scout the most reliable resource for this kind of information - go check that out for more comprehensive coverage.]

So, what are the conundrums we face ahead of Gameweek 35?

Does anybody need to be moved out because of injury?

Marcus Rashford, whose form had been starting to look promising since his loan move to Villa at the start of the year, apparently picked up a hamstring problem in training ahead of last weekend's FA Cup semi-final, and will struggle to be in contention again before the end of the season.

Wesley Fofana missed last week's game against Spurs after suffering another muscle injury, and has needed surgery this week - so will be out until next season. Christopher Nkunku and Robert Sanchez also had to miss the midweek Europa Conference game with unspecified training 'knocks'.

Leicester keeper Mads Hermansen has suffered a relapse of the groin muscle problem that kept him out for a while recently, and now seems likely to miss the rest of the season - unfortunate, as he has been their best player of late.

Conor Bradley missed last weekend with a minor knock - but it seems likely that Trent Alexander-Arnold is fit enough to reclaim the regular start at right-back anyway.

Diogo Dalot has a calf muscle strain that might keep him out for the remainder of the season.

Joelinton has suffered a recurrence of an old knee problem, and is likely to be out for a while.

Callum Hudson-Odoi had to come off against Brentford last night with a hamstring problem; doesn't seem to be too bad, but he's likely to miss this weekend, at least.

Lucas Bergvall missed Spurs's Europa League game last night with an ankle injury picked up in training this week. James Maddison and Dominic Solanke are also now slight doubts after 'precautionary' substitutions last night because of minor injuries.

Do we have any players who are dropped, or not looking likely to get the starts we hoped for?

Ben Johnson is serving a one-match ban after being harshly sent off against Newcastle last week (Ipswich couldn't appeal against the decision because it was for two yellow cards, rather than a straight red).

And Joao Pedro is serving the second game of his three-match suspension after that latest piece of petulance against Brentford.

Bournemouth's Evanilson, however, has had his red card overturned on appeal, so will be available this weekend. (I am somewhat surprised by that verdict. Yes, the collision was clearly 'accidental', in that his standing leg slipped out from underneath him; but it was a horrific challenge - and he slipped because he was lunging in so recklessly. I think these sorts of incidents are usually assessed by consequences and 'lack of care', rather than presumed malicious intention; and on those criteria, the red card was deserved.)

Did anyone give other cause to consider dropping them?

Newcastle, Fulham, Palace, and Chelsea have been severely unconvincing in recent games. And Spurs, Manchester United, and West Ham have been just awful. It's difficult to see the value in taking many - any?? - players from these teams, even if they have a good fixture.

Did anyone play so well, you have to consider bringing them in immediately?

Umm,.... no. Cody Gakpo and Alejandro Garnacho were the only conspicuous standouts in last week's games - but not to the extent that you'd be wanting to bring them in.

Most people have probably used the 'Assistant Manager' chip by now - wanting to keep the tail-end of the season free to play other chips. With increasing unpredictability of results in the closing weeks of the season, it really shouldn't be a good time to play a chip based on team results anyway; and most of the top teams actually have quite tough run-ins - at least for the next three gameweeks - so there aren't any secure wins in prospect even for the biggest names, and certainly no huge margins of victory or easy clean sheets likely; moreover, most of the stronger teams at the lower end of the table have recovered so well in the past month or two that they no longer have many table-bonus prospects. However, Everton's David Moyes, Brentford's Thomas Frank, Forest's Nuno Espirito Santo and Wolves's Vitor Pereira have a fairly soft closing-run of fixtures, which might offer a tempting prospect of being able to stay with the same manager choice for all three weeks. I fear Everton and Forest are rather going off the boil, but Brentford have a happy knack of scoring plenty of goals even in games they lose, so are probably the most appealing points prospect for this chip now; though I do suspect that Wolves are in such ebullient mood at the moment that they could well pull off a table-bonus win against City tonight!

BEST OF LUCK, EVERYONE!

AND PLEASE DON'T FORGET The Boycott; though I'm willing to comment on its possible use, I actually loathe the pointless innovation of the 'Assistant Manager' chip - and I have been urging people to please consider quitting the game, or at least refusing to use the chip, in protest. 

But if you couldn't bring yourself to do either of those things, please do criticise the Assistant Manager chip as vigorously as possible on any relevant social media channels you use, raise objections to it with any football or media figures you know how to contact, and - if possible - try to find a way to protest about it directly to the FPL hierarchy (and let me know how, if you manage that!).

#QuitFPLinGW23         #DownWithTheNewChip