Luck-o-Meter 25-26 - Gameweek 24

A few unpleasant selection surprises again this week; although, at least, not too many new injury disasters to add to our FPL troubles.

These weekly 'summaries' have been getting a bit too involved - and excessively time-consuming for me! - so I'm aiming to keep them briefer from here on. [Didn't make much of a success of that last week, but let's try again...] 

[Aha! - the secret to greater brevity in these roundups may be... no 'Match of the Day'. For some unfathomable reason, the BBC iPlayer service today has only very attenuated highlights of individual games, not the complete matchday roundup programme - with its team lineups, extended replays, and post-game pundit discussion. Not the solution I would have wished for....

* MOTD did eventually show up. Perhaps it was just a case of the Beeb's minions having forgotten to add the right 'tags' to the upload to make it identifiable to the abysmal in-site search engine??]

Arsenal found the comfortable win their fans have been craving to settle their nerves after a minor 'winter wobble' has begun to undermine confidence in their title credentials just a little over the past month or so. Leeds may be much improved over the past two months, but they're still a struggling bottom-end side, and their defence was hopelessly outclassed here. Fate played a cruel trick on the roughly 17% of FPL managers who own Bukayo Saka, as he was a last-minute dropout after apparently "feeling something" in his leg during the warm-up (Madueke, taking his place, had another very lively game). Arteta added to those woes for a few by resting Odegaard in favour of just-back-from-injury Havertz (anyone who'd punted early on the German's return will have been glad to see him having such an impactful runout - but anxious that Arteta moved to withdraw him right on the hour; he only earned his full appearance points by a matter of seconds!). Leeds keeper Darlow notched an own-goal by getting himself impeded by a couple of his own players at the near-post (no Arsenal men anywhere near him on this occasion!) and so flapping clumsily at Madueke's wicked inswinging corner - to palm it into his own net. No refereeing cock-ups in this one?? (I watched it live last night, and don't remember any...)

Brighton v Everton was a mostly pretty drab game, although it livened up a little in the second half. It's nice at least to see Pascal Gross and Kaoru Mitoma looking dangerous again (Mitoma appeared to have got a decisive second goal, but the effort was rightly ruled out for Veltman having been offside and interfering with the goalkeeper's line of sight). Dewsbury-Hall was unlucky not to get on the scoresheet, with one shot deflected just wide, and another brilliantly saved by Verbruggen with an outstretched leg. David Moyes is over-the-moon about yet another last-gasp equaliser from Beto!! Garner comfortably earned his 'defensive points' again in this one; but Tarkowski, for once, came up well short of the threshold. 

Liam Rosenior thought he could get away with fielding a 'B team' against West Ham, resting Palmer, James, Cucurella, Neto, and Joao Pedro after Wednesday night's heroics in Naples (and then having to start Jamie Gittens [although he was rather brutally pulled off for Neto after just 25 minutes] on the right in place of Estevao, after the Brazilian youngster had to return home because of a family issue); boy, was he wrong! The visitors completely bossed the first half (although Bowen's early opener was extremely fortuitous; he whipped in a first-time inswinging cross on the turn from the far corner of the box, barely even looking where it was bound - and was as surprised as anyone to see it beat everybody and float into the top corner of the goal!), and might have gone into the break with a 3-0 or 4-0 lead, rather than just 2-0; the home side were booed off at the interval by their own fans. The new manager wasn't afraid to make drastic changes to try to reverse the tide of the game: Hato, Badiashile, and Garnacho were all sacrificed at half-time - and that seemed to work, as a much sharper Chelsea began to put their visitors under the cosh, and gradually clawed their way back on to terms (although, once they'd equalised, they lost momentum again for a while, and West Ham briefly looked more likely to nick a late winner). Unfortunately, the game was marred by an ugly scuffle around the corner flag in the last moments of added-on time; Traore took exception to Cucurella having accidentally-on-purpose put the ball out with his hand (though it made no material difference whether his team was going to receive a corner or a free-kick next to the corner-flag), and threw the Spanish defender bodily off the pitch, then violently shoved two other Chelsea players over the byline, and even lurched into the assistant referee at one point; as the ruckus rapidly spread, Mavropanos also got stuck in, slapping Palmer across the face. And then Todibo - perhaps 'taking one for the team', committing a particularly egregious offence to try to deflect attention from all of his other teammates who were trying to get themselves sent off?! - briefly tried to throttle Joao Pedro. Anthony Taylor did not handle this fracas well; after an interminable VAR delay, only Todibo was recommended for a red card, although Traore and Mavropanos should clearly also have received one (I suspect that they could still be subject to retrospective sanctions from the FA; and Todibo might well receive more than just the standard three-match 'violent conduct' ban).

Wolves started brightly against Bournemouth, and the irrepressible Mané appeared to have given them an early lead - but his supplier, Rodrigo Gomes, had been just offside when he broke in behind down the right flank. Another superb 20-yard strike from Kroupi gave the visitors the lead and settled them into the game. The overall balance of play was very even, the xG was similar for both teams, and Wolves actually had nearly twice as many goal attempts - but just couldn't put any of them away. Petrovic somehow recorded 7 'saves' in this game (few of them at all memorable), which looks likely to make him the week's top-scoring goalkeeper.

Although their talismanic captain Bruno Guimaraes was still unable to take part, and Eddie Howe felt the need to rest both Wissa and Woltemade (for the coming League Cup Semi-Final against City), Newcastle opened strongly at Anfield and were dominant for most of the first-half; Barnes had already cracked a curler against the inside of the post, before Gordon, filling in at centre-forward, finally grabbed a deserved lead (amazingly, his first league goal from open play in around a year!). However, as soon as that happened, Liverpool started to find their rhythm, and two quick goals from Ekitike just before half-time put them back in control (he somehow then squandered a much easier chance to complete his hattrick just after the break!). The second half thereafter was mostly much more even, and Alisson had to make one very good save from Barnes; but the home side ultimately powered through. Florian Wirtz is finally finding his feet at the club, which is great to see.

Villa are predictably starting to look a bit thin from their recent spate of injuries, and with Buendia and Rogers being rather too easily cut out of the game by Brentford's well-organised central pressing, they offered almost no attacking threat at all, even when the visitors had been reduced to 10 men by Schade's dismissal for a petulant foul on Cash (an inescapable decision; though Cash made a ridiculous meal of the minimal contact the forward's foot made with him). Douglas Luiz, newly arrived back at the club, had several moments of promise (including a delightful floated ball into the box - which unfortunately landed at the feet of Ezri Konsa rather than a forward!), but I doubt if he's going to be able to anchor that frail midfield on his own. And the other debutant, Tammy Abraham, was unfortunate to have a goal chalked off by VAR. (Again, I think this was an inescapable, correct decision - though an unusual circumstance, in that the ball was found to have gone out of play at the opposite end of the pitch, immediately before Villa's counter-attack,... a full 20 seconds before Abraham put the ball in the net. And I say 'correct', but I still have some doubts about the decision-making process here: although the verdict looked correct, the TV view used didn't really give an unequivocally clear view of the incident; and I don't think VAR should be getting involved in line calls; not just at the moment, anyway - that massively over-complicates their already highly contentious and excessive involvement in today's game. Also, it somehow took 5 bloody minutes to resolve this issue. As I said way back at the start of the season, if VAR can't reach decisions in a brisk 30-40 seconds maximum [and ideally no more than 15 seconds or so for more straightforward decisions!], they should just say, "We are unfortunately unable to resolve this issue; the original on-field decision must be respected." Are we ever going to see that happy day?) I've always felt that Villa have been weirdly managing to punch massively above their true weight so far this season; and I have a hunch that they'll now slip back down to 7th or 8th or so, which is probably a fairer measure of where they're at (even without the current injury crisis).

At Old Trafford, VAR was actually doing its job properly for once, overturning John Brooks's original award of a penalty against new Fulham centre-back Jorge Cuenca for a challenge on Cunha by correctly determining that the final tackle had been entirely fair and that an early tug at the sleeve had terminated just outside the penalty area. The only pity here was that both calls were so obvious, it was strange that Brooks had got them wrong in the first place, and unfathomable that it took the VAR team so long to rectify them. However, this long and stressful interruption did perhaps get in the visitors' heads a bit, as they completely forgot to defend the subsequent wide free-kick, and allowed Casemiro a free header at the far post to give United a scarcely deserved lead. Cunha's fierce near-post strike from an acute angle early in the second-half should have comfortably secured the points, but Fulham fought back bravely from that point. There was, however, another puzzling passage of VAR-ness, when Cuenca's apparent goal to initiate the recovery was ponderously ruled out for 'offside': Cuenca himself had been very clearly offside when the ball had first been played in, but that apparently didn't matter (was he 'played on' by the deflection off Lisandro Martinez's heel? I thought the rule these days was that only a deliberate intervention by a defending player re-set the offside line??); in fact, it was Chukwueze at the other end of the line who was called 'off', although the SAOT graphic entirely failed to demonstrate why: it seemed to come down to where the dreaded 'line' of demarcation (which, I suspect, at least in close calls like these, is still being designated manually - and hence, with massive inconsistency!) was drawn on his upper-arm - and surely he wasn't 'interfering with play' anyway: another headscratcher! The game might have slipped beyond reach straight after that when newly introduced Sesko crashed a glancing header against the foot of the post; but a cool penalty conversion from Raul and then a 20-yard banger from Kevin at the beginning of stoppage time seemed to have secured a well-earned draw. But a superb instant shot on the half-turn from Sesko nicked the win back for United right at the death (he must be staking a strong claim to play from the start!). Though Carrick will take consolation from the fact his team managed to push through for the victory despite not playing all that well, it must be a concern that this was not a shadow of the two previous weeks' performances against top-of-the-table opposition. (Was Dorgu 'the secret' to those stunning successes?? I suspect only indirectly so: I think it's possible that Cunha works better as a 'super-sub' - when he starts, he perhaps unbalances the side, and draws focus away from Mbeumo. Although Beardy Bryan clearly does not relish the No. 9 role anyway, and is far too short to play it effectively against a big central defensive pair. These are a couple of issues that I think Carrick is going to have to address fairly quickly, if he is to keep the 'renaissance' going.)

Palace dropped Mateta - in the throes of an expected move to AC Milan on deadline day - for their visit to Nottingham, which left them stretched so thin, they couldn't even muster a full bench. And Ismaila Sarr, handy as he is in his usual winger/support striker role, simply could not adapt to the idea of trying to be the centre-forward for the afternoon, and so left the visitors with nothing up-front at all for most of the game. He did at least salvage a draw by converting a penalty; although it was such a bad one - telegraphed, softly hit, straight down the middle - that I very much doubt if he'll be taking any more. One almost suspected that Dyche yanked Sels at half-time in a fit of pique at him having failed to save it; although it was later announced that the keeper was complaining of a groin problem. Hudson-Odoi was also withdrawn at the interval with a shoulder injury. Forest had to retreat into their shell a bit when Neco Williams unfortunately got himself sent off for punching a Lerma header off the goal-line (possibly the 'Save of the Gameweek' - although I was initially convinced he'd headed it away fairly,... and I think he probably could have got his head to it), but Palace were so toothless that their man-advantage made no difference to the flow of the match.

Spurs, so often City's 'bogey team' in recent years, just didn't show up in the first-half at all this time; and, given the way they were allowing their visitors to trot towards the penalty area with the ball at will, City probably ought to have been at least 5 or 6 up at half-time. Frank's half-time revamp, however, switching to a back-four and removing Cristian Romero (an odd and provocative choice of sacrifice; unless there was an injury issue there, one must suspect that this is further evidence of - or a likely cause for - some dressing-room discontent at the club) in favour of strengthening the midfield by the introduction of Pape Sarr, seemed to catch City off-guard, and the home side were able to dominate much of the second-half. Solanke's breakthrough goal, though, only 7 minutes into the half, will go down as one of the great VAR travesties of the season; he had looked offside, for a start (certainly a very tight call, for which we would have expected the reassurance of a thorough VAR inspection and an SAOT graphic), but that seemed to get overlooked as the protracted off-pitch review focused exclusively on whether the forward had committed a foul in getting his shot off. And he definitely had; arguably TWO, actually, as he initially clattered his knee into the first covering defender, Khusanov, throwing him off balance, and then, as Guehi came across to get in a last-second block, he very clearly kicked through the back of the defender's leg - causing Guehi to poke the ball beyond Donnarumma into the net. Now, it might, in the bizarre fantasy-world where most of our match officials seem to be living, be possible to judge that Solanke's contact on the back of Guehi's leg was too light to be consequential, culpable; but it had to then be a Guehi own-goal (as, in fact, most of the stats compilers other than Opta and the League seem to have classified it), not one for Solanke! [And although I an a huge admirer of Danny Murphy and Troy Deeney - in fact, I think they're much tbe best two match analysts on television, at least amongst the BBC's regular roster - I do think they sometimes fall victim to an old, tough player's misty-eyed nostalgia for a past where you could get away with a lot more argey-bargey in the game; and this distaste for the fact that these days we're so often seeing free-kicks and cards dished out for very minimal fouls can lead them into an over-compensatory celebration of a foul not being given - even when it very obviously is a foul. The boys were doing that about this call on Sunday's 'Match of the Day'. I don't think they were convincing many people, apart from Spurs fans.] Despite not quite managing to secure the longed-for victory (a victory that might, given the history between the two sides in recent years, have been 'expected'), the strength of the second-half fightback for a gutsy draw might just have saved Thomas Frank's job. While City, repeatedly failing to capitalise on Arsenal's slight 'wobbles' over the past month-and-a-half, now look to be falling out of the title race.

Sunderland, after a bit of a wobbly spell, seem to be getting into their stride again, with their returned African players Diarra and Talbi being particularly impressive in their comfortable Monday night destruction of Burnley - so good, in fact, that the still injured Granit Xhaka was not missed this time. Diarra seemed unlucky not to be credited with a brace, as his opener was not clearly 'off target' before deflecting off Tuanzebe's heel (hard to tell when a deflection comes so soon after the shot is hit, but it looked to me as if the initial effort was bound somewhere pretty near the far post - and I'd give the attacker a generous 'benefit of the doubt' in circumstances like this). The margin of victory might have been even greater (Dubravka made one particularly sharp low save from an effort from Brobbey), as the visiting side were really not in the match at all. I've been saying for a few months now that the drippy and ineffectual Scott Parker looks very much the most uninspiring manager in the league, and really needs to be replaced as soon as possible to give the club any faint chance of staying up; it's probably now already too late, but perhaps this dismal non-performance be will the camel's-back-breaker that finally triggers his exit.

The FPL 'Team of the Week' is another bizarro one, with Gabriel, Ekitike, and Joao Pedro (who only came on as a sub!) the only popular picks in it after Saturday's games, and only Ekitike remained in it by the end of Sunday; indeed, he and Wirtz were the only inclusions with any major FPL ownership. It was again looking rather set to be another miserably low gameweek average; although the final total somehow crept up to 55 points after the final game on Monday (a lot of people have Roefs and/or a Sunderland defender!). Amazingly, there didn't appear to be any really dubious refereeing calls in the first batch of games either (apart from Anthony Taylor's strange leniency towards a couple of the ringleaders of West Ham's injury-time riot!!). There was quite a bit more VAR sketchiness on Sunday, though, with a dubiously disallowed goal for Cuenca at Old Trafford, and a very clearly wrongly allowed one for Solanke against City (which may have 'decided' the title race, so a huge 'Luck-o-meter' swing for the Premier League as well as for Fantasy managers...). Also, Saka's last-minute withdrawal, and a lot of other unexpected rotations and early substitutions add further mayhem, to make it this time about a 6 out of 10 on the 'Luck-o-Meter'.

Luck-o-Meter 25-26 - Gameweek 23

A few unpleasant selection surprises again this week; although, at least, not too many new injury disasters to add to our FPL troubles.

These weekly 'summaries' have been getting a bit too involved - and excessively time-consuming for me! - so I'm going to start trying to keep them briefer from here on. Let's see how that goes... [Um, not well, it would seem. I just can't help myself!!]

Perhaps I'm just unreasonably cranky this week for some reason, but I found the West Ham v Sunderland game unwatchably dull. West Ham, to be fair, are starting to show a marked improvement, but Sunderland - without the talismanic Xhaka, suddenly revealed to be suffering from an ankle injury - were miles below their best. Regis Le Bris made three changes at half-time, and the visitors looked much better after that, and the final result did rather flatter the home side. West Ham's opener was a good goal exploiting some poor defending, but the second was a fairly soft penalty award and Bowen slipped on his standing foot and was lucky not to scuff his effort wide or get a double-hit; while the third was a thirty-yard screamer out of nowhere from Matheus Fernandes just before half-time (and he almost did it again in the second-half when a similar effort smashed against the underside of the bar). There was really little incident of note apart from this, and for the most part it felt very much like a bad Championship game (I confess I gave up on watching it live half-way through the first-half!).

Burnley are continuing to show improvement, and came agonisingly close to their first win in months against Spurs - only to see a powerful diving header from Romero save a draw in the dying seconds of regulation time. Spurs showed flashes of promise with the energetic Solanke back leading their attack (Dubravka supposedly made 9 saves in the match, and was Burnley's 'best player' according to the BPS; but not many of them were significant enough to make it into the BBC highlights!), but their back line was pretty shambolic. I'd have a bet on Thomas Frank now losing the job this week. (The upcoming Champions League game against Frankfurt is really a bit of an irrelevance, since no-one expects Spurs to be able to win a knockout tie in that competition, whether it's the play-off or the Round of 16.)

Fulham v Brighton was a tight and thoroughly entertaining game (my favourite of the day: well, second only to Bournemouth v Liverpool - it can only have been scheduled last on on 'Match of the Day' because they are two such 'unfashionable' clubs), and included a pair of absolute bangers from Yasin Ayari and Harry Wilson. Even Marco Silva admitted that a draw would have been a fair result here. It was very harsh on Brighton that Wilson's free-kick would seal a late win, so soon after Danny Welbeck's excellent goal on the break had been ruled out by VAR for another of these ridiculously tight offsides (a matter of a fraction of an inch, entirely dependent on where you choose to draw 'the line' on his upper arm - and of course on whether you trust SAOT to be able to correctly determine the 'decisive moment' of ball release to within hundredths of a second).

Doku was injured (which allowed both Cherki and Semenyo to play; I doubt that will often happen), and Pep decided to rest the recently weary-looking Haaland and Foden (only bringing them on for the last 20 minutes), which gave Marmoush his first start since early in the season - an opportunity which he enthusiastically made the most of. New boys Guehi and Semenyo (who scored one, and might have had a second with a thunderous left-foot shot which clipped the far top corner of the woodwork) both had excellent games too. Wolves had a shakey start, but gradually toughened up and showed a lot of resilience and defiance after falling behind so early on; in the second-half, they even had a few chances to score themselves. Khusanov clumsily ran through the back of Mané on the edge of the box: it probably was just outside the area, but we should have had the reassurance of a VAR check to confirm exactly where the contact had occurred - and we didn't get that. City had a much stronger penalty claim when the ball caught Mosquera's outstretched arm just inside the elbow; but debutant referee Farai Hallam bravely stuck by his original decision not to make the award, rather than accepting the implicit suggestion from VAR that it had been a culpable handball - it's a pity we don't see that more often (it is shameful that he's been dropped from the roster for next gameweek, though; this looks very much like 'punishment' for going against his colleagues - even if it's not, that's what it looks like). Absolutely the right decision from the commonsense point of view: Marmoush had flicked the ball at him from very close range, perhaps deliberately looking for such a contact on the arm. The ball wasn't bound for the goal, or even for another City player; and the defender knew absolutely nothing about it. It is absurd to be giving handball penalties for incidents like this; and yet we do see them given almost every week! However, the ref's rationale that the arm had been "in a natural position" was possibly a bit dubious, as the arm was well out from the side (arguably for balance, as he lunged to attempt to block a cross; but such circumstances are usually - though possibly wrongly - judged 'handball' these days). But that whole section of the rule is a nonsense which regularly leads to confusion and inconsistency: unless the ball is goal-bound - in which case, I think, any contact on the arm should be 'strict liability', though 'position of the arm' would determine degree of culpability for a possible red card - the position of the arm should be irrelevant.  The major oddity of this match was that Donnarumma, despite being credited with only one save, got the second highest BPS total - WTF???

Ekitike was strangely left on the bench, and only came on for the last half-hour or so (Slot continues to  infuriate FPL managers by making changes just before the hour: this time Frimpong and Macallister were pulled off for Ekitike and Jones in the 58th minute, while Kerkez was switched with Roberston at half-time). Jimenez had looked well offside for Bournemouth's second goal, but SAOT eventually pronounced that he had been 'on' by the thickness of his shirtsleeve. (I'm happy enough to see a good goal stand, but... we really don't want to see decisions being made on such absurdly slim margins. And the frequent wide discrepancies between TV freeze-frames and the SAOT computer graphics of these incidents undermine viewer confidence in the system.) Liverpool are perhaps starting to pay a bit more attention to set-pieces, as they got back into the game with a near-post header by Van Dijk from a corner - although the ball looked as if it had come off Evanilson's shoulder and should have been an own-goal. Wirtz had a good cross-shot tipped just beyond the post by Petrovic near the end; and Liverpool are peeved that the ref wrongly awarded a goal-kick. But Bournemouth were coming at their visitors in waves for the last 15 minutes or so, and had been the better team in the match on balance overall - so their last-gasp winner from Adli in a goalmouth scramble felt deserved. Slot's position is looking more and more under threat; although my feeling is that he'll still be safe until the end of the season.

Forest finally seem to be recovering something of the composure behind the ball and the threat going forward which gave them such a good season last year; but they were helped in this game by a very flat performance from home side, Brentford. The opening strike should be a leading 'Goal of the Month' contender (although we've seen an awful lot of more eye-catching long-range bangers this month...), a neat move down the right covering the length of the pitch, mainly orchestrated by full-back Ola Aina, culminating in a sharp turn and half-volley by Igor Jesus.

Cole Palmer was another player whose injury problem had been played down during the week, but proved to be not even fit for the bench. Chelsea didn't do too badly without him, although Palace were very lacklustre opposition for them here, even playing in front of their home crowd. There was another odd VAR fiasco, where Darren England was eventually prompted to give a penalty against poor Jaydee Canvot by the backroom team (at least it was Chelsea's third goal, so can't be said to have had any impact on the match outcome). I really don't know what the Handball Law says any more; we seem to be discovering new bizarre wrinkles to it every week. The referee stressed that he considered the contact to be 'accidental' (that in itself is not a term that I've heard used in reference to a handball decsion.... for years), and gave that as his reason for only giving the Palace defender a yellow card (if there was 'no fault', why should there be any card at all???). However, because the ball had been goalbound, any contact on his 'arm' was deemed a strict liability offence requiring the award of a penalty. But it looked to me as if the ball hit him very high on the upper-arm, pretty much on the shoulder - which would have been an allowable contact even under the older version of the regulation, before the recent extension of the 'sleeve-line' to some nebulous point not quite half-way down the upper arm! Worst of all, the VAR playback - which the poor ref had to look at multiple times to try to get an idea of what had happened - initially only showed the worst possible view of the incident, where you really couldn't see the ball striking the defender's arm at all. Eventually, two further views were offered - which still didn't provide any very clear sight of the crucial moment of contact. We'd seen the incident from in front, from behind, and from Canvot's left side; but since it was his right arm in question, and since he'd started pulling it away from ball (and behind his body, not away from his side; he was obviously doing his best to get it out of the way of the ball) while simultaneously twisting his body in the same direction as the arm - in all of these views, his body blocked a view of the ball hitting his arm. But.... later on TV, we were shown a view of the incident from Canvot's right - where you could very clearly see that the ball had hit him up by the shoulder; WHY was this view not used for VAR???  We're seeing this kind of incompetence every week, and it undermines the whole system. And there was even more woe for Palace near the end as their crucial midfielder Adam Wharton get himself sent off for two slightly rash challenges within five minutes. At least they bundled in an injury-time consolation goal from a goalmouth scramble, but it was a pretty wretched day for Glasner's team.

Newcastle produced an uncharacteristically lifeless home performance against Villa, and were particularly flakey at times in defence - absolutely awful in allowing Watkins to ghost in at the far post for the second goal. Joelinton was perhaps a tad lucky not to receive a first-half red card for stamping on Onana's leg with an over-eager lunge of a challenge. Bruno Guimaraes, whose ankle 'knock' had initially been played down by Eddie Howe as seeming fairly trivial, but is apparently more serious, and he was sat up in the stands with his family for this one; this could be a major worry for Newcastle, as they've never managed to win a league game without him, since his arrival. Yet another banger from outside the box in this one, this time from Emi Buendia. And one absolutely outstanding save by Emi Martinez from a Miley header. And - remarkably - almost no sign of any dodgy refereeing at all!

Resurgent Manchester United finally managed to upset Arsenal's stately procession towards an increasingly inevitable-looking title, with a well-deserved win at The Emirates. It was a thrilling and open game, but the home side once again laboured to create any decent chances from open play, and looked very much second-best in almost every aspect of the game. I was disappointed that my boy Timber apparently didn't get his toe-end on Odegaard's mishit shot for the first goal (the Thai commentators I was stuck with evidently thought he had, saying his name over and over again with much delight; and none of the TV pictures seemed all that decisive that it was actually Lisandro Martinez's heel that had got the final deflection towards the goal). There were two other mild moments of controversy: Zubimendi - but, perhaps tellingly, absolutely no-one else - protested that Dorgu had controlled the ball with his left arm just before unleashing his thunderbolt from outside the box to take the lead 2-1; it looked to me as if the ball had got a trivial, non-consequential brush on the back of his arm at the same time it hit his midriff or hip; but VAR rather strangely, and worryingly, pronounced that it only found in the attacker's favour because the video evidence on this was "inconclusive" (we've seen a lot of incidents recently where the VAR team only seemed to be able to review a limited number of TV angles - and, conspicuously, not the best one that actually showed what happened!). Later, Harry Maguire deflected a low shot with his hand, but he had slipped and fallen as he lunged into an attempted block, so was only putting his hand out to the ground to break his fall; on that basis, he was certainly non-culpable, but... the shot looked goal-bound, and surely 'culpability' is not in issue there: if he prevented a likely goal, surely that should have been a penalty? Another banger of a goal from Cunha late on to clinch the points, Mbeumo's gift of an equaliser when Zubimendi played a sloppy square ball to him 30 yards out - and Arteta's decision to start with Jesus again instead of Gyokeres (although no-one really should have either of those players for FPL!) were the other rather unexpected, 'lucky' incidents in this one.

The Everton v Leeds game on Monday night was very much a 'game of two halves', with the visitors absolutely bossing the first period - they might well have taken an unassailable lead if Calvert-Lewin had been a little sharper in front of goal. Moyes, however, got his hairdryer out at half-time, and rushed just-back-from-injury Branthwaite and Dewsbury-Hall on for the second-half (at the expense of youngster Harrison Armstrong and no-longer-in-favour Dwight McNeil), which suitably re-energised his team. Relentless pressure produced a deserved equaliser from Barry, and they could have gone on to win, with their just-back-from AFCON pair both going close, Ndiaye bringing a flying save out of Darlow with an improvised prod with the outside of his right boot, and Idrissa Gueye smashing a drive against the crossbar. There seem to have been no refereeing upsets in this one either (maybe things are slowly improving with the officiating??).

The FPL 'Team of the Week' this time is actually one of the least strange we've had this season: well, none of the very 'big names' are on it, but at least everyone is a good enough player to warrant some level of FPL ownership, there's not the rash of 'complete unknowns' we've been seeing most weeks. However, it is looking likely to be yet another miserably low gameweek average, with the total being a dreadful 44 points. Apart from the 'shock' omissions of Haaland, Foden, Ekitike, and Xhaka (and the first two of these might have been reasonably anticipated; while the first three were apparently all 'leaked' in advance on social media - though only a matter of minutes before the FPL deadline!), there weren't too many selection upsets on Saturday; Sunday, though, also saw somewhat unexpected omissions (even from the bench!) for Palmer and Guimaraes. At least there have been few refereeing cock-ups (only a bad penalty award against Palace, a possibly wrongly attributed goal for Van Dijk, and a couple of very tight, rather dubious offside decisions: one goal allowed, one disallowed - both probably wrongly). West Ham's and Bournemouth's wins were rather unexpected, and Fulham's rather lucky; but the games have gone mostly as might have been expected. This is perhaps one of the least freaky gameweeks we've had this season, only a 4 out of 10 on the 'Luck-o-Meter'.

Luck-o-Meter 25-26 - Gameweek 22

As I said last week, the great, inevitable winter downturn in form continues on and on through the shitty weather and cramped fixture schedules of January and February - and now even has an added sprinkle of further uncertainty and confusion from the mid-season transfer window.  In a season of almost nothing but awful gameweeks, this one looks like it could be competing to become the worst of the worst. Almost everyone looks leggy and jaded, form is all over the place. Fulham losing to Leeds and Spurs losing (at home!) to West Ham were perhaps not entirely surprising, but United winning so comfortably against a lacklustre City was, and Sunderland beating Palace and Arsenal and Liverpool being held to draws by bottom-of-the-table sides were even more so.

A few surprises in Michael Carrick's first selection, with Dorgu being retained as an attacking player (though back on the left, rather than the right - where he had unexpectedly thrived in a couple of experimental run-outs under the the last days of Ruben Amorim), Shaw and Maguire coming back into the back-four (at the expense of Leny Yoro) alongside Martinez and Dalot, Sesko being dropped at centre-forward in favour of just-back-from AFCON Mbeumo, and Mainoo slotting in alongside Casemiro in the midfield engine-room (that one not so surprising - although he looked just a little ring-rusty, after being frozen out of competitive football for so long, his swift turns away from a pressing opponent were as useful as ever). Pep dropped Cherki for Semenyo, but the new boy struggled to make any impact in this one; and Matheus Nunes had apparently gone down with 'flu, so Rico Lewis had to deputise for him at right-back. It was one of the most entertaining lunchtime games we've seen this season, although it threatened for quite a while to be a thrilling nil-nil: both teams playing some slick football and progressing the ball quickly, but struggling to find the necessary incisveness when they got near the opposition penalty box. United, however, were having all the most dangerous moments: Donnarumma came out like a thunderbolt to clear Alleyne's weak back-pass off the toes of Dorgu and Mbeumo early on, made good saves from Dorgu and Diallo (and another save from Diallo at the beginning of the second-half, followed by a double-block on Casemiro's attempt to follow up), saw Maguire smash a close-range header from a corner against the cross-bar just a few minutes in, and was relieved that quick breaks in behind from Amad Diallo and Bruno Fernandes  - who were both able to get round him rather easily and coolly slot home into an empty net - were shown a late flag for tight-ish offsides (Amad's looked like a matter of only 6 or 8 inches, Bruno's more like 18 inches or so); another moment of panic was uncannily redeemed by super-fast reactions from Khusanov to steal the ball off Mbeumo when a misplaced pass on the edge of the City box had gifted the ball to Bruno who was able to square it to his striker in acres of space. Pep made the harsh decision to sub young Max Alleyne at half-time (shunting Ake into central defence from the left and restoring Nico O'Reilly to the left-back slot), but that did nothing to stop the rot, and it began to seem inevitable that United would eventually find a breakthrough - as they eventually did with a lightning three-man counter-attack confidently finished by Mbeumo. Cunha, brought on to replace Mbeumo after 70 minutes, also looked lively in his cameo, and set up Dorgu for a second after just a few minutes on the pitch; and shortly afterwards another fast break from Diallo - on the left this time! - ended with him lashing a shot against the post. Late substitute Mason Mount appeared to have made the margin even more decisive in added-on time, but a long VAR check eventually decided that Cunha had been very narrowly offside when running on to the initial through-ball. City, somehow, were misfiring in almost every single aspect of their game here (well, apart from the goalkeeping), and were really pretty fortunate not to go down 5-0. United fans are justifiably ecstatic - though they'll probably now be questioning even more why they didn't ditch Amorim last summer. City fans might perhaps console themselves with the 'what if' that the game might have turned out very differently if Dalot had been sent off, as he really should have been in the opening minutes, when his clumsy follow-through on Doku raked studs down the side of the winger's knee with sufficient force to bend his leg dangerously inwards - very lucky to inflict only a painful bruise rather than season-ending ligament damage.

Chelsea were able to field their 'best 11' for the first time in a while (although Palmer still looked somewhat short of full match fitness, and was completely drained by the end), but still their ultimately quite comfortable win was a little bit of a surprise, given the strength of Brentford's recent form. Somehow, though, the visitors didn't bring their best game this time, and despite having a slight majority of possession, they couldn't do much with it; all their best chances fell to Schade rather than Thiago, and the German just hadn't brought his scoring boots with him. Chelsea should also have had a penalty early on, when a defender clipped Joao Pedro's heel in the box; not a very strong contact, but completely clearcut - Pedro's rather theatrical dive probably worked against him (well, that and the fact that Chelsea just never get penalties any more!.... although they did in fact get a rare award here in the second-half, comfortably despatched by Palmer). At least VAR was doing its job for once, correcting the linesman's rash decision that Joao Pedro had been offside for his well-taken opening goal (it was tight, but he was pretty clearly onside, even to the naked eye). Chelsea weren't really all that good, but they were good enough to prevail over a misfiring opponent.

Liverpool v Burnley started out a fairly drab and scrappy affair, but slowly warmed up. Gakpo earned possibly the softest penalty of the year so far by walking into a Burnley defender and falling over. Szoboszlai, now claiming the penalty duties (why is not Ekitike??), was perhaps so embarrassed by this decision that he smashed his spot-kick against the cross-bar. Liverpool started to get on top after this, and Florian Wirtz ended up having his best league game for the club yet - smashing in a goal very emphatically from 15 yards out, having another decent effort soon after, and playing in Gakpo for an attempt that had to be cleared off the line by Humphreys. Burnley, though, kept plugging away, and their excellent winner from winger Marcus Edwards felt well-deserved. Indeed, they might have snuck away with a win if Konate's latest lapse had proven costly: shortly before the Burnley goal, the increasingly clumsy-looking defender had prodded a low cross from Edwards powerfully towards his own goal - demanding an outstanding save from Alisson to preserve the tenuous lead. Liverpool piled on the pressure over the last 20 or 30 minutes, but couldn't break their obstinate visitors down - although Ekitike had an apparent late winner rightly ruled out for offside (and a possible handball too), and then somehow failed to get a touch when unmarked at the far post as Curtis Jones's fiercely driven square ball (mishit shot??) whizzed past the end of his toe.

Lucas Perri was replaced in goal by Karl Darlow, after a few shakey performances of late. Daniel Farke might have wished he could replace his whole team, as this game against Fulham was a dour, lifeless encounter that had 0-0 written all over it from the outset. The recently on-fire Brenden Aaronson and Harry Wilson had the only two decent half-chances in the match, but both failed to get their efforts on target. A late breakaway by Ampadu down the right set up substitute Nmecha for a superb goal just as we entered stoppage time at the end of the game; and the German forward nearly made it a brace a minute or two later, when his fierce shot after a solo break down the left brought an excellent save out of Leno.

Mavropanos, who looked as if he had suffered a serious head and/or neck injury in the FA Cup last week, was fit to start after all, and produced a very good looping header that forced Vicario into a flying save in the first-half. Spurs suffered another injury blow when Ben Davies had to leave the pitch with a serious leg injury after just a quarter of an hour, while new signing Conor Gallagher made an immediate start, but failed to have much of an impact - in a game which West Ham were able to dominate for long periods. The home side came out with much more cohesion and purpose in the second-half, and were able to get back on terms through a powerful Romero header. Indeed, they looked like they should have been able to take charge of the game, with Areola being forced into saves from powerful efforts by Bissouma and Simons; and they feel they might have had a penalty when the ball touched Scarles's hand (I don't know how the no-penalty decision was justified under the current labyrinthine guidelines, but it seemed fair enough to me: the ball barely brushed his fingertips, and he knew absolutely nothing about it as the ball was played on to him by the Spurs player from only inches away). But flapper Vicario yet again allowed himself to get boxed in at a corner, and substitute Callum Wilson was able to lash home an injury-time winner. Another disastrous home result had the fans baying for Thomas Frank's dismissal at the final whistle, and I fear his position at the club has surely now become untenable.

Sunderland were re-energized by the return of Sadiki and Reinildo from AFCON, but visiting Palace still had the better of first phase of the game - not notably discombobulated by the sudden loss of Marc Guehi or by Oliver Glasner's shock announcement on Friday of his intention to leave the club at the end of the season. Unfortunately, Yeremy Pino's neat opening goal was almost immediately cancelled out by Le Fee, and in the second-half the home team increasingly asserted themselves until another goal became inevitable; indeed, they really should have had a penalty when Romaine Mundle was barged in the back by Justin Devenny. Adam Wharton might have been a bit lucky to escape a second yellow card as well. Unfortunately, the game itself was soon overshadowed by Glasner's glum comments afterwards, complaining at feeling his team has been "abandoned" by the club's ownership (he seemed especially aggrieved at the failure to at least hang on to Eze and Guehi a bit longer, to try to delay their transfers to squeeze one or two more games out of them, but that's probably not a realistic demand; his bigger gripe is surely the failure to promptly bring in adequate replacements, which left him with a threadbare bench this week). This surely signals that he'll depart the club this week rather than at season's end - an unfortunate loss to the English game (unless he perhaps takes the Spurs job??).

Accumulating defensive injuries at Arsenal have finally given Ben White a route back to the starting place that was his right a couple of seasons ago - but for how long? Arteta also brought in Martinelli (who put the only decent chance of the first-half agonisingly just an inch or two wide of the far post) for the recently prolific Trossard (but swapped them back at half-time, which can't be likely to boost the confidence of either player), and - a rare occurrence indeed! - rested Saka (no doubt to the chagrin of many FPL managers, quite a few of whom might have made him captain for this fixture) in favour of Madueke, while giving the seemingly 'out of favour' Eze a scant 10 minutes at the end. Saka and Merino, though, got on for the last half-hour or so (at the expense of Madueke and Gyokeres, denied full appearance points), and Saka produced the best effort of the game - a towering header that brought a flying fingertip save from Sels. Forest, much improved on recent lifeless performances, had the best of the game for the most part, and did a good job of frustrating their visitors - who may have been feeling a bit of extra pressure from the fact that they unexpectedly had a chance to extend their lead in the title race. A mostly rather dull and uneventful match was distinguished by the oddity of having 2 dubiously turned-down penalties: Hudson-Odoi was pulled/tripped by Timber on the edge of the area, but both the referee and the VAR team somehow concluded that the 'decisive moment' of the illegal contact had occurred a fraction of an inch short of the line (I think absolutely everyone in the stadium, including the Arsenal fans, must have thought it was a penalty!); but then the balance of injustice was perhaps restored later in the game when Aina clearly handled the ball in an attempt to keep it in play, but this was somehow excused on the 'natural position for the arm' clause (oh yes, if you're trying to keep the ball from crossing the line, you naturally move the crook of your elbow towards it!).

In a gameweek of almost entirely limp matches, Wolves v Newcastle was undoubtedly the limpest. Usually 0-0s result from sterling defensive performances, but here neither keeper earned 'saves' points, and only Mosquera earned 'defensive points' (no-one else came anywhere near). The only decent effort in the game came from Wolves's explosive teenager Mateus Mané, whose cute over-the-shoulder volley from 10 yards out unfortunately went straight down the middle into Pope's arms. Newcastle were fortunate that Trippier and Botman were fit again to plug the gaps in their defence, and Trippier might have been 'Man of the Match' - curling a free-kick into the outside of the side-netting, and putting in a sublime cross early in the game that Woltemade somehow failed to make contact with. (And he was playing through some discomfort, as Mané had accidentally stamped on his forehead early on, leaving him with a deep cut across the bridge of his nose.) Woltemade, Tonali, and Gordon were all taken off in the 65th minute: reasonable enough, since they weren't having much impact in this stalemate of a game - and at least they got their minimum FPL 'appearance points' from the outing. The main takeaway from this one is that Rob Edwards has finally got Wolves playing like a side who don't deserve to go down: they're still a long way from great, but at least they're now showing some confidence and cohesion, and are becoming tougher to beat.

Of all the slumps in form we've seen this week, Villa's was perhaps the most dramatic and alarming. They dominated possession against visitors Everton, but really weren't able to do anything much with the ball. All the best chances fell to Morgan Rogers, who managed to miss them all badly (apart from one good curled effort from distance near the end, which might have been just sneaking under the bar, until Pickford flew across his goal to tip it over). Their closest chance was actually a miscued header from Guessand which deceived Pickford and looped on to the face of the crossbar behind him. Ollie Watkins was so anonymous in this game that I had to double-check the match reports to see if he'd even been playing: absolutely zero mentions in the commentary, and just about zero touches of the ball! Villa also lost the inspirational John McGinn, who limped off the pitch early on with what looked like it might be a knee-cartilage problem. And in a mostly fairly glum, uneventful match where neither side created much scoring threat, they managed to give a goal away with a dreadful double error: Pau Torres's miscontrol giving the ball away just outside his own box, and then Martinez spilling Dwight McNeil's weak curled effort right at the feet of a surprised and grateful Thierno Barry. Jake O'Brien had also headed home from a short-corner routine, but Harrison Armstrong was adjudged to have been offside at the edge of the six-yard box as Garner played the ball in. (This again was a rather unsatisfying decision. The TV picture kept freezing the frame as Garner was beginning to swing his foot at the ball. At this point, Armstrong was clearly a foot or so behind the line of the defenders - but he was already stepping back towards an onside postion as the defenders were quckly dropping deeper, so their relative positions changed dramatically within one or two tenths of a second. And it really wasn't clear when Garner's foot had made contact with the ball... or when that contact finished, as he was playing a gentle scooped cross with a fairly prolonged contact on the ball: this was actually a very, very tight decision, and a few frames of the video playback could have made all the difference. It would have been reassuring to see an official SAOT graphic to justify this call - since this technology can supposedly identify the 'exact' moment a pass is struck via a sensor inside the ball - but none was forthcoming.) And the visitors had come close to nicking what might have been one of the three or four fastest goals in Premier League history when a long-ball from Pickford reached baby-faced midfielder Merlin Röhl who cracked off an early shot from the edge of the box; he didn't make particularly good contact with it, but it caught Martinez by surprise and eluded his dive, rolling against the foot of the far post... just under 11 seconds from the opening whistle. (It would have been nice to see that go in, just for the little bit of history.)

Monday night's south coast derby between Brighton and Bournemouth might have been the most entertaining fixture of the gameweek - although that's not saying much. Brighton had 'rested' three of their most crucial players, Baleba, Rutter, and Minteh, and although making a lively and dangerous start to the game, soon allowed their visitors to start taking control. Adli's fall in the penalty area at the end of a swift break led by Tavernier was initially judged a 'dive' by Paul Tierney, but for once VAR proved useful in showing that Verbruggen had indeed touched his feet as he grasped vainly for the ball. It's interesting to see that after Semenyo's departure and Kluivert's injury, Tavernier is now on penalty-taking duties, and looking very confident in the role. Bournemouth were then all over the home side for the last part of the first-half, with Evanilson beating Verbruggen with a neat dink but seeing the ball come back off the inside of the far post, and then putting a header inches wide. Brighton reasserted control in the second-half, however, and began looking particularly dangerous after the belated introduction of their three star performers in the 66th minute. However, a resolute Bournemouth managed to defy them until teen substitute Kostoulous came up with a bicycle-kick goal at the beginning of added-on time. A good game - apparently unmarred by refereeing cock-ups (almost unique this gameweek).

Yes, once again it's a super-weird FPL 'Team of the Week'; of the preliminary line-up after Saturday's matches only Bruno Fernandes, Dorgu and Chalobah had much of an FPL ownership (and the latter two not that much); the only subsequent change was that Chalobah got bumped out by Thiaw. There was a dearth of goals (the 10th lowest-scoring gameweek in Premier League history!), almost all of the most fancied FPL players came up blank, and pretty nearly all of the results confounded expectations. In a season of miserably low gameweek averages this week's figure of 40 points is almost a new nadir! Also, there were 5 penalties probably wrongly not given (2 in the same game!), and 1 wrongly given (and missed!), a couple of red cards missed, a slightly dubious disallowed 'offside' goal for Everton, and a fair old welter of near-misses and efforts against the woodwork; also some unwelcome selection surprises, and generally sub-standard performances from almost everyone - this is again looking like about an 8 out of 10 on the 'Luck-o-Meter' for this gameweek.

Luck-o-Meter 25-26 - Gameweek 21

The 'holiday' mayhem continues into a cold, wet January - now with an added sprinkle of uncertainty and confusion from the opening of the mid-season transfer window. And it's another midweek gameweek, following on with very little break from the last batch of fixtures at the weekend...!

The 'early' fixture on Tuesday, West Ham v Forest, was a pretty drab affair. West Ham were somewhat improved over their recent terrible performances, and might feel a little aggrieved that the Fates were so harsh on them here: they appeared to have taken a 2-0 lead early in the second-half through Summerville's stinging half-volley from the edge of the box, but it was ruled out for a very narrow offside by someone else during the build-up. They conceded an equaliser soon afterwards, again an unlucky fluke: Dominguez's near-post flick-on from a corner was completely uncontrolled, intended merely to help the ball on towards the far post - but it fortuitously looped high into the far top corner of the goal. And then the visitors sealed the points with an extremely soft penalty (goalkeeper collides with an attacking player when trying to punch away a corner - when is that ever culpable?).

Bournemouth finally ended their long - and often very unlucky - winless run with a narrow victory over a spirited Spurs. Their visitors had taken an early lead with a fine solo effort from Tel (although his final shot from the edge of the box was not very powerful, and Petrovic was probably somewhat at fault in letting it past him), but Evanilson soon equalised with possibly the best header we've yet seen this season. A rasper from Kroupi then put them ahead, but in the second-half Spurs pinned them down in their own box for long periods, and an equaliser began to seem inevitable. Spurs were frustrated when a penalty awarded to Van de Ven, going down in the box after one of his marauding 60-yard carries, was rescinded after a pitchside review; but the wonder here was that Darren England ever bought such an elaborate dive - the Spurs man was really lucky to escape a booking for 'simulation' (although he got one anyway for arguing about the decision); presumably that was only because there had indeed been some contact with the Bournemouth defender, but clearly 'initiated' by his own leaping into him. Other good efforts - a long-range curler fizzed on to the roof of the net by Bergvall in the first-half, a corner headed against the foot of the post by Richarlison early in the second - had failed to go in, but eventually Palhinha got them their deserved equaliser with a spectacular bicycle-kick. Alas for Spurs, this roused the home side to go on the attack again in the closing 10 minutes, and Semenyo finally came up with a screamer in the final moments of added-on time. There seems to have been only one bad refereeing decision in this one, and that was corrected with the help of VAR. But it was remarkable that all of the goals were such improbable bangers (a mini 'Goal of the Month' competition in one game!): both teams had an xG of only about 1.4, but the match ended up 3-2??!

Poor Sunderland really seem to be struggling without their African contingent, especially their midfield lynchpin Sadiki. They barely mustered an attempt on goal at Brentford, and even squandered a chance to equalise from the penalty spot (Kelleher will presumably be credited with a 'save', but Le Fee chipped it tamely into his hands). Brentford really could have won by a much bigger margin, with Lewis-Potter (from a free-kick) and Schade both rattling the woodwork.

Villa were well below their best on their visit to Palace, and although it was quite a lively game, both defences ultimately came out on top. Palace had most of the chances, but couldn't convert; and the best opportunity probably came right at the end for the visitors, when Lindelof got a great header on Cash's left-footed cross, but it hit the post. Villa fans - and some FPL managers - will be alarmed that Emi Martinez, perhaps suffering from his 'back problem' again, had to be replaced at half-time by Marco Bizot.

Michael Keane popped up for a goal yet again, his third of the season; although this was a somewhat untypical one, not powering home a header from three yards out, but having a hopeful swing at a mishit shot by Iroegbunam. He nearly notched a second not too long after, heading powerfully against a post from Garner's delightful dead-ball delivery. But Wolves fought back bravely in the second-half, and their new teen sensation Mateus Mané again grabbed a superb goal to earn them a point. Everton had to weather a late storm after Keane foolishly got himself sent off for tugging on Arokodare's braids as they both jumped for a high ball in the middle of the park. And in the closing minutes, Grealish also got himself sent off for showing dissent twice in quick succession. Shortly after that, Hugo Bueno nearly claimed a winner, his 25-yard curler being brilliantly fingertipped over the bar by Pickford for the 'Save of the Week'.

Fulham failed to make the most of their one-man advantage, after Cucurella had got himself sent off early in the game for hauling back a breaking Harry Wilson just short of the penalty area; Chelsea were still on top for long spells, and unfortunate not to put away some of their chances. But the irrepressible Harry Wilson - the hottest player in the league at the moment - came through with a late winner for them (after being denied one earlier for a very harsh offside).

With Dias expected to be out for at least a month with a thigh strain and Gvardiol facing a lengthy recuperation from a broken leg, Pep opted to bring back 20-year-old Max Alleyne from loan at Watford (where he's had 15 starts, and has apparently been playing very well) to start in central defence along with the recalled Khusanov. As if that weren't disruption enough, he also chose to 'rest' not only just-back-from-injury Rodri, but also Cherki and O'Reilly, two of his best players over the last month or so. Not so surprising then, that City were so far off their usual game (although it was a lack of control in midfield more than a lack of cohesion in defence that seemed to be the problem early on), and Brighton dominated the early part of the game, forcing a few saves out of Donnarumma and a superb last-ditch challenge from Khusanov to deny Rutter. It was unfortunate for the plucky visitors that they conceded the lead - to a Haaland penalty, after carelessly giving the ball away 30 yards out on their right-flank, leading to City's only decent attack of the opening period - deep in first-half stoppage time. The second-half was more even, although Brighton still had slightly the best of it (though being lucky to survive some big scares, particularly when twice passing the ball to Bernardo Silva in their own box; the first time, shortly after the interval, he rushed his shot and slammed it against the outside of the post; the second, he unselfishly squared the ball to Haaland, who couldn't beat Verbruggen) and deservedly got an eventual equaliser through Mitoma.

Interim United coach Darren Fletcher switched to a much more sensible 4-2-3-1 line-up, with a potent-looking attacking three of Cunha, Fernandes, and Dorgu supporting Sesko, and they produced one of their best displays for a long while - with Sesko bagging a brilliant brace (very nearly a hattrick, or more). The home side, however, rose to the occasion and gave perhaps their best performance of the entire season. Burnley left-back Bashir Humphreys, making only his third start of the season, gave the home side a fortuitous lead when his cross took a huge deflection off Ayden Heaven to loop over Lammens into the goal. And shortly afterwards, the youngster preserved the lead by clearing Cunha's header out from under his crossbar. A little later though, Sesko was unjustly denied an equaliser when his goal was ruled out for a non-existent 'foul' by Martinez (Walker had fallen over under the lightest possible push in his back, scarcely even a caress...). Esteve then made an even more stunning goal-line block from Dorgu's dink over the keeper. United made a storming start to the second period, with Sesko grabbing a quickfire brace, and Fernandes firing against the post, but then Jaidon Anthony finally found his scoring boots again (remember, he notched 4 in the opening 6 games to make him a surprise FPL frontrunner, but has had a long string of blanks since then) to earn a point. In a thrilling match, 18-year-old United winger Shea Lacey, given a token run-out for the last 5 minutes or so, also cracked a superb effort against the crossbar. Overall, a draw seemed a fair result here, but this new-look United emphatically demonstrated that they are potentially a far better team than the inept Amorim has allowed them to be over the last year-and-a-bit.

Poor Malick Thiaw had some rotten luck, first falling over to give away the ball to Aaronson to nick the opening goal, and then having a penalty given against him to put the home side behind again (very harsh, this one: it was not clear where on the upper arm the ball struck him, and it was entirely outside of his control, as he was falling over and only had his arms extended to break his fall - I really don't see how this one was given); and then being withdrawn at half-time (injury, or just being spared further embarrassment/fearing that his confidence had been fatally dented??). They also lost Schar 15 minutes from the end, with what looks like it might be a bad ankle injury - so, once again, the club is getting dangerously short of fit defenders, and will probably have to look to bring in stop-gaps over the window. Despite these setbacks, Newcastle increasingly dominated the game as it went on, but they survived a big scare when James Justin beat Pope to an Aaronson cross from the left but headed against the crossbar, and then went behind again from another banger from Aaronson. But Aaronson was then penalised for a handball in the closing minutes of regular time to give the home side a lifeline (again very harsh: the ball was fired at him from such close-range that he really had no chance to get out of the way; moreover, he appeared to be just outside the box - and we never heard VAR's verdict on this issue). We then got a colossal 10 minutes of additional time indicated (apparently very largely for Leeds's time-wasting late in the game), extended yet further by an injury stoppage after the end of the regulation 90 minutes - enabling Barnes's to grab the winner in the 102nd minute! It was probably a deserved result on the overall balance of play - but very hard on Leeds, who'd come so close to a vital win.

The Arsenal v Liverpool game ended up being a tense goalless draw, as might have been expected. Arsenal imposed relentless pressure in the final third for the first 15 minutes or so, but couldn't find a breakthrough, and from there on the visitors were increasingly able to get into the game, and created more moments of real danger. The worst of these was when a hasty back-pass from Saliba found Raya charging out towards the edge of the box, such that the keeper had to make an immediate panicked clearance which went straight to Bradley, whose first-time effort from 30 yards struck the face of the crossbar. Szoboszlai also went fairly close with a long-range free-kick in the second-half. Arsenal's only major chance fell to Gabriel in the final seconds of the game, when he was first to Madueke's high corner at the far post but couldn't control his header. It's a measure of how sterile the game ultimately was that only Konate and Zubimendi earned 'defensive points', and only just barely; both sides had long spells of ultimately unproductive possession, not much to-and-fro. Liverpool, however, might feel somewhat cheated in that they had two pretty good penalty shouts ignored. In the first, Hincapie brought down Frimpong and left him in some pain: the contact didn't look that heavy, and might have been interpreted as a half-and-half 'coming together', but the Arsenal defender definitely stepped into the attacker, and happened to catch his toe just as he was lifting his foot - turning the foot sharply inwards and badly spraining the ankle. Later, Wirtz was brought down by Trossard, but again got nothing: the German probably ran into his opponent too readily, went down a little elaborately - but again, Trossard clearly stepped across him, and we see those given more often than not. Both calls might have been slightly contentious, not entirely clearcut; but to me they both looked considerably more than 50/50 in Liverpool's favour, and it really seems a travesty that they didn't get either of them. (Will these incidents stop Arsenal fans whingeing that big decisions never go their way? Of course not!)  Unhappy news at the end, when Conor Bradley collapsed on the touchline immediately after making a clearance in stoppage time, and looked as though he might have ruptured knee ligaments - let's hope not; he has been one of the few bright spots in Liverpool's thus-far tepid season. Hincapie also had to come off early in the second-half.

It's another rather weird FPL 'Team of the Week', with Thiago the only widely owned player featuring in it, and Kelleher coming out as top keeper for his not-really-a-save from Le Fee's epically bad penalty attempt. And it's yet again a miserably low global average of just 48 points - though at least this time we haven't had any such egregious misfortunes as an injury-flagged player unexpectedly starting and getting the haul of the week...! An unusually large number of goals, most of them again from somewhat unexpected sources, 3 red cards (all uncontentious, at least), an unjustly denied goal for Benjamin Sesko, bad penalty decisions against both Newcastle and Leeds in their game, a questionable one against West Ham to deny them a draw, and 2 very dubious 'no penalty' decisions for Liverpool which might have skewed the title race, plus a few very tight offsides again - it's not quite as bad as GW20, but still looking like an 8 out of 10 on the 'Luck-o-Meter' this gameweek.

Luck-o-Meter 25-26 - Gameweek 20

  

The 'holiday' mayhem continues into a cold, wet January - now with an added sprinkle of uncertainty and confusion from the opening of the mid-season transfer window.

Forest were looking dogged and determined in their visit to Villa for the lunchtime game, and frustrated their in-form hosts for long periods. Apart from an excellent save by John Victor in the opening minutes when a blocked clearance from Neco Williams fortuitously fizzed sideways across the area straight to Watkins lurking in the middle at the edge of the six-yard box, there were few clearcut chances for either side. However, Watkins broke the deadlock with a ripper from 20 yards out on the stroke of half-time. Villa appeared to have given themselves a comfort margin when McGinn grabbed a second within minutes of the restart; but their energy levels dropped off, and Forest gratefully took the chance to grow back into the game. Bakwa should really have got them back in the game when he ghosted in unmarked just beyond the far post to meet Hutchinson's cross, but hopelessly miscued his header. Shortly afterwards, Gibbs-White broke in behind and finished coolly past Martinez to give the visitors hope again - but a second goal from McGinn soon dashed them again; a terrible error from John Victor, coming 30 yards out of his goal to challenge for a ball, when there were plenty of his own defenders on hand to deal with it, allowing McGinn to calmly curl the ball around him into an empty net. The Brazilian keeper apparently pulled a muscle behind his knee in the course of this, and was immediately replaced by Sels.

Brighton should really have won more comfortably against a particularly clueless-looking Burnley. Fine goals from Rutter and Ayari secured the win, but they could, should have had many more goals; debutant winger Kostoulas nearly opened the scoring just a few minutes in, but had been offside by a shoulder; near the end, De Cuyper thundered a free-kick against the top of the left-hand post. The visitors had only 1 effort on goal during the first 70 or 80 minutes, but roused themselves to a few desperate final flurries, one of which had to be headed out from under the bar by Kadioglu (which was apparently enough to secure him a massive BPS tally and maximum bonus points, despite not registering any attacking contributions and only 4 game actions eligible for 'defensive points'!!), and another of which was eventually claimed by Verbruggen after the ball had pinged around the six-yard box rather worryingly for several seconds. Burnley are now looking very nearly as certain to be relegated as Wolves.

Wolves appear revitalised by the sensational form of their new young attacking midfielder Mateus Mané, only turned 18 a few months ago and just promoted from the youth team for the past three games. He regularly tore a woeful West Ham apart, winning a penalty (although that was very soft), scoring a terrific final goal from the edge of the box, and a little later having another good, low cross-shot well turned away by Areola - after he'd got away from two West Ham defenders on the edge of the area with a Cruyff turn. However, West Ham really should have had a penalty of their own in the opening minutes, when Freddie Potts was clipped on the toe by wild swish from a Wolves defender; the contact was fairly light, but completely clearcut - and I don't see how that was not given. And if the visitors had obtained an early lead so easily, perhaps the match would have taken on a very different character; although, to be honest, West Ham looked so lethargic and demoralised in this game, were so easily dominated by the home side, they were probably lucky not to lose by a landslide; they needed a couple of outstanding saves from Areola to keep thm hanging on by their fingernails. The penalty award against them, though, looked very dubious: Magassa and Mané both lifted their feet to a high, dropping ball in the box - but their boots barely clashed, and it was an entirely 50/50 coming-together, no way a penalty. West Ham had another shout of their own a bit later when Soucek went down while grappling with Krejci at a corner, although there didn't look to be anything in that one; if anything, Soucek was the one holding on, and trying to drag his defender down with him.

The major FPL bombshell of the weekend was that Declan Rice, who'd appeared to be a big doubt before the game, was fine to play from the start after all - and had an absolute blinder, delivering what will probably be his best points return of the season... and one of the best from any player. Away to Bournemouth on the weekend after New Year's might not have looked one of Arsenal's more promising fixtures anyway, and indeed, they did concede first; but it proved to be quite the ding-dong game, with Rice registering a brace of goals (for the first time ever in the Premier League) and a huge 'defensive contributions' tally; but many FPL managers (he's owned by just over 20%, and it really ought to be more) - not unreasonably - might have left him on the bench this week (though some may have enjoyed some further luck if an unexpected non-appearance allowed him to be auto-subbed in for them). To add insult to injury, Saka - a popular captaincy choice this week - was rested (something Arteta just about never does, so long as both feet are still attached to his ankles); although he did at least come on for the last 20 minutes or so, and was still able to register a contribution.

The game got off to a calamitous start for the title-chasers, with Gabriel making a horrible mistake inside 10 minutes - bizarrely passing the ball to Evanilson in the middle 20 yards out (leaving him to pass the ball into an empty net, since Raya had come way out to the left to be available for a short back-pass). He was able to at least partly atone very shortly afterwards when he grabbed an equaliser by lashing in a left-foot half-volley at the far post from a corner (Fate being rather on his side, as it was somewhat fortuitous that the ball broke so perfectly to him after the packed Bournemouth defence had successfully blocked initial efforts from Hincapie and Martinelli). However, the home side were well on top for most of the first-half, creating constant danger; and although the Rice goals in the third quarter of the game deflated them slightly, they again came back very strongly in the closing minutes, encouraged by substitute Kroupi's banger from 20 yards out which put them back in contention. Arsenal managed to convert three pretty difficult chances, but their xG was lower than Bournemouth's and they really looked second-best in this game.

Leeds v Manchester United was almost unwatchably dull in the first-half, looking very much as if it was going to be one of those games that would end goalless because neither side were good enough to create a decent chance. Fortunately, both sides upped their game somewhat in the second-half, though this still very much had the look of a lower mid-table clash. There was a strange moment early on when Cunha appeared to have lashed home a long-range half-volley after a long clearance from Lammens. It was flagged offside, but I still haven't seen any convincing explanation for this decision; 2 or 3 United players were just offside when Lammens launched his kick upfield, but they all ran back on, and I don't think any of them played the ball on its way through to Cunha - who had been onside throughout: a rough decision, and frankly a rather baffling one. Calvert-Lewin also had one very good effort in the first-half, a glancing header that flashed across the goal and struck the face of the far post. Apart from these untypical moments of excitement, it was a terribly sterile first 45 minutes. Leeds really looked like they deserved 3 points from the game, but Cunha popped up for an equaliser just a few minutes after Aaronson had given them the lead, and that deflated them rather; although Okafor's bicycle-kick attempt nearly gave them the win, demanding a sharp save from Lammens, and Piroe curled an effort on to the roof of the net in the dying minutes. Cunha finally seems to be coming into a little bit of goalscoring form - perhaps enjoying the greater responsibility placed on him in Mbeumo's absence. Ominous signs afterwards when Amorim struck a petulant note in his press conference, apparently declaring that he would leave the club at the end of his current contract, and also hinting at a rift with the hierarchy in asserting that he was supposed to be 'the manager' not just the coach at the club (which is usually code for being pissed off that the Sporting Director isn't giving you the new players you want... and generally leads to an imminent departure, as we've already seen this season with Nuno Espiritu Santo and Enzo Maresca). [Ooh, that's a bingo! Nothing especially prescient in my saying this - but, of course, he did indeed get the boot first thing the next day, mere hours after I wrote this.]

Everton v Brentford was an all-action game - really the day's best, though well down the 'Match of the Day' running order, presumably simply because they're not 'big name' teams. Thiago, who had been strangely goalless in December, despite continuing to put in excellent performances, quelled any doubts about his form by bagging a hattrick (and it might have been 4: he brought one very good stop out of Pickford in the first-half). Everton's usually robust defence was a bit out-of-sorts here, perhaps just overstretched by the pace of their visitors' relentless counter-attacks; the home side had some decent moments of their own, though, forcing a few very good saves out of Kelleher, and grabbing a couple of late consolation goals. Thiago had been clearly offside for his second when the long ball was initially played over the top, but was safely back onside before the final pass was played to him; but again we suffered a long VAR check, and - as with the Wirtz incident at Craven Cottage - the SAOT picture eventually shared did not correspond at all to what we'd seen on the TV; and it was apparently declaring him to have been onside (presumably for the final pass rather the initial long-ball, for which his position should not have been relevant?) only by the thickness of a wrinkle on the defender's forehead - I do wish this nonsense would stop! Moyes risked the ire of FPL enthusiasts - and possibly some Everton fans too - by withdrawing Tyler Dibling and Dwight McNeil at half-time. Lewis-Potter, recently popular in FPL because of his scoring potential when started as a forward, was unexpectedly rested for this one, only coming on for the last 25 minutes or so (which, unfortunately, was when Everton banged in their 2 goals....).

The Fulham v Liverpool game was marred by more weirdness with the offside calls. There was a protracted delay to confirm Harry Wilson's goal, initially flagged offside by the linesman, although to the naked eye he had looked clearly on (not by much, but fairly clearly an inch or two the right side of Van Dijk); but when we finally got the SAOT graphic, he and the last defender appeared to be exactly level, and it was not clear what 'the line' was being drawn on! The 'margin', if indeed there was one at all, can't have been much more than the thickness of a player's shirt; I don't like to see goals ruled out for such minimal distances, but it's also a bit harsh on defending sides when a decision goes against them on such a hair's-breadth difference; I really hope we soon see a revision of the Offside Law to allow for a much larger and more clearcut gap between the attacker and the last defender. The subsequent delay for Wirtz's equaliser was even more confounding: in the TV freeze-frame that kept being shown, the German was clearly offside by the length of his leading foot, from instep to toe (and it actually looked as if that chosen frame might have been one or two premature, that Bradley had not yet finished releasing the ball to him!); but the SAOT picture, when it finally appeared, showed his leg less extended and the foot twisted inward - so that the tip of his toe was now exactly level with the line of the last defender. When there is such a big discrepancy between the TV picture and the SAOT rendering, we really need some explanation of that - to restore some confidence (of which I, frankly, have none at all!) in this new system: it appeared very much as though the SAOT had chosen the moment of ball-release from Bradley (supposedly determined by a sensor inside the ball?) at least a tenth of a second or so too early - and that makes a huge difference on tight calls like this. I have said often that I think the answer to this is not to 'improve' the technology, but simply to abandon the idea of trying to determine such tiny margins and return to the old policy of 'giving the benefit of the doubt' to the attacking side. Alas, in this technological age, I doubt that will ever happen.

Ekitike was another omission, yet another victim of a late hamstring problem. Liverpool had some good chances (Gakpo and Macallister both headed against the bar), but they looked a bit short of energy at times; even the usually dynamic Szoboszlai seemed a bit leggy here. Fulham were overall much the better team, and their pressure through the second-half might have wrapped up a win (especially when Harry Wilson chipped Alisson, but saw the effort bounce back off the top of the crossbar) before they were shocked by Gakpo's late second goal; they were thoroughly deserving of their own late, late goal - substitute Reed's absolute banger - that saved them a point.

Eddie Howe started Wissa over Woltemade and Murphy over Barnes, while Glasner gave an immediate start to Brennan Johnson, barely 48 hours after joining the club on loan from Spurs. Visitors Palace survived an early scare when Gordon finished off a quick break, but Wissa was - rightly - adjudged to have been very slightly offside as he ran through to receive the initial through-ball. It was mostly one-way traffic, though - with Palace's only decent chance unfortunately falling to Will Huges, who prodded wide - and they were visibly tiring as Newcastle ramped up the pressure in the last 25 minutes; they really might have conceded a third, as Henderson made a fantastic save from Barnes with his foot in the closing minutes, and Willock somehow blazed the rebound wide of an open-goal. Things are really starting to look a bit grim for Palace.

Spurs and Sunderland both played like teams with a bad New Year's hangover; this might well have been the poorest performance of the season from both of them. Spurs had much the best of the first-half, but didn't have the quality to create any decent chances, let alone convert any (their best, actually, didn't come until the closing minutes, when Porro put in a sublime cross from the right, but substitute Palhinha couldn't direct his header on target). Sunderland will be kicking themselves that their defending completely broke down on one first-half corner, allowing Ben Davies (getting his first start of the season, mysteriously preferred now to Djed Spence) to lash the ball home from the edge of the six-yard box. In the second-half, Sunderland roused themselves to chase the game, and began to look more like the home side - as Spurs had no response. An equaliser started to look inevitable, and Spurs were lucky, really, not to end up losing 2-1 or 3-1.

Gonzalez and Savinho were ruled out by injury for City, and Doku was strangely left on the bench; and they lost Ruben Dias and Gvardiol to injuries in the second-half here; but at least Rodri was able to return, lasted the full 90 minutes, and looked somewhere near his best again. Chelsea were without Caicedo due to a totting-up suspension (in the last game before the mid-season 'amnesty'), Fofana due to illness, and goalkeeper Sanchez due to a muscle strain suffered in training, but didn't appear too disturbed by the acrimonious departure of their manager in midweek. They defended stalwartly through the first-half, mostly confining City to hopeful shots from outside the box (Foden and Bernardo Silva not getting their efforts particularly close to the target); Haaland had two good first-half efforts, one a deflected shot from the edge of the box that needed a fingertip save from stand-in keeper Jorgensen, and the other a fierce curler from 15 yards that rebounded off the inside of the post. But the pressure had been mounting, and when Reijnders nicked the lead just before half-time, you feared the floodgates might open. But they came back out looking much more positive, and created most of the better chances in the second-half: Neto was set up with a sitter by Enzo, but scooped it over the top. City's best chance came with a fast break that ended with Cherki finding Silva in the middle of the box, but Hato stole it off his toe with a great sliding challenge. It was looking as if City had managed to hang on to the 3 points, but right at the death Enzo managed to prod the ball home at the far post after a fast break down the right. Chelsea caretaker manager Calum McFarlane acted decisively to give his side a chance in the game, taking Estevao off at half-time (and making 2 further substitutions only just past the hour!): the introduction of Santos alongside James as the second pivot allowed Enzo to play further forward alongside Palmer, and that immediately transformed Chelsea's attacking play. No dodgy refereeing at all in this one - remarkable!

It's another particularly weird FPL 'Team of the Week': though it might have been even worse - in mid-gameweek it included 4 Brighton and 4 Wolves players!! In the end, we still had Ayari, Janelt, McGinn, Enzo Fernandez, and newcomer Mateus Mané dominating the list; Declan Rice was the only fairly high-owned player to gain inclusion (and he was probably left on the bench by a majority of his owners, as he was said to have missed training all week with a swollen knee).

A few selection surprises and late injury-reveals, a couple of dubious penalty calls, and some weird shenanigans with very tight offside decisions, and a whole host of improbable goals banged in from well outside the penalty area... as well as a lot of big hauls from slightly unexpected sources, while the majority of the most popular players again produced fairly little - and we saw yet again a miserably low global average of just 42 points! All of this makes it about a 7 out of 10 on the 'Luck-o-Meter' this gameweek.

Luck-o-Meter 25-26 - Gameweek 18

I always think of December as 'Random Month': mounting exhaustion, mostly dreadful weather, the relentlessly climbing injury and suspension roster, and a slew of unpredictable 'rest rotations' lead to some yo-yo-ing form and a lot of unexpected results. Plus, of course, this week most of the players would undoubtedly far rather be home with their families, and might not be fully focused on their endeavours on the pitch.

Newcastle's woeful away form continued against Manchester United on Friday night - although Eddie Howe presumably employed 'the hairdryer' at half-time as his team re-emerged from the dressing room with more resolve and urgency, and gradually pushed the home side back into a desperate defence of their slender lead, hanging on by fingernails for the last 20 minutes. Amorim is finally showing some tactical flexibility (though perhaps only a grudging - and temporary - adaptation to the multiple player absences he's having to deal with at the moment): after morphing to more of a four-at-the-back without the ball in the last game or two, he now seems to have formalised this into a 4-2-3-1 starting formation - and this time was deployng Dorgu as an outright winger, and on the right, rather than his usual left side; he thrived here on the attacking responsibility, and claimed the winner with a crisp volley from the edge of the box (although I don't know how Dalot is getting credited with an assist on this; his long-throw into the box was not merely 'diverted' but emphatically headed clear by Woltemade at the near-post, really initiating a new 'phase of play'; I wouldn't be surprised to see that attribution overturned). Sesko and Hall both unleashed firm shots against the crossbar in the second half, Gordon put a cross-shot narrowly wide, and Dalot fluffed the best chance of the game when he stole in behind on to a chipped free-kick but hooked his half-volley over the top. There were a couple of hopeful shouts for penalties from the visitors; but those incidents don't seem to have made it into the highlights reels, so presumably there wasn't much in them. Possible further injury woes for United, with Mason Mount not able to reappear after the break, and Casemiro being withdrawn after barely an hour (although that might have been just a fatigue issue, as he rarely has the stamina for a full game any more).

City went briefly back on top of the table after their lunchtime win at Forest, but they had to work for the points, and very nearly let them slip away. Forest actually looked the better team in the first-half, and might have gone ahead after just 7 minutes when Jesus and Gibbs-White both failed by inches to get on the end of a sublime cross in behind the defence from Hudson-Odoi. Their new keeper, John Victor, was also in outstanding form, making superb saves from Cherki and Foden. Hutchinson's equaliser for the home side, finishing off an excellent team move down the left, thus felt well deserved; and they nearly grabbed the lead shortly afterwards when Donnarumma could only parry Neco Williams's low, curling effort out to the inrushing Savona, but the right-back blazed his effort miles over the bar. Forest may also feel slightly aggrieved that O'Reilly appeared to have wrestled Gibbs-White to the ground in the six-yard box just before Cherki rifled in his winner. To me, though, there really wasn't anything of substance in that shout. Forest have a stronger case that Ruben Dias should have been sent off for a second yellow card just before half-time, when he cynically clipped the heels of Igor Jesus only minutes after being booked for dissent. City, of course, get away with a lot.

Arsenal are beset with injury problems in defence: Timber was a late drop-out after feeling a sore muscle in training, and then Calafiori had a similar problem in the warm-up. They were fortunate that Hincapie, who had appeared still doubtful to start during the work, was able to step back into the centre of defence, but Rice had to deputise at right-back. Eze was not even on the bench, which may be an omnous sign. Brighton had their problems too, with Welbeck still troubled by a bad back and only on the bench, Minteh only coming on as a sub for the second-half, and Mitoma, only just fit again after a long injury absence, going down with a virus. Last-minute omissions like this upset many a Bench Boost play this week! Yet again, Arsenal didn't look particularly convincing, but did just enough to take the points from a fairly uninspired opponent: a crisp drive from outside the box from Odegaard in the first-half and a Rice corner unluckily deflected into his own net off of the top of Rutter's head midway through the second had put them comfortably ahead, but the visitors then gave them an anxious finish when Diego Gomez lashed home the rebound after Ayari's curling effort beat Raya but came back off the inside of the far post. Shortly afterwards the Arsenal keeper pulled off one of the saves of the season, flying across his goal to somehow palm away Minteh's fierce curler. Bart Verbruggen was lucky not to get sent off for cynically clattering Gyokeres when he made a fast break down the left flank: it was too far wide to be a 'denial of a goalscoring opportunity', but it did look very like 'excessive force'.

Brentford are looking more and more impressive of late, not only attacking quickly and with fluency, as their trio of forwards all look in sensational form, but also finally discovering more solidity in defence. Boutnemouth, though, put up no resistance at all; a baffled and humiliated Iraola observed ruefully that they didn't show up at all until the second-half. A consolation goal from Semenyo, improvising a neat back-heeled finish past Kelleher from close range, was their only positive moment in the game. Brentford won with swagger, and could easily have had more than just Schade's superb hat-trick, and the unfortunate Petrovic own-goal (one of his defenders cleared Thiago's effort from the goal-line but fired it straight against his helpless keeper); Lewis-Potter somehow managed to put the ball just wide of an empty goal when he rushed in to get a header on the rebound from Janelt's long-range shot against the post.

Burnley v Everton was very much the uninspired bottom-of-the-table clash. Jack Grealish has apparently gone down with a virus (although most FPL managers long ago lost enthusiasm for him, after his bright start to the season quickly fizzled out), allowing a start to Tyler Dibling, who was probably the visitors' liveliest player. Somewhat strangely, Beto was also restored to the start at centre-forward, ahead of the recently quite impressive Thierno Barry - who only made it on as a late substitute this time. Substitute Zian Flemming nearly nicked the game for Burnely in the daying minutes, when he was played in behind and tried to pass the ball into the bottom corner: the effort beat Pickford, but rebounded off the base of the post - although the Dutch forward had probably been a whisker offside. Dubravka was somehow credited with 6 saves in the game (didn't see half that many in the TV highlights!), which, in a very uneventful game, was also enough to secure him maximum bonus points.

Liverpool were able to win fairly comfortably, with good goals from Gravenbirch and Wirtz (finally breaking his duck!), but Wolves are showing signs of improvement, and fought gamely - giving the home side a few worrying moments. Nigerian forward Tolu Arokodare, replacing the recently depressed-looking Strand Larsen, was quite a livewire for them: his powerful header led to Wolves pulling a goal back, when Alisson could only parry the effort straight back at the lurking Santiago Bueno, and another free header from him was later looped on to the roof of the net. And late on, Arias was about to fire in at the far post when denied by a superb last-ditch block from substitute Conor Bradley. Wolves should surely be able to start picking up a few points soon; but it remains doubtful whether they'll be able to do enough to lift themselves out of last place, as they are now so far adrift.

West Ham v Fulham was fairly entertaining, although it nearly ended up goalless. There was some flowing attacking play from both sides, although almost none of it culminated in clearcut chances. A fizzing long-distance effort from Harry Wilson early on was well tipped over by Areola (it was quite a day for outstanding saves), and Leno was able to turn behind a fierce near-post effort from Bowen; but that was about it - until Scarles's unfortunate missed clearance late on gifted Wilson the chance to improvise a volleyed chip into the middle where Raul was waiting unmarked on the edge of the six-yard box to head home a winner.

Villa were strangely subdued in the first-half at Chelsea, barely getting a kick in the opposition half, let alone any sort of sniff of goal - though Emery implied that this might all have been part of his 'cunning plan' for the game. Their fortunes were completely revitalised when he made three substitutions just before the hour (potentially more woe for FPL managers!), one of them being Ollie Watkins, initially left on the bench but emerging as a triumphant match-winner. Chelsea just couldn't capitalise on their early dominance: they had all of the ball, but couldn't create many chances with it - and were really somewhat lucky to have nicked the lead just before half-time when Emi Martinez got too busy wrestling with opposiing players on his goal-line to watch the flight of Reece James's in-swinging corner, and it drifted straight into the net - with a little bit of help from a deflection off Joao Pedro's back (definitely a lucky goal for him; he really knew nothing about it!). Chelsea should really have had a second from the penalty spot, though (but Chelsea just aren't awarded penalties any more) when Maatsen was inexplicably excused for a handling offence in the area (he didn't know anything about it, but his arm was stretched way out from his body for no good reason, and that intervention - albeit 'inadvertent' prevented the ball from going through to Neto who would have had a clear chance to score at the far post). Watkins's equaliser was also a bit fortuitous: he had overrun the ball slightly as he dashed in behind on to Roger's neat pass and, as he stretched to get off a late shot, Sanchez had rushed out to smother it; but the ball came back off the keeper's midriff, cannoned into the striker's knees, and the ricocheting ball was lifted over the keeper's prone body and on to the inside of the post - and into the net. Villa's ability to keep in coming from behind is really quite uncanny, and is now establishing them as credible title challengers. Chelsea's inability to create scoring chances even when comfortably controlling a game is becoming a major worry: if they carry on pissing away points like this, they'll finish mid-table.

Sunderland look as if they are missing their AFCON absentees, Sadiki and Reinildo et al, and also lost their defensive colossus Dan Ballard with an ankle injury just before the match. However, AFCON reject Adingra (a surprise omission by the Ivory Coast, presumably because he's got so few minutes so far since his move to Sunderland) put them in front with a neat curler (although I was surprised not to see it ruled 'offside' by the tip of his shoulder; to the naked eye, it looked as if he was), and Brobbey should have doubled the lead soon after, but his powerful header glanced off the top of the bar. Visitors Leeds, though, had looked much the better team, and had nearly gone in front when Aaronson's effort was briliantly cleared on the line by Hume. Eventually their superiority told, when Calvert-Lewin was able to ghost in between the two centre-backs to tap home Aaronson's great cross; his remarkable scoring streak is now a club record in the Premier League (he barely got another touch all game; but that's what good centre-forwards do...: one chance, one goal). Leeds defender Joe Rodon (who's been in the top 20 or 30 most popular FPL defenders all season, because of his attractive inital price-point) had to limp off in the first-half, after suffering two heavy challenges in quick succession that badly rolled his right ankle both times (Brobbey was lucky not to receive a red card for the first one, which was really a very wild challenge).

Palace and Spurs - like many teams at this point in the year - both looked tired and jaded, and produce a very stale end to the gameweek. Spurs produced a performance that was gutsy, rather than convincing; they produced a late flurry of attacks as Palace were chasing the game, with Richarlison being denied a goal for a (fairly clear) offside, for the second time in the game; and Odobert, released on a quick break behind, firing off a crisp drive on the half-volley from 23 yards out that slammed against the foot of the near post. Apart from that late surge of excitement, though, the visitors were hardly in the game: their scrambled goal from a poorly defended corner just before half-time was very much against the general run of play. Palace utterly dominated for most of the game, but couldn't make their superiority pay: Mateta, Lacroix, and Guehi all enjoyed inviting opportunites in front of goal, but couldn't direct their headers on target.

The FPL 'Team of the Week' astonishingly included 3 Manchester United defenders at first (although Ayden Heaven was later bumped off the list by Micky Van de Ven), and Martin Dubravka in goal, Ollie Watkins as the sole forward, and Schade, Cherki, Gravenberch, Wirtz and Odegaard in midfield: excellent players - but not ones with any significant ownership in FPL! The fairly low number of goals, and again some last-minute injury omissions and other selection surprises also add to the 'luck' quotient somewhat. And, despite there being a number of use-them-or-lose-them chips in play, it turned out to be yet another shockingly low 'global average' score - just 44 points this week! (So many of those these dismal averages this year; this is somehow the lowest-scoring season I can remember.) Among the top 30 most-owned players in FPL, only Semenyo and Saka have produced anything this time (well, and Dubravka; but most people only have him as a back-up option and rarely or never actually start him!).

Chelsea should really have had a penalty for a Maatsen handball, which might have changed the outcome of the game; Verbruggen and Brobbey might have been sent off for bad fouls, and Ruben Dias definitely should have been for a clear second-yellow offence. Astonishingly, though, that counts as 'not too bad' for refereeing errors this season!  Nevertheless, this makes it overall about a 6 out of 10 on the 'Luck-o-Meter'.