Luck-o-Meter (27)

Well the new gameweek got off to a great start, with no contentious refereeing decisions in Wednesday's games.

The Brighton v Bournemouth game was an open and entertaining one, and very, very close. Kluivert's screamer from just outside the box was the 'goal of the week', and Bart Verbruggen kept his team on terms with a string of excellent saves. It really felt a little unjust that substitute Danny Welbeck's slightly scuffed 75th-minute effort just sneaked in off the foot of the post.

Chelsea got a predictably comfortable win against dismal Southampton, though, for FPL purposes, the most significant element of the game was Cole Palmer again failing to register a contribution. He was - yet again - desperately unlucky: being denied by a good block from Ramsdale early on, and then in the second half curling one just beyond the far post (when he was a bit unbalanced by a cheeky tug on the back of his shirt from Joe Aribo), and moments later seeing Neto selfishly go for a difficult near-post drive rather than passing to him when he was waiting unmarked in the middle of the six-yard-box; he also brought another good save out of the keeper from a free-kick, and had two or three other decent efforts on goal. In another universe, he got a brace or a hattrick in this game! Colwill and Cucurella getting on the scoresheet was also a turn-up for the books...

Villa were unfortunate that Morgan Rogers's apparent equaliser just before half-time was chalked off for a very tight offside against Watkins (by a kneecap!), and if that one had counted, perhaps the game might have developed differently. But to be frank, home side Palace were by far the better team here, and well worth their ultimately comfortable win. The return of Adam Wharton after a long spell of injury is very promising for them.

Fulham were fortunate to get two superb individual goals from Sessegnon and Muniz early in each half, but home side Wolves looked much the better side for most of the game. The only refereeing booboo of the night was failing to award a foul against Diop for wrestling Cunha to the ground at the start of a move which led to Traore having a good effort saved by Sa.

Everton's comeback against Brentford was well-deserved (another goal from a defender??), as they looked much the better side for most of the game, and are left rueing Beto's inability to get the better of Flekken in three one-one-one breaks (for the first of which, he should probably just have stayed on the floor when tripped by Pinnock 25 yards out - which would have earned his side a dangerous free-kick and got the Brentford man send off for a 'denial of a goalscoring opportunity').

Manchester United at least showed some resilience to eventually prevail over a resolute Ipswich, especially after gifiting their visitors an early lead through an appalling mix-up between Onana and Dorgu, and then having Dorgu - rightly - sent off just before half-time for an horrendous follow-through on Hutchinson; but they did again look very, very poor.

Arsenal are still looking worryingly toothless - dominating the game at Forest, but scarcely managing to produce a decent attempt at goal. Their best effort came early on, when Calafiori's lightning turn bought him space to shoot from the left side of the box, but he cracked his effort against the inside of the post. In the second-half, fill-in 'No. 9' Merino managed one firm header, but it was comfortably parried over the bar by Sels. Chris Wood had his inevitable one chance on goal, but on this occasion was unable to get it past Raya. Overall, a very sterile encounter. Forest fans may resent the fact they didn't get an early penalty when Hudson-Odoi appeared to have been brought down by Calafiori; but it looked to me as if the Italian had begun the foul but immediately backed out of it; he did put his hand on his opponent's shoulder for a fraction of a seciond, and he may have brushed against his trailing leg - but (for once!) I think I agree with the VAR official that this was "minimal contact". But this might be the one really contentious call of the week: we've certainly seen them given.

Liverpool appear to be beginning a serene cruise to the title over the last 10 weeks of the season; Newcastle really couldn't put up much resistance at all (apart from Callum Wilson wasting a great chance from a good break in behind). The FPL hordes are frustrated that Salah didn't produce much (only one assist?!), but he was a bit unlucky not to win a penalty or a dangerous free-kick on the edge of the box in the opening minutes (the trip on him looked well outside the box, but it was definitely a deliberate fall - and foul - by Hall, rather than a 'push' by Salah, as the referee mystifyingly called it; you suspect he was just trying to assert early on that he wasn't going to succumb to the typical home-side bias at Anfield!), and that Luis Diaz couldn't quite get the decisive connection on his sublime outside-of-the-boot pass to the far post in the second half. Isak's last-minute omission with a groin strain was also a heavy blow, since he's in nearly 60% of FPL teams, and was probably captain for the week in a good few of them. Also, Nick Pope's form really hasn't looked that sharp in recent games (even coming through defenders' legs, Szoboszlai's opener was too tamely hit to have posed any serious problems, but he was very slow getting down to it), and one wonders if Dubravka might be reinstated for the next gameweek.

Was this the best Manchester City performance in four or five months, or were Spurs just bad? Well, possibly both. City, energised by the return of Haaland (though I would still bet he has a cartilage problem in that knee, and they're just desperately hoping he can make it to the end of the season before needing keyhole surgery) should have put the game well beyond reach in the first half: Savinho missed an open goal, and Vicario made a few sharp saves to keep the home side in it. Ange must have deployed 'the hairdryer' at half-time, because it was a completely different Spurs in the second half, and they did start causing City some anxieties. But still, City's lead was rarely threatened, and it looked like Haaland's late second really shouldn't have been disallowed (VAR strangely claiming they couldn't make a clear determination on the issue, though they seemed to have some pretty clear pictures of it; there have been many occasions recently when they really should have admitted this and didn't, but here... well, the referee thought Haaland 'handled' the ball, but it appeared to strike him high on the left upper arm, in the 'permitted zone'; while the ball clearly did hit the arms of both of the defenders in close attendance - but VAR appeared to offer no adjudication on that; for me, the reaction of the players tells the tale on this one: Haaland was happily celebrating the goal with his teammates, clearly oblivious of any possibility of any offence being called against it).

In the final game on Thursday night, West Ham cruised to a comfortable but ininspiring win against Leicester, who are now looking much the worst of three very unimpressive promoted sides. It's really quite difficult to see any of them reaching 17th-placed Wolves's current total of 22 points by the end of the season, let alone reaching a more realistic safety threshold in the mid-30s. Apparently, there might have been some slight doubt as to whether the corner which led to the second goal was rightly awarded, but the refereeing in this one was otherwise uncontentious.

A pretty unremarkable gameweek, this: a few debatable but probably not wrong decisions - the denial of Haaland's second goal being the only real injustice, I think. The results all went fairly predictably (and predictably low-scoring, with several closely matched games); on recent form, I suppose it was mildly surprising that City managed to brush off Spurs so straightforwardly, and a win for United (and 3 goals??!!), especially after they'd gone behind early on and had a man sent off, was a bigger one. Kluivert's thumper from outside the box was the only really outstanding moment of gameplay; and Palmer's failure to register an attacking contribution despite having an outstanding game was the main instance of extreme bad luck. There were, however, some extremely unexpected goalscorers this week (a lot of defenders!!), while most of the big names drew a blank, or didn't come up with much: it's one of those weeks where almost no-one owns any of the 'Team of the Week'! That adds at least a couple more 'luck' points.....

With Haaland's unexpected return and Isak's unexpected absence really being the only major surprises, I rate this gameweek only a 5 out of 10 on the 'Luck-o-Meter'. 

DON'T FORGET The Boycott.  The dratted 'Assistant Manager' chip is in play now. I took the high road by quitting playing the game for the rest of the season. [I worry that, if people don't do this, the new chip may become a permanent feature of the game - and it will completely ruin it.]  If you don't feel like joining me in such an emphatic gesture, please at least think about refusing to use the Assistant Manager chip.

Please also criticise and complain about it online as much as possible. And raise objections to it with any football or media figures you know how to contact, and - if possible - try to find a way to protest about it directly to the FPL hierarchy (and let me know how, if you manage that!).

#QuitFPLinGW23         #DownWithTheNewChip

Dilemmas of the Week - GW27

Another very tight turnaround before the midweek gameweek kicking off on Tuesday evening, so there probably won't be much detailed team news available.

And I'm trying to streamline these weekly round-ups, as they have been getting dangerously over-long recently! I'm going to confine myself to just the injuries to players that are likely to have a major significance in FPL. [I currently find the 'Injuries & Bans' summary on Fantasy Football Scout the most reliable resource for this kind of information - go check that out for more comprehensive coverage.]

So, what are the conundrums we face ahead of Gameweek 27?

Does anybody need to be moved out because of injury?

Morgan Rogers (ankle knock) and Tyrone Mings ('feeling something' again in his previously injured knee) are slight doubts for Villa after the weekend.

Brighton's Joel Veltman and Danny Welbeck missed the weekend with unspecified knocks, and remain a doubt.

Christian Norgaard had to come off at the weekend after a blow to the head, and will have to miss the next game under 'concussion protocols'.

Trevoh Chalobah injured his back in the game against Villa, and seems likely to be out for a little while. (Tosin will presumably have to deputise for him. But they're getting spread so thin at the back now, you wonder if they might have to recall Axel Disasi from loan at Villa.)  Noni Madueke picked up a minor hamstring problem in the game against Brighton a week ago, and is expected to be out at least a few more weeks.

Emile Smith Rowe had to come off early on Saturday with an ankle problem, but it doesn't look too serious.

Jens Cajuste hurt his ankle and Kalvin Phillips went down with a calf strain in the Spurs game, which will be hard blows for Ipswich - though probably not for many FPL managers!

It seems City are slowly moving towards acknowledging that Erling Haaland has a knee injury, after omitting him from the squad altogether at the weekend - but still no word on exactly what it is. (It's a cartilage tear. I would bet my house on that.)  And John Stones apparently might need surgery on the thigh muscle problem that forced him off against Real last week, which would end his season.

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

Myles Lewis-Skely has a one-game ban for a 'denial of a goal-scoring opportunity' red card at the weekend, and Illia Zabarnyi is facing a three-game ban for 'serious foul play'. (Bournemouth are appealing the decision against Zabarnyi, but I doubt if they'll be successful. The FA seem reluctant to criticise their referees, and I think will probably feel that contact with the studs a quarter of the way up the shin - even though low-impact, and completely accidental - is suffiicent to justify the possibility of such a call; particularly as it was apparently seen that way by both the on-pitch referee and the VAR official.)

Did anyone give other cause to consider dropping them?

Cole Palmer has been... not poor, but decidedly 'quiet' in the last couple of games - and apparently nearly 90,000 managers have quit on him since the weekend. But even a Palmer at only 70% or 80% of his best can turn a game with a moment of magic; and he does have Southampton and Leicester up next, so.... it seems the wrong time to be losing faith in him.

There is more justifiable impatience, I think, with Morgan Rogers (200,000 owners shedding him already this week), who, despite a couple of strong performances in the FA Cup, has made no impression at all in the League since the turn of the year, and in the last couple of games has been scarcely even visible on the pitch. He's probably in need of a rest; and now that Villa have brought in players like Asensio, Rashford, and Malen, he'll probably be getting shared minutes - for a while at least. (And Villa have testing away games at Palace and Brentford next, and then the blank gameweek....)

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

The Sheep will no doubt be rushing in for Marco Asensio after his brace against Chelsea - but, frankly, neither he nor Villa looked all that good in that game. I'd already recommended him as a 'one to watch'... but I'd be still watching for a game or two yet.

With Brighton seemingly getting themselves back together over the past couple of weeks, Joao Pedro and Georginho Rutter are becoming tempting budget picks again. Although Everton's Beto and Abdoulaye Doucoure are starting to look as if they might have even stronger claims for consideration for those cheap final slots in the squad.

As for the dratted AssMan chip....  once again the table-bonus opportunities look irresistible, with Vitor Pereira's Cunha-inspired Wolves looking a strong prospect to pick off recently schizophrenic Fulham, while Oliver Glasner's Palace seem to have strongly upward-trending form, and face an Aston Villa who - despite a lucky win against flakey Chelsea last time - are heading rather in the other direction. And given City's probable low morale after the pair of humiliating defeats to Real and Liverpool, and Spurs' record of being a 'bogey team' for them in recent years, the bold might favour trying a punt on Ange Postecoglou.

BEST OF LUCK, EVERYONE!

DON'T FORGET The Boycott; the dratted new 'Assistant Manager' chip is in play now - and I am urging everyone to please consider quitting the game, or at least refusing to use this silly chip. 

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

#QuitFPLinGW23         #DownWithTheNewChip

Go again, sir?

Yes, good grief - they're foisting another midweek Gameweek on us this week, and we're having to reset our squads barely 48 hours after Gameweek 26 wrapped up. The FPL schedule does get quite exhausting at times....

Luck-o-Meter (26)

 

Well, Friday night's weekend-opener went much as expected, with Brentford eventually coming out comfortable winners against doomed Leicester. The visitors might well have had even more goals, with a few near misses, a header against the post, another kept out by a spectacular flying save from the defiant Hermansen, and Kevin Schade blazing the best chance of the game wide. But Leicester weren't utterly hopeless: they do seem to be developing a bit more defensive cohesion and determination (alas, too late), and I thought Faes had a pretty good game here. In fact, Vardy gave Brentford a few scares, particularly with one early breakaway which might have given his side the lead - only to be thwarted by excellent tracking from Pinnock and Collins and a solid block from Flekken. As far as one could see from brief online highlights, there were no refereeing screw-ups in this one. Thank the lord! Of course, that can't last long.....

"They think it's all over...." for Arsenal. And it probably is, as far as the title goes, with all three points dropped to Graham Potter's West Ham, just as Liverpool had been starting to show signs of a 'wobble'. They were desperately flat and unimaginative in this one, rarely carving out any sort of chance against the visitors' packed defence, but repeatedly looking vulnerable to their quick counter-attacks (Bowen might well have had a couple more). It has been 'fashionable' for years to deride Aaron Wan-Bissaka's qualities as an attacking full-back, but over the past couple of months he has started to look like a significant threat. Arsenal fans probably feel a bit hard done-by about substitute Lewis-Skelly's quick sending-off: a trip on the half-way line isn't usually a 'denial of a goal-scoring chance' - but, with all outfield players in the opposition half, and David Raya 40 yards out of his goal, it is. It didn't really make any difference, as Arsenal actually rallied themselves to make a last-ditch effort in the closing phase of the game - and Gabriel and Ben White both spurned good chances to nick a draw their side hadn't really deserved.

Bournemouth may feel that Zabarnyi's sending-off after 30 minutes took the game away from them, but, to be frank, they hadn't looked at the races prior to that. It was perhaps inevitable that they'd run out of steam at some point after their recent run of superb form and just have an 'off day', and this was certainly that. The Zabarnyi decision was very harsh, though: his foot rolled over the top of the ball, and thus caught Ait-Nouri above the ankle; but there was no force in the contact, and it was obviously a pure accident rather than a reckless or malicious challenge. The referee had initially considered it only a yellow-card offence (barely even that!), but VAR once more saw fit to intervene (as with the penalty controversy at Goodison, this was far from a 'clear and obvious error' in the initial on-pitch decision; and, although we weren't told this time what Stuart Attwell's words from the VAR room were, we must suspect that his comments were highly prejudicial to the outcome; and even if they weren't, the way VAR is operating at the moment, the mere fact of the referee being directed to take a second look is massively prejudicial: we're almost never seeing a ref have the courage to stand by his original call in such an instance.)

Everton are left ruing the fact that they couldn't make more of their easy dominance in the first half, when they could have gone 4 or 5 goals ahead of an utterly ineffectual Manchester United. The visitors, I suppose, deserve some credit for dragging themselves back into the game, although both of the goals came somewhat out of nowhere (and both, arguably, were somewhat Pickford's fault - in that he was caught needlessly moving in the wrong direction, leaving himself off-balance and unable to make any response to shots that should have been fairly comfortably saveable for him). The VAR official Matt Donohue (one of the least experienced EPL referees, having only made his debut at the very end of last season) had a spectacularly awful game: first, taking three-and-a-half minutes to attempt to adjudicate if there were any fouls or offsides in the penalty-area melee preceding Beto's opening goal (ultimately, it seemed to hinge on whether Lindstrom might have got a slight touch to help the ball on to his forward; but it should have been immediately evident that the TV pictures simply weren't sharp enough to give any definitive answer on that; and it was surely irrelevant, as it appeared to me that Beto would have been still onside anyway; we really need to impose a time-limit on VAR deliberations - if they can't produce a verdict in under 60 seconds, they should just give up; we can't have matches being held up for minutes on end like this), and then - according to the information relayed by the Sky commentator - prejudicing Andy Madley into reversing his penalty decision against Harry Maguire in the closing minutes, by apparently instructing him that the only issue to consider was whether Maguire's tug with his left hand was sufficient to "make Young go down as he did." Yes, the veteran full-back certainly did make a meal of the incident, and his rather over-emphatic dive ultimately cost him; but an attacking player making a meal of something is not supposed to be an issue in the referee's decision: if there was unfair contact, it's a penalty - however elaborately the victim jumps to the ground. In fact, there were multiple errors in how this review was handled: the supposed 'clear and obvious error' threshold for a VAR intervention was simply not met; Donohue's instructions, as well as being flagrantly prejudicial (we really need to get some lawyers involved in redrafting the game's Laws and the officiating guidelines), ignored the fact that Young was in fact the possible victim of multiple fouls by two players (a prolonged haul on his shirt by De Ligt, a possible shorter shirt-pluck thereafter by De Ligt and/or Maguire, the Maguire tug on his hip, and possibly some contact on his trailing leg by Maguire too as he started to go down); and then Madley was only shown one view of the incident on the pitchside monitor, a view which obscured the shirt-tugging which had been the more unequivocal offence. Just a complete clusterfuck.

Fulham's flakey form of recent months continues: the brilliance of last week's performance against Forest had utterly evaporated. Marco Silva did not endear himself to the FPL faithful by pulling Smith Rowe and Berge shy of the hour. (OK, nobody owns those players; but it's the principle, Marco.)  And Mateta was denied a fantastic goal (from an outrageous back-heel assist by an exuberant Eze) for another of those offsides that is too tight for any sensible decision to be made on it, other than - as in the good old days - giving the attacking team 'the benefit of the doubt'. (And this was another occasion when the VAR team didn't seem to be able to draw their magic 'lines' on the screen; or were not willing to share them with the public, anyway.)

Spurs might finally be on their way back, with Son, Kulusevski, and the just-returned-from-injury Johnson and Udogie all looking sharp again. Ipswich gave them some early scares, particularly through Delap, briefly thought they'd got an equaliser just before half-time (Woolfenden's effort rightly ruled out for offside), and they were still just about in the game... until Djed Spence's deflected shot put Spurs two-up again with just over 12 minutes left. But alas, Ipswich's defence is still absolutely dreadful; and relegation is now looking fairly inevitable.

A predictably straightfoward win too for Brighton at Southampton: indeed, the margin might have been even greater - if Minteh had not lost control of the ball after leaving goalkeeper and defender on the floor to present himself with an open goal!

Villa got very lucky against Chelsea: it was one-way traffic from the visitors, but they just couldn't convert their chances. (Playing Nkunku on the left to replace the out-of-favour Sancho, and putting Neto up front, seemed like an eccentric tactical choice - but it looks as though it could work out OK.) Villa only started getting into the game in the last 25 minutes or so, energised by a lively Marcus Rashford (pity his fitness doesn't seem to be up to playing more than half a game as yet.....). I feel a bit embarrassed about having tipped two-goal hero Marco Asensio as a possible acquisition a couple of days ago: he really didn't do much in this game, and was incredibly fortunate to get a two-yard tap-in,.... and then have his hopeful but fairly innocuous volley fumbled over the line by a hapless Jorgensen in the final seconds of regular time. To be fair, though, Villa should clearly have had a penalty for Cucurella's extended hauling on Bogarde's arm at a set-piece.

Dear, oh dear, what was going on at St James's Park? Talk about a game of two halves! Despite uncharacteristic howlers from Livramento and Pope combining to gift visitors Forest an early lead, Newcastle remained impressively unfazed, and soon began turning the screw on their opponents; by the end of the first half, a cricket score in their favour was really starting to look possible. But in the second they almost immediately began looking tired, tentative, and anxious, and Forest were soon dominating as emphatically they had done earlier - one of the most bizarre turnarounds I can remember seeing in a very long time. A very entertaining game for the spectator, but one that must have both managers chewing the carpet in frustration. And no refereeing clangers in this one? Hurrah.

City suffered one of the most overwhelming 2-0 defeats I can remember. Amazingly, they enjoyed the bulk of the possession, but could do nothing with it; Doku on the left could turn a hapless Alexander-Arnold inside-out at will, but was never able to capitalise on this huge defensive weakness in the visitors. As I'd expected, Nico Gonzalez is strugging to fill Rodri's boots, and Marmoush without Haaland is fairly ineffectual (he was well offside for his apparent equaliser); it was scarcely evident that DeBruyne or Foden were on the field. Liverpool were unfortunate to have a third from Curits Jones chalked off for a very, very narrow - but probably correct - offside against supplier, Dominik Szoboszlai; and they were cutting City apart so easily through the middle that they really looked as if they might be able to cruise to a 4-0 or 5-0 win. I suppose some credit is due to the makeshift City defence, who actually did a pretty good job of keeping them at bay; and Ederson made one absolutely oustanding save from a fierce curling drive by Luis Diaz. Khusanov, in particular, should grow in confidence as a result of this performance: his superb last-ditch sliding block on Szoboszlai saved his team from conceding a third late in the game. But City, on this form, could struggle to secure any sort of European qualification this season.

Mr Donohue's dreadful VAR performance at Everton might almost have been worth 5 or 6 of my 'luck' points on its own. Saturday's games also saw an unfair sending-off for Zabarnyi, a missed penalty call against Cucurella, and a harshly (I think, wrongly) disallowed goal for Mateta; the two big games on Sunday, though, were pretty much error-free - so, overall this was one of the better weeks we've had for the officiating. And the results mostly went with the form book: although the ridiculous ding-dong between Newcastle and Forest kept everybody guessing until the end, West Ham and Wolves pulled off major upsets against Arsenal and Bournemouth, while Villa's narrow win over Chelsea and United's fightback draw against Everton felt scarcely deserved, very much against the run of play. The 'Team of the Week' wasn't all that eccentric this time either, with 'usual suspects' Salah, Mbeumo, and Isak all producing handily; however, few would have expected Jose Sa to keep a clean sheet and be the top keeper for the week; and Wan-Bissake, Asensio, Johnson, Szoboszlai and Joao Pedro were also somewhat unexpected entries into the list. But no particularly outrageous pieces of individual skill or wild swings of fortune this week, nor even much suspect refereeing - outside of that Everton game - so, I think this week ultimately only merits a 6 out of 10 on the 'Luck-o-Meter'.

DON'T FORGET The Boycott.  The dratted 'Assistant Manager' chip is in play now. I took the high road by quitting playing the game for the rest of the season. [I worry that, if people don't do this, the new chip may become a permanent feature of the game - and it will completely ruin it.]  If you don't feel like joining me in such an emphatic gesture, please at least think about refusing to use the Assistant Manager chip.

Please also criticise and complain about it online as much as possible. And raise objections to it with any football or media figures you know how to contact, and - if possible - try to find a way to protest about it directly to the FPL hierarchy (and let me know how, if you manage that!).

#QuitFPLinGW23         #DownWithTheNewChip

Dilemmas of the Week - GW26

 

Very tight turnaround this week between the second legs of the European play-off games (and the rescheduled Villa v Liverpool game) in midweek; so, there might not be much up-to-date selection news available ahead of a Friday evening deadline.

And I'm going to try to streamline these weekly round-ups, as they have been getting dangerously over-long recently! Last week's was particularly bad: with a two-week gap between regular EPL games crammed with League Cup and FA Cup ties, European games and the postponed Merseyside derby.... there was a fair old avalanche of injury news to report. From now on, I'm going to confine myself to just the injuries to players that are likely to have a major significance in FPL. [I currently find the 'Injuries & Bans' summary on Fantasy Football Scout the most reliable resource for this kind of information - go check that out for more comprehensive coverage.]

So, what are the conundrums we face ahead of Gameweek 26?

Does anybody need to be moved out because of injury?

Well, the big news of the week was that United's Amad Diallo, by far their best player in recent months, hurt his ankle in training (a fact which did not emerge until after last week's FPL deadline - oh, woe!): ligament damage, apparently, which will keep him out for the rest of the season. That's pretty huge for FPL, since his ownership had been up near 25%.

Cody Gakpo complained of a knock to his knee after the Everton derby just over a week ago. Originally it was said to be minor, and that he would have a good chance of appearing in at least one, if not both of Liverpool's GW25 fixtures - but he didn't. Alarming. I have to say, though, with the wealth of forwards available at Liverpool, he was always likely to be at some risk of sharing minutes, and thus not a very compelling forward pick beyond these last two double gameweeks. Trent Alexander-Arnold's understudy Conor Bradley had to come off in the Villa game two days ago with a thigh muscle strain, but is now only expected to be missing for a week or so.

Brentford centre-back Sepp Van den Berg had to come off against West Ham last weekend with a knee injury: no further news so far, it seems. He has been quite a popular cheap fifth defender pick in FPL.

Everton forward Illiman Ndiaye has been diagnosed with a medial ligament injury in his knee after the Merseyside derby (not as bad as a cruciate, but...), and seems likely to be out for several weeks.

Ipswich full-back Leif Davis missed last week's game against Villa with a training knock: supposedly 'minor', he should be back this week. However, his teammates Julio Enciso and Sam Morsy both picked up potentially quite serious injuries in that game and are now doubts.

Leicester's James Justin also suffered an apparently quite serious ankle injury against Arsenal.

Kobbie Mainoo and Manuel Ugarte both missed the Spurs game last week with training injuries: no word on how serious those might be.

Rodrigo Betancur, Son Heung-min and new centre-back Kevin Danso had to come off against United with knocks - could be more woe for poor Ange!

And Erling Haaland hobbled off late in the game against Newcastle last Saturday with what looked like quite a serious knee injury. He and the club are so far putting a brave face on things and insisting it's nothing too bad: he was on the bench against Real in midweek, but was not risked on the pitch. He clearly jarred the knee badly when landing after a high jump for an aerial ball and was in immediate distress; a little while later, he broke down, suddenly unable to take any weight on the leg... after bending it at a certain angle in trying to accelerate towards the ball. I would bet a large amount of money that that is a cartilage tear. I've had that injury: and that is exactly how you get them, and exactly what they look like. If it's just a minor one, he might be able to play on with it; but that would be taking a big chance. I would imagine he'll need a keyhole surgery to rectify it before the end of the season - probably sooner rather than later.

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

Poor Axel Tuanzebe is having to serve a one-match ban after his ridiculously unjust sending-off for two supposedly yellow-card offences against Villa last week. But that's the only suspension this week!

Did anyone give other cause to consider dropping them?

Um, can't think of any, no - no absolute stinkers this past week.

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

Well, many, of course, would say Omar Marmoush - who did come up with a stunning hattrick against Newcastle. But I'm still a little hesitant on him; partly because I don't see last week's comfortable win as any convincing evidence of a City revival (Newcastle just didn't show up for that one), and partly because there's such strong competition for forward slots in FPL at the moment. On form and fixtures, Wolves's Matheus Cunha looks a far more compelling choice.

I'm not getting over-excited about Ollie Watkins or Marcus Rashford just yet either. For me, Marco Asensio has looked Villa's most exciting player in their last few games.

Beto's form with Everton is looking very impressive; but I felt their new Argentinian midfielder Carlos Alcaraz was even more eye-catching in the last match.

Perhaps the biggest excitement of the week, though, is the emergence of Mikel Merino as Arsenal's potential goalscoring saviour; to me, he looks tailor-made for a central striking role - but I worry that Arteta may somehow not see things that way.

As for the dratted AssMan chip.... Thomas Frank looks the safest prospect of win points this week, with victory surely as near-certain as can be against currently dreadful Leicester (and a high chance of a big goal haul, and maybe a clean sheet too); however, I'd probably rather gamble on the possibility of table-bonus points for Oliver Glasner's Palace away to Fulham. (Backing Kieran McKenna's Ipswich against Spurs might also work, but is surely a much rasher gamble!)

BEST OF LUCK, EVERYONE!

DON'T FORGET The Boycott; the dratted new 'Assistant Manager' chip is in play now - and I am urging everyone to please consider quitting the game, or at least refusing to use this silly chip. 

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

#QuitFPLinGW23         #DownWithTheNewChip

A little bit of Zen (30)

“In the midst of chaos, there is always opportunity for growth and transformation.”

Ryokan Taigu

Sheep Picks (8)

 

I quite often snipe at 'The Sheep' element among Fantasy Premier League managers - by which I mean the substantial numbers (possibly, alas, an overall majority) who don't really understand FPL that well, or even follow the EPL that closely, and so make most of their decisions based on an impulsive reaction to last week's results... and/or at the promptings of FPL's own vapid pundit 'The Scout' or the many similarly unimaginative 'influencers' out here on the Internet.... or indeed just following whatever seems to be a popular pick being mentioned a lot in online discussion forums. This often coalesces into a kind of collective hysteria - where the HUGE numbers of managers rushing in to buy a certain player bears no relation to his true worth, his likely points potential over the next handful of games. The player in question might not be at all bad (though often he is); but he is not the irresistible bargain, the must-have asset that so many people seem to think.

Hence, I created this occasional series of posts highlighting players I think are deangerously over-owned, are the subject of a sudden and misguided enthusiasm.

And gosh, it's been nearly three months since I last offered one of these. I doubt if sheepiness has been in abeyance over the holidays; it is purely an oversight on my part.

Here goes, then....

Yep, I know I'm asking for trouble with this one. Before he'd even kicked a ball for City, Omar Marmoush already had a passionate fanbase among Egyptian FPL managers - and African ones, and Muslim ones. And when Pep - slightly surprisingly? - trusted him with an immediate starting place in the team, and he was immediately so lively and dangerous... well, it wasn't unnexpected that his ownership would start soaring: now up to nearly 6.5%. Now, I agree, he does look a tremendously talented player. And if he were classified in the game as a 'midfielder', I might be all over him.  But as a forward, his appeal is much more limited - principally because we already have such strongly established leading picks in that position: Isak, Cunha, and Wood; with the likes of Wissa, Mateta, Joao Pedro, Raul, and now perhaps Beto vying strongly as alternatives for the third seat, if one of the current 'big three' loses form. I can see Marmoush might get into that conversation; but I don't think he's quite there yet, on the back of one hattrick. (It is a definiing characteristic of The Sheep that they always immediately buy any player who scores a hattrick!)  With City's form still looking very flakey, and Haaland now possibly added to the injury list (it looked to me very much as though he'd suffered a cartilage tear; a minor one you can sometimes continue to play with - but it's asking for trouble; and I would imagine he'll need a keyhole surgery as soon as possible, which will rule him out for a few weeks at least), Marmoush at the moment looks a very risky pick to me. (Some might feel that an absence from Haaland might improve his opportunities up front. But I think the big Norwegian's role is vital in occupying central defenders to create spaces for players like Marmoush to move into to find scoring opportunities. Marmoush made zero impression against Real this week without his giant striking partner to batter those holes in the back-line for him.) Moreover, City have quite a tough little run of fixtures still ahead of them in the League: even Spurs might be about to initiate a bit of a resurgence, and have been something of a bogey team for them in recent years; Liverpool and Forest are certainly likely to be very difficult games - and Brighton might not be any pushover. 

So, I'm not writing Marmoush off by any means; but I think his potential value in FPL will be very dependent on whether - and how well - City can rally themselves for the final part of the season, and on how well the other leading strikers' form holds up. For me, he's very much a wait-and-see at the moment.

Picks of the Week (5)

DISCLAIMER: I always refuse to identify myself as any sort of FPL 'guru' or 'mentor' or 'expert'. And I have previously on this blog expressed my reluctance to share many details of my own selections, or to make very specific player recommendations.

However, in addition to occasionally critiquing common 'sheep picks' of the moment (not all necessarily outright bad, but ridiculously over-popular selections), I thought I would start occasionally trying to highlight one or two players who seem not yet to be very widely owned but are starting to look very tempting prospects.

I will generally try to come up with at least 2 options per week - so that it doesn't look like I'm making a sole recommendation. And these suggestions are intended to be simply 'worth thinking about', not at all 'must-haves'. (And some weeks, I'll have nothing.....)

And darn, I haven't attempted one of these for over a month now! (Although I did slip in a couple of 'pseudo-episodes', on the most promising winter signings, and the likeliest picks for the recent Everton/Liverpool Double Gameweek.)  Oh well, here goes....

First up, we have Arsenal's Spanish midfielder, Mikel Merino. I've always fancied him as a potential 'fix', at least in the short-term, for Arsenal's goalscoring problem, especially if Kai Havertz should get injured (oops!). He's big, strong, likes to get in the opposition box, is an assured finisher - he looks to have all the attributes to do decent service as a centre-forward. And I've been saying this for a while, not just since he demonstrated this potential so emphatically in his match-saving appearance off the bench in last week's game against Leicester. However, I do still have all sorts of misgivings about how this might work out. For one thing, it was only Leicester - currently the worst team in the League (and one of the worst we've ever seen in the League). Also, he's never been a really prolific goalscorer in his career so far; he's had a few seasons where he's come up with 5 or 6 - hardly earth-shattering. But most of all, I fret that his boss, the chronic over-thinker, Snr Arteta, will not be so easily convinced of his possible aptitude for this role as the great mass of the football-watching public are: the other Mikel is a bit of an intellectual snob, I believe - inclined to disdain any commonly-held view, to suspect that an 'obvious' solution cannot possibly be the right one. But Sterling is looking past it; and Trossard, although lively and skillful and an excellent finisher, just doesn't have the physical presence to play a central striker role. Merino looks a ready-made replacement for Havertz; and you must suspect this was the thinking behind acquiring him last summer. The popular - currently more popular, with over 3% ownership, to Merino's still paltry 0.5% - alternative is, of course, young Ethan Nwaneri. But, given that he doesn't turn 18 for another month, and has already broken down with injury once, you must suspect that Arteta will treat him a little cautiously, ration his minutes from time to time. And while he's likely to produce a lot of showy performances, and maybe contribute quite a few assists, I can't see him becoming a primary goalscorer for the team just yet. Ideally, I'd wait a week or three, or a game or three (we have 3 matches in the next 10 days!!), to see if Merino is now going to start regularly, and is going to be deployed as a No. 9 or a 'false 9' - and assess how well he settles into that role. But if you're the gambling type, you might want to roll the dice on him early - to take advantage of a likely rise in his price, if he does score again this weekend.

Next, I proffer for your consideration, Marco Asensio (yep, goalscoring Spanish midfielders are my 'theme of the week'!).  He's experienced (turning 29 tomorrow), has done everything with Real Madrid, and has been a pretty reliable goalscorer throughout his career (particularly in his last two years with the Spanish giants, where he's notched 12 each season). It's a bit early to judge (I haven't been able to watch a full Villa game with him yet), but highlights and match reports suggest that in his three outings for Villa so far, he has already looked much the most promising of their recent signings. That was certainly my impression: every time you saw him on the ball, you felt that he was going to make something happen. There is a lot of positive sentiment towards the club's new British arrival, Marcus Rashford; and he has perhaps made a showier start to his time there, notching an assist in the match against Ipswich last weekend. But my feeling is that Asensio has more class, more consistency, and more versatility - is far more likely to become a regular starter... and, if he does, hopefully, a frequent producer of attacking contributions. But at the moment, he'd be an even more speculative pick than Merino, because I fear all of Villa's winter signings were really brought in as occasional rotation options to ease the burden of Champions League football, rather than likely mainstays of the preferred starting eleven. But we shall see.

And a wild third to throw into the mix: Carlos Alcaraz. Yep, the young Argentinian (only just turned 22) on loan at Everton from Flamengo, is a bit of an unknown quantity, but... he was absolutely oustanding in their win over Palace last week. I don't know if he's necessarily going to be coming up with that many attacking contributions, but I do have a very strong feeling that he's going to play a pivotal role in their ongoing recovery over the final third of the season. So far, his ownership is only down around 100,000 - so, if you like betting on 'penny shares', he could be your man! (I was tempted to go for Beto instead. I've always fancied his potential: he looks a proper centre-forward. And now that he's found his goal touch at last, he's started playing with a swaggering confidence. But there's a lot of competition in the cheap striker space; and I worry that his and Everton's recent form may prove precarious. So, for me, he's still a wait-and-see for now.)

Wot - no Omar Marmoush?  NO!  Like Mikel Arteta, I disdain the obvious.

Luck-o-Meter (25)

 

 

Oh dear god, what is wrong with Chelsea? Yes, evening kick-offs often unsettle a team's usual preparation rhythms - especially a Friday evening fixture, in the middle of winter, away from home....  But that's a pretty lame excuse. The FPL Sheep are inclined to blame Palmer, of course; and yes, he had a rather subdued game. But he was about the only Chelsea player who played OK; just about everyone else was poor. Cucurella, who has been outstanding for most of the season so far, was very poor. From the abbreviated highlights I've been able to see so far, it was not apparent that Nkunku was even on the pitch - but apparently he was. Jackson is evidently going to be a big miss; Lavia continues to be a huge hole in their engine-room; and I'm not convinced that Reece James is the force he once was, possibly not justifying inclusion any more. But Chelsea should have a big enough squad to adapt. I think the replacement of Sanchez with Jorgensen should be a positive change; so might the inclusion of Chalobah in the centre of defence. And Palmer is still Palmer, even when the rest of the team around him is terrible. And they still completely dominated possession here, were undone simply by three astonishing pieces of individual skill. (Also, I do think Palmer was fouled in the build-up to the second goal. And Enzo's alleged 'push' on Veltman that led to his headed goal being disallowed looked very, very soft. [Only the Argentinian's slightly guilty expression afterwards made me wonder if perhaps the decision was deserved after all....]  If those two calls had gone Chelsea's way, perhaps the result would have worked out differently. Chelsea really can't catch a break from the referees this season.)  At least I can console myself that I predicted Fabian Hurzeler was probably the best 'Assistant Manager' pick for the week!

And damn, if Friday night fixtures are sometimes a bit of a curse, Saturday lunchtime ones almost always seem to be! Apart from the youngsters Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly, none of the Arsenal team seem to have had their Weetabix before this one. Well, they've often looked strangely toothless this season, even with their first-choice front three available; now that they're missing all of them, it's not surprising that they looked a bit lost. Leicester deserve some credit for mounting a very robust and well-organised defence - but the first 70 minutes or so were one of the dullest Premier League encounters we've seen all season. Only Ndidi's header flashing just wide of the far post in the final seconds of the first half, and Nwaneris fierce strike against the upgright with 15 minutes left lent any frisson of excitement to the game. However, I am claiming further brownie points for the week, since, in addition to tipping Hurzeler, I've also been saying on some of the FPL forums this week that Merino could probably fill in quite nicely for Havertz. Probably more as a 'false 0' than a conventional centre-forward - just as Havertz usually is - but he's got all the attributes: tall, strong, good in the air, knows where the goal is. (Trossard is a great goalscorer, but doesn't have the physicality to be a central striker - as was painfully apparent in this game.)  And a personal gripe here: I really do not understand how Raya, who barely had to do anything all game, got the last bonus point ahead of Gabriel??

Villa were not quite as poor as I'd imagined they might be, but still pretty lacklustre: even at home, against a 10-man Ipswich, they weren't able to make much impression in the game until the last 20 minutes or so - when an outstanding debut performance from new keeper Alex Palmer (another player I've been talking up recently - I'm on a bit of a roll!) kept the visitors alive. But sending someone off after only 40 minutes is incredibly harsh, and really should not have happened: both of Tuanzebe's 'offences' were incredibly soft - the first really not a foul at all, and the second harly deserving of a card (he put his hand on Ramsey's shoulder, which you shouldn't do; but there was absolutely no force in it, it was neither a pull nor a push; and there was no contact with the legs either - the Villa man simply dived when he felt some contact: NOT even a foul for me, certainly not a card). At least Rashford was quite sharp in his late cameo (though hardly worthy of more than 1 bonus point, though the unfathomable BPS somehow saw fit to give him 2!!) - but Villa are looking more and more like a bottom thrid side to me.

The inevitable bleating of the Sheep about a City renaissance is still premature (especially with Haaland crashing out of the game with a knee injury: looks like it's probably a cartilage problem rather than ligaments - but still likely to keep him out for several weeks). Newcastle just didn't show up for this one: they got into the game slightly more in the second half, but during the opening 45 minutes they were just woeful, completely lacking their trademark 'intensity'. Of course, they were gutted by the two quick goals from Omar Marmoush (though he was very close to being offside for both; and it was Newcastle defenders' fault that he wasn't); but they were cut open again and again, offered no competitiveness in midfield, and barely created a chance of their own. City were much improved (mainly down to Nico Gonzalez starting to give them some coherence in central midfield again; let's see how that develops over the next few games...) - but still not really 'good'.

Fulham, though - 'Renaissance' might be an appropriate word to use about their performance! They've been mostly very unconvincing for the past couple of months (somewhat lucky wins against extremely poor displays from Newcastle and Leicester, but dropping points against the other relegation teams, and getting beaten by Manchester United and West Ham...), but they were transformed yesterday: Raul, Traore, Iwobi, Smith Rowe, Lukic and Pereira were all superb. Forest started quite brightly, but things somehow just weren't firing for them, and they soon allowed the home side to start dominating. Only yet another one-chance-one-goal contribution from the unstoppable Chris Wood and a string of fine saves from Madz Sels kept them in the game - in the second half, it often looked as if it might be heading for another Bournemouth result.

Bournemouth really have the best form of any Premier League side over the past couple of months; and the scoreline in their visit to Southampton didn't do them justice - in a dominating display, they looked like they could easily have won 5-0 or 6-0 (FPL managers with Bournemouth players can count themselves unlucky that it wasn't!). Some fine saves from Ramsdale kept the home side just about in it, and a late goal out of nothing from Suleimana briefly gave the visitors some anxieties, but ultimately a very, very comfortable win. And yet another goal for Dango Ouattara - who I tipped as an exciting FPL prospect a month ago. The really weird thing about this match was how the BPS could ascribe more credit to Southampton's Joe Aribo than to 5 of the 7 players who contributed a goal or an assist (denying a bonus point to Ouattara and Kluivert)! WTF??!

Thomas Frank is no doubt frustrated that his side allowed a lacklustre West Ham to increasingly get on top during the course of the second half. Brentford really should have put the game well beyond reach long before then; but Mbeumo brought a couple of sharp saves out of Areola, Wissa had two goals ruled out for offside, and Schade crashed a drive against the foot of the post three-quarters of the way through the game. I found the second offside particularly mystifying: Ajer had clearly strayed half a yard off, but was moving away from goal to receive the ball; I'm not up-to-date with the now nnnecessarily and unworkably complicated Offside Law, but back in my youth, if a player received the ball in an onside position, it didn't matter if he had been offside when it was played; in any case, it looked to me as if VAR had chosen to draw in their magic 'lines' a good half a second or so before the ball was actually played forward, so I'm not convinced the Brentford man was offside anyway. There was absolutely nothing in Bowen's late penalty shout: he was pretty clearly fouling Lewis-Potter, rather than the other way around - at least the ref (and VAR? not clear if that was reviewed....) got that one right.

It was rough on Everton to be forced to kick-off again less than 70 hours after the end of their momentous midweek derby game, and it's not surprising that they mostly looked quite lacklustre in this game. But Palace were also lacking spark, were unable to turn their domination of possession into many clearcut chances (and weren't able to get past Pickford on the few occasions they did). In fact, Mateta's equalising goal for them looked very dubious to me: it was another one of those occasions where VAR took an inordinately long time to adjudicate a possible offisde against him; and when they finally did so, the 'lines' were so close together that it was impossible to divine why they had been drawn where they were (to the naked eye, he definitely looked off - by a shoulder). And that painful technical challenge of deciding where to draw the lines seemed to have distracted them from paying any attention to the question of whether Guehi's hooked ball forwards from the edge of the box was 'dangerous play' (to me, it clearly was!). Palace might feel a little hard done-by that Mateta's apparent opener, heading home from a high corner to the far post, was ruled out for the ball having bent out of play in its flight; those are always very difficult ones to judge - but it looked to me like the linesman got it right. Ultimately, the visitors were well worth their win - with another extremely cool finish from Beto, and a fantastic debut performance from new loan signing Carlos Alcaraz.

HUGE luck manifesting in the big game at Anfield on Sunday afternoon! Not necessarily to do with the officiating (for once, thank heavesn), but just all kinds of really weird combinations of circumstance that led to distorted or unnexpected or unfair points outcomes. Trent Alexander-Arnold, who was having one of his best-forgotten-about games, and might well have been pulled before the hour, was allowed to stay on the pitch for 67 minutes - at which point Liverpool still had a clean sheet, so he became the only Liverpool defender to get 6 pts for the game. Many FPL managers will have gone instead for the always dependable Virgil van Dijk for this gameweek's double-fixture, but he got only 2 pts. Some may have opted for the cheaper but usually just-as-good Ibrahima Konate, but he had to be withdrawn at half-time after picking up a (very soft) early yellow card from referee Simon Hooper. So, Liverpool's worst defender on the day got the most points - go figure. And Mo Salah might have had an assist  (OK, the Wolves defender attempted a clearance rather than just passively having the ball deflect off him - but it didn't substantially alter the direction the ball was travelling; Salah had played it towards Diaz, and it reached Diaz.... we've seen 'assists' like that given under the new, supposedly more 'generous' definitional policy this year!), did score a stunning second goal which was eventually ruled out for an offside so tight that no-one could see it (except VAR; but even they seemed embarrassed or uncertain about the call, because they omitted to display their customary 'lines' to justify the decision), and had a second penalty award reversed (probably rightly; but only because Jota dived so theatrically, was so obviously flicking out his leg looking for the contact with Agbadou's hip; however, there was some contact - and we've seen those given...). Diaz's more artful diving won him him an assist and the maximum bonus points (at Salah's expense). And Cunha's more or less inevitable goal-out-of-nothing denied everybody (except Trent!) a clean-sheet bonus. Jeez - if either the offside or the second penalty had gone in Liverpool's favour, Wolves would probably have been demoralised and it could have turned into a rout; Salah could easily have had a 20+ point game here..... and wound up with a measly 7???  FPL can be a very cruel game sometimes.

The other main points of note in this match were Cunha curling a free-kick a whisker beyond the top right corner in the first half, when Alisson was getting nowhere near it, and Quansah's superb last-ditch challenge to deny Wolves an equaliser late in the game. Oh, and the Konate business: multiple small 'controversies' there. For the first card, he barely put his arm around Cunha for a moment: yes, it was a cynical attempt to distract the Wolves forward, hold him back for a fraction of a second; a foul, certainly - but scarcely worthy of a card, especially so early in the game. However, the big defender might count himself lucky that he didn't receive a second yellow immediately, for protesting against the foul being called so vociferously, and then petulantly nudging the ball into touch (it may be uncertain, in fact, which of these three things Simon Hooper actually showed the card for). The later incident where he shoulder-charged Cunha in the side of the head looked fairly innocuous (the Brazilian was play-acting to get the ref to pay more attention to the decision); there might perhaps have been a slight element of the accidentally-on-purpose about it, but it did look as if Konate genuinely had all his attention on trying to head the incoming ball and was unaware of Cunha's proximtiy: just an inadvertent collision. Again, clearly a foul, but - for me - nowhere near a yellow card.

The major element of luck in the almost unwatchably dull Spurs v Manchester United game was the late news of Amad Diallo's injury (ankle ligaments apparently - likely to write him off for the rest of the season) - a bitter blow for the 24% of managers that had owned him. Things were even worse for Ruben Amorim: a late spate of other training injuries and illness made it difficult for him to scrape together an eleven - out-of-favour Victor Lindelof the only senior player available for his bench, the other back-up spots all being filled by untested Academy teenagers (who he didn't trust sufficiently to actually give any minutes). Postecoglou, on the other hand, was able to take comfort from the fact that most of his long injury-list are finally back in training. Goalkeeper Vicario was able to return to action a little sooner than had been expected, and made a crucial contribution with a number of smart saves. United actually started quite brightly, and had the best of the opening exchanges - particularly in a brief hectic spell when saves from Hojlund and Garnacho efforts and then a goal-line clearance by Ben Davies kept the game at 0-0. The big turning point of the match was undoubtedly Garnacho skying a sitter when he had the opportunity to equalise shortly after Spurs nicked the lead.

In the gameweek's final fixture on Wednesday evening, Villa gave hope to their fans, and the significant numbers of FPL managers who had rather optimistically punted on them for their double-fixture. They weren't exactly stellar, but it was one of the liveliest league performances they've produced for a very, very long time, if not all season. From the brief highlights available online, it looks as though there was nothing contentious in the officiating. An own-goal from Van Dijk in the first-half, muffing an attempted clearance of a Rashford cross, and a late effort from Ramsey were both rightly ruled out for offside. Trent Alexander-Arnold's equaliser was very lucky to count, or at least to be counted to his credit, since it looked as if he had only been kept onside by Digne's stretching toe as they both raced towards the touchline, and then the shot looked as if it would have been well outside the far post before deflecting into the ground off Mings's shin.... But Trent is beloved of the FPL gods, who spurn no opportunity to shower points on him; which is perhaps enough of a reason to back him in itself - it is mostly a game of luck, and Trent is one of the luckiest. The BPS notoriously does not love Mo Salah, on the other hand: yet again, this crackpot system contrived to deny him maximum bonus points, awarding them instead to Youri Tielemans (and by a solitary BPS credit, at that - cruel, cruel) - although Salah both scored and assisted. Liverpool were uncharacteristically slipshod in defence in this one; and also a bit wasteful with their finish - substitute Darwin Nunez, of course, claimed the distinction for the worst miss of the evening, with 20 minutes left. Rashford again put in a decent and hard-working display down the left flank, but couldn't last much beyond the hour; and I thought the much more promising performance from a Villa newcomer here was that of Marco Asensio.

[Good grief - so far (on Saturday), this week looks like it might be only a  2 or 3 out of 10 on the 'Luck-o-Meter', at least as regards the refeering. Unheard of! Overall, though, it's going to be a lot more than that.....]

No, not a terrible week for the decisions, overall. But Axel Tuanzebe's sending-off was outrageously unjust; and, in a rather similar way, Konate was forced out of the Wolves game at half-time by an over-hasty first yellow card from Simon Hooper. I don't feel Mateta's goal against Everton should have been allowed to stand. And there were several ridiculously tight offsides (the adjudication of which was often left mysterious: either VAR was not displaying the 'lines' on the screen, or it was perplexing why the 'lines' had been drawn where they were.... or the TV commentators omitted to reassure us that VAR had done its thing at all; this inconstency of approach does not inspire public confidence in the system).

Fulham's win against Forest and City's - comfortable - victory over (no-show!!) Newcastle, and Villa's spirited midweek draw against Liverpool can all be considered upset results. And, with many of the usually most fancied players - including most of the doublers - having a quiet week, we've ended up with a very odd 'Team of the Week': nobody, surely, would have bet their house on Ederson, Bassey, Spence, Alcaraz, Merino, or Minteh - or even Watkins or Marmoush, for that matter (some chance of a return, but hardly among the favourites for haul-of-the-week!). The post-deadline injury revelation about high-owned Amad Diallo was a huge piece of misfortune. As was Gakpo's absence from either game of the double-fixture, after initially just being announced as a 'slight doubt' for the first one, after picking up a slight knock in the Merseyside derby last Thursday. And the dreaded 'Bonus Points System' was up to its tricks big time this week, with Salah, Watkins, Gabriel, Ouattara, and Kluivert (and probably a few others) unfathombably being robbed of extra points by its eccentric performance ratings. And good lord, we saw 2 assists from goalkeepers in the same week!! (I sense a disturbance in The Force....)

So, although the refereeing wasn't too disruptive for once, the wild swings of form, unexpected team and individual performances, and glitches within the fabric of the FPL game mechanics... get this gameweek up to at least a 7 out of 10 on the 'Luck-o-Meter'

And DON'T FORGET The Boycott.  That damned new 'Assistant Manager' chip is in play now. I am taking the high road by quitting playing the game for the rest of the season. If you don't feel like joining me in such an emphatic gesture, please at least think about refusing to use the Assistant Manager chip - and criticise and complain about it online as much as possible.

#QuitFPLinGW23         #DownWithTheNewChip

Dilemmas of the Week - GW25

Damn, it seems like ages since we last had any EPL football! In the last two weeks, the winter transfer window has finally closed (with the usual flurry of late business on the final day), the delayed Merseyside derby has been caught up, the finalists for the League Cup Final have been determined, the new play-off stage for the European competitions has got under way, .... and the 4th Round of the FA Cup has inevitably produced a few more injury worries for us to ponder. Oh, and the damned new 'Assistant Manager' chip has been available for the first time in this Gameweek just past (and a lot of people were using it already...).

The biggest news for FPL is that Liverpool prevailed on the FA to move their GW29 fixture against Villa (the weekend they'll play the League Cup Final against Newcastle) forward rather than backwards - 'anteponing' it! (I really can't ever recall that happening before!!), so it's now scheduled for Wednesday 19th February..... making this a Double Gameweek for Liverpool and Villa (and the Scousers' second in successive weeks).

So, what are the conundrums we face ahead of Gameweek 25?

Does anybody need to be moved out because of injury?

Gabriel Martinelli came off in the FA Cup defeat to Newcastle last week with a hamstring problem; 'not too serious', but likely to keep him out for 3 or 4 weeks. Meanwhile, Kai Havertz has apparently picked up a similar - but reportedly much more severe - problem while Arsenal were taking a break for some warm-weather training.... which looks as though it could keep him out for most of the rest of the season. (Grim news for Arsenal, coming hot on the heels of their embarrassing failure to land any new players in the transfer window. At least this presumably means that Ethan Nwaneri and Leandro Trossard will be getting reliable minutes for a while; that could be interesting for FPL.)

Ezri Konsa also hobbled off with a leg muscle problem in the Cup win over Spurs; again, Emery thinks 'not too serious', but he is a major doubt for the current gameweek. (This presumably means that new loan signing Axel Disasi might come straight in, as Pau Torres is expected to be out for a few more weeks, and Tyrone Mings has only just resumed training after suffering a jarred knee a couple of weeks ago.) Ollie Watkins, withdrawn at half-time against Wolves with a groin muscle problem two weeks ago, has apparently resumed light training in the last couple of days, but is looking doubtful to be fully involved in the next two matches.

Lewis Dunk had to come off in the surprise Cup win against Chelsea last week with 'sore ribs', and seems unlikely to be available for Brighton this weekend.

Brentford keeper Mark Flekken missed the League game against Spurs two weeks ago because of strained side muscles, and continues to be a doubt this week, with his deputy Hakon Valdimarsson looking likely to step in again.

Both Nico Jackson and his understudy Marc Guiu picked up hamstring problems in the game against West Ham two weeks ago; Jackson is now thought likely to be out until the end of March, Guiu possibly even longer. (Could perhaps be an opportunity for 'forgotten man' Christopher Nkunku to become a surprise late-season FPL asset...?)

Ismaila Sarr missed Palace's Cup game on Monday night with an illness, Eddie Nketiah with a twisted ankle, and Eberechi Eze was simply treated to a precautionary rest (as his long-standing foot injury is still bothering him) - but Glasner thinks all three should be OK for the visit of Everton.

Everton's star man recently, Illiman Ndiaye, went off in Wednesday's rambunctious Merseyside derby after 20-odd minutes, having suffered a knock to his knee; no word yet on how serious it might be. Full-back Nathan Patterson is also missing again, with a hamstring problem picked up in training before last week's FA Cup games.

Reiss Nelson was apparently on the verge of being eligible for a comeback for Fulham, but has just injured his other hamstring in training and is now expected to be unavailable for more several weeks.

Ipswich's Sammie Szmodics, only just back from an ankle injury, had to come off in their FA Cup tie with a similar problem - possibly a recurrence of the same thing - and is now likely to be out again for some weeks.

Jamie Vardy and Jannik Vestergaard both missed Leicester's Cup game against Manchester United with training-ground knocks, but are expected to be available again this week.

Joe Gomez went off with a hamstring problem in Liverpool's shock Cup defeat to Plymouth Argyle: not 'that serious', but likely to make him a doubt for a few weeks at least (though you wouldn't expect him to be making any starts in the League while Konate and Van Dijk are fit). Cody Gakpo might also be a doubt, complaining of a knock when he came off against Everton.

Jack Grealish and Manuel Akanji both had to come off in the Champions League defeat to Real Madrid with a muscle injuries - yet more woe for Pep!

There seems to have been no official announcement yet on the knee injury suffered by Lisandro Martinez in the defeat against Palace two weeks ago, but it looked very much like an ACL tear - which would obviously keep him out until next season. (With Luke Shaw having apparently picked up yet another muscle injury in training, this at least surely means that Mazraoui will now be assured of a regular start on the left side of the back three - his best position - with Maguire and De Ligt as his preferred partners. A bit of stablility and continuity in the defence selections can only be a good thing for United.)

Sven Botman is again a doubt, after complaining of pain in his knee after the League Cup semi-final win over Arsenal. With Dan Burn picking up a muscle problem in the FA Cup tie against Brimingham, Newcastle are possibly looking spread thin at the back again. Joelinton will also be missing for a few weeks, after having to come off with a knee problem in the League game against Fulham at the start of the momth. At least Anthony Gordon has been spotted back in training this week, after missing the Birmingham game with a 'knock'.

Southampton defender Taylor Harwood-Bellis missed the FA Cup game after coming off at half-time in the League win at Ipswich two weeks ago with an ankle injury - should be in contention again this week, though.

The Spurs injury list gets even longer, with defender Radu Dragusin now out for the season after suffering an ACL injury in their Europa League game against Elfsborg; while Richarlison seems to have picked up a significant calf-muscle injury in the League Cup defeat to Liverpool.

Lucas Paqueta missed the Chelsea game two weeks ago with a groin problem, and is still a doubt.

Hwang Hee-Chan had to go off with a hamstring problem in Wolves's FA Cup win over Blackburn, but Pereira didn't think it was too serious.

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

Abdoulaye Doucoure and Curtis Jones are banned for this weekend after the little post-game fracas at Goodison Park on Wednesday, for which they both picked up second yellow cards after the final whistle.

Did anyone give other cause to consider dropping them?

It looks rather as if the occasionally calamitous Robert Sanchez has finally lost his place in the Chelsea goal to Filip Jorgensen - although Maresca has been making noises about the Spaniard being 'given a rest' rather than dropped.... so, maybe he'll yet make a comeback. With Chelsea's recent form, not a very attractive pick anyway!

The recently even more disastrous Ari Muric at Ipswich will surely immediately lose his place beween the sticks to promising new signing Alex Palmer.

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

The uncannily rejuvenated Everton stole all the attention this past gameweek, with a convincing win over Leicester and a fighting draw against Liverpool on Wednesday night. While James Tarkowski hogged the headlines with his improbable last-gasp equaliser in the derby, I thought his young partner Jarrad Branthwaite produced the better all-round defensive performance in that game; but the real standout was centre-forward Beto, who really seems to have found the 'magic boots' and is now playing with a swaggering confidence. Given that Everton now have a run of pretty soft fixtures until they have to face Liverpool again at the beginning of April, and that he only costs 4.9 million at the moment, I think he's definitely worth considering for a cheap third-seat filler.

I'm also intrigued to see if Ipswich can rouse themselves to fight off the threat of relegation. For me, they are the only club that has done really good transfer business in the window - bringing in three players, creative midfielder Julio Enciso, nippy winger Jaden Philogene, and an excellent goalie in Alex Palmer: players who might - almost certainlly will - start immediately, and perhaps have an immediate impact. The only other new transfer who excites my hopeful curiosity is Brighton's outstanding young forward Evan Ferguson - loaned to West Ham, where he really ought to have an excellent chance of regular starts.

The Sheep are all dumbly bleating about what a great prospect Unai Emery is for the Assistant Manager Chip this week - just because Villa have two games. It's nonsense, of course. Even at home, and with a full-strength squad, you wouldn't fancy Villa to have much of a chance against Liverpool; but particularly not when they might be missing their star striker, and four of their preferred defenders. This is in effect only a 'single gameweek' for them! (And honestly, I fancy Ipswich to have a better chance of getting an upset result against them, than they do against Liverpool.)

BEST OF LUCK, EVERYONE!

And DON'T FORGET The Boycott; the dratted new 'Assistant Manager' chip is in play now - and I am urging everyone to please consider quitting the game, or at least refusing to use this silly chip. 

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

#QuitFPLinGW23         #DownWithTheNewChip