Gameweek 28 was the first proper ‘blank’ of the FPL season, with the League Cup Final causing Man City, Aston Villa, Arsenal and some scrubbers from Sheffield all to have the weekend off from Premier League football.
And with these missing fixtures, it doesn’t take a brainiac to see where the theme for this review comes from.
For those of a tender age, Blankety Blank was a long-running gameshow on BBC1 hosted by comedy legend Les Dawson (and others).
The gameshow theme has also inspired this week’s track – a goofy, mid-90s electronica blast, ‘Winner Takes All’ from the Expert Knob Twiddlers album by Mike Paradinas and Richard D. James (aka Aphex Twin). Check it out.
But anyway, back to the football. It may have been a blank gameweek, but it certainly wasn’t short of excitement.
Liverpool lost for the first time all season, and were properly thumped, to be fair. Ismaila Sarr (19) and Troy Deeney (11) doing the damage in a 3-0 shock win. It won’t make a jot of difference to the league, but it caused much delight to fans of ____________ = Watford / Man Utd / Everton / Arsenal / …football in general
The shocks didn’t end there with Norwich putting Leicester to the sword 1-0. Unlikely hero Jamal Lewis (15) netting the winner. One of the biggest surprises of course came for those who had captained Jamie Vardy. The relentless striker didn’t even make the team bus due to a bad __________ = calf strain / night looking after his new baby / …WKD & pharmaceutical hangover
There were wins for Crystal Palace in their made-up derby, West Ham against a (mostly) Ing-less Southampton, and for Wolves, who came back impressively to win at Spurs.
But for the most in-demand player at the moment, we probably have to look to the draw at Goodison Park. No, not Tom Davies (1), but Bruno Fernandes (10). The Portuguese looks the real deal – an all-round midfield talent whose ownership has increased by 14% since last week. With Bruno knocking em down, the Man United squad are surely guaranteed a place in the ________ = Top 4 / Europa League / …sun, just outside Albuferia
As always, what goes on in the PL has an effect on FPL, and in FFUK to be more precise.
At the top is still Paul Baker (1st). Bakes shows no sign of blanking, and in fact extended his lead by 10 points. This week the biggest scorer in the top 20 was Andrew Downie (18th) with 54; the worst in this section was Stephen Fielden (12th) with just 19 points.
As always, the Conts was tight. Very tight. A low score of 27 was shared between the two Stu’s: Allen (51st) and Newton (84th). But with Stu Allen’s overall rank being better, he consigned his namesake to the door marked: ‘Do one’. Bad luck, Stu. There are now only 10 survivors, and the next person to leave will be ________ = your guess is as good as mine!
February has ended, and with it we have results in the cups – both the FFUK Cup, Milk Plate and Champions League qualifiers. Stay tuned for an update from Mr. Cups. Also watch out for the quarter final draw for the FFUK Cup taking place this week on YouTube.
Manager of the Month goes to Wayne Pearson (53rd), who also top scored in the whole league this week with 64 points. Proof there, that Wayne is definitely not firing blanks. The MOTM page has now been updated.
Congrats to all this week’s winners. If you’ve lost, at least you get to take home a Blankety Blank chequebook and pen.
Reidy (22nd)
FFUK 