WELCOME TO THE GW20 REVIEW – PLEASE DONT GO….“Mo” – I love you so, and I want you to know – PLEASE DON’T GO!…”
Welcome to the GW 20 Review – that means we are already at the “Business end” of the season. As Roy Keane would say – “there are no prizes for being top at Christmas”. The theme for this weeks review is “Please don’t go” by KWS (which was a hit for KC and the Sunshine band in the late 70’s – but I prefer the 90’s dance version).
As the African and Asia cup players depart it is down to the smart FFUK’ers to work out who to replace the likes of Salah, Kudos, Son & Hee-Chan. This a great opportunity to “push the button” and perhaps get back in the Norwegian meatshield & also KDB who is due to return to action for city. Liverpool will clearly miss the Egyptian King but the form of Jota and Diaz will hopefully see the reds suffer less than we fear. After all Liverpool earned the highest XG for any premier league match against Newcastle, since records began.
GW 20 was spread over 4 days and for many of you conts – it went down to the last match between West Ham & Brighton to see if your Gameweek was a success or failure.
The first match of GW20 started with Luton 2 – 3 Chelsea. Luton showing they are made of stern stuff and fight for every point. They nearly took a point off the Blues after Chelsea went 3-0 up with a brace from 5.6M Cole Palmer (18) who seems “essential” these days in an inconsistent Chelsea side. Typically I have had 4.4M Alfie Doughty (9) on the bench for the last two weeks – which could have been the difference to keep me in the Conts league – more about evictions later – it was a another brutal week.
Saturday’s afternoon games saw Villa beat Burnley 3-2 at fortress Villa Park. Douglas Luiz (10) proving great value at 5.5M with another double digit haul (his third of the season). Wolves picked up 3 points against Everton with important clean sheets for Dawson (14) and Kilman (13).
Forest picked up an unexpected win against fragile Man U. Many thought this loss would be the final nail in the coffin for ETH but the new/old owners are keeping faith in the gaffer (perhaps more than the players and supporters!?). Gonzalo Montiel (12) at 4.4m was under utilised by Cooper and perhaps new double barreled surname Manager Nuno E-S has given him a new lease of life in the Forest team as they fight for every point hoping to stay in the Premier League next year.
Palace look like they have hit some form with “Woy” welcoming back Olise (15) and Eze (9) to the starting line up. City looked very comfortable against Sheff Utd winning 2-0 with a strong performance from Foden (12).
Sunday saw Arsenal lose thier Chrsitmas day advantage over the chasing pack with an unexpected loss to Fulham. 5.3M Bobby De Cordova-Reid (9) combining with Jimenez well in attack. Injury depleted Spurs beat in form Bournemouth 3-1 with 6.9M Richarlison (8) scoring his 5 goals in as many games. Spurs fans will welcome this form in the absence of Son over the next few gameweeks. 4.8M Lo Celso (11) who showed a glimpse of what a player he could be now given a run in the team due to injuries elsewhere with 2 assists.
New Years day was the return of the classic match up of Liverpool 4 -2 Newcastle which has a history of goals, this game didn’t disappoint! Liverpool’s record breaking 7.27 XG showed how Klopp’s new look Liverpool midfield is now creating chances for fun. If only Darwin could finish it would have been more than 4. Heavily captained 13.2M Mo Salah (16) showed The Kop what they would be missing as he departs for Afcon. Although super frustrating at times – Mo Salah is a goal machine and even the most critical of LFC fans (including myself!) need to appreciate how incredible Mo really is. 7.7M Jota is expected to be high on transfer in stats for GW21 with a goal and 2 assists since his return in just 35 mins of action. Newcastle had 3 shots on target all game and scored twice – 7.6M Isak fed on scraps but scored with a great finish - how many goals would he have scored if he was wearing a red shirt I wonder!?… Worrying for Newcastle fans is that they are currently the worst performing team in terms of XG for goals against. Time to get rid of Newcastle defender assets?
The final game of the week was West ham 0-0 Brighton with many FFUK’ers hoping for returns for Bowen. The absence of Kudus was a surprise to many as he wasn’t flagged as being unavailable – I’m sure like me, many of you would have sold him earlier. Only 4.2M Areola (11) came out of the game with any “Kudos”!
Top of the FFUK League
Mr Invincible Jason Beal (1st) is still top of the pops with 1274 – showing that “every FFUK’er has his day” – or in this case, “has his year” – can anyone catch the Shaftesbury non-league Legend? My FFUK wingman Mark Tarbox (2nd) is behind him with 1265 and Rob Scott (3rd) narrowly behind him on 1256.
Conts update.
This was the last week of the Winter of DisCONTent (thankfully) with another 12 victims going out. We say goodbye to several FFUK legends in the Conts – this is hard to take going out with a scores ranging between 63-78. Well done for getting this far but for now – Dave Cull, Joseph Mulhern, Stuart Bennette, Donald Macaulay, Paul Baker, James Downie, Tim McEwan, Richard PW-H, Nitin Patel, Dunc Hannigan, Craig Sharman - and Myself are all out! Joseph Colliass survives the conts this week due to bench score (against Craig Sharman also on 78 points). #Brutal!
The CONTS page is updated with the latest evictions, check it out here
Well done to Richard Harrison (156th) who scored a super 111 this week, Ben Pycz (77th) scored 108 and third Gamesmaster Ian Galloway Snr (73rd) with 107. Well done chaps.
December manager of the month was Jim Wheat (98th) with 434 – well done £50 in the bank. Second place was previous FFUK winner Ossama Mouslimani (13th) with 431, third was Steven Mountford (4th) with 430.
GW 21 starts on Saturday 13th Jan – so you have some time to use your 2024 wildcard chip (its now active if you didn’t know).
Thanks for reading & enjoy the tune!
James Page-Chatton (154th)
FFUK 