Hello FFUKers!
Welcome to the GW30 Review. Introducing our song of the week Addicted To Love by Robert Palmer, father of this week’s FPL hero Cole Palmer (15pts). Addicted to FPL more like ….
It was another crazy, high-scoring week in the Premier League this week – aside from the dull-athon at the Etihad only one team kept a clean sheet. Well done if you have a Villa defender then – two of whom made this week’s Team of the Week: Gabriela Sabatini’s godson Emi Martinez (10pts) and Ezri Konsa (15pts).
The week started with a harem-scarem contest at Newcastle. Kalvin Phillips (1pt) must have broken a mirror while walking under a stepladder having left his shoes on the table at home because every time he takes the field for West Ham it’s an absolute calamity! He came on with West Ham leading 3-1, and once he’d given away the second of two penalties for Isak (15pts) it turned into the Harvey Barnes (12pts) show. Named after famous actor Harvey Keitel, he gave it the full Mr Wolf to finish the turnaround and earn the Magpies a 4-3 win.
As we all eye the double gameweeks on the horizon in GWs 34 and 37, chip strategies are diverging and the template is breaking up. Each week then is fraught with danger should one strategy play out better than another. This week was not one of those weeks. Some were on Son (10pts), others were on Salah (7pts) – in the end most managers got enough to ride the coattails of those above, or weren’t able to score enough to break away from those behind.
One manager who was able to make a big move was John Harper (4th) whose 79 points was the second highest in FFUK this week propelling him into the top five. Essentially he had all the big names we were after this week: Son captain, Palmer, Salah, but ably assisted by the handy Villa defender Pau (6pts), Bowen (10pts) and Solanke (7pts).
He was pipped by one point by Steven Almond (201st) benefitting from being one of only 13 (5.04%) of FFUKers to own Emi Martinez and a handy transfer in of Rodrigo Muniz (6pts). Named after Rodrigo de Triana, the man to first sight land on Columbus’ first voyage in 1492, Muniz has had a good sight for goal in recent weeks scoring eight goals in his last eight games. He might not have the double in GW34, but is he still worth the investment?
This was the last week of the March Gamemonth, which means we have a Manager of the Month award to give out. This month it goes it Sachin Patel (53rd), a Fulham fan to boot who must be loving Mr Muniz’s form, if not a disappointing 3-3 draw at Sheffield United (you and me both Sachin – I had Leno in goal!).
Meanwhile things are hotting up in the overall title race, with just seven points now separating the top three.
Mark Tarbox (1st) retains the lead but Jason Beal (2nd) and Shaun Bremner (3rd) are hot on his heels.
This week was also the qaulifying week in the FFUK cup. The 32 highest scoring managers (thanks for the maths JDS!) from GW30 will have a bye in round 1 to be played in GW31. The remaining 192 managers all have a fixture, and you can find out your opponent here:
Let’s go Stuart Newton (108th)
GW30 was also a massive week in the Conts. It was Easter March Madness as 13 of the 21 remaining contenders were knocked out in a single week: a brutal game, and this was the most brutal of weeks! These are the unlucky 13, with some big name fallers:
Virides sagittas.
Paul Baker (Bakes) – Red 5 (6th)
P.S. I made some things up in this review!
FFUK 