🚨 Saturday’s Summary 🚨

🏟️ Aston Villa 2-4 Arsenal

💥 A real cracker and rollercoaster 🎢 of a match this one‼️

🧠 Arsenal overcame the psychological barrier of losing to 🔵 Man City midweek and also of going behind early in this game…very impressive that they did so – credit where credit’s due 👏. Heads didn’t go down 🙆‍♂️.

🇦🇷 Ex-Gunner Emi Martinez spent most of the second half time wasting ⏰ but karma bit 🦷 him on the bum when 🇮🇹Jorginho’s shot came back off the woodwork + hit him on the back of the head 🤭 + went into the net 🥅.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Saka was impressive for the Gunners throughout…but got kicked to bits at the same time. We’ll need to keep an eye 👁️ on him this coming week for injury updates. That ankle was heavily strapped by the end.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Nketiah again missed a bunch of chances (2️⃣ of them expertly set up by the impressive 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿Ben White) and Eddie may now be under threat now if 🇪🇸Arteta decides to put 🇧🇷Martinelli though the middle 🤷‍♂️. It would be a big call 🗣️ to change the system though so we shall see 👀.

🗣️Speaking of 🇧🇷 Martinelli owners…he suffered his inevitable benching (which feels like it’s been coming for a fortnight) but were then cheered up with his 98th minute goal‼️ The joys of FPL 🎢.

🍷 Villa showed plenty of promise to be fair and they’re a team to keep an eye on FPL wise as they have a nice fixture run coming up. They’re quite unpredictable all over the pitch in terms of their FPL output though which doesn’t help. I won’t be going there for a while yet personally.

😱 What a day for Arsenal though…with injury time approaching, they were heading for a draw and were probably expecting that they’d go to bed 🛏️ tonight 2pts behind Man City in the table 📊…they actually now go to bed 2pts ahead of their rivals with a game in hand‼️ That’s a massive psychological boost for them 🚀.

🏟️ Chelsea 0-1 Southampton

💩 Potter’s pathetic project persists‼️

💡 I’ve been shining a light on Chelsea’s appalling record under Potter for weeks. He’s out of his depth. It’s clear to see and has been for weeks if not months now. He needs to borrow his namesake’s magic wand 🪄or else he’ll be out of a job quick smart.

👀 Go back and read my last 4️⃣ articles about this so called ‘project’ 📚…it’s so far the worst project we’ve seen since at Stamford Bridge in 20 years. He’s stinking the place out. Yes there is some context (loads of new players etc) but lets say it how it is…he’s massively under-performing with the tools at his disposal.

📈 Check these numbers 🔢 out and tell me how much longer Chelsea fans have to suffer this ‘project’…

🙏 Southampton hadn’t kept an away clean sheet in 25 league games before today ffs‼️ Think about what that number means‼️

📉 Graham Potter’s league record as Chelsea manager now reads: P17, W5, D6, L6. Goals Scored = 15, Goals Conceded = 14. If I’m being kind I’d call that a ‘very average’ record. Let’s call it as it is though…it’s absolute garbage 🗑️ and most managers at a mid-table club would lose their job with that record…let alone Chelsea.

📊 Strip out Potter’s first 3️⃣ games in charge and his record in their last 14 league games reads: P14, W2, D6, L6. Goals Scored 8, Goals Conceded 13‼️ That’s utterly terrible‼️

👀 Just listing the goals output visually perhaps works well so that you can see just how unattractive their record (and their FPL attacking assets) and how the numbers have regressed rather than improved since Potter took over…2, 3, 2, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 2, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0 = in anyone’s book 📕 that is absolutely toilet 🚽.

🙏 Southampton…ignore all of the above and take a bow 🙇‍♂️. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿Nathan Jones no doubt believes they’d have won with him in the dugout too…they wouldn’t have done. 🇪🇸 Ruben Selles doing a great audition for the job on a permanent basis today…and just watch the players’ response to him at full time…says everything‼️

🥅 JWP with the goal for S’ton – the boy has talent 👌.

🇵🇹 Even given Chelsea’s terrible form I did expect them to batter Southampton today. Felix owners probably feel particularly aggrieved. 🇺🇦Mudryk owners will wish that they’d listened a month ago when i said not to go there and instead see how he settles. He was rubbish 🗑️ again today.

🏟️ Forest 1-1 Man City

👍 Just the kind of result that non-Haaland Captainers were looking for 🥳…well done for being brave if you went against the 🇳🇴🤖. I felt mentally exhausted watching the minutes tick slowly by‼️ As per my GW article ✍️ though…it was a GW where going against him was justified.

🌳 Forest did exactly what my GW24 🌊 Stream of Consciousness 🧠 article said that they’ve been doing for weeks…keeping it very tight and being very hard to beat especially at home. They remain one of the best teams for XGC since the restart 📊.

🤷‍♂️ This is the extract that gave us a big clue 🕵️‍♂️ it would be a tough game for 🔵 Man City…

📊 Last 6️⃣ matches XGC: MCI 5.47, NEW 5.49, *FOR 6.31*, BRE 6.60, LEE 6.62, WHU 6.91, CHE 7.05, ARS 7.87, MUN 8.24, BHA 8.52, SOU 8.64, LIV 8.75, TOT 9.04, FUL 9.13, AVL 10.53, EVE 10.67, WOL 10.74, PAL 10.77, BOU 11.00, LEI 11.50.

🔵 Man City also continued their trend (as did 🇳🇴Haaland) of being much less effective away from home than they are at home. 🚩Again flagged in the article ✍️. Something to continue keeping an eye on moving forwards 👁️ too.

🇵🇹 FPL irrelevant Bernardo Silva got the Man City goal ⚽️…nice to see Pep not play him at left back today at least‼️

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Jack Grealish stayed on his feet 👣 long enough to provide the assist ✅…well done Jack 👍.

🪵 Chris gave Forest fans Wood with his equaliser…boom 💥‼️

🔵 Man City failing yet again to record a clean sheet…hardly surprising given their defence (and tactical set-up) changes massively each game 🤯. I’ve not been on any of their defenders for a long time 🕰️ but if I was invested 💵 right now I’d be giving serious consideration to selling them sometime soon…probably not ahead of GW25 tbf purely as it’s likely not the priority transfer for GW25.

🇩🇿 Champions League specialist Mahrez warmed 🔥 the bench. 🇧🇪KDB failed his audition not to be sold en masse for 🇪🇬Salah ahead of GW25.

🏃‍♂️The title race goes on‼️

🏟️ Brighton 0-1 Fulham

😱 A surprise result at the Amex today‼️

👎 It’s not like free scoring Brighton to draw a blank tbf ❎

👍 Another impressive result (and CS) for the Cottagers 🏠…this time without 🇷🇸Mitrovic in the squad too…fair play to them for eventually biting the bullet 🔫 and giving him (and his injury) a rest…he’s clearly not been right for weeks 🤷‍♂️…since the World Cup in fact 🌍🏆.

🇮🇱 Manor Solomon with an 88th minute winner for Fulham to wipe out the 🌊 Brighton clean sheet. That’s just 3️⃣ clean sheets in the league under 🍝 De Zerbi in 18 games now…as I’ve been flagging 🚩 for weeks that’s something to be aware of as it’s not very good at all.

🇦🇷 Mac Allister blanked today but with 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿Lallana now out for months with the 4,356th injury of his career you can expect the Argentinian to stay in that advanced no.🔟 role.

🇯🇵 Despite blanking, clearly Mitoma remains a great option so long as you can manage without him for his BGW25.

🏟️ Everton 1-0 Leeds

🍫 A big big win for the Toffees this‼️

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Tarkowski owners (of which I’m now one) will be pleased with his 8️⃣ pointer

🎲 I was minded to roll my transfer this GW but in the end I just couldn’t do so as without 100% confirmation that 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ben White would start for Arsenal, there was a risk I’d have just 2️⃣ defenders playing this GW…so I went 🇮🇪Doherty to Tarkowski with my free transfer. As I still own 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Luke Shaw & 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Nathan Patterson he’d have been needed anyway. Thanks to some good advice from a certain Arsenal fan in this group (🥊 Muhammad Cipanas) + the Chelsea team leaks 💦 I decided against going for 🇫🇷Badiashile and I’m very glad that I did so‼️

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 If Everton can get DCL fit (that’s a big IF) then I’d fancy them to survive now this season. Dyce is a gritty manager and it’s exactly what Everton needed.

🇮🇪 Coleman’s goal (and his continued good form) perhaps makes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Nathan Patterson’s re-emergence in GW25 a bit less likely. Best guess he’ll get a few minutes in the first game (from the bench 🪑) and might, if owners are lucky 🍀, get a start in the second game. I would imagine that Sean Dyce will like his senior pros though 🤷‍♂️.

🏟️ Brentford 1-1 Palace

🐝 Janelt with the goal and Mbuemo with the assist for Brentford.

🦅 Eze with the goal and the Rolls Royce that is Olise with the assist for Palace.

🐝 Brentford now blank in GW25 and Palace remain a FPL irrelevance unless you happen to own one of their assets already. Brentford become interesting ahead of GW27.

🤷‍♀️ Not much else to report in this one.

🏟️ Wolves 0-1 Bournemouth

🍒 I didn’t see the Cherries winning this one so fair play to them for doing so‼️

🐺 A shock result for an improved Wolves team. They’ve still worthy of consideration moving forwards defensively though…they don’t score enough goals (and haven’t done for 18 months) to justify FPL investment further forwards. I’d be opting for SGW players ahead of their midfielders or attackers even though they have a DGW25.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Having gone Tarkowski ahead of Kilman I was selfishly pleased to see the CS wiped out. Apologies to Wolves owners‼️

🏟️ Newcastle 0-2 Liverpool

🙏 Firstly let’s do the right thing and say RIP to 🇬🇭Christian Atsu. Very sad news today to receive confirmation that his body has been found in the Syrian / Turkish earthquake zone 😔. May he RIP ⚰️ 💙 along with all others affected by this awful tragedy.

💙🙏💙🙏💙🙏💙🙏💙🙏💙🙏💙🙏💙

🟥 Nick Pope has been superb this season but his red card after 21 minutes now means he misses the Carabao Cup Final next Sunday 🏆. Even as a Sunderland fan i feel sorry for him.

😱 Ironically 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Pope’s replacement v Liverpool was Martin Dubravka who ironically played for Man United earlier in the season (in the Carabao Cup) so can’t play for Newcastle in the Cup Final either‼️ He CAN get a winner’s medal 🥇 if Man United win though…bizarre‼️ 🇩🇪Loris Karius might well find himself in goals for the Geordies at Wembley now 🏟️…given he’s either awesome or awful that will be interesting to watch 👀.

🇺🇾 Nunez scored‼️ He finally converted a big chance…👏…very nice assist from TAA…remember him❓

🌷 Gakpo with the second goal from a 🇪🇬Salah assist.

🇪🇬 Salah passed the audition to be KDB’s replacement (just about) in my FPL squad for his GW25 double…and no I won’t be making that move early 🤣 before anyone asks‼️

🧠 Liverpool play Real Madrid at Anfield 🏟️ on Tuesday night 🌛remember…if you’ve got a FPL brain you’ll leave your GW25 transfers until after the midweek European games and ideally until after the press conferences on Thursday and Friday too 🎙️

🧠…any SCAP non-believers just ask how Reece James purchasers felt this GW 😉

🥅 Liverpool looked vulnerable throughout the gamer defensively…as they have done all season. They were a shambles at the back in that first half particularly. 🇧🇷Allison was their best player in the opening half‼️

🤿 Before diving in on Gakpo types I’d at least be having a think 💭 about what impact 🇧🇷Firmino and 🇵🇹Jota are likely to have on his minutes in the DGW. I’m sticking to my view that I doubt any of 🇺🇾Nunez, 🇧🇷Firmino, 🇵🇹Jota or 🇳🇱Gakpo will get more than 120 mins in their DGW25.

🤕 Nunez didn’t look too clever with a shoulder injury as he left the pitch as part of a 4️⃣ man substitution on 58 mins.

🇵🇹 Jota missed an absolute sitter along with 2️⃣ other decent chances.

🤷‍♀️ Really not sure how Liverpool kept a CS in this one. 🇧🇷Allison was a big reason that they did.

🦓 Just 1️⃣ win in 7️⃣ now for Newcastle.

🏃‍♂️ The race for the top 4️⃣ is most definitely still on 👍.

🍀 Good luck for the rest of GW24 everyone…I’m up at 5.30am Sunday to head to a golf competition 🏌️‍♂️so I’ll be much quieter on here tomorrow.

📻 I hope to be listening to a 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿Marcus Rashford (c) masterclass + a 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿Luke Shaw clean sheet and a 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿Harry Kane haul on my way back on the car 🚙 radio 📻…30pts in GW24 so far for me (which is much better than it sounds👂) and a nice green arrow 👍.

💙 Laters…

Chindle13

See author's posts