FPL Gameweek 26 - 29
We’re back again with the latest edition of the FPL roundup as the international break transpired and Mainoo-mania gained ascendancy. Arsenal, City, and Liverpool continued to dominate the league with neither team buckling under the pressure of the three-horse title race. After the draw between City and Liverpool last week, Arsenal edged ahead on goal difference with a trip to the Etihad awaiting them on the 31st March. From an FPL perspective, the league has somewhat morphed into the following clusters:
The title race: Unfortunately I believe this boils down to just two players: CK & Rassclart Addz. The two-horse race has formulated as I don’t see Undisputed (currently in third place) bridging the seven point gap with nine games left in the season. Looking at the average fixture difficulty between GWs 30 - 34 CK has a slightly favourable run in with his opponents placed 25th on average compared to 23rd for Rassclart Addz. The trickiest matchup for the former will be against Chrissyleboss XI in GW 31, whereas for Rassclart he faces Excellent Finish in GW 32. They will not be facing each other again this season, so I believe CK wind the league with his four point cushion potentially widening as I don’t see him losing another game except in GW 36 against Caleb XI….
Race for third: From 3rd (Undisputed with 58 points) to 7th (Chrissyleboss XI with 53 points) the gap is only five yet when I look at the future matchups Undisputed has the statistically easiest run in with his opponents averaging a league position of 26th versus 16th for A Shaw Thing and Farabale 5, 18th for Gabi Gabby Gabi, and 21st for Chrissyleboss XI. With that being said it’s Undisputed’s to lose, but we’ve seen stranger things happen in fewer weeks.
Top half finish: Whilst those places 8th - 12th are very much secure of their top half finish, from places 13th - 29th there could be much movement as only nine points separate these 17 spots. I could also include WeBackAgain in 30th place who has been quietly impressing over the last ten GW’s, however it may be a hurdle too high for him to overcome.
Shifting the focus to GW 26 - 29 in particular, the individual scores were nothing to shout about however three players had a flawless 4-0-0 record: Yessirree FC, VibesFC, and Gabi Gabby Gabi. This correlates to the goal difference tallies for Vibes and Gabi where they ranked joint second with +54, alongside a 3rd and 2nd place ranking respectively based on points total. Interestingly for Yessirree his perfect record was attained even though he ranked 25th for points total with a goal difference of +17. His narrow wins of 2, 4, 8 & 3 backed up by his consistent performances across the season in close affairs shows that if the game is tight he’s not the opponent you want to be facing. Conversely, RayzFC succumbed to a 0-0-4 record, albeit his points total was near the middle of the pack. The only other player to go winless during this period was #1FC with his 0-1-3 record (the draw against StomachRumbles last week).
Delving further into Graph 1, Benniehanas is at the foot of the table with 125 points from the four fixtures, whilst A Shaw Thing tops the league with 217 (quite fittingly they have the inverse goal difference: -18 for the former and 18 for the latter). Across these gameweeks compared to the last tranche there were a few more instances of those in the bottom half with positive goal difference, however this is not hugely surprising given the gap between teams around this region is minimal. ApexAms was the only player within the top 14 who registered a negative GD of -4, however all of his fixtures were decided by 6 points or less. DanDman419 topped the GD charts with +57 which corresponded in a 3-0-1 record, with his loss coming against table-topper CK.
To Graph 2 and its depictions of the position changes, StomachRumbles slid the furthest, down six places to 19th following his 1-1-2 record, whilst JCFC ascended an impressive eight places to 23rd after posting 3-0-1. 7 players were unchanged (those at the top and bottom of the league) whilst Yessirree FC was the second highest riser (5 places) compared to Chrissyleboss XI who slid the second furthest down (4 positions).
With nine games to go it’s safe to say my title ambitions are well and truly over, but I retain hope of finishing within the top half of the table. I was the fourth highest scorer during this period, with the next 5 fixtures pivotal to ensuring I reach this mark. In my final 4 games I face both CK and Rassclart Addz so whilst I may not be in the title mix I could play a significant role in deciding it! In the next FPL round-up I will detail my final league predictions with four games to go.
Until then: stay rested, remain focused, and cherish this Easter period where the sacrifice of Jesus Christ still speaks volumes.
To a simpler life;
