Seven and Eight: Up and Up

As promised, an update on how my last two gameweeks went.

What the world is waiting for.

GW7 - Bench Boost:

88 points (avg. 59)

GW8:

60 points (avg. 45)

Two good weeks. Two lucky weeks. 21 points from my bench boost was very nice - and quite fortunate, as the fixtures were far from ideal. Then this week goals from Konsa and Gabriel.

I actually had a feeling Gabriel would do well. In the previous two Arsenal games he looked in the mix on corners. I watched the Champions League game against Bayern and it seemed like they were back to the old Declan Rice direct corner routine. Considering my previous post noting the short corners this was a welcome relief. When I saw Konsa had scored I thought, "Oh well, maybe next week, at least they're scoring those sort of goals again." Then later when Gabriel's name did come up on the scoresheet I felt very vindicated ..and jammy. Though his goal was a header from open play.

I'm now up to 436k in rank. So I feel like I'm in the running for a decent rank again.

I also got lucky with the Haaland vice captaincy. I could've very easily went with Palmer over Joao Pedro.

The Chelsea Conundrum.

With Joao Pedro out Chelsea really lacked a spear tip. I talked about the drama in that game last time, so I won't go over it all again. Although I do have to mention Gary Neville once more. (I don't want to pick on him, but he makes it almost unavoidable).

With Joao Pedro out they started Morgan Rogers up front. In commentary Gary kept saying, "I don't understand why they're not starting Welbeck?!" Or words of disbelief to that effect.

However, they didn't start Welbeck because they tried that against Brentford the last time Joao Pedro was out and he barely touched the ball. In fact, that game was similar to this one. There wasn't much in the game, it could've went either way, but Chelsea couldn't score and the other team managed to do so. Then the game ran away from them.

Playing Rogers upfront was just as bad as playing Welbeck in the end, perhaps worse, but either way Chelsea have a problem. No Joao Pedro, no goals. So if he remains out that's a problem. As his absence seems to make Rogers and Palmer worse options too.

Isak and Jackson

And now we have attacking alternatives.

Isak looked very sharp again. He's almost matching Haaland for consistency of returns. It's annoying not owning him, as I had him from the start. I took the gamble on him, but still had to let him go to get Haaland. (Obviously I can't really complain given I got to keep Gabriel, but still..)

Likewise Nicolas Jackson looked good, and it wasn't just the goals. His overall performance was impressive. He looks a lot more mature and serious than he did the last time he was in the Premier League. The fixtures are great as well. The Manzambi/Jackson double up is tempting.

If Joao Pedro is out the switch to Jackson looks straight forward. At least as a temporary move. The bigger question is do I downgrade Palmer too and make it permanent, to make way for Isak?

It is a conundrum.

And it all hinges on Joao Pedro. He makes such a difference to Chelsea, and when he plays you'd be scared not to own him, as with the service from Palmer and Rogers he has genuine double digit potential in any given gameweek.

In fact, this was my thinking behind captaining him ahead of Palmer - there was a logic. Obviously Palmer has penalties, and normally it makes sense to captain the penalty taker. However, I think this was the exception that proves the rule.

Imagine Chelsea had won the game 3-1, and one of those goals was a penalty. Palmer would've got a goal, plus maybe another return. Let's say an assist. However, Joao Pedro (if he'd have played) could've still hauled. He might've scored the other two. Or scored and assisted. Or won the penalty.

Then imagine Chelsea had won the game 3-1 with no penalty. In that game the potential for Joao Pedro is even bigger, but the likelihood of a Palmer haul is considerably less.

So in both scenarios there's the potential for a haul with Joao Pedro.

Of course, Palmer is good enough that he could score a hattrick in any game as well. So in theory anything could happen, but going by what we've seen this season it's tended to be Joao Pedro getting the multiple returns.

Of course, you could say. "What if Chelsea win 1-0 and it's a penalty?"

However, if you're only expecting one goal you shouldn't really be captaining someone from that team.

I had hopes that Chelsea would put a few past Tottenham. If I'd have known Joao Pedro was out I'd have thought differently.

Again, I did get very lucky though. I wasn't far off captaining Palmer. So hopefully my luck continues.