Well thank all things holy that the international break is over and hey, looks like Coutinho is completely fit and raring to play… for Brazil. Sanchez also looks ready to go… anywhere that’s not the Emirates. Hard to know what to believe. Other than the wantaway players playing, we saw Hazard get vital minutes under his belt, and managed to get on the scoresheet. Nice to see him back – will be keeping a close eye *thinks of witty Hazard pun to place further down when you’ve forgotten about this sentence*

I didn’t get a chance to post anything about GW3 so will give you a quick rundown of how I did, all the main stuff:

Shit

That was easy. Yeah, a paltry 31 points was gained last week. 1 goal and one clean sheet from 10 players and Blankaku. I’ve never had a week yet where all of my players fail to produce attacking returns, so I am grateful for Arsenal playing worse than dogshit and Mané hitting the onion bag, even if I am a supporter – some things are more important than measly real footballings. Still, I didn’t completely fuck up and trusted my gut with my captain choice which definitely saved my week: a solid 1 point was doubled thanks to a nice 20 min cameo by Aguero – thank the lord!

My eagerness to WC from the start of the break has subsided and now, in control of all of my (somewhat limited) faculties, I will bank it. One transfer is being made this week: Milivojevic GOTS TO GOOOO! After deciding not to take a Brunt punt (nice) I’m going to swap him out for Brady. He has solid stats – not as solid as the hard-on everyone in the reddit community has for him right now, mind you – and everything Burnley do is through him, so seems like an ardent decision. Faith is being kept in Aguero for one more week – can’t wait to have that backfire…

Not going to go into a massive spiel as to who I picked to start this week. I had a big 500 word piece on the team but, frankly, the team was chosen this week by who wasn’t going to play, rather than who was: Simpson plays Chelsea – pass; West Brom have a good fixture, so Elliot doesn’t play; Palace suck major footballs – no Dann; and new boy Brady looks like a better prospect than Carroll this week. Short, snappy, sorted – I like it. Here’s how we line-up then:

Now my last decision is who to captain: Lukaku or Aguero? Kept it safe… Lukaku it is.

The Metenders

Onto the Metenders team, who make the decision to get rid of Milivojevic also. However, as this team always makes the decision that I decide against (which so far has been to their benefit, making me feel like shit), Brady doesn’t come in, but the other player I was considering does: that player is Mooy. I brought him into my draft team as well this week (in place of Phillips), and was considering him for my actual team, but the appeal of Brady was stronger, so Mooy goes to the Mooytenders. The teams are slowly starting to diverge, and here is the team (# indicate when the same player is on both teams, as it’s an eye sore when the same players’ name is listed side-by-side):

Kneejerkers

The Kneejerkers have their first derailed train in their midst! The ghost of Xhaka’s past are here to inform them that kneejerking is a dangerous venture, but with Hegazi still rising again, there can be benefits to it as well. This week we have two bandwagons jumping well ahead of the rest and so, for the second week running, the Kneejerks take a hit. Morata (+310k) and Firmino (+280k) are in, with Kane (-155k) and Chicharito (-135k) heading in the opposite direction. These were done very early in the week in order to capitalise on the price rises, in true kneejerking fashion.

Getting rid of Kane now seems ridiculous. People kept him all through August, saw him get a ridiculous amount of shots off, hit the post 100 times, and he also has great underlying stats. All through the Kurse they kept him, now he gets a goal for England, August is over, and they transfer him out. Madness. They’ll regret that. I’m almost convincing myself to take him as I type this, but I no hit will be taken this week by me.

That’s it from me this week. After losing to the Metenders for two weeks in a row, I think this is the week to redeem myself. It may all come down to the captain choice, so who do you think it the better pick, Lukaku or Aguero? Go on HAZARD A GUESS. And with that callback, gooooood night.

SSS.

*Still wildcarding and need a cheap and solid defence which allows seamless rotation until GW14? Check out my previous post: https://secondseasonsyndromeblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/06/budget-4-man-defensive-rotation-strategy-viable-until-gw14/

Follow me on twitter @FPL_2SS