GW 31 – Review

Dear oh dear! Last week’s ‘brag’ about having a seven week streak of visitors to Club 100 seems to have completely jinxed you all! GW 31 was definitely not a shining light in most players’ campaigns this season and there’s a pretty big culprit at the centre of it all…..

…..that culprit being Manchester United! Not so many years ago, an outcome like this would have been quite inconceivable, but not any more! The Red Devils faced up against relegation threatened Watford – who had been thrashed 4-1 at home by Crystal Palace in midweek remember – which attracted 60 players to back Utd (and 2 for their opponents for reference). Their thoroughly underwhelming goalless draw caused chaos up and down the table, including 17 of the 24 minus scores recorded, and stopping no shortage of potentially high scores in their tracks. What is going wrong at Old Trafford?!! That result alone went a long way to being responsible for the almost shameful average score of just 14, although a quick look at the Perfect 7 matrix does indicate that those all-important goals were pretty hard to come by…..

…..For the first time in this game’s history, there is NO named team in the P7! Instead any 4 goal side, in any order, would have secured you that seemingly unattainable P7 jackpot! Sides that would have seen your weekend end in a £7,777 cash boost included Tottenham Hotspur (just 7 picks), who battered Leeds Utd (0) 4-0. The Whites have now conceded 10 goals without reply in just 180 minutes of football – yikes!! Maybe a new manager will shore them up a bit! Livingston (just one selection) beat Dundee (0) by the same scoreline, whilst Blackpool (1), Sutton Utd (27) and Maidenhead Utd (1) each secured 4-1 wins. Newport County (1) saw off Tranmere Rovers (0) 4-2 in an important league Two encounter, while Peterhead (1) edged Dumbarton in a 7 goal thriller up in Scotland. As you might be able to gather from the selection stats, the high-scoring sides were scarcely picked.

But let’s now crawl out from the dumps and all this negativity to discuss Kyle Hewett’s valiant effort at making it to Club 100. Kyle’s impressive score of 97 was agonisingly close to three figures and made up a good 70% of the P7. Sutton Utd earned him the most points, well placed on x8, with Blackpool and Newport County lower down the multiplier ladder on x3 and x4 respectively, which ultimately prevented Kyle from triple-digit glory!

As for the most selected sides of the gameweek, it was National League leaders Stockport County taking centre stage with 79 selections. With more picks than Manchester City, The Hatters occupied the big points maker spot on x8, as well as x4. The Cityzens were the most popular x2 and x3 choice, very nearly causing even more carnage before a late Phil Foden winner at Everton, while Rangers were picked most on x6 and x7. The seemingly doomed Manchester United were the most popular x5 pick, sadly for the many of you who backed them.

That’s the review for another week. Remember to get those selections in early for GW 32, you can always change them as many times as you need to leading up to the deadline! The weekend’s early kick-offs see troubled Leeds Utd head to Leicester City in the Premier League, Fulham host Blackburn Rovers in a top-end Championship battle and Hartlepool United head to Harrogate Town in League Two. Good luck!

Sam.