GW 4 Review

Ally: It’s fair to say that was a steady start to the new month for the majority of players, as the weekend’s results produced lots of goals across the board, but very few teams who either failed to trouble the scorers or went on to grab the 4, 5 and 6 goal hauls that transform a good week into a great week to propel you up the leaderboards. This was evidenced by an average score for GW 4 of 40 points, a feat achieved by 107 of the 191 players, and the fact that no single player managed to break the magical 100 point barrier for the third gameweek out of four so far this season. Contrast that with GW 2, where we saw 60 out of 174 players bag themselves a 100+ point score!

The heavily fancied ‘big hitters’ like Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Sunderland, Celtic and Arbroath all failed to register more than 2 goals apiece and while they clearly contribute to your score, the key is to find at least one or two of those higher scoring teams who always pop up, especially on the x7 and x8 multipliers. Such teams were in quite short supply this weekend to be fair, indeed in most cases they came from unfancied sources such as Championship side Sheffield United (who hammered Aston Villa 4-1 at Bramall Lane), Queen of the South (who thrashed early Scottish League One pace-setters Ayr United 5-0) and perennial Scottish League Two strugglers Berwick Rangers (who hit 5 at recently relegated Albion Rovers).

Another of the more popular choice was Hearts, who have enjoyed a great start to the season, albeit generally low scoring with three consecutive 1-0 wins under their belt. That all changed on Saturday as they rediscovered their goal-scoring touch, smashing 4 past newly promoted St Mirren. It will come as no surprise that The Jam Tarts featured prominently in many of the leading scores of gameweek 4, not least top scorer Lee Thacker who was just a single goal away from a visit to ‘Club 100’ in securing an excellent 98 points.

We did see a few more of the always unwanted minus scores again this week, with fifteen players recording a -20 and one player receiving an untimely -60. The main culprits causing frustration by failing to score on this occasion were Birmingham City, Exeter City, Salford City, Elgin City and Peterhead. Avoid the City’s!!

Gameweek 5 coincides with a weekend of international fixtures and new players to the game will see a subtle change to the teams and leagues available for selection. For these ‘international weeks’ only, teams from the National League North and National League South will be eligible in lieu of the English Premier League, Championship and Scottish Premiership matches not taking place.

Good luck with your GW 5 selections, for as often as we talk about hidden gems, equally there’s almost always banana skins among the aforementioned North & South leagues!

Matt: It’s definitely been a bit of a ‘slow burner’ so far this season, with the obvious exception of GW 2 where there was a golden opportunity to cash in and tons galore. Consistency is one of the key elements to performing well in this game though, so those of you who have been knocking in 60 and 70 per week should be pretty happy with the start you’ve made.

Ally’s already given you a brief overview of how the gameweek panned out, once more no visitors to Club 100 – slightly surprising given the large number of players now involved, but a clear indication of the sometimes tricky nature of the game. All i can reiterate is that the goals are out there, take a look at the Perfect 7 page if you’re in need of a bit of inspiration – who’d have thought the likes of Queen of the South and Berwick Rangers would be the highest scorers of the weekend! It often pays to look a bit deeper than the so called big teams.

Looking ahead to GW 5, it’s our first ‘international week’ of the 2018/19 season and that can mean only one thing; our old favourites from the National League North & South are in play! Historically teams from these two divisions have caused no end of fun and games, if you look at the results there on any given weekend you will more than likely see some eyebrow raising scorelines! I firmly expect the same this coming weekend and with the Scottish Challenge Cup also available, there is a captivating opportunity to really delve into the unknown! Especially being as teams from Wales, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and for the first time ever England are all now involved in this competition. I’m confidently predicting some carnage at both ends of the leaderboards!! Our pundits ‘Ones to Watch’ could take on a rather interesting twist this weekend!