GW 22 – Review

Oh dear me! 2021 really has got off to a stuttering start! No sooner had GW 21 offered up some delightful scores than GW 22 comes along and it’s back to square one for many of you. For the second gameweek already this year, Club 100’s tables remain empty as no one managed to bag a century of points. In many ways that kind of sums up all you need to know about the weekend’s footballing action, but let’s go into a little bit more detail……

Alright, let’s get the bad news out of the way first shall we? A sizeable number of minus scores in GW 22 meant our average was a lowly 17 points, with just 39% of you beating that. It’s clear to see where many of the minuses came from; 10 of you backed Bournemouth (61 total picks) on x2, who failed to score against Luton Town – not helped by being reduced to 10 men in the first half – while Leeds Utd (21 picks) let down four of you in the ‘banker’ x2 spot, losing 1-0 at home to Brighton (a solitary pick for The Seagulls). Three players (and nine in total) backed current Champions Liverpool to start their multiplier ladders off, but were hugely disappointed by their 0-0 draw with Manchester Utd, as were the five of you who saw Celtic’s goalless game land them a spot in the red – The Bhoys backed 35 times overall. It’s also worth a reminder to check your sides are actually in action, otherwise you really are risking a points hit; Stephen Ballard had Celtic, Liverpool and Bournemouth on x2, x4 and x7, but received a sickening minus 60 points as his x3, x5 and x6 teams were all involved in postponed matches, which means you skip past them to the next multiplier. It’s a cruel game sometimes!

On to the top of the Weekly Global League Table now and Ella Norman’s strong score of 98. Wise choices of 4 goal Oxford City (31 selections for the FA Trophy side) and Manchester City (just the 99 picks!) on x5 and x8, with 3 goal Wrexham (22 picks) on x7 clawed in 73 of Ella’s points. Agonisingly close to a ticket to Club 100, this week’s top scorer gathered 78% of the Perfect 7 which stood at 126 points, the lowest of the season by some distance! Ella did well to choose two of the three named sides in the weekend’s P7, Ross County (with 0 picks!) being the only other side to net four times over the course of the weekend.

Some of the 3 goal sides you could have gone for included West Bromwich Albion in their impressive Black Country derby win at Molineux, Nottingham Forest’s first 3 goal haul of the season against a dour Millwall side, and Rochdale & Wigan’s pulsating 3-3 draw at Spotland stadium.

So who did you back to deliver the goods? Unsurprisingly, Rangers were the most selected side once more, with 104 picks, and were the most popular x7 and x8 points earner. Moving down to x5 and x6, Hearts were the most popular bridging side to your higher multipliers and chosen 83 times in total. And it was Manchester City who was the most popular banker side, sandwiching Bournemouth (most picked on x3, rather disastrously) by also being most selected on x4.

Another FA Cup weekend is on the agenda this Saturday and Sunday, with Arsenal playing either Southampton or Shrewsbury Town in the 12.15 kick-off, and Exeter v Stevenage and Scunthorpe Utd v Grimsby Town also kicking off early in League Two. Hopefully the weekend will provide us with a few more goals than GW 22! Good luck!

-Sam Brooke-Wilkinson