GW 4 – Review

Another weekend gone, another weekend of engrossing football at its unpredictable best! Gameweek 4 provided a further reminder that this game is never simple; to say there will be some of you out there who are bitterly disappointed at your final scores would be a huge understatement, as it was shaping up to be something close to a repeat of GW 2 heading into Sunday’s fixtures. Yet if we could predict all the scores the magic of the beautiful game would be lost, wouldn’t it? That will never stop us from trying of course!

As is customary, we’ll start with the week’s table toppers and admittedly I’m writing this blog with a huge smile on my face, as I’ve only gone and bagged top spot! Okay joint top to be absolutely clear, but they all count right?!! A massive well done to Terence Glenn on also reaching the summit of the weekly standings, his solid looking line-up (including 4 goal Wycombe Wanderers and 5 goal Ipswich Town) helping him towards a score of 108, with only one single digit score in his seven selections. However, whilst I also chose the Tractor Boys, a large bulk of my (and many other players’) points came courtesy of Manchester City, Liverpool, Leeds, Swansea and Celtic who each netted 3. It’s vital in this game to look at the merits of every team in every league though and on that basis I joined Terence and 54 others in picking aforementioned Ipswich, undoubtedly the sorry state of affairs at their opponents Bolton Wanderers played no small part, with the Trotters shipping 5 goals for the second gameweek running and third game in a row. Food for thought with GW 5 on the horizon, but first and foremost let’s just hope that Bolton are still in business by then as there are growing concerns about the club being liquidated. Best wishes to BWFC and all their supporters at this worrying time.

Rather like GW 3, Club 100 was yet again sparse with players this week – Tom Roome being the only other player to reach triple digits as he landed on exactly 100. Since the early season ‘free-for-all’ in GW 2, there’s been a distinct lack of business there……that needs rectifying quickly!

Unquestionably, the main reason that so few players reached three figures was the events at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium where, much to the enormous surprise of 88 of you, Spurs produced probably the most alarming and unexpected result of the weekend, failing to score against a far more robust Newcastle outfit than the one that conceded 3 at Norwich last week. That scoreline played a lead role in the vast majority of the shocking 26 minus scores, reducing the average score to just 23 points (the lowest this season so far). Another high profile shock occurred at Old Trafford, as late goals at both ends saw Man United defeated by Crystal Palace. Crucially Daniel James’ 89th minute equaliser saved many of the 79 of you who picked the Red Devils, before Patrick van Aanholt’s winner in added time condemned Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men in a remarkable climax to the game.

After 4 games it’s soon becoming apparent that certain teams look likely to dominate their respective leagues, but this game is renowned for stinging you when you least expect it, so continue to blindly pick the same teams week on week at your peril!

So another exhilarating weekend of drama has been and gone, there were upsets, there were high scores and there was more unpredictable Ultimate Goals action. A standard for this game really!

– Samuel Wilkinson